Anyone have this problem while trading

FedEx again? Sounds like that hub is brutal on packages. I doubt you've been branded as an illegal shipper, but I am not sure if they do that. I am sure they would have said something to you when you picked up that latest box. That's just too many boxes in a row for you, my friend. Have you thought about double boxing your shipments? Others don't do that and they ship just fine. Me, I like the redundancy and protection that the box is cradled in a larger box filled with packing peanuts offers. That outer box seems to take and cushion some of the abuse the bottles get.
Any chance of a parcel store somewhere near by? I go to a "mom and pop" operation about 10 miles from the house. No questions, the approve my packing, and if there would ever be an issue, UPS/FedEx contacts them, not me. So far, so good. But ask anyone I've traded with; I am obsessive about how I pack my beer. (Maybe a little too obsessive.) It has worked for me so far. As important as it is for the beer to get there, I just as much do not want to get caught. Please do not take this as a criticism of your packing skills, and I am certainly not a know it all. I just know what has worked for me so far.

 

The more I think about this ... they hit it with a forklift or something motorized. I don't think any box would survive that.

 

Open a new FedEx account, pack extra carefully, and drop your packages off at a different location.

 

That's just weird. Try ups?

 

I always make a point of telling fedex to label my boxes fragile and "this side up." I also package my bottles facing upright whenever possible. This minimizes the sloshing noise too as there is less surface area to slosh against, not to mention reducing leakage when On top of that, I add a handful of rice/couscous/grain of some sort to mask any potential sloshing noise on top of that. I have used exclusively fedex and have yet to run into any problems in close to a year's worth of trading. I must be one of the more frequent users of this fedex location and I'm sure some of the workers must recognize me by now, but I've only been pestered a few times, was one time even asked "Is this beer?" to which I replied nope. The address I was sending it to was Firestone Walker (dat brewery hookup), but my cover story was going to be that I was sending a friend who worked there some BBQ sauce if I was asked.

Donkster on the other hand, you can't "quit trading" until you've successfully sent boxes to everyone who hasn't yet received their end of the deal.

 

I created my fedex account and titled it as a BBQ sauce company so if sloshing a round did occur, it wouldn't be out of realm of possibility. To the OP, I don't have a ton of places to drop off either (3 within 30 minutes). I just rotate and pack the shit out of my boxes. I also have had people other than me drop
Off boxes so it doesn't look awkward when I show up every other day with 2-3 boxes.

You seem to have some very bad luck with shipping. I would investigate how you are packing the boxes and see if anyone near you has experienced the same issues.

 

The easy answer is to ship with USPS. Shipped their flat rate boxes tons of times and received some very poorly packed boxes through them as well...no issues. Pack it right and have no fear.