Just wanted to share this story. Shipped a package to a guy in NE last week. Growler of Enjoy boy and a few bottles of pliny. I guess on the third day in transit the box was damaged somehow, guessing they dropped it or something. Anyways, It got delivered to its destination in a new box explaining that the contents had been re-packed. the box still including the broken pliny. Not sure if it was broken completely or if the cap was dented. Not sure. Everything else arrived safe.... Just surprising that they opened the box and it had to be obvious it was beer, although it was all packed in trash bags. Anyways, thought that it was very random and wanted to share.
Similar thing happened to me shipping from PA to NC. FedEx as well. The box I sent was actually "out for delivery" and then a "shipping exception" happened. Obviously the driver drop-kicked it because both a bottle of Older Viscosity AND a CAN of Abrasive broke, according to my trade partner. Odd, because they were the least breakable items in the box. They repacked it and completed the delivery, sans broken bottles. Strange and shady at best I say. I wonder sometimes if certain delivery people know certain addresses often receive "bottles" and "glass" that seem to slosh if you shake the boxes. It would be nothing for a delivery driver to open the box take the beers out, close it back up, and deliver. What recourse do we have since it is against policy, and sometimes law, to ship beer into certain states? None. I think I'm also still pretty bitter since I had to re-send the "broken" beers, one of which was my last Older Viscosity. Turned into a $60 mistake, AND no more Older...
Yup, I know exactly what you mean. Very strange to say the least, just grateful nothing else was broken.
Similar, not really the same, but instructive, thing happened to me once, had a box come that was supposed to have 8 bottles and a growler, got it repackaged, not smelling of beer, all the bottles were gone, the growler was in it and unbroken despite most of the packing material was gone as well, and it was actually rolling around. I think if that employee who took the beer realized that the growler actually had the best beer of all he/she would have taken that as well. Oh, yeah, there was no chance that the bottles all broke but the growler didn't. None. Zero. Just as an FYI, I know for a fact that there are some delivery drivers who do indeed recognize certain, ahem,, contents for what they, ahem, are, and liberate said contents from their containers knowing they can get away with it as no one will complain/tell the truth about what those contents were.
Fedex actually seems to be pretty nice about repackaging beer. I had this happen once on a box sent to me, and I've seen many others post stories like yours. Your mileage may vary of course depending on the person working at the time...
