Has anyone ever had shipment searched?

I have just arranged for my first two beer trades via the mail. I have heard mixed interpretations of what is technically legal and illegal when it comes to shipping alcohol. Either way, I am going to take my chances

My question is, has anyone ever had their packages inspected, returned and/or seized during shipment? Even with my bottles tightly packed I can clearly hear the liquid shaking inside of the package. I kind of equate this with attempting to smuggle alcohol onto a cruise ship and am curious if the postal service has measures in place to inspect suspicious packages, and if so how often this may occur.

Thanks!

Don't ship beer through USPS. It is illegal.

https://www.usps.com/send/can-you-mail-it.htm

Use Fed Ex or UPS.

I've never had mine searched. My FedEx people know me pretty well and know what I'm up to but they turn a blind eye to it. Just call it yeast samples if they ever ask what you're shipping. I've never had anything break during transit but it's happened 2 times now with packages being sent to me. As far as I know the people sending them were notified the package was compromised during transit so they had to send the stuff again. Just make sure the box isn't too small for what's being sent and trash bags are your best friend

Wineries ship wine by the case all the time. Just find out which shipper they use and use the same. Problem solved (I think, anyways)

MC

Nope. Theres actually two differences. Wine can be shipped more by businesses because of taxing and businesses in general are permitted to ship because of licensing to do so.

fed ex and ups have never asked me what I was shipping. I had one break in shipping and ups never said anything like it was against their policy or illegal to ship beer. I've had several beers that were shipped to me that broke, and ups put them in a bag and delivered it. and if it was illegal to ship beer, I doubt homebrew competitions could get away with having entries shipped in. with the number of comps and the number of entries each one gets, someone would have caught on and put a stop to it.

I was recently in a trade and the person I traded with sent their package through USPS. It had been opened, but nothing was missing.

I did a trade once where the box i was receiving was damaged in transit (broken bottle) Fedex repackaged and shipped the other bottles.
Really surprised when i saw that actually.

I had a box from an international trade searched. It contained 2 Westy 12, a Westy 8, and a Westy blonde and all were still in the box. Not sure why customs opened it or if its common practice, but it was rummaged through and repacked like a two year old packed it and was re taped with customs packing tape. Luckily it all made it to me in one piece.

HomebrewNate said:

I have just arranged for my first two beer trades via the mail. I have heard mixed interpretations of what is technically legal and illegal when it comes to shipping alcohol. Either way, I am going to take my chances

My question is, has anyone ever had their packages inspected, returned and/or seized during shipment? Even with my bottles tightly packed I can clearly hear the liquid shaking inside of the package. I kind of equate this with attempting to smuggle alcohol onto a cruise ship and am curious if the postal service has measures in place to inspect suspicious packages, and if so how often this may occur.

Thanks!

Click to expand...

My friend Fedex'd me a box containing 4 Pliny the Elders. By the time it got to me, the box was light as a feather. Somewhere between here and there somebody stole the Pliny.

zippyclown said:

My friend Fedex'd me a box containing 4 Pliny the Elders. By the time it got to me, the box was light as a feather. Somewhere between here and there somebody stole the Pliny.

Click to expand...

Did this go through customs, or US -> US? I have heard of people shipping US->CA and they have taken the beer out of the box, then sent the box to the recipient. Doesn't happen all the time, but does sometimes.

jflongo said:

Did this go through customs, or US -> US? I have heard of people shipping US->CA and they have taken the beer out of the box, then sent the box to the recipient. Doesn't happen all the time, but does sometimes.

Click to expand...

No this was San Francisco area to Boston area. The only stops were at FedEx sorting facilities so I'm fairly certain it was a FedEx worker who knew there was nothing I could do about it.

i tried shipping beer again yesterday. first time i had no problems, but they didn't ask me what was in the box. yesterday they asked and i stupidly said "beer", at which point the staffer said it was against fedex policy to ship beer unless it's being returned to the manufacturer. i had to go to another fedex location, where they didn't ask me (and i would have come up with something other than "beer" if they did ask).

You know, you can make and print your own fedex shipments at home, and then just drop them off ready to ship at the shipping place. Same is true for UPS.

I have shipped a lot of beer, and never had a problem with my beer getting stolen or legal issues or anything. Last year, I shipped (via FedEx) some bottles for NHC and one of them broke when it was on the truck for delivery. They took out the broken bottle, repackaged the other ones, and shipped the whole thing back to me. I wan't too happy that my entries didn't make it into the competition, but I did get most of my beer back, and FedEx never said anything about not being allowed to ship beer.

To update, I went yesterday and shipped the package USPS.

Now it's time to wait and see if it makes it to the recipient.

Sigh. Why did you bother posting this topic, if you weren't even going to be bothered to read the comments. I'll make it easy for you.

From: https://www.usps.com/send/can-you-mail-it.htm

Alcohol — Alcoholic beverages (beer, wine, or liquor) are restricted and can’t go in the mail. If you’re reusing a box displaying alcohol brands, all logos and labels need to be completely removed.

Click to expand...

It is illegal to ship alcohol through USPS, but NOT Fed Ex or UPS.

UPS does have wine restrictions
http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/re....html?srch_pos=6&srch_phr=alcohol&WT.svl=SRCH

and Fedex
http://www.fedex.com/us/international/wine-shipping/get-started/authorization.html

Was he shipping beer or wine?

Do not start another thread asking how to break the law. It is illegal to ship alcoholic beverages via USPS - the law is clear on that.

Since you decided not to read any of the good discussion that followed, I'm closing the thread.