Time and time again, San Diego proves that it has no equal whatsoever when it comes to drama in the beer scene.
Really? Outside of the Goose Island stuff, and occasional fun from 3 Floyds (if you count The Region as part of Chicago - I would), what else generally happens?
As a counter to all of the Fedex love and the Alpine/Pat criticism that is going on here: Not that anyone else reading this beer thread will notice that I posted this... but... you'll notice that Pat writes in his blog post: "The exact same thing happened to Lost Abbey." Lost Abbey sent us a gift for our staff holiday party as well. Unlike Alpine, Port Brewing filled out the paperwork. Adult signature. Etc. They are a licensed beer shipper with Fedex. However, their beer suffered the exact same fate as the Alpine beer. 100% legal shipment. Denied. To make matters even more complex, I happen to have a wholesale and import license that allows me to bring/import beer and wine into the state of Vermont legally. Conversations with the VT Department of Liquor control confirmed that Fedex delivering beer to me in the state of VT is 100% legal. Still, the bureaucracy at Fedex wouldn't allow it to be delivered. Hours of conversation with supervisors at Fedex... and the beer is on its way back to California. I called UPS yesterday morning and posed the hypothetical question... (ie. the same course of events...) and they confirmed that they would deliver beer to us as long as the shipper was a licensed manufacturer and from a state that allows beer shipments (ie. California is among them.) Great story, eh? If it had been sent on a pallet, via LTL, we could have received it... but via Fedex ground... apparently not. Despite the Lost Abbey shipment being 100% legal... it still wasn't delivered. That's the whole story...
Sounds like fedex doesnt understand their own policies. In my experience with them, customer service is a total waste of time.
My growler of Expo. reached its east coast destination safe and sound - but i used UPS ...always use UPS ppl.
If we find a keg worth shipping across the country chances we'd be willing to accept some sunk costs such as keg deposits, etc.
The part of this story that makes no sense to me is that those kegs were just dropped off at a Post Annex without any paper work. Who does that!? How was that NOT going to go badly?
You're missing the point. It's perfectly legal for a brewery to ship to a brewery. When they dropped it off, there wasn't any paperwork to be filled out. The Postal Annex didn't have all of the Fed Ex paperwork, which they should have had ready to present. Even if it had to be printed off on the spot via a .pdf. Then they shipped the beer anyway and it didn't become an issue until it had to be dropped off. That's 2 Fed Ex fuckups. The final one is instead of having Alpine fill out the paperwork after the fact and finishing the delievery, Fed Ex shipped it back on their own dime. Fuck up #3. The best part of this thread is listening to all the bitching from the ticker/traders who illegally ship beer via Fed Ex and defend them, yet bash Alpine for a legal action and massive Fed Ex fuckups.
This thread illustrates some damn near universal issues with law/regulations: Variation of implementation often occurs, for often trivial and arbitrary reasons. Where there is room for discretion, there is ample opportunity to pull a dick move, like fedex did here, and attempt to justify it by falling back upon "the rules" as a justification for pulling said dick move. The reason it falls short in terms of persuasiveness, for myself at least, is the fact that fedex failed to adhere to their own "rules," as macncheese aptly points out. This comic strip also delivers the point: http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2010-04-11/ "Now I'll add an impractical maintenance requirement to the manual and we're ready to go." "What?" "It's standard procedure. Say the user (customer) needs to lube the product ten times daily with the wax (stupid paperwork affixed on right side upright of box) from a bear's ear, and say the warranty is voided if the device isn't properly maintained." "Is that legal?" "Its better than legal. We're using the law to keep justice away!"
No, I got the point, but the part I don't understand is a brewery just dropping off kegs at some random Postal Annex. Don't they have an account with FedEx where their shipments can get picked up at the brewery? And don't they fill out paperwork before shipping something, not at the location as they're dropping off? I'm just envisioning someone throwing kegs in their car and dropping them off at some shipping place, which seems to be asking for trouble. FedEx is still wrong all over the place on this one, but I don't think the brewery did themselves any favors doing it this way either. They should bear at least some of the blame.
Have you been to Alpine (the "city") before? There probably are about 2 places in town with regular Fed Ex pickup. Hardly "random".
The difference is that I don't get irate when FedEx decides to enforce their rules. I understand it's part of the game. Sure, maybe FedEx could have handled this better, but that doesn't merit Alpine complaining to their customers. I'm not sure why they think we should care. And again, Alpine is not one to make exceptions (to their growler/bottle limits).
I don't either, but I do get a little miffed when they choose to selectively enforce some rules, and not others . . . and then subsequently act like the sky will fall if they don't follow the rules (that they previously ignored, and said sky did not fall). In reality, their "rules" are merely guidelines at best, and subject to the particular whims of whatever human being/employee who wants to use them to justify shitty customer service. Some people get off on being assholes, and super assholes cite to "rules" to justify being super assholes.
Is there a possibility that the LTL service of FedEx involves a driver who has a forklift on his truck and is specialized for shipments like this? I am just asking the question, but could you compare this situation to someone trying to ship a motorcycle via FedEx ground? The ground guy probably has a contract saying that he won't be required to lift such and such. Maybe somehow the keg(s) could have risked a lawsuit involving the delivery driver and FedEx?
Doubtful, given workers' compensation is in the California Constitution. Workers comp programs generally prevent employees from suing employers for negligence.
It would be in VT for delivery though. If it got to the depot in VT and they saw kegs to be loaded onto a FedEx ground truck (not sure if they were on a pallet or not), some manager could have decided their drivers were not fit to deliver such an item (physically or mechanically). I might not have as much experience with stuff like this, but businesses generally aren't dicks to me just because they can be. My mistake(s) aren't worth someone getting reprimanded or losing their job. It is easy to point a finger at both parties involved in this.
Actually it would not be in VT for delivery though. Same 'problem' in VT. Workers compensation. Established in 1915. Sure, assuming we leave AT&T, BofA, CapitalOne, Citibank, DMV etc. . . out of it, businesses generally aren't dicks because they can be. But often, an individual/employee associated w/ said businesses can be a dick, and when the business has selectively enforced "rules" to justify being a dick, said business rules & regulations enable someone pulling a dick move, as they did here. Its easy to point a finger at both sides for not following 'protocol' that often is not 'protocol'. Its the pulling the dick move and relying on the very same 'rules' that fedex violated in the first place that makes not sense
I wonder how much more it would be using a truck from the show Shipping Wars. That moron with the van wuold probably bid really low.
So one brewery that goes apeshit when people ship their beer to others via FedEx has a major debacle shipping their own beer to another brewery that goes apeshit for the same reason? I can't help but get a chuckle about this...
