Just a typical noob question, but I've had fine luck shipping multiple times with USPS, just wondering why most people are so against it? Is it from actual bad experiences, or just stigma?
I've had people send me USPS boxes, but generally it is believed that there is a higher risk of intercepted and destroyed boxes with USPS.
It's a federal offense shipping with any provider. People are just under the assumption that since USPS is tied to the government they would be more likely to prosecute. I have never heard of anyone getting in legal trouble from using any carrier, USPS included.
Some OG BAs used to use USPS for their pioneering of the beer trade movement. Then the Feds caught on and they got sent up the river after getting caught. Now the only homebrewing they do is prison wine. Learn from their mistakes.
Yes, you're breaking laws no matter who you use in terms of shipping/receiving alcohol, crossing state lines, and all that jazz. However, that is a fairly indirect issue no matter whether you use USPS or Fedex/UPS. However, you're breaking one more very direct law with USPS though, i.e. no shipping alcohol with the postal service. With Fedex/UPS, the physical act of shipping alcohol with them is not illegal, simply against policy. That said, in previous discussions on this subject, there have been some good points about requiring warrants to open boxes sent via USPS. So in the end it probably doesn't matter from a legal standpoint. All of that said and out of the way, packages seem to routinely take a beating from USPS at a level I've never seen from either Fedex or UPS. That alone is good enough reason to avoid the postal service.
One of my hobbies besides craft beer is rock climbing. I bought a hangboard (a training apparatus, for those here not into rock and gym climbing) from a guy online, and USPS snapped it in half in transit. This was something like 30lbs of molded polyurethane, the same material used to make skateboard wheels among other things. It's considered practically indestructible, and yet they managed to literally break the thing in half. When I showed the pictures to some climbing friends, one semi-seriously asked if they ran over it with a truck. That's why I won't ship any hard goods (i.e. anything that could be broken) via USPS.
Who are three people that have never been in my kitchen? Be that as it may Alex, those people have never been in my kitchen. Makes me laugh every time.
Why no USPS? All legal issues aside as they've been discussed at length above, here are 2 other recent examples of why i won't use them any more than I have to. Last week, i accidentally underdeclared a USPS package by 2lbs. (I wrote 16.5 lbs, it was 18.5 lbs). This was a legit typo and not me trying to save a couple bucks. 3 days later, the package had never even scanned in for acceptance at the local post office. I had no idea what was wrong, but i wasn't happy as there was a *very* rare bottle in that box. Then some time before 8am on Saturday, it was left at my door with a note telling me i had to come in to pay them more if i wanted to ship it. Fedex or UPS will just charge me for the difference but would never return the package after sitting on it for days. I'm lucky i noticed the box in the morning...i wasn't expecting anything, and it was cold enough for lambic to freeze. USPS tracking sucks. Regularly, packages are delivered before they even show that they are in the country. Another box i sent last week never even received an acceptance scan at the post office. Nothing. Then 4 days later, it scanned for the first time in San Francisco. Essentially, their systems are antiquated and give you no accurate visibility or control. EDIT: And then there is the potential for *massive* delays. USPS just sat on 2 of my boxes for almost 2 weeks each during the holidays because it wasn't sent express (only priority) and their system is backed up.
This could easily happen with any carrier. There's horror stories with all of them. At the end of the day, choose the one that's been working for you.
Actually, I always USPS for overseas stuff, cheaper and relatively quick. UPS lately for domestic only because FEDEX in my region has gotten quite snoopy and openned boxes and returned them because of the dreaded alchohol violation on more than one occasion.
Searched for "Dick Move". Had hours of lulz. Highly recommend! P.S. Searching for the same thing on the internet will get you a whole different set of results.....
I wish we hadn't lost the old stuff.....I can't remember who it was about but the first time it got much traction I received a threatening BM from the person that got called out....it was so entertaining. Pretty sure they were trying to defend 3 month old Pliny as a suitable extra or something like that. They warned me to stay out of their business (which they brought up in a public forum). He was a badass.
Internet beer warriors are the best. I don't even drink Pliny any more. It is old even when it is fresh. I just end up putting various Amarillo, Centennial, CTZ, and Simcoe hops in my mouth....with ground up malt balls....and swish it around with some water to get max freshness.
You should snort Citra, that is what all us cool kids are doing now. Though you get a major +1, would bang again, for ALMOST mentioning the fabled *mouthswish* (tm AJ 2012).
Other than USPS being the worst courier on earth I dont think it really matters if you use it over FedEx/UPS. People use it for international trades. Everyone gets their Euro webshop orders via USPS. What's the difference?
ive sent over 200 boxes or possible more through usps (many of you can probably vouch for this) with little trouble, but there have been some breakages and such (although most breaks have still been mailed to sender even when the box was soaked. ill post a picture of a good one soon) i think ive had 4 or 5 breaks and 3 returns. the benefit is the flat rate and 3 day shipping to all 50 states the bad part which is a huge compromise is the limited amount of space even in the largest box. sometimes it pays just to move to a bigger box and ship fedex.
While I am nowhere close to the 200 mark, did you mean 4/5 breaks and 3 returns on top of that (i.e. 7 or 8 incidents total)? That seems rather high based on the feedback I have received from traders more active than me who go with other carriers (Fedex/UPS).
yea looking through my records its about 4 or 5 incidents total. the return boxes however still had valid postage.
Yeah that seems like reason alone to switch to me. I've done probably around 75 boxes in each direction (sending and receiving, so 150 total), 95% of which are Fedex, and I've had a grand total of one incident (bottles breaking on their way to me).
Wanna break federal law? Ship USPS. Wanna break company policies? Ship UPS or FedEX. Just a matter of which one you feel like breaking. Personally I wouldn't fuck with any federal law or trying to break it. I don't want to risk even the slightest chance of being sent to a federal pound me in the ass prison.
Why so ain't USPS??? Homie, do you wanna become someone's bitch in federal prison? Ya, I didn't think so. I'd take the slap on the hand by FedEx or UPS instead anyday son.
Is it also a federal crime to ship alcohol OUT of the US? In Europe, the legalities of course vary from country to country but in many cases it is perfectly legal to ship alcohol for personal consumption (i.e. not truckloads of it) across borders (though some postal systems may have policies against it as they would with anything that could break and potentially harm their employees). When I have things shipped from Etre (Belgium) or bierkompass.de (Germany) to the UK and Sweden, that's legal - as far as I know you're not even evading customs charges if it is for personal consumption.
That is a different ball of wax. USPS does not care if it is leaving the country. Much like not having to go through immigration at LAX to leave the US when flying abroad. Have to agree with Forgetfu on the tracking part. Just abysmal. Then again I have had worse tracking with Australia Post, Norway and Netherlands post.
heres a trade that went south, and instead of turning me in to the police they contined to wrap up my box and ship it to its destination. half the items made it surprisingly. happened 01/2011 the way it was on the front door the way fedex wrapped the soaking box up the contents... it doesnt look like it but some bottles actually made it. if i didnt get in trouble for this i dunno what id have to do to get in trouble. this is the reason i no longer over pack
