Now I'm Pi**ed.

I shipped 4 bottles of my home made wine to a fellow WLDGer. After 2 days I checked the UPS tracking number and found this message:

04/22/2010 8:55 A.M.
UNAUTHORIZED ALCOHOL SHIPMENT. UNABLE TO COMPLETE DELIVERY OR RETURN TO SENDER. UPS WILL CONTACT SHIPPER / UNAUTHORIZED ALCOHOL SHIPMENT WAS DISCOVERED. UNABLE TO DELIVER OR RETURN DUE TO REGULATORY REQUIREMENTS.

This never happened before as I have shipped wines on several occasions. I was never asked what the contents were.

You now know why their trucks are brown.

ROFL

At least you are allowed to buy guns n firearms in the USA.


Edit:

Firearm sending allowed?

Who gets to drink those confiscated wines? Or do they do an "Eliot Ness" and smash them with axes?

I always suspected such things could happen but this is the first time I've heard of them actually doing it. That really sucks, Howie. I wonder how they "discovered" the wine?

I always suspected such things could happen but this is the first time I've heard of them actually doing it. That really sucks, Howie. I wonder how they "discovered" the wine?

I'm wondering too. It's unlikely that one of the bottles broke, as everything was wrapped in cardboard, bubble wrap and styrofoam.

You made four UPS employees very happy.



JB

Really a shame for them to just be seized like that, especially after the trouble you went to from making them and shipping them out.

Living in Maryland I am very interested in this, Howie! I hope it can at least be shipped back to a UPS warehouse close enough to drive and pick it up, if it isn't at ons such already!

I don't understand how they randomly decide to do this. I know that Howie and many others including moi shipped lots of wine around during our Haiti Relief project. Mine, at least, went via UPS and I would bet most of the others did too!

More to the point: why are there "regulations" that allow them to arbitrarily seize things they are transporting (for profit), just because it's wine?

Archaic laws be damned. If they sent you a message saying that XXXX wasn't to their liking, and XXX was a priceless heirloom, or valuable merchandise, there's not a court in the land that would uphold that. It's stealing.

Yet because it's wine, they can take it away from you, and not tell you what was done with it. Sorry, that's just theft, pure and simple.

Refusal to ship? Don't like it, but I can live with it. Ship back to origin? Okay, inconvenient, but what the hell. But seizure? No way. It's theft. It's taking something of value that is not your property.

Have they contacted you per their initial E-mail?

I've shipped alcohol plenty of times, though I know it is technically verboten since I'm not licensed:

http://www.ups.com/wine

[Jenise]

I always suspected such things could happen but this is the first time I've heard of them actually doing it. That really sucks, Howie. I wonder how they "discovered" the wine?

I'm wondering too. It's unlikely that one of the bottles broke, as everything was wrapped in cardboard, bubble wrap and styrofoam.

I feel for you, Howie, it's happened to me too. But a question: if they'd asked you what you were sending, would you have admitted it was wine?

That really s#%ks Howie!
This is going to be damaging to both amateur home wine and beer competitions. Unless the organizers of such events could enter an agreement with the private carriers (to accept shipments). The HR bill sitting in committee that you mentioned a couple of days ago probably has a lot to do with it. I see home-made wine or beer no different from Mom’s apple pie. Please do tell us what they say in their explanation.

Salute

It is unfortunate that you are out the wine, but really this isn't new and I suspect you understood the risk when you shipped. UPS isn't doing this on a whim, there are state laws that must be complied with. I may think the laws are stupid, but if a state decides to raise a stink it is the shipper that will be on the hook and for some states the consequences can be severe. There are ways to ship with most states; granted it is more expensive and time consuming.

Ok, I confess. I hijacked a UPS truck, found a shipment from Howie Hart in Buffalo NY, knew in an instant that this was really quality stuff, and drank the contents of the box. And it was. Great stuff. Sorry for your intended recipient, but I couldn't help myself.

I figured somebody was behind the evil plot. BTW - I'm waiting for an email response from UPS.

To be on the safe side shipping to New York during the Haiti Relief effort Dale Williams organized, I included some bottles of flavored vinegars and meat marinades and declared them--didn't declare the four bottles of wine. It went UPS and all arrived intact according to the recipient.

[James Roscoe]

Ok, I confess. I hijacked a UPS truck, found a shipment from Howie Hart in Buffalo NY, knew in an instant that this was really quality stuff, and drank the contents of the box. And it was. Great stuff. Sorry for your intended recipient, but I couldn't help myself.

Dammit! That was my plan, but I was waiting for at least a case!

Living in Maryland I am very interested in this, Howie! I hope it can at least be shipped back to a UPS warehouse close enough to drive and pick it up, if it isn't at ons such already!

MD is a felony shipping state. UPS has a known history of confiscating known alcohol shipments passing through MD. Note that this includes shipments PASSING THROUGH the state as well as shipments headed for a final destination in the state. UPS has/had a distribution center in western MD (Hagerstown, maybe?) through which wines destined for WV often passes. Several shipments destined for WV were confiscated in MD a number of years back.

Indeed, nothing new here.
I'll just say, if I was sending wine as a private indivdual (I've never sold wine, but I've given/traded/donated) what I'd do (if I was doing this!) is place wine in styro shippers, put shipper in larger box with clothing, "peanut". etc.

Indeed, nothing new here.
I'll just say, if I was sending wine as a private indivdual (I've never sold wine, but I've given/traded/donated) what I'd do (if I was doing this!) is place wine in styro shippers, put shipper in larger box with clothing, "peanut". etc.

Dale, does that mean you would become a smuggler? More power to your arm if you can get round a draconian and just straight out crazy law.

MD is a felony shipping state. UPS has a known history of confiscating known alcohol shipments passing through MD. Note that this includes shipments PASSING THROUGH the state as well as shipments headed for a final destination in the state. UPS has/had a distribution center in western MD (Hagerstown, maybe?) through which wines destined for WV often passes. Several shipments destined for WV were confiscated in MD a number of years back.

Wasn't this deemed to be illegal seizure of property. I seem to recall that there was some fallout and that those behind the MD seizures were essentially told to not do it again or face federal charges.

I would think that Maryland confiscating a wine shipment that is destined for another state and being transported via a licensed common carrier is a blatant violation of the active commerce clause of the US Constitution. If the destination of the shipment is Maryland, that's a different story.

Howie--have you called up UPS customer service to ask what is going on? I wouldn't rely on email for anything like this.

-Paul W.