Yes, we all know the olive oil trick. I assume the franchisees at the UPS Stores know it, too.
One other problem. I am an attorney here in Oregon. The Bar Police take a dim view of dishonesty, even limited to the personal life of the attorney. A few years ago, an attorney got suspended for using a pen to (unsuccessfully) alter a commercial (non-municipal) parking ticket to reduce or eliminate an overtime penalty. SInce then, we have all become model citizens. Deal me out of the olive oil scam.
Phil Jones
Do they have the right to open your package if they think your Olive Oil claim is bogus? I’d assume they do.
Yes.
While I appreciate your particular concerns, I don’t label white lies in the face of laws or policies lacking merit “scams.”
The guy in SantaFe who does my occasional wine shipping, when I show up with an obvious wine shipper (usually a 3-pak, occasional a 6-pak),
gives me this knowing eye-roll w/ a wink/wink/nod/nod and says “Ahhh…more salsa to go to Calif”. Never had a problem yet.
Tom
Falsification of a government citation would seem to warrant punishment.
Maybe it was a local thing? The UPS Store service description states they will accept shipments from any carrier if you rent a mailbox (I think it depends on location if you don’t rent a mailbox).
As far as whether another carrier will deliver to a UPS store, for at least 8 years of renting a box and using it exclusively for package deliveries, I’ve never had a carrier refuse to deliver including packages from UPS, FedEx, USPS (not wine), GSO, OnTrac, DHL, and I think at least one other. In many cases, when the merchant provided a field to enter a business name, I entered “UPS Store” or “UPS Package Store”.
They provide you an address that the US Postal Service considers a street address, not a PO Box, although you have to enter the address the way they specify.
-Al
The parking ticket was not a government ticket. It was issued by a privately-operated parking garage. And the Bar does not want us deciding what policies lack merit and justify a lie or a falsehood. A lie or a falsehood is a lie or a falsehood. Or a scam. Deal me out.
Phi Jones
Just learnt the lesson of shipping wine with FedEx, insuring it, losing one bottle due to damage and not getting it covered…
I used to ship to hold at my local UPS for $5-10 depending on who was working the desk. But a few months back they shipped back one of my shipments without making me aware. I’ve had no issues shipping to hold at my local fedex office. But like UPS can only be a FedEx shipment.
During my career, I have been asked to write lies for financial and regulatory reporting. I fled like a green salad from a Scottish haggis festival.
Are you the arbiter of merit? Please let us know which other laws or regulations should be ignored based on your studious opinions.
Here is the latest I could find:
Even if they get these cases back to the Supreme Court, it’s no certainty that the court will rule the same way. The 2005 ruling was by a 5-4 verdict with an unusual grouping of justices, with Antonin Scalia joining the court’s more liberal judges to give wine lovers the win. Scalia, who died in 2016, was famously conservative, but he was also a wine lover.
It’s hard to predict how long it might take these cases to wind to the Supreme Court, or even if the court will hear them if they get that far. Epstein said he expects a ruling in the Michigan case next year. If the attorneys get the right combination of rulings, “five or six years might be a reasonable projection” for the Supreme Court to take a look at it.
https://www.wine-searcher.com/m/2017/12/lawsuits-take-aim-at-interstate-shipping
I’m really not sure why your taking that tone with me, David. And I don’t think the idea that life is full of shades of gray is a difficult one to grasp.
There are plenty of examples in history where laws and rules have been without just cause and merit. And breaking them did not result in a scam.
I vote with David. It is amazing how much correlation there is between self interest and those who look down upon rules and regulations as lacking merit.
Phil Jones
Thanks. Looks like the restrictions will continue for some years.
Earlier this year, Vinopolis in Portland shipped (UPS) a case of wine for me to Tampa, Fl. No problems encountered. Ordered half a case of Cameron pinot last night to be shipped to Tampa. Today, Vinopolis called, said UPS will not ship the wine to Florida. New UPS policy enacted a month ago. Had to cancel the order.
I have not used UPS Stores, as opposed to UPS, to send or receive shipments, but (unless I’m remembering wrong) based on my past readings of UPS (the shipper, not the stores) policies, and the limited scope of the policy announced in the OP, this only changes one thing in relation to what UPS policy has always been.
UPS policy, IIRC, has always been that it will not ship wine unless either the sender OR the recipient is a licensee (retailer or winery) and the receiving state’s laws permit the shipment. So, it was never UPS-kosher for consumer A to ship to consumer B. Ditto for a licensee to ship to a consumer in a state that prohibits such shipments. To the extent any of the foregoing was allowed at UPS stores before Thursday and now isn’t, the only change is stricter enforcement of pre-existing policy.
The policy announced in the OP doesn’t say anything about UPS stores receiving shipments, so presumably it does not affect your ability to receive legal shipments there from a winery, retailer, or auction house, under the laws of your state.
The change I see in this policy compared to what has been UPS’s policy is that as worded in the OP, the UPS store will no longer accept a shipment to be sent to a licensee. For example, if you are shipping wines to an auction house for sale. This is an odd thing to change, since AFAIK it is legal, for example, in California for a retailer/auctioneer both to buy (or accept consignments) from a private collection, and to accept shipments of those bottles. Given how much of the recent changes have focused on new laws prohibiting what was once legal, or stricter enforcement of what has been prohibited, it is odd for the UPS stores to change a policy to prohibit something that is perfectly legal under many circumstances.
As always, this is a battle we’re going to have to fight primarily in the state legislatures.
Earlier this year, I used a UPS Store to ship wine from me (a private party) in Portland OR to a private party in the Bay Area. People on this board gave me the names of two UPS Stores in Portland that would do it, explaining that only certain UPS Stores were licensed to do it. Both said they would do it. I picked one, and it worked perfectly. No more?
By the way, Vinopolis said they were allowed to ship only wine purchased from them.
Phil Jones
Earlier this year, I used a UPS Store to ship wine from me (a private party) in Portland OR to a private party in the Bay Area. People on this board gave me the names of two UPS Stores in Portland that would do it, explaining that only certain UPS Stores were licensed to do it. Both said they would do it. I picked one, and it worked perfectly. No more?
By the way, Vinopolis said they were allowed to ship only wine purchased from them.
Phil Jones