UPS Store told me shipping cigars was "illegal"

T

Tenor CS

ChestBeater
So, I'm #5 in kgoings' Win a Humidor contest.

I don't have any 5-finger bags, so I food-saved the cigars I was going to send him and took that bag to the UPS store. I told the guy "I need a box and some bubble wrap to send these cigars."

He replies, "You can't send cigars, it's illegal."
My reply was "Why? It's not like they're Cubans. I just bought them last night!"

I wound up having to buy the box and bubble wrap separately, leave the store, pack the box, come back in, and say "I'd like to ship this box."

He asks, "Oh, and you're shipping gifts?"
Me: "Yeah, gifts."

So, is openly mailing cigars against some kind of rule or law, federal or otherwise? Or was this guy just giving me a hard time?
 
And that's why I don't use UPS, slower than USPS, less reliable than USPS and more expensive than USPS.
 
Yep shipping cigars via UPS is really illegal :D

Just ask your B&M how they get their shipments of stogies. It is usually a big brown truck oddley enough shaped like a cigar box.
 
I used to work for UPS before the strike in 97 and thats why I send nothing UPS. I was an unloader and all we did was break stuff......:hn
 
I've never heard of any hooey like that. That is exactly why I tell them very little and have it wrapped up ahead of time-whenever I send just about anything. A counter clerk w/UPS acted like I was a criminal one day because I was sending a firearm-took a supervisor coming out to tell her to cool it.
 
I was thinking maybe their problem with it was that since I'm not an approved dealer, I could be sending cigars to someone who shouldn't have them. And they have no idea if the cigars I'm shipping are, in fact, NOT Cubans.

Still doesn't change the fact that I was cheesed off, though.

I will use USPS for future shipments. I should know better, my dad is a mailman!
 
I've had no problem shipping UPS. Plus you get a tracking number. I've had them wrap up cigars a couple times for me and it was never a hassle. Sometimes you just get a clerk who doesn't know anything, happens everywhere.
 
Tenor CS said:
He replies, "You can't send cigars, it's illegal."

So, is openly mailing cigars against some kind of rule or law, federal or otherwise? Or was this guy just giving me a hard time?
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Yes in most states its against the law. People avoid paying taxes like that.
smokinpoke said:
Just ask your B&M how they get their shipments of stogies. It is usually a big brown truck oddley enough shaped like a cigar box.
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they pay taxes on there shippment and it's there business which makes it legal:D hey when u get that pass dont tell them it's cigars:D:D hope yall enjoy it. It shold be there soon.
 
according to their website the only thing that is prohibited is cigarettes.

LINK

General Restrictions and Prohibitions

Shipper shall not tender to UPS any Tobacco Product Shipment that does not conform to the following general restrictions and prohibitions:
  1. UPS does not provide service for shipments of cigarettes to consumers.* For UPS's current terms, conditions, restrictions and prohibitions regarding Tobacco Product Shipments, and the version of Addendum A in effect at the time of shipping, see www.ups.com/tobacco at the time of shipping.
  2. UPS only accepts shipments of cigarettes for delivery to recipients who are licensed or otherwise authorized by applicable federal, state, provincial, or local law or regulation to receive deliveries of cigarettes.
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Chas
 
I sell alot of stuff on ebay and use USPS 95% of the time. I have used UPS to ship certain things and have shipped a few firearms as well. I always package my stuff and then take it in there. My main thing is I don't want them to know whats in my box incase it's something they like and my package may just dissapear.......
 
i used to do all of my cigar shipping with my job's UPS account. i would pack the cigars and drop the box down at my jobs shipping department. the UPS guy picked boxes up everyday at 3:00 pm. i would than have the charge taken out of my paycheck at the end of the week. it was the easiest thing ever.
the only time i had a problem was when i tried to ship a box out of the country, to canada to be exact. i filled out a customs form, i wrote cigars as the items inside the box (i had shipped cigars a hundred times, so who cares right?). i get a page around 3:30pm from my shipping department, i was told that i would have to have a liscense to import/export tobacco products, something that usually only cigar merchants had, so the UPS guy wouldn't take it. i asked him (my buddy in the shipping department) if i could just re-pack the box and not say that it was cigars in there. being that the account was the companies, he did not want to take the risk, so it was a no-go.
i asked my buddy in our shipping department to call USPS and see if they would do it. they told him the same thing, that i would need a liscense to ship tobacco products through customs (out of the country).
so i re-packed the box and labeled them as "wooden samples", went down to USPS and shipped them no problem.
so as far as i know, you can ship cigars inside the 50 states, you may have problems trying to ship them out of the country, if you write cigars or tobacco as the contents on the customs forms.
 
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