Sidebar

Tobacco Ban from the Post Office

Log in

Forgot your password?

SmokingPipes.com Updates

4 Fresh Scott Thile Pipes
36 Fresh Tsuge Pipes
36 Fresh Ropp Pipes
12 Fresh Moonshine Pipes
36 Fresh Nørding Pipes

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Site Sponsors

Al Pascia
Blue Room Briars
Cigar World
Danish Pipe Shop
LePipe.it
Missouri Meerschaum
Pipes2Smoke.com
PipeStud.com
Seattle Pipe Club Tobaccos
SmokingPipes.com
Tabaccheria Corti
TinBids.com

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

PipesMagazine Approved Sponsor

Status
Not open for further replies.
danielplainview

danielplainview

Lifer
Mar 30, 2014
2,853
78
wv
Today I went to the post office to drop some pipes in the mail to some forum members, when the lady at the window tells me, "I can't accept this. We can't ship this out."
I had reused a Sutliff tobacco box I received in the mail last week to ship out one of my pipes. On the side of the box was the Sutliff logo. She told me they wouldn't accept the package because of this. I had to go to my car and remove the Sutliff logo, then convince her there was no tobacco in the package.
This is absurd. They will deliver tobacco to your house, but you can't send it through the mail? How much longer before they stop delivering tobacco to your doorstep?

 
A

aldecaker

Lifer
Feb 13, 2015
4,407
42
So,do you think this is an ATF thing, a USPS thing, or just some nosy do-gooder fussbudget trying to ruin a person's day?

 
allan

allan

Lifer
Dec 5, 2012
2,429
7
Bronx, NY
My post office by my business has the biggest bunch of rejects with IQ's mandated at being below 60. I'm quite sure that if the USPS can't fire an employee, the management sends them to us.
Every time I ship a package they give me the third degree demanding to know what is inside. I explain, always politely, that there are no 'banned' substances in the package. Invariably, they give me a hard time.
Yes I know that I can report them-it is not their business to know that jewelry is contained in the box, but I just don't want to take the time to deal with the complaints.
Without offending any possible forum member who may be a postal employee, is it a regulation that you must be an ass*ole to get a job there? LOL

 
4noggins

4noggins

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 11, 2013
233
4
USPS does have a ban on tobacco, but only Cigarettes, RYO, little cigars, and snuff.
Large Cigars and Pipe Tobacco are excluded and are perfectly legal to ship within the USA via USPS.
You should ask them to read there directives.
Rich

 
4noggins

4noggins

Starting to Get Obsessed
Feb 11, 2013
233
4
Allan,
I totally agree. These people have to be the dumbest SOB's I've ever met. Every single one of them at our postal facility is a moron, working their 8 hour shift, only thinking about their pension. I have absolutely no respect for this company or any of its employees. The only reason we use them is because they are much faster than UPS and will deliver to addresses that the others won't.
We all know that if it were privatized, it would be out of business within 12 months.
Rich

 
woodsroad

woodsroad

Lifer
Oct 10, 2013
11,761
16,034
SE PA USA
Alas, she knoweth not her anus from a depression in the earth. Next time, demand that she cite chapter and verse of the USPS regulations, and do not leave until she has done so. BTDT with firearms and the USPS.

 
lochinvar

lochinvar

Lifer
Oct 22, 2013
1,687
1,634
It does get kind of silly. I was shipping some books to a friend, and had packed them in an empty Anchor Brewing box. The Postal employee tells me they can't ship it with the Anchor logo on the side. I told them there was no alcohol of any kind, they said it didn't matter what was in it, the box couldn't be mailed as is. I have to take five minutes with a sharpie to get the stupid thing to pass Post Office muster.

 
raevans

raevans

Starting to Get Obsessed
Apr 20, 2013
273
17
You should have just smiled and said, "this is the reason that I usually use UPS"

 
phil67

phil67

Lifer
Dec 14, 2013
2,052
7
Every time I ship a package they give me the third degree demanding to know what is inside.
Click to expand...
You do NOT have to tell them what is inside the box. The only time you are obliged to divulge the contents is when shipping overseas which of course requires a Customs Form. In all of the years that I've brought packages to the post office they have never once asked me what was inside other than the occasional: 'Is there anything flammable'? Guess I'm just one of the lucky ones as the employes at my local post office are very friendly and helpful.

 
A

aldecaker

Lifer
Feb 13, 2015
4,407
42
The way I understand it, the postal service was never intended to turn a profit or "stay in business", per se. I believe it was supposed to be a subsidized government service to the citizens of this country,at a time when cheap and reliable communication was needed to foster the development of a budding nation. Fast forward about 250 years, and it illustrates a lot of the old saws about government beauracracy and inefficiency. I wonder if some of the people we've had bad experiences with started out normal, but are now suffering the crushing, soul-sucking effects of a career in that environment?

 
wyfbane

wyfbane

Lifer
Apr 26, 2013
5,117
3,517
Tennessee
While I believe it is totally your right to deny them info about what's in the box, I am not so certain about them shipping boxes with ANY company or brand on it 2nd hand. They have been making me sterilize my boxes for many years now. (removing logo's, etc).

 
pipebaum81

pipebaum81

Part of the Furniture Now
Nov 23, 2014
669
235
Reading the USPS restrictions provided above by Phil, it gives clearance to cigars but doesn't seem to make a call on pipe tobacco either way. My best bet is that is has to do with the age restrictions. As we all know, online retailers go through great length and spend big money in the age verification process. This would assure that the post office accepting a box from say "pipesandcigars.com" is sending it to an age verified customer. As a resident you may not have gone to the same lengths to prove that the recipient is of legal age to receive the tobacco.
j/B

 
mso489

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,454
It's not breakable, toxic, or perishable, nor cigarettes, small cigars, nor RYO, so the message seems to be, don't rile the residents by using boxes with logos that suggest to them it might be. And skirt the issue so as not to bring down another ruling that might bear on pipes and pipe tobacco. Or we'll all be driving cross country to B&Ms or growing our Virginia in the basement. I've been lucky. One clerk was seriously skeptical but the supervisor approved it in an instant. So my crew, right now, must be uncommonly smart.

 
mso489

mso489

Lifer
Feb 21, 2013
41,210
60,454
4noggins, I know I might have done better in life financially, but this reassures me, despite both grandfathers who did so, how delighted I am I did not go to law school. Reading this material, let alone writing it, cannot be good for your mental health nor soul. Now I will define my terms ... no I won't.

 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top Bottom