Shipping my entry

I know there are a lot of competitions around the country and I'm just curious if anyone else ran into the problems I had trying to ship my entry. I entered last year but I dropped off the entry in person. This year I wasn't making a trip to Denver anytime soon so I went to the local UPS store. Naturally, the entry was addressed to Beer At Home.

That was the first red light. Next, I used a box that formerly contained a case of 375 ml bottles and said "cork" and "24 bottles" in several places. Red light #2. When asked about the contents, I said it was a marinade I was returning.

"Any alcohol?", I was asked.

"Nope", I shook my head.

"Are you sure there's no alcohol in here?"

"Yes", I replied.

Thirty minutes later I had a call from the lady at the UPS store. She had actually gone online and saw that Beer At Home didn't stock marinade and demanded I return to claim the box. When I arrived, I admitted that, yes, the box contained a mildly fermented liquid and went on to ask whether it was ok to ship perfume and pointed out that the alcohol content was much higher.

"We're trained to ship perfume and alcohol isn't the determining factor anyway. Fermented beverages are illegal to ship without a license. What if this got into the hands of a 12-year-old?"

"Heaven forbid", I replied.

I took my refund and proceeded to Mail Express where I received the same third degree and was asked the same series of questions. Rather than make another trip across town, I admitted that the marinade was indeed lightly fermented. I was chastised for not being more forthcoming and sent packing.

I've made different arrangements and will have the package hand delivered but my question is this: how in the world do the thousands (tens of thousands?) of competition entires make it past the gatekeepers and get to their destinations. Is there in legal way to ship these entries or are these highly regarded competitions complicit in skirting the law?

I understand the ways that have been used to ship home produced fermented beverages, and I've shipped bottles to family members and friends in the past but this time it was different. As I stated, I tried UPS and then at a location which uses both Fedex and DHL. Both asked me on more than one occasion, does it contain alcohol? This places one in the position of lying. I can understand, and agree, to declaring the shipment as "marinade" or "yeast samples" because the descriptions aren't technically wrong. However when they follow up with a direct question, it places one in a position of liability. Both locations had a sign placed on the door stating they had the right to open any packages being shipped, and both indicated they regularly do so.

Keep in mind that I don't live in the Bible Belt. I live in a state where we're fortunate enough to be able to order adult beverages from out of state and have them delivered to our door. I also work in the trucking industry and I know that once a shipper signs a bill of lading declaring the contents to be as described, the problem is on the shipper and not the carrier. I don't know if something happened locally that caused a problem but problems there are.

Don't ask, don't tell seems to be working well in some areas, and has worked for me in the past. This time I wasn't so fortunate. I guess there really isn't any way to legally ship to these competitions and, unless one lives close enough to drop the entries off in person, then he's SOL.