Note to UPS: A Mac Computer is NOT a Fruit

Nicole Martinelli ()

IQ test: Can you tell the Apple from the apple? @Gizmodo.

IQ test: Can you tell the Apple from the apple? @Gizmodo.

Whatever reality-bending substances are being imbibed, chewed or smoked at UPS, sign me up: they tagged Adam Jackson’s iMac Core i7 as a fruit.

And now his work tool is awaiting inspection by the FDA, after UPS did the smart thing by “submitting proper documentation” for what it believed was a 40-pound shipment of possibly forbidden fruit from China.

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Sounds like a funny fluke, but there’s more than one burnt bulb at UPS processing centers — MG Siegler at Techcrunch had the same problem just last week.

Note to UPS: the words “apple” “mac” and “core” do NOT necessarily mean foodstuffs.

Or are they just PC people messing with us?

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UPDATE: After viewing your comments about other incidents, we asked for a comment. Here’s what UPS had to say about it.

23 comments »

About the author

nicole_martinelli

Nicole Martinelli is a San Francisco native who has lived in Milan and Florence, Italy. She's written for Wired.com, The New York Times and Newsweek. You can find her on Twitter , Facebook and Google+.

If you're doing something new/cool that's Apple related, email her about it.

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Posted in Apple, Cult of Mac, News | Tagged: |

  • Victor Kovacs

    Wow… That is a nightmare right there.

  • Niel

    The same thing happened to me. I ordered a 27″ iMac early last week and saw the same exception report on the UPS web site. Fortunately, I still received the computer on the date originally quoted.

  • Ramón

    I just checked on the statues of my i7 on the UPS website; it doesn’t show an exception, so Adam’s glitch is a fluke – I hope!
    Mine is scheduled for Friday delivery; it’s waving at Sarah Palin and Siberia as it lands in Anchorage.

    16GB memory – Yippee!

  • Charli

    happened to a friend of mine on a laptop. 2 weeks late on delivery cause the FDA had it.

  • MSL

    Sorry guys, my i5 is also under FDA/Department of Agriculture review.

    UPS HAS OBTAINED DOCUMENTATION AND SUBMITTED TO FOOD & DRUG ADMINISTRATION AND/OR DEPARTMENT OF AG/PPQ;AWAITING RESPONSE / BROKERAGE RELEASED SHIPMENT. SHIPMENT IS SUBMITTED TO CLEARING AGENCY FOR FURTHER CLEARANCE

    UPS HAS OBTAINED DOCUMENTATION AND SUBMITTED TO FOOD & DRUG ADMINISTRATION AND/OR DEPARTMENT OF AG/PPQ;AWAITING RESPONSE

    I’ll be getting 40 lbs of something related to Apples.

  • PWNed

    lol, the guys at UPS must be retards, i mean c’mon, how in hell they can believe that?

  • http://www.mpbrogan.com mike b

    My 27″ was delayed over a week for the same reason. I called our apple ed rep and he evidentally kicked the fda/ups in the ass and my imac magically was on its way.

    Really really annoying

  • Fuzzypig

    When we send stuff out to my brother-in-law in Florida from the UK, the amount of form filling my wife and I have to do is silly!

    We send a box with about 25-30 Xmas presents every year to my b-i-l. We have to start getting it ready mid November, it takes about 5 days to fill out 2 pages for every single present in the box. Declare origin of goods, place of manufactue, listing every single ingredient and quantity in anything organic, like perfumes. Supplying radio single waiver certs on electronic goods, like USB sticks!!! We finally have to have it sent through Fedex by 5 Dec, to ensure that if it does get stuck, we have time to clear it with the customs and FDA. Oh and you also have copy the forms four times, if one gets lost, it will get stopped! Copy inside the box, copy on the outside the box, copy for the Fedex lads, copy faxed to FDA/customs directly before shipping!

    Two years ago we posted 12 Dec, we forgot one form on a bottle of Strawberry perfume, it finally got clear Jan 4th!!!

    These computers getting stuck are basically Apple Inc suppliers being very, very lazy and not form filling correctly, simple as that. The amount of goods they ship to the US, this is inexcusable! If you fill out all the paperwork completely, copy it and submit it correctly, it will clear FDA/customs in less than 36 hours on arrival.

  • http://ObamaPacman.com Obama Pacman

    @ Fuzzypig,

    Hum it’ll be easier for you to just buy it via US amazon.

    But do you believe Apple fills out the form manually? Probably not.

  • http://www.szilveszter.ca WS

    Fuzzypig,

    Not likely. You are you. Some nut somewhere who cares way to much about the holiday or their brother-in-law.

    Apple is, well, a multi-national company known world-wide. They have products all over the globe, spanning from the US of A to places like Mexico, China, Korea, and Denmark. They are a recognized brand and supplier of computers. Quite frankly, Apple Inc. is famous.

    So unlike you, they don’t have such forms or such limitations. If they had a trail of paperwork, I’m sure they wouldn’t be dealing with shipping company X. Think about it. They move billions of dollars annually. While it’s a nice theory, comparing Apple shipping to what you deal with is like comparing iMacs and apples ;)

  • MMNW

    I had something similar for my MacBook Pro shipped from China to Germany. UPS stated something about proper documentation missing, manual check by customs. But it took german customs only 3 hours to clear the package. When it arrived the package was opened with a sticker from customs. But they obviously didn’t even bother to open the “inner” box, only the brown one.

    But maybe all this is related to the damaged Macs people are getting. Probably the UPS guys think it’s fruit and go on throwing the boxes around like they would with a box of apples *g*

  • Cecil B

    My C2D is also going through this process, whatever it is… c’mon UPS/Apple/FDA, I’ve waited soooo long (8 weeks) to get this machine through Apple Edu, and make the switch from PC to Mac..

  • Ramón

    Mine arrived 30 minutes ago, one day EARLY!!!! One DAY EARLY!!!!

    I was in the shower when the UPS guy rang the bell, so I dashed out in a towel – you know, I give him a little peep show to start his day off with a laugh.

  • Internet Old Fart

    The FDA is in charge of regulating lasers. iMacs have a laser in their DVD drives. This happened to me many years ago with the original PowerBook G4. It was stuck in Alaska for 2 weeks.

  • mark

    I have learned to send as much as possible through USPS from the USA to New Zealand. Nor only is it a lot cheaper, it is much faster too. And they do deliver to the door too. Soemthign you cannot say from courier companies toremote areas.

    By the way: I know of a clothing brand Fruit of the Loom. Will their stuff get stuck in traffic too

    Lets be happy that the staff at UPs sortign centers are not the brightest ones. Can you imagine what would happen if they knew a Snow Leopard is in fact an animal too. That would mean a lot of baby animals have to into quarantine before being shipped to their final destination.

  • Cecil B

    Ok my C2D is now scheduled to be delivered tomorrow…. HUZZAH!

  • Fuzzypig

    I’m not that stupid, I do realise that there isn’t some twonk sitting in a back office manually typing forms in! What I meant was that who ever organises the bulk shipping process has obvously not completed the bulk registration for this batch correctly, to enter the US.

    My point was that jobsworths in customs depts the world over don’t care about anything but the rule book. I doesn’t matter if you ship $50 in or $50 million, the paperwork still has be correct. Everything from a screw to a oil tanker has to have paperwork and be cleared to enter a country, customs live and die for the right paperwork, and they don’t give a monkey’s if it’s the world most recognised brand or not.

  • fuzzydisco

    happened to me too! my quad i7 iMac was held up in Kentucky because of an “exception”. UPS wasn’t helpful at all, but Apple promptly credited back my shipping cost and an additional $20 for my trouble. Apple – 1, UPS – 0

  • http://www.szilveszter.ca WS

    @Fuzzypig,

    Yah, but when a company pumps $50 million into your bank account, rules tend to be a little different… compared to, you know, the guy that gives you $50. That’s just how capitalism works… and it works pretty damn well. Provided you are the former, not the latter.

  • Ramón

    The i7 is all set up and it’s HUGE!!

  • Wayne

    Having just gone through this with my new iMac, I called and harassed an explanation out of UPS. Anything that has a laser in it that is imported goes through an extra step that is handled through Food and Drug, probably because they already had the automated systems when the need arose. This relates to which classes of lasers may be sold to the general public and which can’t.

    The real question is why is UPS insane enough to not just say something like that rather than make it look like your new computer has been mistaken for fruit.

  • Kyle Van Kooten

    since when has UPS shipped for Apple? I wonder why it wasn’t sent by FedEx like the other products (iPods, MacBooks) are. And since it’s coming from a factory in China, it’s probably from Apple… I saw people who were getting them from FedEx weren’t having this problem.

  • sharmela

    MY MacBook Pro was sent from the warehouse in China (as opposed to Singapore, since I ordered a bigger HD), and was shipped via DHL to my address in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

    It was quick, hassle-free and I would do it again.

    Shipping stuff to the US via Fedex/Ups is just too painful. I worked in Fedex, and the amount of times I’d hear customers going mental over the phone regarding sending stuff like shoes and electronic gifts and the paperwork involved.

    Sometimes they even just forgo the whole thing especially if they’ve done it before, with the correct paperwork, and the stuff still gets held up by the FCC/FDA and whoever else.