The hits keep on coming for Huawei. After the announcement of a US technology export ban, numerous Huawei suppliers and partners around the world have ended relationships with the company. Now, you might not even be able to ship a Huawei phone reliably. PCMag tried to mail a P30 Pro from the UK to the US, and it was returned to sender because of the ongoing legal drama.
PCMag’s UK office had the P30 Pro on hand, and the New York office needed it. If this were any other phone, it would be a simple matter to ship it. However, PCMag’s staffer filled out the shipping form honestly and listed the phone’s model. The package left the UK via Parcelforce, a part of the Royal Mail system. FedEx got the package in the US, and five hours later it was on its way back to the UK with a note blaming the US government action against Huawei.
This is totally ridiculous. Our UK writer tried to send us his @HuaweiMobile P30 unit so I could check something – not a new phone, our existing phone, already held by our company, just being sent between offices – and THIS happened @FedEx pic.twitter.com/sOaebiqfN6
— Sascha Segan (@saschasegan) June 21, 2019
We at Android Police are not lawyers, but there doesn’t seem to be any legal reason FedEx couldn’t deliver a Huawei phone. This is just an example of extreme risk avoidance—FedEx wants no part of something that has the word “Huawei” on it. It’s probably possible to simply fill out the forms with generic terms like “used smartphone,” but you shouldn’t need to do that.