OK, who has shipped to Italy... what a fucking joke.

Suziemay

boyo79 wrote:

pjradio wrote:

I was told by USPS person that the customs number only guarantees tracking inside US border...said it was out of their hands on foreign soil

Yeah I've found the tracking pretty useless. Paid extra for tracking from US to UK once and the tracking stopped once it left the US. What a waste of time that was!! Item got to me fine though

I've shipped a couple of things to Italy from the UK and they haven't taken ages to get there, I don't know what they do over there but the postal service does seem a bit messed up at times!

Tracking has actually worked for me every single time which was a nice surprise. I had zero expectations of it actually showing me anything useful, to be honest. It has to be Registered Mail, and it costs $11.75 in addition to postage. Good thing your item arrived regardless!

81

wtf is wrong with italy...

things i can't ship

Albums of any kind (of photographs, postcards, postage stamps, etc.).

Arms and weapons.

Articles of platinum or gold; jewelry; and other valuable articles unless sent as insured Priority Mail International parcels.

Artificial flowers and fruits and accessories for them.

Bells and other musical instruments and parts thereof.

Cartridge caps; cartridges.

Clocks and supplies for clocks.

Compound medicaments and medicines.

Coral mounted in any way.

Ether and chloroform.

Exposed photographic and cinematographic films.

Footwear of any kind.

Haberdashery and sewn articles of any kind, including trimmings and lace; handkerchiefs; scarves; shawls, needlework including stockings and gloves; bonnets, caps, and hats of any kind.

Hair and articles made of hair.

Human remains.

Leather goods.

Lighters and their parts, including lighter flints.

Live bees, leeches, and silkworms.

Live plants and animals.

Nutmeg, vanilla; sea salt, rock salt; saffron.

Parasites and predators of harmful insects.

Perfumery goods of all kinds (except soap).

Playing cards of any kind.

Postage stamps in sealed or unsealed First-Class Mail International shipments.

Radioactive materials.

Ribbons for typewriters.

Roasted or ground coffee and its substitutes; roasted chicory.

Saccharine and all products containing saccharine.

Salted, smoked or otherwise prepared meats; fats; and lard.

Tobacco.

Toys not made wholly of wood.

Treated skins and furs.

Weapons of any kind and spare parts for them.


:fp:

AlbertaGirl70_

Some of that shit is really friggin random.....WTH difference does some of that stuff make

dwhite76

I think they are doing work on their roads.

eddiec

Postage and Toxic waste disposal. 2 things Italy has no idea how to do.

Released1980

Fugeddabowdit....

PKTrekGirl

Italy is good a many things, but secure mail is certainly not one of them.

I've spent a fair amount of time there for business and pleasure, and it's a wonderful country in many ways (probably my favorite country, in fact)...but I would never ship there without insurance and a real tracking number. Anything less is playing Russian Roulette with your item. Maybe it will get there, maybe it won't...and you will wait a long time to find out which of those it turns out to be.

Good luck - I hope your buyer gets his goods!

Kathi

There have been severe cuts in the postal service over the last years...we used to get our mail at 9 or 10, now it's never before 12:30 cause the poor guy now has to serve lots of new places as well. Lots of offices have closed down too. They're aiming for privatization, but I doubt it'll work.

I've never had any problems with stuff reaching its destination, but it takes ages if done from my hometown and the post office is open just 3 hours a day, so I usually drive over the border to Austria (just 20 minutes) and post my stuff there. Everything overseas friends have sent me & everything I've ordered has always found its way to me until now, but I'm from a part of the country that's still relatively well-off, postal service and otherwise, so I imagine it's much worse in regions more affected by the crisis.

boyo79

100 Pacer wrote:

boyo79 wrote:

pjradio wrote:

I was told by USPS person that the customs number only guarantees tracking inside US border...said it was out of their hands on foreign soil

Yeah I've found the tracking pretty useless. Paid extra for tracking from US to UK once and the tracking stopped once it left the US. What a waste of time that was!! Item got to me fine though

I've shipped a couple of things to Italy from the UK and they haven't taken ages to get there, I don't know what they do over there but the postal service does seem a bit messed up at times!

Tracking doesn't just "stop". If a USPS tracking number can't be tracked once the item has left the States it's because there's no actual tracking on the item. The USPS customs form number is often confused for a tracking number but it isn't. If there's no tracking history available once the item has left the States it's because the sender didn't pay for it.

The tracking was paid for trust me. There was even a tracking number on the parcel when it arrived. Which postal service it was I can't remember.

starmap3333

the guy reported the item arrived the other day, 36 days later!!

Ty

I had similar issues with Germany. I will only post within Australia, to Canada, US or UK. Sorry, but everywhere else, I will never sell to.