Opinions on shipping from USA to Italy

Stormspell · Post by **Stormspell** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 7:45 am

Foreword: this topic is not about Helstar and his beef with me. He opted for his package to be shipped for cheap at his own risk against my advise, and he have to deal with it. This post is to figure if the problem is only with my packages, Or other people have problems shipping to Italy too.

And here is the story:

Ever since I conceived Stormspell and started actively selling online I have had problems with Italian posts being slow. Most packages to Italy taking 4 weeks to get there, and on occasion 6 or even 8 weeks. This caused so many problems and paypal charge-backs, that at some point I was simply forced to start charging EMS shipping for Italian orders so I can have real tracking number and some paypal protection.

Our friend Helstar here lives in Italy, and always have taken this rather personally. He bitched recently for having to pay the high shipping cost, so I told him if he agrees to have a package shipped at his own risk, I'll give him my usual free shipping deal, which is shipped via regular airmail. He agreed and I shipped his package. So far so good...

Well, not quite, because it has been over 5 weeks since his package has been shipped, he hasn't received it yet, and now I have been under constant e-mail pressure of him bitching about it.

He is basically blaming me for his loss, claiming that Italian posts are awesome, I'm the only seller who ever had such problem with shipping to Italy, and it must be something I'm doing which is causing those delays.

So I'd like to hear from other fellow traders, dealers, and sellers if they ever had a problem shipping to Italy, or is it indeed only me who has it.

Warepire · Post by **Warepire** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 9:02 am

When I sent things to Helstar and other Italians I have never had any problems, stuff always showed up within a week. Same when I have received things from Italy, always fast, unless you have it shipped as a parcel, then you can get to wait a few months. I have however heard of the occasional theft problem and missing package but it's not common enough for me to consider the postal service as a whole to be shit.

Granted Sweden is a EU country just like Italy so there are no customs involved.
If I had to make an unqualified guess your package is probably sitting in customs either in the US or in Italy.

So far I have nothing to complain about when trading with Helstar other than that he can have short patience.

ION BRITTON · Post by **ION BRITTON** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 9:04 am

I had a small total of 4-5 orders from Italy over the last 3 years and all the packages were received. It wasn't lightning fast, but it didn't take aeons to arrive either.

Stormspell · Post by **Stormspell** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 9:09 am

Yeah, I mean overseas shipping from USA when packages have to clear customs. Within EU I'd expect packages to travel quite fast these days.

Heathen · Post by **Heathen** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 9:30 am

GandALF wrote: He is basically blaming me for his loss, claiming that Italian posts are awesome, I'm the only seller who ever had such problem with shipping to Italy, and it must be something I'm doing which is causing those delays.

Well, for what it's worth, I often see auctions with a message in all caps "NO SHIPPING TO ITALY". Italian post does have a bad reputation, don't know if deserved or not.

Open this link, it searches for the term "no shipping to italy" in ebay auctions:
http://www.ebay.com/dsc/Music-/11233/i. ... 22&_sop=10

there's like 4500 results!

On a side note, a package sent to Poland via USPS Priority (ha! ha!) mail international took almost 7 weeks to arrive recently, so don't lose hope.

Stormspell · Post by **Stormspell** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 12:07 pm

4500 listings in music category alone, wow! I knew there is a problem, but I never realized how global it is... So its me AND 100+ different sellers from eBay alone having problems shipping to Italy. That proves my point quite nicely, thank you sir!

Grimlord · Post by **Grimlord** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 12:08 pm

they have one of the slowest customs departements. Helstar sent me a package on the same day I sent one to him - mine arrived 2 weeks later than his cause it was stuck at italian customs.

Vampallens · Post by **Vampallens** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 12:42 pm

By my side, never had a problem with packages from overseas.
average waiting time is 3/4 weeks for priority mails (unregistered) and 10/15 days for registered mails (with a clear tracking number code).
Sometimes it happened to me that an unregistered package from US arrived in 6 days, a fluke certainly.
I think the real italian postal service problem are the customs and their unproductive workers.

Shimrod · Post by **Shimrod** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 12:52 pm

I personnally bought a hundred cds from Cruz del Sur, Underground Symphony and other Italian sellers without any problem.

On the other side I got two lost packages from CD baby as well as one from Shadow Kingdom. That's the reason why I always ask for EMS from you, Iordan, even if it costs me a lot more. I prefer paying more than taking the risk of losing 8 cds or more at once. And it is still cheaper than buying the same cds from German sellers at least before the upgrade of US postal shipping costs.

Anyway customs can be very long. Now Russian customs take about a month to let parcels leave Moscou... But again it's a personnal choice, I could have bought them for twice the price from a European seller.

Heathen · Post by **Heathen** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 1:35 pm

if the theory that it is not the italian post but the customs office that is the bottle neck in the system is correct, then shipping within UE is not necessarily relevant.

lunaboy · Post by **lunaboy** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 2:56 pm

Personaly I've never had any problems with buyers from Italy,but I know a few persons who had bad luck with it so I think there's something wrong going on.And as Heathen stated I've seen a lot of sellers on eBay do not ship to Italy (Or Russia(or more countries)due to big amount of "lost" packages) so I think post system/customs in Italy arent't that great as some people might want to think.

LaGouille · Post by **LaGouille** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 5:14 pm

I've always heard people complain that many packages shipped to Italy never arrive to the point that it's almost common fact and that many dealers simply refuse to ship there, even registered.
I've never had any problems but except for a one record order I always ship there via registered mail.

wom · Post by **wom** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 6:21 pm

I cant help but notice that "This topic is not about Helstar" and then you refer to his nickname with details about his specific case.

Is this about the italian post in general or you believe that you have been scammed by Helstar?

Lots of people here have sent him stuff, you better clear this out

PS Yes, personally i would even send him cds in advance against something in return in the future. He is honest in my book.

doomedplanet · Post by **doomedplanet** » Sun Mar 10, 2013 6:53 pm

This thread is so classic. Italian post having major corruption problems goes waaay back, I mean I've heard of problems going back 20+ years from mailorder dealers I've known., so it is no coincidence that this specific parcel has gone missing or that so many ebay sellers have specific instructions that they will not sell to Italian buyers in their listings. I'm 100% convinced some Italian postal employees make a great living selling all the parcels they take for themselves.

Stormspell · Post by **Stormspell** » Mon Mar 11, 2013 12:40 am

wom wrote:Is this about the italian post in general or you believe that you have been scammed by Helstar?

This thread is a direct result of Helstar stalking me, after requesting a free shipping option against my advise, and agreeing it is shipped at his own risk. Then when the expected happened and his package went MIA, he turns around trying to drop the ball in my court...

Apparently, he requested the package with the free shipping as "experiment" to prove Italian postal services are fine and it is only me and people like Shadow Kingdom which have personal problems with it. I spent better part of yesterday writing very detailed e-mails to him explaining how it works, how I ship, what different letter prefixes on tracking numbers are and why they are irrelevant. But it was all for nothing because he has made his mind the problem is not with Italian posts/customs, and no matter what I said would not change it.

He had "proof" - a package an US seller sent to him which made it in 2 weeks, and therefore I was wrong. He kept making wild speculations and making "suggestions to help you solve your problem with Italian posts once and forever," some of which were direct insults, and thinly-veiled jokes questioning my integrity and implying that maybe I'm charging people for airmail and then ship by boat, and so forth, you get the picture.

So when he came to the point telling me he may take the issue to the Corroseum to prove his point, I drew the line and did it for him.

So there you have it. Disregarding the fact this package was shipped at his own risk, and this discussion should not be happening at all. I'll leave it to you to decide if I'm the sole US seller having problems with Italian posts, or there is indeed a problem affecting other US sellers too.

Opinions on shipping from USA to Italy

Opinions on shipping from USA to Italy

Re: Italian posts, awesome fast or sluggish crap?