"Italian Shipping Black Hole" Topic

I sell stuff on eBay and I've doen so for over 10 years with only a few problems (the guy in Mexico who claimed not to get the Millennium Falcon and other qustionable "I didn't get it" claims). But Italy (and Spain and sometimes the low countries) seem to take forever. I always warn buyers from there if they ask about postage prices that I've had packages take over 3 months to arrive to those areas, but they have all arrived.

Most recently a buyer from Italy started a Paypal query "where's my item" after only a month (1/3 of the usual time! and I told him it could take over 3 months beforehand).

I'm asking for opinions about whether I should stop selling to Italy (and maybe Spain)? It's maybe once or twice every couple months but it often turns out to be more trouble than it's worth…

I think you've answered your own question, to be honest:

It's maybe once or twice every couple months but it often turns out to be more trouble than it's worth…

I think that says it all.

- Monk

An italian friend is rather frustrated as many sellers won't sell to him. He understands them, though.

Is Spain such I problem? I thought the mail was rather ok there these days.

I ordered a couple of helicopters from Italy once and after it had not arrived in a couple months I told him and he refunded my money. But I promised to repay him if they arrived. I got them a year and a half later with all sorts of customs stamps on the box and one corner covered in heavy, black grease. The copters were ok though so I found him on e-bay and got him re-paid.

But I'll never order from Italy again.

Spain can be as well but I don't think they are as bad as Italy.

If you must ship there, do so via Registered Mail. The pricing is a killer, but at least you have tracking and some recourse if the shipments go missing.

I've heard of shipments sitting at their local Post Office, since no notes were left at the house in Italy when the person wasn't home, informing them a package had arrived. Apparently, re-delivery wasn't attempted, but the person finally got it when they went to their local P.O. to check on things.

I will never, ever sell to Italy again. Ever.

You have to send Priority Global if from the U.S. Otherwise, don't bother. I have had good luck with Italy as I have relatives there. But NEVER with surface mail.

I will never, ever sell to Italy again. Ever.

What he said.

I ship international priority mail from the US and have not had a problem with delays to anywhere. If they won't pay the higher rates, they don't bid. Only problem I had was a guy in Montana, who sent the item back because the box was mishandled by the Postal Service. After checking the item, I resold it for more and there were no complaints on the other end about the item. There was nothing wrong with the item other than the shipping box getting damaged.

Italy is often problematic and/or slow.

We only send via a signed-for service which helps a lot with preventing packages from going missing, but they can still take a long time.

If the item/s is/are worth less than £41.00 GBP you are covered by Royal Mail, if the value is over that, I always use 'International Signed For' and take out the additional insurance when posting to Italy.
Hope that is of some help.

Not sure how it works now, but a while back you could no longer get insurance from the USPS for 1st Class packages going to Italy, unless you sent them via priority mail, since the loss rates were so high.

Never again.