Having recently returned from living in Italy perhaps I can shed some light on this.
First, if you ship USPS it's likely that the package will go to Customs and then it's no longer in the hands of Poste Italiane and will be delivered by a private firm, "SDA". SDA will ring your bell and if you are home you meet them at your door where they will present the package with the charges assessed by Customs. You must pay the customs duties + the SDA delivery charges in cash right at that moment. If you cannot they take the package back and you will need to make arrangements to have it re-delivered. If you are not home they leave a sticky note on your door that can fly away, or someone can throw it away then you don't even know they tried. However, they are pretty good about a 2nd notification but of course the same thing can happen.
Sometimes packages get stuck in Customs, and it can take months before you hear of their decision on the value. I like PEEPS (those marshmallow candies for Easter) and my daughter sent me two packages worth $5.00 and the Customs charge was 30 Euro. How they decide the value is a mystery, even to Italians. It's a big discussion on Italian ebay believe me. Sometimes things go into Customs and disappear in there. Things disappear all over the place.
If your package doesn't go through Customs, stays in the Poste Italiane system and you are not home when they try to deliver it other problems can arise. They don't leave packages. They will leave you a note at which post office you have to go to to retrieve it. This happened to me on several occasions and I'd go to the post office and they had no idea where it was. They would advise me to try all the post offices in Verona!
It's really crazy.
If you use Federal Express I believe that at least the package remains in their hands but also may have to go through the Customs process.
Angel Garcia Long Valley, NJ
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: KRISTER KATSOGIANNOS <katten@msn.com> Date: Tue, Jan 27, 2009 at 11:16 AM Subject: [CR] cautionary tail about ebay and paypal To: classicrendezvous@bikelist.org
This might be of interest to the list members that sometimes sell our belov ed vintage bike parts to other enthusiasts all over the world. As a seller using ebay and paypal you have to take the full responsibility for the tran saction (this includes not giving the buyer the option to select the type o f shipping desired), for your own protection you can not offer a shipping option without tracking as stated by paypal ,otherwise you will be at a loss if the buyer claims they never received the package real or not . Havi ng a scanned copy of the postal recite of the the day the item was shipped including the country and the weight and the shipping cost does not count f or anything As a seller on ebay I have sold things al over the world and ne ver really had any problems , shipping to Japan most buyers do specifical ly not want any other option then basic airmail. The item shipped was sent to Italy , I guess I should have observed the occasional caution that I have seen from other sellers not to send to Italy. You think that the if yo u offer the buyer the option of basic shipping or insured shipping and they select the uninsured shipping they are knowingly taking a gamble and shoul d be responsible for their own actions, but apparently not so. It would b e interesting to hear of other people experiences Krister KatsogiannosSan A ntonio TX
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