Help - Poste Italiane - Where's my package?

We've sent stuff back through the mail and have always beaten it home. Give it a few more days.

Donna

I sent 2 postcards through Orvieto's post office in 2008 and they still haven't arrived.

I would suggest finding an Italian speaking friend and asking them to call. Since USPS can see it, you may be fortunate enough to have the package show up eventually...or not. The Italian postal system is not known for efficiency. Wish I had better ideas for you.

"Has anyone else had issues with Poste Italiane"

Is that a rhetorical question? :)

Sorry I couldn't resist that one. As a resident here of a few years - the answer is yes. You sort of never know what is going to happen with them, especially packages. Good luck - I think patience is the only thing you can use right now.

If the USPS can see it, that means it's in the system. So it sounds pretty good. Give it time, regular post can be very slow and inconsistent.

Adam,
I hate to add to your pain...but I'm still waiting for one of my packages that I sent from Venezia to NY. I mailed it in 2003. I don't think I will ever see it...lol.
We've mailed things from a dozen different countries and the only one that didn't make it to the states was one of the ones sent through Poste Italiane.
Have faith...the other three packages came....quite a bit later!!

With a dear friend living in Italy, we have had occasion to use the postal system in Italy. Can you say " you are SOL " on this board? We have had quick letters ( 2 weeks ), slow letters ( 8 weeks ) and never arrived letters ( several ).

In general, the service back here is a little faster then the service going over.

Back in 2001, my friend mailed books and clothes to herself from Italy and it took about a month.

One of my favorite lines is from the Italian movie "Bread & Tulips" where the husband is talking about getting a post card from his wife in Venice in only three days, "yes, despite the Italian Post."

Wow, Adam - the post office was OPEN??? In Italy??? LOL Congrats!

You're more than halfway home, so to speak.

I'll add to the 'don't worry' chorus. Even in the USA, I've tracked several packages recently that showed 'being prepared for shipment', then nothing for days, then Voila! It's here! Out of the ordinary for that to happen, but the packages all arrived. It is nerve-wracking, I'll concur.

My husband's still waiting for his Father's Day gift mailed from Florence in 2004

We shipped some things homes from Venice in July. The shop keeper told us it would be at least two months, and that was via DHL!

I'd give it some more time if was the post office.

Have never mailed anything from Italy or any other European country except postcards. The Italian postal service is not a streamlined operation. Was in a post office branch in Florence (near the straw market) last summer to purchase stamps (which I usually buy at a tobacco shop) to mail a few postcards. It took 2 ladies like ten minutes to put on stamps and hand cancel the cards. After leaving we laughed so hard at the inefficiency of the ordeal! Good luck with your packages and I hope you get them sometime!

In Varenna I mailed some of my own clothes home. Got back to the States and waited. 3am one morning the phone rings and a man identifies himself as a worker for Poste Italiane and needs for me to fax my social security and passport numbers before they will send my package. Politely inform him it's 3 in the morning and he has a snowball's chance in hell of me faxing him my social security number. Give him my email address and ask him to email his contact information as well as the request for my social and passport numbers. He does email. I get a friend who is fluent in Italian to email back asking why he needs those numbers. He emails back saying it's Italian law when new clothes are shipped. He is informed those are my old clothes, not something purchased in Italy. The postal worker stands firm. I contact the Italian consulate in LA and ask them for help. That was in 2007. Still waiting for my clothes.

Here's an update. I still haven't seen my package and I've gotten a response to my request on their website. They tell me to call customer service. The number is an Italian Freephone number that I can't reach from the US, or haven't figured out how to dial it (803.160). So, I wait.

My tracking number is in this format CC*********IT. It doesn't match any of the examples on their website. I know everyone said to be patient, but I want to keep the ball rolling on this thing. ARRRGGHH!!!

You are really too early to worry. Even if I paid for airmail, sometimes my parcels from Europe ended up in the pile for surface mail and that means an average travel time of 6 weeks. Give or take a few weeks ...

You also have the potential of getting hung up in US customs. Years ago worked for a company had some limited receiving from Europe. Mostly manufactured samples of their product. Every now and then a package would hung up in custom simply because the paper work had small errors. And sometimes it took weeks to resolve.

I'm just ready to get it. I'll keep waiting. Thanks for all of your helpful repies.

Hopefully I'll forget about it and it will show up just in time for Christmas so we can give everyone thr gifts that we shipped home for them. :-)

One of the recent writing assignments in my Italian class was to write an email complaining about how long it's taking for a package to show up. We were supposed to say that we know that these things don't matter much in Italy, but in the American culture, we emphasize doing things promptly. Srsly. :-)

Good luck. And deep breaths.

Hopefully you didn't send ceramics. I did a few years ago and they arrived after 6 weeks broken and in pieces. Oh well, live and learn.

Would this happen in Wales? Neil?

Anybody? ;-)

Adam, I thought about you recently; I was wondering how 'things' were going...as I suspected...waiting...

Oh Happy Day!!! My package has arrived!! My neighbor called me a few minutes ago to inform me that he has my package that the mail carrier just delivered. I can't wait to see what's in it - it's been so long. Some back story. Since I last posted, I was able to get in touch with a friend of my wife's family who live in Verona. I sent him a scanned image of the packaging slip and he was able to fill out paperwork at the local office to get the package tracked down. We've been waiting to hear back from them. Just Monday, I decided to check the USPS website to see if they had updated the tracking info in their system (in case you didn't know, 1. you can't track international packages on the Poste Italiane website. 2. You can track your package on the USPS site.). The USPS site showed that 2 days before, the package had arrived in customs in New York and had left customer a few hours later. So, maybe the package got stuck, or lost, or needed paperwork, who knows. Whatever the case, I'm so glad that my package has arrived! Now I don't have to try to find something else for my Mom for Christmas!! :-) Thank you all for your help and support. The lesson learned here is Never use Poste Italiane again (or just bring an extra bag to check on the plane)!

Adam, Congrats on getting your package! Living in Rome, we would walk from our apartment over to the Vatican and mail ALL our letters and packages. Vatican mail DOES NOT go through the Italian mail system. Unless you use UPS, DHL, or FedEX you're just never sure the Italian mail system will work. In addition, we were fortunate to have a few US Embassy connections, so we had our mail sent there. It's actually worse to mail a package into Italy as the "postal authorities" will often open the package and "inspect." Those, or parts of them, would arrive quite inconsistently. After 3+ years, we now get mail in Copenhagen almost every day - Granted, it's in Danish and I can't understand a word of it, but to us it's quite a novelty! A mail system that works!

Glad to hear Adam! I had very good luck shiping UPS from Italy. The major cities (Rome at least) have Mailboxes Etc stores that will box everything up nicely and ship it via UPS - expensive but no worries or delays.

We sent a box of stuff back (nothing that was particularly valuable to anyone but else) through the post office in Venice to our home in California. It did arrive in a timely manner, but not with all the stuff we sent. Several items we sent never made it home (including an electrical cord, make-up, an empty wallet, postcards, guidebooks, maps, and other paper souvenirs). Additionally, somehow we got someone else's dirty shoes (a pair of reddish pink crocks, size 6-7). I don't know what happened. I severely regret sending our things back. Judging from what I've seen online, the Italiane Poste should not be trusted. In addition, it took a half day at the post office to send it out and it cost ~47 euro. The souvenirs are irreplaceable. The people at the post office were rude and now we will never get back our souvenirs of the trip. I would warn everyone not to send anything via the Italiane Poste! What's sad is that there wasn't even a note attached explaining if there was a mishap. Only an unused sticker in the box saying in Italian "Burglary Seal - Do not Tamper with" I wish that sticker was used, that we sent the items via Fed Ex, or that we insured the items (even though they we irreplaceable) just to have some recourse in a fight to get our stuff back. ~Very disappointed

If one must send a package from Italy, or Europe in general, ship with one of the major shippers such as FedEx, UPS, DHL, etc... The package can be tracked and insured, and if lost, you have recourse (someone with whom to file a complaint).

The one time I threw an absolute temper-tantrum during a 5-week trip was at the Venice post office...(blood pressure rising); unfortunately, only my husband was there to witness it - which, as you might guess, was the reason for the hissy-fit...No Employees (although I had been told to return after lunch, and I did as I was told...). Italy is Italy, and that in itself is a very important lesson to learn AND ACCEPT LOL!!! No accepty, no likey Italy. Since then, I've always brought a 12" x 24" duffle bag that lays flat in the bottom of my bag...most international flights allow at least one free checked bag, and even a $25 charge is less than most packages cost.

Many people have posted here over the years about problems they've had receiving things they shipped to themselves using the Italian mail system. Italy does many things superbly but apparently use of the national mail system to mail packages internationally is not one of them. I don't remember any magic solutions being posted here, other than using the Vatican mail system (if in Rome), UPS or FedEx.

I would never send anything by Poste Italiane again. I sent two packages from Venice which arrived at my home in NY 4 weeks later and much lighter than when I had sent them. My packages were essentially ransacked and were missing two statuettes, two masks, some clothing and an ornament. The official tape given to customers to seal the packages had been cut and the boxes looked like they had been used for football practice. I would strongly urge any travelers to never use Poste Italiane. If Fedex or UPS is available I would recommend them instead. If you can carry your items/gifts with you I think that might still be preferable. I'm not sure what type of corruption is present with the Italian postal service, but I would seriously caution anyone against using it.