I have read the lengthy post that already appears here from last year, but it has not really helped me. I sent 2 boxes at the same time from the Venice post office, by sea. One box arrived home 2 weeks later and the other hasn't showed up. The form is entirely in Italian, but I am assuming the tracking number is the one under the bar code on the customs form I filled out. But the tracking site for Poste Italiane does not recognize it as a valid code. People on the other post said you can track a package sent from Italy on the USPS website, but I found no such thing. I have searched the web, but have not been able to get any help. Anyone have any suggestions?
Posted by
Allentown, PA, USA
8 posts
Hi Colleen, I'd go to one of my local pizzerias and buy a pie or two and then ask him if he would interpret that form for you.
Posted by
Alachua, FL, USA
238 posts
I work for the Postal Service and have never been able to track a package mailed from a foreign country. But I can tell you that two weeks is extremely fast and you may very well receive the other one a few weeks afterward. I have even had packages sent by "slow boat" from Hawaii to Florida take six weeks!
Posted by
Florence
362 posts
Good luck!!! Sorry but seriously you never know. As the other poster said, you may get it - but you may not. I have received things in the mail here in Italy that I had been told were returned to the U.S. - I have ordered things from Germany that never showed up (when packages come from Germany into Italy they CHANGE the tracking number - but no one tells and no one seems to know how to track anything...). Unfortunately I would have advised you earlier to send anything back to the U.S. by a reputable carrier and not the Italian postal service.
Posted by
OP
Centralia, WA USA
39 posts
Thanks, Anthony and Celeste. I'm not holding my breath. Both boxes were sent together, so it seems very strange that one would come and one would not. And after the way I was treated at the Venice post office, I certainly do not trust these people. The clerk was hostile and rude. It wouldn't surprise me if she took the box home herself!
Posted by
OP
Centralia, WA USA
39 posts
What a hilarious happy ending to this saga: the second box arrived today, er, well, actually my stuff arrived today, repacked into a completely different box. I figure they must have smashed the yellow one that I bought from them beyond recognition. I am pretty lucky that they repacked it and sent it on! Never will I enter an Italian post office again.
Posted by
Cesena, Italy
791 posts
I only use the post office to pay bills. For a year now they've delivered our nieghbors (and others) mail to our place. I've written our names on the mailbox, talked to them and gone to the PO and it still happens. They also want you to pay the postage to re-deliver the mail that they wrongly delivered to your house! The Italian PO is definitly untrustworthy.
Posted by
Alachua, FL, USA
238 posts
The Italian Post Office definitely makes us look really good!
Posted by
OP
Centralia, WA USA
39 posts
Rick warns people not to send anything "precious" by Poste Italiane. By that, I thought he meant fine jewelry or other real expensive stuff. But really the warning should be not to send anything but postcards through their careless postal system.