In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
look on the bright side - at least this indicates that your parcels have got to italy & delivery was attempted to the correct premises ... as you know we're just up the road from you and the only international package we've ever had sent to us got tracked from darkest Thailand over land & sea, right to the shores of Italy - & then dissapeared off the face of the earth, tracking number & all :-((( Somewhere, some poste guy is inexplicably hoarding the replacement cushion covers for our six settees ... so if you find the delivery guy, and he looks a bit shifty, frisk him for me, OK?
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
on a less facetious note - if nobody here can help based on the info youve given, can you scan the sticker & form and post the images here? - that would help those with better italian advise what you are supposed to do next ...
[EDIT - and if so, make sure to obscure the reference numbers first if the packages contain valuables!!]
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
EDIT - and if so, make sure to obscure the reference numbers first if the packages contain valuables!!]
And your address too.
If the post office is denying any knowledge then probably the packages are being carried by a currier/delivery service like DHL. We had similar problems with a package but that involved the delivery driver phoning us to tell us our house did not exist, in the end we asked him to deliver it to the bar and we collected it from there.
On another occasion we tracked a parcel which left the depot in Milan at 8am, was not delivered (because we were not home…. ahemmmm) and returned to the depot in Milan by 12 noon. We rang and congratulated them for the speed of their driver, because we calculated he must have been doing 240mph to have managed Milan to Abruzzo and back in the time!
I have a friend who is a director in the post office but it doesn’t seem to be a problem with them. If it turns out that it is let me know and I’ll have a word with him. Failing that throw yourself on the mercy of a kind Italian, show them the stickers and say ‘Aiuto!’
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Every chance it's a courier dealing with it - when I had a largeish parcel sent by Royal Mail post from the UK it was actually SDA that delivered it. Postal service only seems to deal with small parcels - in our area anyway.
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
[quote=Antinello;97631]
...called the number on the sticker but the less than friendly staff at the other end are less than patient with our limited Italian. One of the stickers has some sort of form attached.
[/quote]
I would try phoning again - is there anyone locally who you could explain the situation to / show the stickers and they phone on your behalf?
I agree with the others that it is probably a courier - the PO tends to leave buff or greenish coloured postcards and any parcels would have been left in your local PO fo you to collect.
Depending upon where the parcel originates there may be some customs fees to pay (even if someone has kindly sent you a present), on occasions we have also been asked to provide proof of payment and a copy of the order form. So, as you can see, it is not straight forward and you do really need to chase it up as until whoever receives any necessary paperwork or instructions re a new delivery date nothing will happen other than the parcel may be 'returned to sender'!
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Thanks all for jumping in with your suggestions. Don't have internet/scanner set up yet so that's not an option. Will keep phoning them and we have some local Italian contacts who could help & will be back in town in a week or so.
Thanks again
Antinello
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Can't you drive round to Pigro's house and get him to sort it as he say's you know he's close by?
All our parcels go to our friend's hotel just off the superstrada as couriers are notorious, depite a phone number being included in the address. The Italian postal service police in Perugia are most helpful if something seriously important is lost/stolen in the post. So may be worth others knowing that they exist in every region of Italy.
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
[quote=Noble;97658]Can't you drive round to Pigro's house and get him to sort it as he say's you know he's close by?
All our parcels go to our friend's hotel just off the superstrada as couriers are notorious, depite a phone number being included in the address. The Italian postal service police in Perugia are most helpful if something seriously important is lost/stolen in the post. So may be worth others knowing that they exist in every region of Italy.[/quote]
thanks for volunteering me ... our houses n Italy are indeed quite close - just a pity I live in Glasgow about 49 weeks of the year :-)
As luck would have it, I will be over in Italy later this week though & an invite was already open to Antinello to pop in & say hi (so feel free to bring the documents with you if/when you come).
Only problem will be catching us in as we've got friends staying with us and we'll be out and about quite a lot ... but if the car's in the driveway, we're in!! Can't guarantee to sort it out, but if it's beyond my powers of Italian, Mrs. P will be better; if it defeats her, nonna across the road will sort it out.
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
We sent a very expensive Hi-Fi unit back to Germany to be repaired, as there were no capable Italian service agents or even any that would even consider doing the work.
DHL said they would collect on the Tuesday, Thursday we were still waiting..... so sent it via the Post Office. Arrived in Germany Ok, sent back by courier and again arrived perfectly within a couple of days from despatch.
Son sent some DVD's from Thailand, and we had to fill in a customs declaration before they would be despatched from wherever they were held in Italy. Again no problem, courier found us easily.
I order cigarette papers and filters from the UK, and these usualy arrive within 4 days, via the normal postal service.
Think it all depends on who is delivering it.
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
I am sure we have a dubious reputation with our Postina, we have had several packets of ‘powder’ sent to us....custard powder, Bisto, corn flour and even oatcake mix. When she delivers she gives us a knowing look!!:laughs:
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
We have had this problem with packets coming from the US, especially if sent by UPS or some similar carrier as in our area they do not have a local presence and the local delivery is hanlded by SDA. The first time it took several calls to get the packages delivered and when they arrived I had to have cash in hand to pay the duties. Unfortunately you just have to keep calling the number listed until you get a return delivery, if you aren't there that does create problems, they may return to sender at some point.
We were able to avoid this problem in the future as we informed both the delivery driver (was usually the same lady) and our postina if we aren't there to drop the packages off at the bar closest to us and this has worked well for us.
In reply to A newbie all over again! by Annec
Got the packages!
My wife came home and caught the van as it was sneaking away after leaving some more stickers...
Many thanks to you all for your help and advice.
Pigro: Will hopefully catch up with you and Mrs P one of these days!
Cheers
Antinello
Is there a web site address on the labels?
If so, maybe you could try and trace the parcel using the numbers they provided. :veryconfused:
Of course nothing is ever that simple in Italy but I hope you can sort it out soon. :smile: