Help from an Italian speaker

[lisey_baby]

I have a customer on my site that requested to pay by other a while a go. I asked her how she wished to pay or did she want me to send her a PayPal request. I cannot work out her reply as I do not read/speak Italian and google translate gave me an answer of 'Mark made???'

Could anyone please tell me what this means

'fatte contrassegno???'

Any help would be greatly appreciated

[Ringlets]

It means "Cash on Delivery"   The person pays when the item arrives by courier/postman    I think its quite common in Italy to pay this way. I dont know how you would accept this method of payment from the UK though.

Here are a few quotes - sorry about the dodgy translation though    I'm not familar with buyers using  this method of payment myself . Perhaps a member here from Italy has used this  before and can enlighten us a bit more

quote from Ebay Italy:

 "Contrassengno"
 Particular type of submission allows you to pay directly to the postman / courier upon delivery of the package.

Benefits
 Cash on Delivery (but you can not inspect the package before paying).

Disadvantages
 High cost, extreme slowness of the refund, no risk of shrinkage of the package.

.....
 from Wikepedia Italia .

"The COD , sometimes also written contr'assegno or marking , is a method of payment of goods purchased at a distance that allows you to pay in advance but not the object at the time of his arrival at the destination.

The assignment from the dispatcher to cash in on his own account a certain amount is fixed by means of a shipping contract with a company dedicated to the transport of goods . The latter, usually the mail or a company devoted to the national road transport guarantees delivery of the goods only after payment of the agreed specifications and shall return the sum to the principal.

Unless otherwise agreed, payment of goods by the receiver must be done only through a form of payment "guaranteed" (cash or cashier's check as a rule) as the carrier shall pay in each case to his client the amount specified. The other stipulation, which must be clearly spelled out in writing, may require the withdrawal of the Distributor by a check  bank made ​​payable directly to the owner of the goods.

As a service performed for customers, the company responsible should be paid for work done and the compensation is usually set at a percentage of the amount to be moved.

The same type of service can also be done in the field of international transport by road , the traffic of goods between nations that allow easy exchange currency, internationally known with the ' acronym  C.OD ( Collect on Delivery , formerly Cash on delivery ) ."

from PosteItaliane
Ship to Italy - Recommended 1 with Mark
To manage cash on delivery.Features:
the Proof of Delivery included in price;delivery to the recipient only upon payment of the amount indicated by the sender on the acceptance form;dedicated on the application form you can choose whether you pay the amount of postal account or by money order , whose cost will be deducted from the amount paid.....

[lisey_baby]

Hey Ringlets, thank you for looking all that up for me, I didn't even think to Google it, I blame baby brain, ha.

Hmm still seems confusing and I don't think it's a method of payment I'd feel happy accepting.

Hopefully they will be happy to send either a PayPal payment or a bank transfer

[Ringlets]

LOL no worries  I do know some Italian ( *is trying to learn*) , but TBH I hadnt come across this before and all of the translations I found are a little confusing     Yeah I think its prolly best if you ask her to pay by some other method

[lisey_baby]

Hey Ringlets,

I asked the customer if she would like to pay by PayPal or by bank transfer and I got this reply

'Io al massimo ho postepay'

I have no idea what this means, have tried chucking it through google translate and just plain old googled it and I cannot find anything. I feel really bad that I haven't been able to reply to her yet :/

[banditpony]

Maybe they are speaking of this? http://www.postepay.it/

more info on postepay : http://www.lifeinitaly.co.uk/Italy-Guide/Legal-and-Money/Carta-PostePay.htm

;3 Cute icon btw.

[lisey_baby]

Maybe they are speaking of this? http://www.postepay.it/

more info on postepay : http://www.lifeinitaly.co.uk/Italy-Guide/Legal-and-Money/Carta-PostePay.htm

;3 Cute icon btw.

Thank you Bandit, will go check it out

[Ringlets]

io al massimo ho postepay
its something like this:
 I have at best/most postepay... - "the best I can do is Postepay"...

"massimo" = maximum (but can be used to say its the best I can do, the most I can do etc)

here is a quote from the website in the second link given by banditpony 
"What is a Carta PostePay?"
The Italian Carta PostePay is a pre-paid, rechargeable, VISA Electron card. With this card you can make payments online and through all outlets worldwide which accept VISA Electron. You can also withdraw money from all VISA and VISA Electron ATM machines worldwide, and through the Italian Postamat ATM machines which are located in post offices across Italy.
Carta postepay is not linked to a current account, and you do not need a bank account in Italy to get one.

[Izrabeth]

LOL postepay is a rechargeable card as said, if they open a paypal account they can use it as if it was a debit card...but they really asked for "contrassegno"? This person never bought internationally, it's a method you can use with our post, the postman ring your bell and ask you money to deliver the package, then the post bring the money to the sender...but you cannot do this outside the country for what I know unless you use couriers like UPS/TNT/DHL etc etc (and you must be their customer and have an account with them) and also as said by Ringlets it costs more.
Lisey if you need help I am italian

[lisey_baby]

Thanks for all the help everyone. I've read what it is and think I understand it, but it seems to be something that I can't accept if I'm not a member of courier services if I'm understanding Izrabeth correctly? I'm sure it works within Italy but seems to be a pain for overseas. So I may have to repeat that I can only take a bank transfer or PayPal payment.

Again thank you everyone!! Your help is really appreciated Izrabeth, I may PM you if I need any help, thank you for the kind offer

[Izrabeth]

Yes, I suggest you just to repeat Bank transfer or paypal and be careful as many italian buyers are.....eeeeek, if they go on with the purchase be clear that the delivery will be not in 2 days, I saw people give negative feedbacks for long time of waiting which is not seller fault but italian post fault!
For the post COD you must be in italy, for the COD with couriers you should have an account with the courier you are using for what I know, I do it for work and we are customer of UPS.

Feel free to pm me whenever you need ^_^

[ponylady]

Thanks Izrabeth and Ringlets!

Hope you can get everything sorted with your buyer lisey. 

[lisey_baby]

Yes, I suggest you just to repeat Bank transfer or paypal and be careful as many italian buyers are.....eeeeek, if they go on with the purchase be clear that the delivery will be not in 2 days, I saw people give negative feedbacks for long time of waiting which is not seller fault but italian post fault!
For the post COD you must be in italy, for the COD with couriers you should have an account with the courier you are using for what I know, I do it for work and we are customer of UPS.

Feel free to pm me whenever you need ^_^

Thank you Izrabeth, I will tell them again about Bank Transfer and PayPal. Luckily I haven't had any issues with Italy *touch wood* and this is the first time in the year I've been running MLC that I've heard of such postal methods, that's why I was so thrown. Luckily as it's through my website and not on eBay so they can't leave me negative feedback, other than through forums etc

[Ringlets]

Thanks for offering your help Izrabeth