Shipping to Italy?

[gazzy90]

Has anyone shipped to Italy recently?

I may be shipping a greek pony there, but I've heard problems sometimes occur. Some ebay sellers even exclude Italy from the list of countries they ship to.
My buyer told me that if I ship the pony registered/signed for, it should arrive ok. But I'd like to know if any of you have had any good or bad experience with that.

[ponylady]

I know I personally blocked Italy a few months back. I had a pretty good record shipping to there for years and last summer was a disaster. I had to many missing packages. So being out money and my items, it was just not worth it.

[gazzy90]

I know I personally blocked Italy a few months back. I had a pretty good record shipping to there for years and last summer was a disaster. I had to many missing packages. So being out money and my items, it was just not worth it.

Woops  Were they registered packages though? Or just plain ones?

[SoSilver]

The problem you may have shipping to Italy is just fron untracked shippings from the States.
Shipping within Europe does not have any problem, but i recommend shipping with tracking number.
In 20 years of collecting i just had 2 shipping lost in the mail.

Advise your seller that shipping from Greece may take more than usual, especially during Christmas time.

[Ringlets]

I've sold ponies and dolls etc to Italy with no problems, including shipping collector dolls there recently with no problems    . People in Europe and the UK have much less issues shipping items to Italy than if you have to fill out a customs form such as US sellers .  I would advise though that you send anything - especially anything valuable - with tracking or delivery confirmation though - both if possible . That way both you and your buyer are protected 

[hathorcat]

I agree when shipping within the EU you dont tend to encounter the same level of issues - I always ship to Italy with a slight worry but *touch wood* to date have not encountered the issues a lot of non EU shippers have had. Tracking is certainly the key however as it protects you at all times; I am sure buyers in certain countries are used to sellers insisting on certain back ups and additional shipping prices nowadays.

[Navi]

The last package I shipped to Italy I sent via Priority mail registered, with tracking and delivery confirmation. After arriving in Italy, the package was never scanned again, or delivered to the buyer. Since it was never marked as delivered, I lost out on the package and the payment was refunded to the buyer.

After that I blocked Italy. It's not worth the headache to me. I wish it weren't that way though :\

[icecreamgirl]

I have shipped ebay items to Italy a few times from the UK and never had a problem until recently when a buyer contacted me to say the item never arrived! It's still ongoing, luckily it wasn't an expensive or uncommon pony. Definitely send with tracking and insurance for a Greek!

[Sarah-Bee]

I always send things to Italy using 'Signed For' delivery (UK version of registered). I've had two parcels come back to me in the last few months as undeliverable even though the addresses were exact and the buyers confirmed no delivery attempt had been made. I re-sent them and they arrived fine. The problem is that Royal Mail doesn't pay out if a foreign postal service fails to deliver so I had to pay the postage twice to get the parcels there as it wasn't fair to ask my buyers to do so. Overall I have more successes than failures with Italy but it will never be something I stop monitoring for whether it is cost effective to send there or not.

[gazzy90]

Thank you for all the advice guys! 
Registered it is then! And fingers crossed!