Shipping a record to Italy. Safe?

TEKWRX · Joined: 29 Nov 2011 Posts: 403 Location: Shitty Florida

I just sold a record on Discogs. The buyer is in Italy. The record was $20, I charged him $15 for shipping. He paid via Paypal pretty quick.

I'm getting nervous now because while I was browsing eBay I noticed a few sellers stating that they will only ship to Italy registered mail, no exceptions. Does Italy have a history of people claiming they didn't get the record? I just checked the buyer on Discogs, and he has no feedback and just registered on the site Jan. 8th.

How much does it cost to ship a record registered to Italy? Is there any other proof I can give Paypal if he opens a claim?

Should I just forget it and refund his payment and cancel the transaction?

EDIT: It wasn't a metal record if it matters. It was a trance record from my old DJing days. Is one scene more shady then another?

Xapas · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:01 am Post subject:

Take a pic of the package at the post office with stamps and ready to go.....

TEKWRX · Joined: 29 Nov 2011 Posts: 403 Location: Shitty Florida

triskelion · Joined: 08 Nov 2008 Posts: 183

Italy has the shittiest postal service in Europa !
I've lost 3-4 packages.
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Kojiri · Posted: Wed Jan 16, 2013 9:47 am Post subject:

I'd feel safer shipping something to South America or Greece than to Italy. From my experience.
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toxicbreed · Joined: 21 Apr 2011 Posts: 341

shipped regular and registered before, never had problems so far. if you ship registered with a tracking number, you'll definitely be on the safer side

iron tyrant · Joined: 17 Jul 2007 Posts: 2785 Location: ITALIA

Sure, we're all thieves over here, didn't you know?
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bitewerks · Joined: 27 Oct 2008 Posts: 708 Location: TX

I have had packages to Italy take longer than usual (to the rest of the EU) but never lost. Italians seem to know their PO is sloooow. Oddly enough, the last few I've sent over there, have made it pretty quickly. Even they were surprised.

darkdescentrecords · Joined: 25 Nov 2009 Posts: 3427

Honestly for all the horror stories I've heard of over the years, I've had zero issues with customers/labels getting their parcels in Italy and I've shipped quite a few over there. Hopefully this continues but I wouldn't believe everything you read.
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UlvhedinGrom · Joined: 28 Apr 2010 Posts: 442 Location: Ukraina

No problems ever. Always fast, contrary to German post. Only Argentina is slower for me...

Mikael · Joined: 26 Jan 2008 Posts: 2373

I guess all this is about luck, I have bad experiences with Italy, some have bad experiences with Germany etc. Overall ordering from Europe is quite safe, but if the person you deal with seems even a bit shady, it's more likely that he's the reason for "lost packages" than a postal service of the country he's living in.

UlvhedinGrom · Joined: 28 Apr 2010 Posts: 442 Location: Ukraina

True.

boca · Guest

It's all about anlighment of stars and planets in the moment when you ship your record. Laughing

...and yeah don't ship it when it's a full moon.

K-mart · Joined: 18 May 2010 Posts: 359

I shipprd to Italy last month First Class,a Discogs sale...no problems,the buyer just left feedback a couple days ago.

DSS · Joined: 02 Oct 2009 Posts: 1966

I've been buying, selling and trading for over 20 years now and I never had any problems with parcels "not arriving" until eBay came along. I honestly think that those who bought from me on eBay and claimed that their parcel never arrived when I shipped it by unregistered mail simply are rip-offs. I've shipped to Italy, Greece, Brazil and even Russia without registration and the parcels always arrived. Some would take a long time to reach their destination but they always arrived.

Bottom line is, if you are selling on eBay (or Discogs - although I don't know how their system works) always ship by registered mail. If someone requests unregistered mail to save on shipping and they claim that "I never had problems receiving parcels so no need to registered" then ask them to send you the payment as a gift.