Unca Ben Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 I mailed three packages out on Sept 8. One made it, two have not yet been delivered. This was original art that was sold in my Original Art listings a few weeks ago. All 3 were international deliveries mailed USPS. Two of the packages were mailed USPS Priority Mail Express and one of those was successfully delivered to France on Sept 12. Yay! The other one had a delivery attempt on the 12th, item was held and the addressee notified. It appears the local deliverer, Chronopost (France) cannot find the package for attempted redelivery. An investigation has been filed by both me and the buyer. The third package was mailed USPS Priority Mail International to Italy. It was held in US Customs and then released from US Customs on Sept. 12th. Tracking says "In Transit" and tracking status has not changed since then. I figure by now it should at least show arrival in Italy. I submitted a search request today. Out of the hundreds of transactions over the years, this is the first time there have been any serious problems. Two at the same time, even! Frustrating. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SquareChaos Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 I hope it all turns out right in the end. Personally, I've had headaches sending and receiving a number of international items... dealing with Italy's mail system in particular made me appreciate the USPS a bit more. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carlo M Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 Hi, Italian based collector here. I have been collecting since 1998, and have been based in Italy since 2004. Must have received over 40 pieces from the US since then. No parcel lost or returned to the sender since then (touch wood). In my experience deliveries trhough USPS take a bit longer, because USPS uses the Italian Post Office as Italian counterpart. The Italian Post Office has certin procedures to clear parcels through customs. The buyer needs to fill out a form declaring the value, and must provide evidence of such value (they will also accept an email Exchange). It takes a bit longer but with a bit of patience there should be not problems. Italian posts had some strikes recently. Even domestic deliveries have been delayed. So hopefully the buyer will shortly be contacted by the Italian Posts. In general, I prefer to use FedEx. It is a bit more expensive, but a lot quicker through customs, and customer care is more efficient. But ultimately, the customs clearing procedures are similar. Hope this helps. Hang in there, I am sure everything will work out. Carlo Mich Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
vodou Posted September 25, 2017 Share Posted September 25, 2017 To echo Carlo's comments, I ship to the EU a lot and if it's Germany, France or Italy in particular the hold up is usually that the package is just sitting at local customs. Maybe the end-user got notice, maybe they didn't but you'll rarely see that either way in online tracking. You'll just see that it's in-country, all the while the end-user will say they haven't received it yet. So I always refer them to check their customs and 9/10 times that's what it is and all ends well. 1/10 is something else but (lately at least) it hasn't been buyer fraud of any kind. We in the US do not suffer customs on incoming comic art and probably do not realize how lucky we are in that respect! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
visarspike Posted September 26, 2017 Share Posted September 26, 2017 wow!! hopefully i'm the only one who got his page (the avengers 25 page, it's gorgeous, thanks again) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alberto2933 Posted September 28, 2017 Share Posted September 28, 2017 hi Gents thanks for all your comment, I am the italian recipient of one of the two. (ciao Carlo, sono Alberto di Verona). Unfortunately despite my calls to the Italian custom I had the confirmation the parcel is still in US and not yet landed in my country. So either someone has forgotten to gently push the parcel over the next step line, or someone has a nice Kirby page hanging on his/her wall right now. AG Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unca Ben Posted September 29, 2017 Author Share Posted September 29, 2017 (edited) Yep. So far, neither package has shown up.If anyone sees the following two pages anywhere, on eBay, CAF, any International eBay site or anywhere else, please let me and/or Alberto know. There were actually two pages shipped to Italy in this particular package. USPS Tracking, the postal worker(s) and the claim agent I talked to all said the same thing. They can only go by the same status I can see when I enter the tracking number. The package was "Released from US Customs" on Sept. 13 and the status bar indicates "In Transit" with no further status updates since then. It was supposed to go to Italy. The missing pages are Thor 161 pg 9 and Sub-Mariner 37 pg 6.The contents of the second missing package will be described and shown below the following 2 scans. This package appeared to arrive in France on Sept. 12, there was an "attempted delivery, item was being held and addressee was notified." The addressee was then told by Chrono post that they could not find the package. The last message I received from the addressee said the tracking number on his side informed him that the package should be delivered in the next 24 hrs. When I check tracking on my end, the tracking status still says the same thing I put in quotes and italics in the first sentence. The page is Daredevil 23 pg 19. FOUND! DELIVERED!! Any information or sightings of these three pages would be greatly appreciated. Thank you. Edited September 29, 2017 by Unca Ben Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pemart1966 Posted September 29, 2017 Share Posted September 29, 2017 The third one (Italy) hasn't even been a month yet. I wouldn't start inquiring until after then... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unca Ben Posted September 29, 2017 Author Share Posted September 29, 2017 46 minutes ago, pemart1966 said: The third one (Italy) hasn't even been a month yet. I wouldn't start inquiring until after then... You would be correct about this. I just received a message from the buyer; He got the art! Yay! ...So the DD page is safely in the hands of its new owner. I am hoping for the same result with the other package! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alberto2933 Posted September 29, 2017 Share Posted September 29, 2017 38 minutes ago, Unca Ben said: You would be correct about this. I just received a message from the buyer; He got the art! Yay! ...So the DD page is safely in the hands of its new owner. I am hoping for the same result with the other package! I am really happy for that one.....still hoping for mine Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unca Ben Posted September 29, 2017 Author Share Posted September 29, 2017 2 minutes ago, Alberto2933 said: I am really happy for that one.....still hoping for mine Me too. I am composing a message for you. You should see it soon. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alberto2933 Posted September 29, 2017 Share Posted September 29, 2017 2 hours ago, pemart1966 said: 2 hours ago, pemart1966 said: The third one (Italy) hasn't even been a month yet. I wouldn't start inquiring until after then... The third one (Italy) hasn't even been a month yet. I wouldn't start inquiring until after then... I hope you are right. Have you had any experience for stating this? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pemart1966 Posted September 30, 2017 Share Posted September 30, 2017 (edited) 8 hours ago, Alberto2933 said: I hope you are right. Have you had any experience for stating this? Not to Italy, I live in Canada. BUT, mail delivery from the US to Canada can be very slow depending upon the method used to ship. When you're dealing with 2 or more postal systems (and Customs) bottle necks can occur anywhere for reasons unknown. I have NO idea what the Italian postal system or their Customs is like in terms of its speed or efficiency. Anyone know? Edited September 30, 2017 by pemart1966 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alberto2933 Posted September 30, 2017 Share Posted September 30, 2017 4 hours ago, pemart1966 said: Not to Italy, I live in Canada. BUT, mail delivery from the US to Canada can be very slow depending upon the method used to ship. When you're dealing with 2 or more postal systems (and Customs) bottle necks can occur anywhere for reasons unknown. I have NO idea what the Italian postal system or their Customs is like in terms of its speed or efficiency. Anyone know? I have double checked several time with my local custom and the outcome it is the parcel is still laying somewhere in US soil. Once the package arrives in the other country (Italy as an example) the local post will assign a new tracking code. As of today no new tracking code has been assigned as the package has not entered yet in our local custom department. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ESeffinga Posted September 30, 2017 Share Posted September 30, 2017 (edited) I've had several "stalled" packages in international transit over the years. Most are just customs hangups, or temporarily misplaced, until someone stumbles across them again. The worst was one from last year. Sent a package to a friend in London in September via International Priority ,care of USPS. Very long story short, it took a couple weeks of what looked like normal tracking locations, from the US to Heathrow, to customs, to London. Then the next day it said it was in Leeds, then that it was "Delivered to U.K." Not to customer, or even in London, but delivered to U.K. In all my years of shipping international I had never seen anything quite like this tracking path. And of course my friend in London hadn't received anything yet. So he started pestering the locals, and I started the official missing package track via the USPS stateside. After about a month, I got a message from the USPS saying they hadn't found it yet but would keep looking. After 2 months, I eventually gave up on it ever getting there, and assumed it was lost. And then the day before Christmas last year, I get an email from my friend. It was delivered out of the blue. No explanation. Just delivered. And about a month after that, a new message from USPS apologizing that they had been unsuccessful in locating my parcel, and sent the message with an apology. ...so don't entirely give up... Edited September 30, 2017 by ESeffinga Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pemart1966 Posted September 30, 2017 Share Posted September 30, 2017 So bottom line (IMO) give it at least a month. Then press the "inquiry" button - not the "panic" button...the "inquiry" button Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alberto2933 Posted October 1, 2017 Share Posted October 1, 2017 19 hours ago, pemart1966 said: So bottom line (IMO) give it at least a month. Then press the "inquiry" button - not the "panic" button...the "inquiry" button thanks for the contribution to the thread. We have decided to follow the "waiting approach" for another couple of weeks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pemart1966 Posted October 1, 2017 Share Posted October 1, 2017 Keep us posted and good luck! Unca Ben 1 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Unca Ben Posted October 5, 2017 Author Share Posted October 5, 2017 On 10/1/2017 at 5:56 AM, pemart1966 said: Keep us posted and good luck! Well, hopefully some good news. Got a notification yesterday that "item arrived at facility for shipment". Tracking confirms this. The Tracking no longer shows the parcel going through US customs on Sept 10. That used to be a line item. So it took 24 days to get from US customs to SF International Airport, both of which are located in the same city. Let's see how long it takes to cross an ocean (A side note: in my mail search request submitted on Sept. 25th I checked the box that requested the item be returned to me if the item was found. It appears that request was ignored.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pemart1966 Posted October 5, 2017 Share Posted October 5, 2017 30 minutes ago, Unca Ben said: Well, hopefully some good news. Got a notification yesterday that "item arrived at facility for shipment". Tracking confirms this. The Tracking no longer shows the parcel going through US customs on Sept 10. That used to be a line item. So it took 24 days to get from US customs to SF International Airport, both of which are located in the same city. Let's see how long it takes to cross an ocean (A side note: in my mail search request submitted on Sept. 25th I checked the box that requested the item be returned to me if the item was found. It appears that request was ignored.) Does USPS offer higher priority shipping alternatives than the one that you've used? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
