Anyone posted a combo valve amp to Italy or EU in general?

JonHosker

Concerned I pick a good courier... 
May decide it's just too risky.
Advice wanted  Thanks 
Jon

JGC

I've been looking into sending a package to italy.....seems to be one of the worst EU countries to ship to as their systems are so poor and there's a lot of bad experiences kicking around. The only thing I found recommended was to use a well established courier such as UPS or DHL and make sure the insurance covers the value, having said that even Ebay have refused to ship my item to Italy using their Global Shipping Programme as it is "used" and they get a lot of claims on used equipment...and how do you prove something was functional when it left you...so a bit of a minefield. Your choice, I wouldn't risk it.

JonHosker

Yep...thanks...i havd decided its too risky. 

TheMarlin

I did. Lying b@stard told ebay it artived with damaged transformers etc. Provided zero proof, was complete bull. They refunded him, i never got the amp back.
Don’t do it unless you know and trust the recipient. 
If you ‘must’, get it crated, and professionally packed. 

lukedlb

Whoah, don’t go pointing fingers at Italy for eBay and PayPal scammer, when everywhere is guilty. Moreover the Italian postal system has improved drastically as competitors take over. Any delivery is risky so use ppg or a bank transfer and let the buyer face the risk. Why you would do otherwise surprises me. 
I have bought many things from this forum and they have all arrived intact however much I worry; the same goes for items bought here in Italy. 
And ive used every mode of delivery from the cheapest to ups. 

Wazmeister

I have bought and sold much to Italy, including Luke above.

Never had a problem.

breadfan

.

TheMarlin

lukedlb said:

Whoah, don’t go pointing fingers at Italy for eBay and PayPal scammer, when everywhere is guilty. Moreover the Italian postal system has improved drastically as competitors take over. Any delivery is risky so use ppg or a bank transfer and let the buyer face the risk. Why you would do otherwise surprises me. 
I have bought many things from this forum and they have all arrived intact however much I worry; the same goes for items bought here in Italy. 
And ive used every mode of delivery from the cheapest to ups. 

I’m not pointing anything at italy. This is just my experience. I love Italy, my wife is Italian!

sumac

I bought valve head (blackstar artisan 100) here on the forum from a guy in UK and had in shipped to me to czech republic. We used the cheapest courier we found, I believe it was less than 30GBP. Amp came in few days with zero problems.. And its a heavy beast! Wouldnt be afraid of doing it again..

edenfield99

Jon, if you want to pay for me to drive it over, drop it off, spend two weeks enjoying the food, wine and culture of my favourite country all at your expense I will make sure it gets there ok. 

andyman

sumac said:

I bought valve head (blackstar artisan 100) here on the forum from a guy in UK and had in shipped to me to czech republic. We used the cheapest courier we found, I believe it was less than 30GBP. Amp came in few days with zero problems.. And its a heavy beast! Wouldnt be afraid of doing it again..

Italy's postal service is an entity unto itself, unfortunately. Source: used to live there.

They kept my guitar hostage once and charged me a €20 "delivery fee".

lukedlb

TheMarlin said:

lukedlb said:

Whoah, don’t go pointing fingers at Italy for eBay and PayPal scammer, when everywhere is guilty. Moreover the Italian postal system has improved drastically as competitors take over. Any delivery is risky so use ppg or a bank transfer and let the buyer face the risk. Why you would do otherwise surprises me. 
I have bought many things from this forum and they have all arrived intact however much I worry; the same goes for items bought here in Italy. 
And ive used every mode of delivery from the cheapest to ups. 

I’m not pointing anything at italy. This is just my experience. I love Italy, my wife is Italian!

Sorry, I’m a little over sensitive to any imagined criticism of Italy post-brexit. 
I’m sure we have equal measure of fools over here too andyman said:

sumac said:

I bought valve head (blackstar artisan 100) here on the forum from a guy in UK and had in shipped to me to czech republic. We used the cheapest courier we found, I believe it was less than 30GBP. Amp came in few days with zero problems.. And its a heavy beast! Wouldnt be afraid of doing it again..

Italy's postal service is an entity unto itself, unfortunately. Source: used to live there.

They kept my guitar hostage once and charged me a €20 "delivery fee".

Delivery has improved in the last five years. Anything coming from outside the eu will expect customs charge. Could it have been that?

Ossyrocks

I sent a Marshall PA20 to Italy last year. I sent it 48 hour delivery with UPS. Just pack it for Armageddon and they are usually fine.

In the end, UPS failed to deliver on time, it was the day after the guarantee, so they refunded me the entire postage cost which was an unexpected bonus.

Rob 

JMP220478

have shipped to forum members in EU  - Belgium  - Blackstar Artisan  ;  Portugal - JP6   -  bomb proof packaging ; insurance / shipping method agreed with buyer ( this is key as they know local courier / post service behaviours ) - bank transfer n lots of pictures n established trust ..
Ebay is great when you have a genuine problem as a purchaser based on my experience of items that dont resemble the description  - but there are tweets who abuse the process and leave sellers tweeted ! 

mr-mac

Posted a reasonably expensive set of hi-fi speakers to Italy first.  Had a good chat to lad before i let him bid.

if you do go ahead make sure there is a contact number for recipient on courier/address labels as some Italian couriers won't even attempt to deliver without.

andyman

sumac said:

I bought valve head (blackstar artisan 100) here on the forum from a guy in UK and had in shipped to me to czech republic. We used the cheapest courier we found, I believe it was less than 30GBP. Amp came in few days with zero problems.. And its a heavy beast! Wouldnt be afraid of doing it again..

Italy's postal service is an entity unto itself, unfortunately. Source: used to live there.

They kept my guitar hostage once and charged me a €20 "delivery fee".

Delivery has improved in the last five years. Anything coming from outside the eu will expect customs charge. Could it have been that?

Fair enough. I was there up 'til two years ago. The guitar was from the US, but the info + fee were unnecessary, given everything was already on the shipping document.
I don't want to belabour the point or anything, though, just answering your query. I hope things have indeed gotten better.

lukedlb

andyman said:

sumac said:

I bought valve head (blackstar artisan 100) here on the forum from a guy in UK and had in shipped to me to czech republic. We used the cheapest courier we found, I believe it was less than 30GBP. Amp came in few days with zero problems.. And its a heavy beast! Wouldnt be afraid of doing it again..

Italy's postal service is an entity unto itself, unfortunately. Source: used to live there.

They kept my guitar hostage once and charged me a €20 "delivery fee".

Delivery has improved in the last five years. Anything coming from outside the eu will expect customs charge. Could it have been that?

Fair enough. I was there up 'til two years ago. The guitar was from the US, but the info + fee were unnecessary, given everything was already on the shipping document.
I don't want to belabour the point or anything, though, just answering your query. I hope things have indeed gotten better.

Customs is definitely a gamble. I ordered a 10 dollar sleeve of metal that goes under a wah pedal to fix it to a pedalboard. It got stuck at customs and was sent back due to unpaid tax. No notice, no nothing until i asked the company to check up on it. no refund for shipping. Other cases, I paid the duty when it arrived here. Some cases, there wasn't any duty at all.

molokaio

OP might want to skip to my next pargraph
I'm from Italy too, and I can say I'm very sorry for the bad naming we got, especially  in the early days of ebay.
Most of it is well deserved, years ago the national post service was a damn nightmare, but as said above, with competition\computerization it has greatly improved.
Also scammers that take advantage of little quirks have no nation.
The only gear scam I got into was from canada, lol... unbelievable, go figure.
Andyman, For Goods coming from outside the euro zone, Customs kinda take their time(1 week usually) and there is an added 25% for service and taxes, that's true. This happens in all eu countries.
Probably in Uk you're not used to this thanks to special international agreements with US and Japan, I have no idea.

Anyway, to respond the OP, I'd never ship anything that fragile with regular post services, was I shipping to america, australia, japan,  you name it. 
As said above go with UPS, DHL or something. 
Fully trackable, private system, they are responsible if anything goes wrong.
Add his mobile number and email as said by mr-mac.

Since Italy is kinda narrow and long it's also important to know where you're shipping to, the souther you go the longer it might take.
In northern italy, UPS and DHL are very fast since the customs are up north.
I don't know if these same couriers are as fast elsewhere, probably it might take an extra day very down south and Islands.
Obviously you're shipping overseas, so bulletproof your package, remove valves and anything that can get broken and wrap it in bubbles.

I'm sorry I have no exeprience with big stuff from UK, but I usually use UPS\dhl for guitars and stuff from other states, never had problem.

I know you decided not to ship, and if you have the possbility to wait and sell in your state I agree. I tend to sell bigger stuff locally as well. It's less of an headache, no doubts and paranoias.

JonHosker

No offence meant to Italians or Italy for that matter; just having never posted an amp overseas, thought I'd ask for people's advice etc.
My decision is it is too risky for me and my amp ... all the best to posters of items overseas.
OP is out.
Thanks 

molokaio

JonHosker said:

No offence meant to Italians or Italy for that matter; just having never posted an amp overseas, thought I'd ask for people's advice etc.
My decision is it is too risky for me and my amp ... all the best to posters of items overseas.
OP is out.
Thanks 

Jon, no offense taken, our weak English might have been misunderstood.
Just exchanging ideas. For anyone interested in the future, I'd go UPS or DHL.

Imho you made the best choice, if unsure about something it's better no to risk.-.

andyman

molokaio said:

Andyman, For Goods coming from outside the euro zone, Customs kinda take their time(1 week usually) and there is an added 25% for service and taxes, that's true. This happens in all eu countries.
Probably in Uk you're not used to this thanks to special international agreements with US and Japan, I have no idea.

No, there was no VAT or customs due: they just wanted info that was on the delivery document redeclared, with my signature, and then wouldn't deliver it until I paid them €20 for them to redeliver it... This isn't relevant to the OP, though, so...