I hope someone can help us. In June, 2010, our daughter mailed home a parcel from the Milan Post Office. Here it is near the end of January 2011 and we still have not received it. We have tried calling the Milan Post Office but they don't speak English and we don't speak Italian. The forms are all in Italian. It was insured, but we can't figure out how to go about getting the insurance money. Truthfully, my daughter would only like to get the camera memory cards back - everything else can be replaced. She is very distraught and has been losing sleep over this. Can someone help us!?
Posted by
Texan in CA
4408 posts
Tell your daughter to start getting her sleep - this isn't a sprint, it's a marathon, and she's going to need her strength... Read some of these recent posts: http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm?topic=53381 http://www.ricksteves.com/graffiti/helpline/index.cfm?topic=59962 Let us know if you ever see ANY of it... Best of Luck...
Posted by
Marin, CA
527 posts
Our daughter mailed her dad a birhtday present from Milan in 2004. He never got it. She hadn't insured it though. If you want to scan the form our daughter can translate it for you. She also mailed a present to Florence. It came back undeliverable seven months later, even with the correct address, but the shirt had been removed and only the card was in the package.
Posted by
Redlands, Ca, USA
358 posts
I have traveled in europe many times and the only city where my luggage was lost and never found was in Milano. I had a lot of nice clothes in the checked in bag and received only a small portion of the value by Air France. I am sure someone in Milano stole the luggage.
Posted by
Coppell, TX USA
284 posts
Leslee, I feel like I am a bearer of bad news. But there are several things you may not be aware of that might provide some insight and may aid future decisions. The Italian postal service is notorious for several things in general: 1) When a strike occurs, they accumulate the mail and then some workers toss it afterwards to avoid having to do the work they missed.
2) Some workers supplement their income by doing 5 and 10 finger discounts on the content of packages. The Nigerian postal service does have a worst reputation than the Italian postal service. But in Eastern and Western Europe the Italian postal service is the worst. If you need to send a package from Italy, the best way is to pay a local business or family that you trust to do this using their address as the return address while having the package tracked and insured. This will cut down on the chance of it being purloined since the Italian postal workers will notice that they can not hide behind a language barrier. Edwin
Posted by
Texan in CA
4408 posts
But don't abandon all hope! It (wholly or partially) may yet arrive...one of these months... As with many things Italian - patience.