In 2024 the volume of online purchases is obviously very high, consequently deliveries by courier have really grown dramatically. It is therefore essential for couriers to adapt to these shipping volumes and I must say that, more or less, they respect the delivery times. Let's move on from the service par excellence, AMAZON PRIME (which out of 100 shipments does not make one mistake) and we end up at the bottom of the ladder, ITALIAN POST.
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You may be thinking that you had problems with the XXXXXXX courier just last week and therefore they are more or less all the same, all with more or less marked disruptions. But I can assure you that this article is written by a person who has almost twenty years of experience in online purchases, who receives very many parcels and who has therefore developed an excellent knowledge of the problem, and the problem of Poste Italiane is enormous.
Systematically when I have to receive a package from the Italian post office it is late, there is not once that it is delivered within the right timing of the paid service, because if I pay for a delivery within 4 days, if you deliver to the fifth he made me pay for a service that you haven't paid and therefore you should partially reimburse me, which obviously never happens.
It gets embarrassing when the package we're waiting for arrives from China, and now I bring you the latest example and my guess as to why these things happen.
My latest shipment from Hong Kong
I buy a product from China and the Chinese shipping company gives us a choice on what type of shipping to use. There are usually 3 types of shipping: fast, priority and standard. Among these 3 types, as can be easily deduced from the name, the arrival time of the package changes. Today I will tell you about priority shipping, one that often involves the Italian post office. How does it work? Therefore, from China the courier in charge of the shipment collects the package from the shop and takes it to Italy, then entrusting it to an Italian courier (often Italian Post Office/SDA) for what they call the "last mile" or collection from the airport to final delivery. Usually this journey, China-Italy, takes about 4 working days (sometimes 3, sometimes 5). After customs clearance which takes another day, sometimes 2, the package ends up in the hands of the Italian courier who, based on the contract with the sender, should maintain a delivery deadline. Well, when the courier is the Italian Post Office we can track the package via the post office website or SDA and from here we understand what type of shipment it is and we realise, if we obviously have minimal expertise in the sector, that the deadlines are systematically disregarded. Here for example is my latest shipment from China:
- Package delivered to the Chinese courier (yunexpress) on July 20th
- Package arrived in Italy and cleared customs on July 24th (2 working days!!). Note the precision of the Tracking, each step is reported
- Another 2 days to deliver it to the Italian courier, Poste Italiane
And here the problems begin...
- 3 days to take charge
- another day to get it through undefined post offices
- deceased tracking
Among other things, if I go to the Poste Italiane website and track it from there I find this detailed tracking:
If I try with the BOT this is the result
As you can easily understand, the type of shipping is Chrono Economy which the contract provides for delivery within 4 working days (https://business.poste.it/professionisti-imprese/prodotti/crono-economy-spedizioni-ecommerce-grandi-volumi.html)
International shipping assistance
Unfortunately, the Italian Post Office's assistance service is also absolutely inadequate. By calling the number 800.160 and asking for information regarding this shipment of mine, the tracking of which has been stopped for days now, the annoyed operator replied that it is impossible to expect to receive a package from China in 4 days, after which he hung up on me in the face. So very rude as well as incompetent because she absolutely didn't understand the problem.
At this point it is reasonable to suspect that if the package comes from China, it can be delivered calmly since those waiting for it can wait even longer than expected given the distance between the countries and will never complain about a delay of a few days. I suppose that in many cases, almost all, the recipients do not know in detail the dynamics of these services and consequently how could they actually complain? Among other things, any official complaint (with possible refund request) should be made by the sender who in this case is on the other side of the world... whoever has ears to hear should hear.
Conclusions
I hope that this article and its possible sharing will open the eyes of the management bodies, because Poste Italiane remains a 65% state-owned company and it would be logical to make it work well.
In reality, this article would not be needed, it would be enough to go on trust pilot to understand that things are really bad.
Did the package finally arrive?
I'm in the same situation and I'm starting to have some anxiety (parcel delivered yesterday, failed delivery and disappeared from the radar)
Unfortunately, nothing to do. Completely disappeared in Milan. I tried to open other complaints but they trash them without even reading them. Scandalous to say the least.
Hi, same situation. Have there been any updates? A thousand thanks
HI! Nothing to do, the tracking has been updated but always with a generic "North hub in transit". Incredible