Should I ask for a refund?

[Zarabeth]

I won two autions on Uxcell shop on E-bay and payed immediately. One of them was for a 2GB 2nd Generation Metal Pod MP3 MP4 Player i-Platinum (the other one was a laser pen... ok). They say they shipped the items on 2007-02-14 15:17:28, but I checked and my items have been sent on the 20th of February, and still my items haven't arrived. :cry:
I've sent an online inquiry and they said they double checked the shipment, I've sent an email yesterday complaining and they wrote me back it sometimes takes more than 1 and 1/2 months before an item reaches Italy from Hong-Kong... well: it's not true! I've been buying from HK many times before... it usually took 2 weeks, maximum 3 to reach Italy.
I've been paying around 25 $ for the "priority mail" shipment for my MP4 Player and still there's no trace of it in Italy (I checked for the order on the Italian Mail website).
Should I ask for a refund? I'm really disappointed. :cry: Never happend to me before.

[caipirina]

Wow .. someone else located in Italy here on this board !!!

let me just say ..I ordered from Uxcell .. they shipped 2/25 and it arrived before the 7-14 day window closed .. now .. i also payed 2.5 EU extra for registered mail ...

not to sound bad .. but my experience so far? Italian mail is bad bad bad ... i have lived in 3rd world countries and had discussions with postal and customs people .. but never have i lost shippments like I have here in Italy ...

I really would direct your questions to postitalienne ... maybe they can help .. amazing how much stuff they lose ..

[michiganjfrog]

Originally Posted by caipirina";p=&quot

Wow .. someone else located in Italy here on this board !!!

let me just say ..I ordered from Uxcell .. they shipped 2/25 and it arrived before the 7-14 day window closed .. now .. i also payed 2.5 EU extra for registered mail ...

not to sound bad .. but my experience so far? Italian mail is bad bad bad ... i have lived in 3rd world countries and had discussions with postal and customs people .. but never have i lost shippments like I have here in Italy ...

I really would direct your questions to postitalienne ... maybe they can help .. amazing how much stuff they lose ..

I noticed a lot of sellers, especially Chinese sellers, will not ship to Italy, I presume for this reason. I'm surprised UXCell even does.

[Zarabeth]

Originally Posted by caipirina";p=&quot

not to sound bad .. but my experience so far? Italian mail is bad bad bad ... i have lived in 3rd world countries and had discussions with postal and customs people .. but never have i lost shippments like I have here in Italy ...

I really must disagree: as an E-bay buyer AND seller I've never had any problem regarding shipped items. And I'm on E-Bay since 2003.

Originally Posted by caipirina";p=&quot

I really would direct your questions to postitalienne ... maybe they can help .. amazing how much stuff they lose ..

Poste italiane never received my items... so it must be lost before reaching Italy.

[Zarabeth]

Originally Posted by michiganjfrog";p=&quot

I noticed a lot of sellers, especially Chinese sellers, will not ship to Italy, I presume for this reason. I'm surprised UXCell even does.

Ok, don't want to sound rude, but the reason Caipirina gave is simply not true: I've bought tens of items from all over the world, even gold piercings, hard drives and rare collectables and I've also sent lots of them all over the world, and never had any problem before. Also the tracking service states my item has not reached Italy.
BTW I payed for two items, priority mail, Uxcell does ship to Italy... what am I supposed to do? :evil:

[caipirina]

hmm .. strange ... i had 3 parcels lost in 1.5 years ... all of them from Germany ... .. glad you have good experiences using ebay here .. my Italian sucks .. so I have not even tried that

[caipirina]

I can only speak from my personal experience .. and you seem to have better experience ... I checked the tracking closely while I was waiting .. and all I have ever got was 'left Hongkong' ... on the other hand .. i had paid the 2.50 EU extra for registered mail .. maybe that did the trick ..

By the way .. i heard from a German friend that he got an email back from uxcell .. that they would not even try to send to Germany .. because of customs problems ...

zarabeth .. just curious .. where in Italy are you? i am in Torino

[caipirina]

but actually coming back to your initial question .. email them .. tell them you know someone whose item was shipped 2/25 and has successfully reached Italy .. you should have your stuff by now ... differences might be that you got it via ebay (maybe you are protected via paypal?) and maybe you did not select insured / registered mail ...

25$ for shipping ?? wow .. it is only 4 EU when you get it from their website ... hope you got a great deal via ebay ... ciao

[Zarabeth]

Originally Posted by caipirina";p=&quot

but actually coming back to your initial question .. email them .. tell them you know someone whose item was shipped 2/25 and has successfully reached Italy .. you should have your stuff by now ... differences might be that you got it via ebay (maybe you are protected via paypal?) and maybe you did not select insured / registered mail ...

Yes... I payed via PayPal and I hope I'll be able to have a refund from them, at least. The question is: how long does the Paypal refund policy work? I've never had the necessity to use it.

And as an "old" ebayer I've selected the registered mail, I assure you. :cry:

Originally Posted by caipirina";p=&quot

25$ for shipping ?? wow .. it is only 4 EU when you get it from their website ... hope you got a great deal via ebay ... ciao

Yes, that's their policy on the Ebay store: low prices for items but VERY high prices for shipping (I payed more using E-bay than using their online store... that I discovered later on). What sucks most is that I have a 100% positive rating on E-bay, now, and I guess they'll spoil my rating if I ask for a refund. :cry:

Thanks for your help... I'll write them I know someone who has ordered an MP4 player many days after mine and has already received it. And we live very close to each other: I live in Piedmont (Alessandria) aswell.

Better if I don't write them right now... I'm rather... err... upset. :evil:

[caipirina]

Ha .. Alessandria .. I pass by there from time to time ...like when going to Cinque Terre ... for registered mail .. hmm .. there must be some way .. to at least hold the post company (hongkong post) accountable ... I mean .. there is a reason they have registered mail !!!! At least you know uxcell made it to Italy in my case ...