We keep being asked

[deborahandricky]

Hi
And sorry to be blatant, but we are being asked if we run a small parcel service from the UK to italy, its not something that we do for forum members, as all our clients are UK based business types.
However, it may be something that we could start.
But before we do, it might be worth knowing just how much interest there really is......your feed back would be very helpful...........Thanks All

[Charles Phillips]

I ask myself can you do it better than Mail Boxes Etc? If you can, go for it.

[deborahandricky]

Originally Posted by Charles Phillips

I ask myself can you do it better than Mail Boxes Etc? If you can, go for it.

Well, we would offer a door to door service...I think with mailbox you have to take it to them ?

[Charles Phillips]

You are right. That (in my view) is the beauty of MBE. You take the stuff to your local depot (and they have a fantastic penetration in my central Italian experience), and the deliveree picks up from their local depot. Saves all the hassle of a minimum wage van driver failing to find the house up the long white road, (followed by the joke of TNT demanding demurrage because their monkey failed to find you), plus they have DHL, UPS, FedEx, the lot, competing for MBE's business.
I promise I don't work for them - I'm just peed off because I didn't clock this opportunity for serving domestic customers and also the tiny Italian firms who really do not want to enter into a 'contract' with any of the biggies.

[anne2]

May be too much hassle, but what about offering something just for Nov/Dec when there is a higher volume due to Christmas?? The only time we really have a need for such a service is to send Christmas pressies back to the UK - the Italian PO charges about E30 for a small shoe box size parcel and whilst sending padded envelopes is much cheaper it is a pain limiting presents to something that wil fit inside. To give you an idea of quantitiy we send about 12 parcels back.

PS - sorry just reread your post, you were asking UK to Itlay not vice versa!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[Biagio]

I would be interested. The problem for me has been that I have some items that I would like to send to Italy that are slightly too big for a parcel and too small/expensive to add on a carrier van, plus the concerns over will it get there on time or at all. For example, a Chair, a rug, a small/medium chest with books or blankets, the odd small piece of furniture etc. I've had quite a few things that I already have in UK that I don't need but are ideal for our house in Italy and I have had to buy some of the same things that are often much more expensive there. So I would have though there must be a market for what you are thinking about doing.

[anxanum]

Yes I would be interested , for the same sort of things as mentioned by Biagio , and maybe a few things before Xmas. Would you have a Uk address that things could be sent to to then be picked up by yourselves before you brought them to Italy ?