So, I sent a package via Airmail to someone in Italy. According to Canada Post, there were 13 delivery attempts made ("Item out for delivery"), and then they shipped it back to me. I'm not quite sure what happened. The only stamp I can find on it says:



"Vrij van belasting Inkl. Schiphol (28)"



Babelfish couldn't translate it, so I'm hoping one of our European Acaeum folks can shed some light on that. I shipped it to the exact address the person provided too, and the guy's got over 1000 feedback, only 1 negative in the last 12 months. A very strange situation indeed, and one I expect I'll be taking an undeserved negative for

GraysonAC wrote:


"Vrij van belasting Inkl. Schiphol (28)"

Maybe they didnt deliver it because they think that you are "to cool", thus the 2

GraysonAC wrote:Hrm, interesting. So perhaps he didn't want to pay the tax? It was only $37 US value though, and cost $56 to ship, so that wouldn't make much sense at all

I wonder why a package directed to Italy showed up in Holland. I strongly suspect Post Office mishandling... I can assure everybody that packages to Italy are not delivered via Netherlands (albeit I receive magazines amd promo items from US and UK companies via Deutsche Post  8O )

"Vrij van belasting Inkl. Schiphol (28)"

This means "exempt from taxes, declaration office Schiphol"



Which means your buyer didn't need to pay any import taxes....if he would have received the package in the first place  :wink:

fluffmaister wrote:

"Vrij van belasting Inkl. Schiphol (28)"

This means "exempt from taxes, declaration office Schiphol"



Which means your buyer didn't need to pay any import taxes....if he would have received the package in the first place

Well now, that's extremely interesting. Here's the full tracking info from Canada Post:



2005/09/08          06:54                     Item being processed for departure to destination country                        

2005/09/08         06:54                 International item has been posted in origin country                   

2005/09/05         06:00                 Item out for delivery                   

2005/09/03         06:00                 Item out for delivery                   

2005/09/02         06:01                 Item out for delivery                   

2005/09/01         06:00                 Item out for delivery                   

2005/08/31         06:00                 Item out for delivery                   

2005/08/30         06:00                 Item out for delivery                   

2005/08/29         06:00                 Item out for delivery                   

2005/08/27         06:01                 Item out for delivery                   

2005/08/26         06:01                 Item out for delivery                   

2005/08/25         06:00                 Item out for delivery                   

2005/08/24         06:01                 Item out for delivery                   

2005/08/23         06:01                 Item out for delivery                   

2005/08/22         19:00                 Item out for delivery                   

2005/08/19         10:51                 International item has arrived in the destination country                   

2005/08/17         08:40                 International item has left the origin country                   

2005/08/17         08:39                 International shipment dispatched from Canada                   

2005/08/16         16:45         RICHMOND, BC         Item accepted and entered into sortation plant                   

2005/08/16         12:11         BURNABY, BC         Item accepted at the Post office

Mars wrote:You might want to check with Canada post and see if they can tell you what they believe the country of destination was? Maybe they tried to deliver it to some place in the Netherlands and it never got to Italy.

Yep, that sounds like Canada Post alright.  "Destination country" means "anywhere but here".  They shipped your package to the wrong country, but tried 13 times to deliver it.  You should be grateful.



You don't get that kind of tenacity from most postal services out there.  The more timid ones will actually re-check the address before trying to deliver it again.     So cut them some slack, they got the right continent!  Do you know how big this planet is?