Postal Service, regarding parcels.

From within the EU  we have had no problems with parcels sent via the post office of the country involved. Never had to open a parcel received from anywere and Malta post will deliver to your home first, if you are out they will put a slip through the letter box explaining where and when you can collect it.
If you order stuff from outside the EU you may have to pay tyax on it and they may open the parcel but this is done before you get it and you are advised before hand, they may also require you to collect it.
We also use Malta post send on service and have found it OK.
I have had one parcel delivered by a private firm (ups) it was very very expensive item and should have been signed for however the guy came in a little white unmarked van  and just handed it to me without any check on who I was or having to sign for it!

Terry

ditto terry - i had a parcel sent to me from china and it had to be opened up and examined by customs for value - on which i then had to opay 18% vat and 6 euro admin charges. As it was a free of charge sample for beta testing I wasnt to bothered as it served its purposes for me too.

we also had a parcel delivered from the better halfs mother and it was stuff from holland and barrett - it got stopped we had to go to maltapost in qormi and that was opened in front of us.

So, it seems as most things are there, it all depends upon the day and the person. Love it!!

So if start buying from ebay.com I will have problems with the customs office?

In Spain if the parcel was marked as gift and value under 20 dollars there wasn't any problem with parcels from USA, is the same here? or they are much more strict(allways speaking of Maltapost)?

MaltaCommando wrote:

So if start buying from ebay.com I will have problems with the customs office?

In Spain if the parcel was marked as gift and value under 20 dollars there wasn't any problem with parcels from USA, is the same here? or they are much more strict(allways speaking of Maltapost)?

They don't stop and check every parcel, I guess its depends on what country and any intelligence they have about that country.
Also what is put on the declaration form.

Terry

its total parcel value not individual

I have had a parcel via eBay since i've been here, and no problem

well not in the opening up etc sense

I was out when it came and because the carrier used was DHL, I had to go out to Luqa to pick it up, stand in a queue, the they "misplaced" it, so I was there about 45 mins in all - reminding myslef that this is Malta now, not england

I buy stuff over the internet all the time. From by observations
1) as tearnet said if from within EU, the never open the parcels and they deliver first to your door (maybe a second time if sent registered mail - white notice) and if you are not home you can then pick it up the next time from a post office closest to you (always best to confirm as for example in Bugibba I always had to go to st paul's bay even tho there is a PO in Bugibba!). in any case can always give them a call and ask them to transfer it to any other post office location more convenient for you which is free.
2) Buying from US - they have opened my packages from US both with and without me present (!). I usually had to go to the head office in Qormi to pick it up and pay VAT and duty, however they would only charge it on high valued items (like over 50 euro I think). My partner regularly receives parcels form relatives USA and they always open them in front of them however never charge VAT and duty since they are presents and they have gotten used to it by now haha.
3) Got a delivery by DHL from Hong Kong once...delivered straight to my door and was not opened by customs nor did I pay duty/VAT and it was a high value item.

So basically doesn't matter who its sent with from UK. I have never heard of any packages being opened from UK and I've bought maybe a 100 items from there *hmm*
Sendon is good to use when a company doesn't ship to Malta. Also used it and happy with it.

Hope this helps!

Myrkur, can you use Sendon when buying on eBay? have you tried it on eBay before?

This would be great as many sellers in eBay.uk doesn't ship overseas. The only thing is that I don't know if there will some trouble if something goes wrong and you have to claim to the seller.

Yes you can use sendon and ebay, the sendon service gives you a postal address in the UK to use.
I have done it lots of times.

Terry

Hi MaltaCommando

I've never actually used Sendon with Ebay but I am sure you can as tearnet said.

Most probably you would need to change your Primary postage address (from account settings on eBay) to the UK one provided by Sendon cuz if the seller set the auction as ship to UK only, ebay system won't even allow you to buy the item as your address is not UK. That happened to me a few times, i msged the seller and they agreed to sell to me but when I tried to click buy now (it was a buy now sale) it didn't allow me to buy it saying that seller ships to UK only.
I am just not sure if you would need to change your registered address or the primary postage address. I think the latter makes  more sense, if anything try out and then update accordingly

Re if something goes wrong...I mean Maltapost send an email when they receive the package on your UK address...thus I suppose if you don't receive such an email in e.g. 2 weeks then you can open a Paypal dispute saying you didn't receive the item. I mean the important thing is that you pay by Paypal..you can always claim for them. And since Maltapost send you an email - you are always aware where the item is, at least thats how I see it!

Thanks for the replies. I've used a similar system, but of a private company buying goods in Japan and everything worked ok, although it was a bit expensive.

I suppose that eBays autodetects inmediately if you change the primary postage address, I hope there isn't any problem about that.

I wonder what happens if MaltaPost receives it, but MaltaPost lose it, in the way from england to malta, as it seems they send  by normal post only. MaltaPost would reimburse me, or as it is a normal parcel it is at your own risk?

By the way, Sendon accepts PayPal?

With Sendon you pay for the package delivery upon its collection, and they tell you in advance (in that email) how much it will cost. So its cash payment basically, I don't know you can pay online in advance.

It is more expensive than normal mail but if you really want something I guess you have to pay for it heh. Like I think the min fee you can pay is 12 euro

Just try it out with ebay and see what works

You don,t need paypal for sendon as you only pay the delivery in Malta and in cash when they deliver it. A lot of ebay items are free delivery to a UK address so sendon is paid on delivery.
You just change the delivery address in Ebay, thats all.

Terry

To calculate the rates:
http://maltapost.com/Sendon/en/Rate/Calculator

I mean I don't think that its exactly sent through normal Maltapost mail, since you pay more for it I hope they are more careful with it. The terms do state "MaltaPost's liability to the client for any breach of contract or negligence shall be limited to the price of the Items together with any expenses incurred by the client in notifying MaltaPost and returning the Items".
http://maltapost.com/Sendon/en/Home/Terms

Maybe you can give them a call to confirm 2122 4421

I haven't tried Sendon or Maltapost forwarding, but I also use a uk address which forwards my mail to me

For some things it's easier to send to that address and have them forward, eg if postage is high, or the seller doesn't ship to Malta

There a re few things on Amazon that are hugely expensive to ship ( like books!!) , for anything like that I have just added another delivery address to my amazon for the uk mail box and used that.

I've had a few parcels in my first two weeks here as I'm buying new stuff for my place here as well as regular purchases