Shipping Package to US via Correos

Oct 4, 2006 · alomery · 3 replies · 4828 views

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Hello, we are leaving Spain on Friday to go to Italy for about 2 months, and need to ship our summer clothing home, plus all of the gifts we have bought since we have been here. We could bring everything with us, but would then pay a bundle in excess bagggage fees as we are flying from Seville to Italy. We have looked into the various options, and Correos seems to be the cheapest (via international priority, which is by plane and takes about 2 weeks). I am leery of sending via Correos since they don?t seem to have a very good reputation. In addition, the package is only covered by a limited guarantee, which won?t even come close to the value of the package. UPS is much better, but much more expensive.

I would be interested to hear what others have experienced in sending packages to the US from Spain. Have things gotten lost or destroyed, or have you not had any problems? I am not as concerned about how long it takes, since we won?t even return to the US until December, but more about the package being lost or damaged and not being able to recoup for it.

Thanks!

Oct 4, 2006 · Expatriator

I recently sent a couple packages to myself using the same International Priority service with the Correos, also because of expense. I shipped them both at the same time but one box took 2 weeks, the other 4 weeks. Their given time for the service is 4-6 weeks, so that's not bad.

One package was destroyed but all the contents were surprisingly safe! I had a picture frame (glass included) in there wrapped in a sweater and it was even okay. I wrote fragile on the box, but that seems to only provoke them, so don't do that. In the future I'll package things better (wrap the entire thing in packing tape perhaps?).

Oct 4, 2006 · alomery

Thanks for the response. Sorry for my confusion here, but did you use the service using the plane (international priority), or the boat (international economy)? I ask because you said they estimated 4 to 6 weeks, and we were told 2 weeks for the plane. Maybe it depends on where you are mailing to in the US? We are shipping to NY State. The boat estimate is 4 to 8 weeks, which doesn?t really matter to us. Plus, you can insure for full value. If you use the plane, you cannot insure for full value, only what the ?garantia? is, which wouldn?t come close to paying us back in full for the contents. I just like the idea of it getting there quicker, so I know everything is OK.