50% of sales to Europe getting lost, or turning up after refund. Should I use tracked post?

[diamondcz]

I've looked at certain countries Austria, Italy and France and out of the few sales I've had about 50% item not received cases and I've had to refund most or all of them.   I'm not exagerating, I think they are getting delayed rather than lost because a few customers have contacted me and asked how to pay after their goods turned up over a month later.  Germany is the only country where the loss rate is not so bad, but still a lot worse than uk.  

I'm thinking of using only tracked post Internationally, but is this going to be any quicker?  If tracked post gets delayed too, then the same will happen and I'll have to refund a lot more.  Has anyone had the same and switched to tracked and found it faster, or does anyone use tracked post to Europe and find it gets delivered on time?

[game_raid]

Tracked would give your buyers reassurance that their item on the way and an expected delivery date which will decrease the amount of INR claims.

The issue when shipping abroad some countries carriers are the best.

We use GSP ourselves so couldn't really give advice what would be better for you, have you tried GSP at all?

Just to add we have only ever sent tracked to Germany when we have done it ourselves and have never had an issue with delays or INR cases.

[diamondcz]

I would love to use gsp and it would probably solve a lot of problems, but my items are gemstones which are not allowed.

[game_raid]

There is no harm in using a tracked service to see how it goes on your best selling items for a few orders that are going into Europe, If was losing such a high amount I would definitely be looking at alternatives.

It's all trial and error to find out works.

[moonspender]

We find most of Europe find but Italy every year from oct / nov to now is bad to the point we might block it next year ... not sure if tracking would solve that as the issues appear to be in customs with them trying to collect VAT even though the customer has paid it through ebay

[padanpcparts]

Honestly if your posting to Europe without tracked post your mental. If your refunding anything over 10% then it has to be worth it. You can claim for lost items, answer questions that international customers ask and it just makes your job that much easier.