Knock knock - who's there?

Knock knock, who's there?

It's the postman, that's who and he has a nice, big parcel for you!

Internet shopping is not very popular in Italy and I am beginning to understand why. When living in and out of Australia I often bought things online, on Australian websites - ebay.com.au is one of the main sites I've used multiple times. I've purchased many gifts for my nephew and never had any problems. While living in and out of London I regularly buy things from British sites. Ebay.co.uk has supplied me with many of my bomboniere needs, I have bought loads of English books and appliances from amazon.co.uk, and this is only to mention a few of the more well known sites. I love Internet shopping as I can get what I want without having to bother going out and about searching the shops for it.

I have bought only once from the ebay italian website, mainly because the postage costs less if I buy products being shipped from the UK...yes, another one of those inexplicable things about Italy. The first time I bought something from the Italian ebay site was when I saw a big, electronic, childrens 3 wheeler motorbike which was going to be for the babies first Christmas (which will be December 2011...yes, I like to buy things in advance.) It was so cute and the price was great, I was the highest bidder after watching all the time. So I bought the motorbike and of course it never came. The vendor which had 99% rating before I bought, had dropped down to 60% after the purchase. All the feedback was saying the company was a fraud and to get your money back from paypal ASAP since this fraudster would obviously not even respond to emails or phone calls. I was disappointed as I knew deep down that this bargain was too good to be true.

I didn't give loose faith however in internet shopping and wanted to give Italian sites another try (yes, stupid me.) I needed to buy a plastic change mat for baby, one of the larger ones you can attach to the change table. I also needed to buy some maternity pads which for some reason cannot be bought at supermarkets here in Italy (well in Calabria anyway) but only from mother-care shops and select chemists. I searched the internet and decided to buy from the Prenatal site. I chose Prenatal since they had the best prices, but they are also a massive, international company.

My pack arrived quickly, the items had been on special and the postage was very cheap which came as a shock. The courier delivered it to the door and I was so excited to finally be getting ready for the babies arrival. I opened the box and the change mat was perfect. I reached in the giant box to pull out the maternity pads and they were open. Not a rip as though it had caught on something, but the packet was open. There was meant to be 18 pads in the pack and I only counted 8 at the top. Maybe there were 10 on the bottom row? I opened the packet fully and counted out 17 pads. Someone had sent me an open packet of maternity pads with one pad missing!





Bel fidanzato helped me write a complaint telling Prenatal that this unacceptable not to mention unhygienic as I have to wear these pads! The pads are not individually wrapped - so who knows what has gotten inside them, dust, dirt....whatever.... But more so, who on earth would steal a maternity pad? Who would put an open packet into a box and send it to someone? I am still waiting for a reply so I'll let you know the outcome...but really - who steals one maternity pad? Really...who?