The price worth comparing is the landed one — and every stage of your order has an owner

Furniture from Italy goes wrong for American buyers in two predictable ways: a price that grows on its way across the ocean, and a problem that nobody owns once it lands. Both have the same cure, and it is not optimism — it is paperwork. The quotation states the landed scope: product, freight to your address, import formalities, what is included and, just as loudly, what is not. Compare that number, not the list price, and the ocean stops being a variable.

The second cure is ownership. Because the distributor is us — run from our offices in San Benedetto del Tronto, on American paperwork through our US company — every stage of your order has an owner with a name, and it is never you: not the chase on production, not the customs entry, not the claim when a crate arrives scratched. Dates become ours only when the factory confirms them in writing; before that confirmation, a date is a hope, and we will not dress a hope up as a promise.

Below are the five stages, from first email to the last crate in place — each with what happens, what you receive in writing, and the part supplier pages usually skip: what can go wrong there and who fixes it. Read that column first. Anyone can describe the week everything works; you are choosing a supplier for the other week.

FAQ

What does the landed quotation actually include?
Product, freight to your address, import formalities, and — written just as plainly — what is excluded, such as building-specific installation constraints we have not yet been told about. The exclusions line is the most useful line on the document: it is what lets you put two competing offers on the same scale before you choose.
When does the lead time actually start?
At order confirmation with finishes chosen — not at the first call and not at the quotation. It is the distinction that moves a project calendar by weeks: a fortnight spent deciding a veneer is a fortnight added, and we would rather say that at the start than explain it at the end. The confirmed date then appears in writing on the order confirmation.
What happens if the factory slips a date?
The moment the factory tells us, you get the revised date and the reason behind it. Dates in the United States carry other people with them: an install crew booked for a Tuesday, a freight elevator reserved for four hours, a building that only allows deliveries before nine. Moving those costs money if you know in advance and costs a great deal more if you find out at the dock.
A crate arrives damaged — what is my part in the claim?
Note the damage on the delivery receipt before the driver leaves, then send us that photograph with the order number. From there it is our file: we pursue the carrier and the factory, and you get a decision — which piece is replaced, on which shipment — rather than a claim number and a suggestion to follow up.
I am ordering from several Italian factories — do I get several deliveries?
Wherever it makes sense, it all moves together: one entry at the port, one appointment at your dock, one insurance certificate for the building, one folder of paperwork. Break it into three and you repeat every one of those — and each repetition is another morning somebody has to be there for.

An imported order, stage by stage, including the parts nobody advertises

What happens, what you receive in writing, and where an import usually loses time.

The first message
Tell us what the space has to do, roughly how many people use it, where it lands and the date that cannot move. A dimensioned sketch saves a week. Most first messages describe a product; we would rather hear about the use, and we will ask until we have it.
The quotation
It comes in writing: items, finishes, freight to your address, duty, and a plain list of what is excluded. Landed cost is the only figure that compares honestly with a domestic bid — an ex-works price next to a delivered price is not a comparison, it is a surprise scheduled for later.
The confirmation
Finishes settled, order placed, factory date signed. This is where the schedule actually begins, and where two weeks spent on a laminate become two weeks added to the arrival. We say so as it is happening rather than in the post-mortem.
Production and the crossing
You see nothing for a while; we are watching the production reports, the consolidation into one shipment and the customs entry. If something slips, the revised date reaches you with the freight options — air for the critical items, ocean for the rest — before you have to chase it.
Delivery, and what comes after
Delivery lands in the agreed window, with the dock appointment and the building's insurance certificate arranged. Anything damaged is noted on the receipt and photographed, and the claim becomes ours. Afterwards nothing changes: same people for spare parts, for one more chair in the same finish, for a document you need at audit.