iHerb.com- delivery via DHL

I've been ordering lots of stuff from iHerb.com (so far over 10 times) and if my orders are >4lbs, I would split them up into <4lbs each. 

Why the magical weight of 4lbs? 

Well, for orders <4lbs, I'm able to use Global Priority Mail by DHL and the delivery charge is only USD4 flat per package. This is the most economical way of shipping your online purchases to Malaysia. The down side is that delivery can take up to 3 weeks long. For non-urgent stuff and if you are willing to wait, it's not really a down side and 3 weeks is no biggie so long as your package arrives.

For orders >4lbs, you'll need to split your orders into <4lbs each to be eligible for Global Priority Mail by DHL. Otherwise, you'll have to use DHL Express or UPS, which delivery charges correspond with the total weight of your package.

Just last week, I ordered a few things for my family from iHerb.com and the total weight was slightly over 7lbs...7.1lbs to be exact. I wanted to break my online purchases into 2 <4lbs packages and pay a total of USD8 flat for both packages but being a curious cat, I decided to check how much I would have to pay to have them delivered via DHL Express.

"Wah, only USD11.27?!?! Excellent!!!"

I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn't much. USD11.27 for shipping and handling charges for delivery via DHL Express. With a small difference of only USD3.27 (or approximately RM10.50), I could receive my online purchases within a week and not the usual 3 weeks. Why didn't I try this earlier? It's a such no-brainer. 

Immediately after I'd confirmed my orders, I was sent an email by iHerb.com with a DHL Express tracking number. I was thoroughly impressed when I clicked on the tracking number as it actually showed me every step/process that my package went through before arriving at my intended destination. There was even a record showing "delivery attempted, recipient not home". That was very professional of them. I was thoroughly impressed. My package arrived after 8 days of making the online purchases.

Surely there's a twist to this nice and dandy story. Well, yes :-)

I'd to pay an additional RM46.20 to DHL for the delivery. WTF?!?! RM10.50 + RM46.20 = RM56.70. If I'd split my orders into 2, I would have only paid approximately RM25.60 (USD8) for delivery charges. That's more than double! Sigh... 

So, let that be a lesson to me. From now on, it'll just be orders <4lbs per package. Global Priority Mail by DHL is afterall the most economical way of shipping your online purchases to Malaysia. No point reinventing the wheel. Why fix if it ain't broken?

If you would like to give iHerb.com a try and order something from them, please provide my referral code QUW344 when you make your online order. You will receive an instant USD10.00 off your first purchase of USD40.00 and above or USD5.00 off orders below USD40.00.