comGateway Review - Shipping from US to Malaysia vs USPS and vPost

I bought some stuff from eBay and had to ship some stuff from US to Malaysia. However, like most sellers, they are just too plain lazy to do international shipping (or charge an arm and leg for it).

Now, this is not the first time I am shipping stuff from the US. I've done it via USPS Priority Mail, USPS First Class and another economy shipping company called vPost.

However, I have decided to try comGateway  this time round. Why? Well:

1. USPS First Class is very risky. They lost my parcel before once (suspect it's our Pos Malaysia who "lost" it, but there is no tracking, therefore no proof)
2. USPS Priority Mail is sloooooow and not really cheap. Takes about 2 weeks to reach MY. But has insurance and tracking option
3. vPost is cheaper than USPS Priority Mail, but is also as sloooooooow!

I then went shopping for these new shipping services and saw a few I thought would be a great alternative to those. One was Viaddress and the other is comGateway.

I finally decided to comGateway because:
1. Lower minimum weight (0.5kg vs 1.0kg)
2. Free consolidation up to 3 items (i.e. you can send up to 3 items and send them one shot to save on shipping fees. they will store your item for 30 days for free)
3. Shipping is cheaper than Viaddress

So I bought two items, one is 0.5kg and another 1kg. When the item arrives at your comGateway address, it will take about a day for them to get it to the system. Take note they will open your package to check the contents.

They consolidated it and I paid USD30.61 for their Standard shipping (take note that you have to pay customs if your item is taxable, but customs is paid to the courier when they deliver the item to you, not to comGateway). This is the price of a USPS First Class mail, but with faster and safer service. Here's the breakdown:

• International Shipping Charges USD27.25
• Fuel surcharge USD2.73 (this will change from time to time, according to the courier)
• Insurance USD0.63

According to the them, it will take up to 6 to 8 business days with Standard and 3 to 5 business days with Express. From my suspicion, they both use the same shipping company (DHL, which is excellent!) but for Standard, they take 2 business days to "process" the shipment.

My experience was this:
5th Mar - I paid for the shipping
7th Mar - They sent it to DHL in Portland
8th Mar - It arrived in their Cincinnati hub
9th Mar - It arrived at Hong Kong hub
10th Mar - It arrived at Malaysia, customs and to DHL hub
11th Mar - Delivered to my doorstep

All in all, it took them 6 days (including weekends) from payment to receiving my item.

I have to say I am very pleased with the service, as it was much quicker than USPS or vPost, and priced very competitively. I also asked them a question via their customer support email, and I received a response within 24 hours. Not bad.

Finally, for those of you who are interested, here is where your comGateway US address is located. Use street view and you can see their warehouse. It's a legitimate office. :)