Buying online. Shipping costs extra to HI? (Hilo: fit in, apartment)

[cagary]

When buying things online, how much extra do companies charge to ship to HI?

What about companies that offer "free shipping within the US", do they really not charge for shipping to HI?

[KoaKine]

Aloha.
Iʻm find that when you look at the price choice when you checkout online you will not get the top 2 cheap prices you get the higher ones. Be cautious on the free shipping we try to do that sometime when we pay $10 more on a site that will give you free to Hawaii its less than the charged shipping on the other cheaper store. Some will say free ship anywhere but when you checkout they charge the only way to find out is go through the checkout process. We have been pretty lucky in finding free shipping but remember when its free it goes ground and in Hawaii ground is a slow boat to Hawaii. it could take up to 5 week to get to Hilo.

[Mar0]

It is really hit or miss. A lot of companies do offer free shipping, but I always check on their shipping policy to be sure (Amazon never charges, so I usually go with them). Except for a purchase that I am waiting on right now, I have never had to wait an especially long time for something. Very few companies will not ship at all to Hawaii and if they charge extra, its usually between $5-$15 for items that are not unusually large.

[HankDfrmSD]

We have found it varies, and there doesn't always seem to be logic behind it. For example, last I looked, Overstock.com would not ship to Hawaii at all. Bottom line: Check it all.

Hank

[mdand3boys]

If you live in one of the areas without mail service to the door, get ready for another shipping problem. Most places won't ship to PO boxes and although UPS and FedEx do ship direct to your address, some companies use what the USPS calls "SmartPost". The UPS or FedEx shipment ends up going to the post office, who then refuses the box because it has an address on it and doesn't have your PO Box.

[ExBmWeX]

Im in the same situation here in Puerto Rico. I order alot of computer parts online and WOW the shipping is outrageous. if they offer free shipping it usually excludes Hi, Ak and PR even though we have US mail service. The way i get around this is have it shipped for free to a friends house in the states and them have them relabel it to my addy here in PR. it usually saves me $30-$100 is i had them ship to me.

[hotzcatz]

If they require a street address, I just use our street address with "Apartment #102" which is the P.O. Box number. Our post person gets it into our box, but we have a very small post office. Ask your post office what they would suggest since they are the ones who will be handling it.

We've usually found the post office to be much less expensive than any of the other services. Parcel Post can take up to eight weeks, though, so choose Priority or First Class if you want it quickly. There is no overnight service to the neighbor islands, though, no matter what service you use.

[Balad1]

Most items from Amazon.com ship to Hawaii for free if the meet the minimums.

[Sweetbeet]

Sometimes - especially with smaller sellers, but sometimes with really big ones too - it pays to call them and explain how cheap USPS can be, particularly if your item(s) will fit in a flat-rate box. MANY people on the mainland do not know that USPS is so cheap to HI, they just assume that because UPS or FedEx or DHL or whatever is cheaper to the contiguous 48, and/or because they have a 'contract deal' with one of those companies, it will be the cheapest to HI too. But if you explain - hey, this is a [piece of jewelry/bag of golf tees/CD/whatever], it will fit in a small flat-rate box for $5.95, they will be happy to ship it that way for you and charge accordingly. We have had success doing this with many things, including larger items also (e.g., special racks for our grill/smoker, car parts, guitar parts, clothing). It takes a little time and you have to talk to a real person, but sometimes it's worth it.

Now sometimes you will get nowhere - they ship everything FedEx or whatever and won't make an exception. But then we usually find our item somewhere else.

Dell (computers) can be a real pain, but I've had luck even with them. Their online interface forces you into "2-day" (super-expensive) shipping, but if you call, and get the right person, they will sometimes let you pick a cheaper shipping method (or, if you're really lucky and buying something big, give you free shipping).

Good luck.

[newUHprof]

Amazon free "super-saver" shipping does work to Hawaii, but the Amazon Prime (free shipping on anything even if it doesn't qualify for "super-saver" if you use their credit card) does not. They ask you to "enter a different delivery address."

But it can be crazy... a lot of places will only ship 2 day to Hawaii, not their regular ground shipping. I wanted to order some tea online that I've been having trouble finding here. It was going to be $25 to ship $20 worth of tea. Um, nope. I travel often enough that I sometimes have stuff shipped to friends or family and pick it up when I'm in town.

My sister used to live in Alaska, and would actually have arguments with people who claimed free shipping to the "continental US" since Alaska is, technically, *on* the continent. Never worked, though.

I will say that small sellers (e.g. etsy shops) tend to be able to figure out about the flat rate shipping and USPS, and I've never had a problem with them. Not free shipping... but cheap enough.