Standard UPS is the best option from Iherb especially since they have lowered postage costs further,hopefully its not a one off special offer.Just a shame that any goods over the value of £18 has VAT added to the whole amount...

It seems that they dropped their shipping costs substantially , maybe there is another competitor on the market cutting costs, i don't know, but iherb has retained a good reputation for a long time, going by all their customers that have posted in this and our old PN forum as well.

Megan, considering the above, i dealt Iherb would carry inferior products, the " Natural Factors " brand, contains no artificial preservatives, color or sweeteners, no corn, soy starch, wheat or yeast & on their supplement facts info, each lozenge contains 1000 mcg Methylcobalamin,
other ingredients;Lactose,cellulose, croscarmellose sodium, magnesium sterate [vegetable grade] whatever all that means , anyway purity % potency are suppose to be guaranteed.
I won't be worried about doing any comparison b12 tests, i am going real good these days, been taken Cynno supps and hydroxo shots for the last 4 years so my levels should be very high, i am really only taking these now as long term b12 maintenance with the superior form of b12 especially at low cost and seeing our customs are ok these days.

Tony, sounds like Mark has explained it pretty well, i am amazed at the low shipping costs all the way down here compared the comparatively short distance you are away from the US though, i done the order again to recheck, it is correct as i copied it & pasted it here;
.............................................
USPS - First Class International: $4.00
Orders up to $80.00, and 3 pounds (1360 grams)
Ok for P.O. (Postal) Box addresses
Takes 3-10 days, very reliable, but no tracking number
Favorite shipping method for Australia, Canada, New Zealand

Items: $10.47
Discounts: ($1.05)
Shipping & Handling: $4.00
Total Before Tax: $13.42
Estimated Tax:* $0.00
Order Total: $13.42
........
other options.
.................................................. ..........
UPS - International: $28.38
Usually Takes 2-5 days, with tracking number
.................................................. ..........
DHL - International: $17.64
Usually Takes 2-5 days, with tracking number

take care all,
Brian

i just ordered from there 2 days ago and it cost me 4 dollars shipping...haha....i guess a dollar stretches further in australia, like 3,000 miles further

good one Joe, it is unreal though, i can't work it out why its so cheap either, when i first done the order i rechecked it to see if i had made a mistake myself, but it kept on coming up the same every time $4 [US] , i wish our dollar stretched that far within OZ

How can you get this through customs?Where do you get the information as to what is allowed? I would think that other special vitamins such as CoQ10, and ALA,Acetyl-L-Carnitine, are also worth getting from America.

With my luck I'll be arrested at the post office. I scanned the websight and alot of things are very cheap over there. I have just been stuffed around by the pharmacy that I go to. I ordered B12 and ALA a week ago. I am looking down the barrel of about $75 for both. I only ordered Natures own Cyno 1000mcg as well. I finally broke down and called. Ofcourse nobody has any information regarding my order and I was talking to the "pharmacist", who barely speaks English who is most likely from Mumbai, and he said;

" But what is it you are to be saying you are wanting"?
I said "I want my order"!

He said "But Shatzu has heard you are wanting very unusual things, now tell Shatzu what you are to be wanting"? I then said Shatzu, loose my number I'm going to GNC!

What a joke this pharmacy has become!!!

Where do they find these people????

Hi ya Aussie, what a joke, they are UNUSUAL , i was getting Natures Own B12 from my local bush pharmacy, he always had plenty of the stuff, not that i ever purchased ALA, but it isn't hard to get either, they have always got it it in the health shops in Geelong.
Anyway, about our customs i sent them an email asking about the importation rules for B12 methylcobalamin from the US and here is there reply.
.................................................. ............................................

Thank you for your email regarding your wish to import Methylcobalamin from the United States for you personal use. I am from the Drug Safety and Evaluation Branch of the Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA). The Drug Safety and Evaluation Branch is responsible for prescription medicines. In response to your enquiry, I offer you the following information.

Australian residents and visitors to Australia can legally import certain therapeutic goods for personal use under the personal import exemption that exists under the Therapeutic Goods Act 1989 and its associated regulations. This exemption does not allow the personal importation of either substances or drugs prohibited by Customs legislation, or, injectable drugs that contain material of human or animal origin (except insulin), unless an import permit has been obtained.

Methylcobalamin does not appear in the Customs (Prohibited Imports) Regulations 1956 and so will not require an import permit. Please note that it is illegal to supply goods imported under the personal import scheme exemption to persons outside the importer's immediate family. Under the personal import scheme exemption, you may import three months supply per import and, no more than fifteen months supply per twelve-month period. Three months supply is calculated from the maximum daily dose recommended by the manufacturer.

Here is the url - http://www.customs.gov.au/site/page.cfm?u=4369 if you want to ask them anything.
all the best
Brian

Brian

For heavens sake what happens if you give a B12 meth tablet you have "imported" from the USA to your neighbour? Do they come and arrest you and sling you in the nearest police cell?

Does your Government realise that the USA is a friendly country and are not trying to poison citizens of Australia?

I thought the UK bad enough with regards to importing but it seems that you have to fight to get the supplements and vitamins that just like the UK cannot be obtained in ones homeland. I often say thank goodness for the US manufacturers of supplements etc. Without them I would have to obey the European rules on supplements which in a word is worthless.

Tony

They have made a whole television show on the subject. We have the strictest laws for importing plants,food,cloth,medicine. It's a show where they stop people at customs trying to enter Australia and they search them in front of a camera,interogate them,humiliate them,and then televise this nationwide.

Ofcourse there are people who are smuggling in substances that are prohibited. But then there are those who bring in things such as tablets and herbal remedies and they also go through the same third degree process.

Our Post Master is a real sticky beak suspicious guy. I have an auntie in New Zealand and I send her little care packages now and again.Well I'm terrified everytime I do so,once I sent her emu oil which is for arthritis and my heart was pounding for days. LOL!

Tony, the ridiculous part about having any restrictions about imported methylcoblamin, is that its freely available these days without a prescription from compounding pharmacies within OZ but for a high price, also it's been available in injection form in a lab in Melbourne for a long time, but that can only be sent to a doctors premises, try to work that one out .

Our customs are tough as Aussie99 said, it's good in some ways in this day and age but absolutely unnecessary for regular vitamin supplements especially being made in the USA, the act is obviously outdated [1956] and should be reviewed, hopefully one of our major supplement manufacturers will get onto the compounding pharmacies making it now and pocketing a fortune and push the government to take another look at these out dated rules.

This is still a bit annoying to me, as i would have liked to get b12 5mg tabs, but i think it was Joe that told me that on the recommended dosage on the bottle on Jarrows, say one tab every 3 or 4 days which if there is 60 tabs in a bottle, it goes well over the 3 month period that our customs will only allow.
weird rules i know.

Brian

are designed to thwart dealers importing large amounts to resell.

Like most regulations, they seem ridiculous to read and often are inane.