For one, yes it is crazy. I buy stuff from a shirt company periodically and they're about an hour and a half from where I live. They use the same DHL service and it always takes a week at least to get to me. It's ridiculous but that's what it is. On the flip side, DHL international isn't a joke and is pretty speedy. You can attest to that. I imagine that factors into the decision-making of a company that ships worldwide like LRG but maybe it is just them getting a good deal on the contract and being cheapskates. That's certainly possible. Understand that you'd very likely be paying more money for any other carrier, though. Definitely for UPS and FedEx and only cheaper if LRG offered a first class shipping option, but it'd be cutting it close. Call LRG cheapskates all you want and if you're mad they don't offer free shipping across the board than be mad. No idea how that UK company manages to do it but good on em. But the reality is LRG signed a contract with DHL to keep those shipping prices as they are for us, the consumer. When that contract is up maybe they sign a contract with another carrier or go it alone again. But for now, that's why you only see a "standard shipment" option when you go for shipping and it's a flat rate. If they got rid of it this sub would have posts about how slow UPS, FedEx, and/or USPS are instead of DHL. Or how they had to pay $15 for priority shipping and it's been two days and they still don't have their item yet. Maybe your items would be to you quicker, but that wouldn't be true for everyone. It never is. There's no winning on LRG's end with this one and I posted ymmv for a reason. Different carriers are quicker in different regions. Just the way it is.