Kaki Shopping

Who would have thought we could actually shop for books without even having to physically step into a bookstore? Sometimes it could be rather overwhelming to hunt for that particular book in a gigantic bookstore when you are hard-pressed for time.

So I was rather grateful that I discovered MPH has an online store, aptly named mphonline.com. I was even more thankful when I realized that their online store carried the book that I wanted, Making Chatter Matter, whereas the physical MPH bookstore had already recalled that book. I wanted the English version of this book by Jennifer Eileen Peters but each time I visited either MPH or Borders, all they had was the Malay (translated) version.

I decided to place my order for this book at mphonline yesterday, and at the same time, topped up my order with two other books, just so my total purchase was at least RM80, making it eligible for free shipping. After browsing through the mphonline site, I settled on one of their best sellers, Shopaholic and Baby by Sophie Kinsella (which is eerily an appropriate title for someone in my position, plus it came highly recommended by Rinnah) and Mercy by Jodi Picoult (Ehon loves Picoult’s books, so I was curious to read one of her books to find out what the fuss was all about). Both Kinsella’s and Picoult’s novels which I had picked out were part of the ongoing mphonline monthly promotion where they were priced at a whopping 30% off from the original price!

Eagerly I added those three books to my shopping cart, typed in my shipping details and hit the Submit button. I waited 10 seconds… nothing happened. I waited some more, nothing happened. So I refreshed the page and tried again. Same thing. I then reopened the site in Internet Explorer and tried submitting my online purchase yet again. This time, it went through successfully! I have no idea why the MPH site doesn’t allow purchases on Mozilla Firefox though.

Anyhow, after my order was submitted, I was informed that I could check the status of the order online. Being a frequent online purchaser, I had also expected an email to confirm my order, but I didn’t receive any up till now. I just logged into my MPH online account and checked that my order delivery status is still Pending. Well, they did state that it would take 1-2 weeks to deliver. So I guess I’ll wait and see.

My overall experience with MPH was a rather pleasant one. I was able to browse through the entire bookstore very easily. I loved the fact that there were special discounts offered for online purchases, but the online purchasing system could be further improved, i.e. an email could be sent out to the purchases upon a successful purchase. Also, I wasted some time with the purchase because the system did not work on my Firefox browser. It could be just me, though, but if someone has succeeded in ordering using Firefox, do let me know.

Would I order again from MPH? I would say yes, provided my initial order comes in one piece and on time. I’ll provide an update when I receive my books in due course. Other than that, mphonline does indeed live up to its tagline: “Where the bookstore comes to you“.

Payment methods: Credit cards, Maybank2u.com internet banking & cash/cheque bank-in
Delivery: Free within West Malaysia, with purchases of RM80 and above. Other delivery rates here.
Ships internationally?: Yes
Overall Rating: