Shipping costs confusion

[tvsmvp]

I want to charge "based on weight + shipping/handling costs" up to 3 pounds; I want to charge flat rates beyond that based on weight thresholds, minimums and maximums. In other words, buy any combination of widgets weighing 4 oz and pay actual postal service charges plus x-dollars. Buy 4 pounds of widgets A, B and C, and pay a flat $10.95 plus a shipping fee.



I don't want a dropdown to appear offering any choices, it should simply default to these simple "rules" I've outlined: Buy any number of products weighing in under 4 pounds and pay based on weight plus a fee. Buy any number of products weighing over 4 pounds, pay based on flat rates plus a fee. Buying any number or combination of widgets weighing between 7 and 10 pounds brings about another flat rate plus fee - and so on.



I don't want to have to go back in 6 months from now when the postal service raises their rates and have to figure out some spider web of illogical logic - which is exactly what I'm seeing any time I've been lucky enough to gerrymander something to "work."

[paracord]

Hi. We want to give the customers a coupon code with Buy 3 and pay for 2. How can i make this possible? Thank you for a great service!

[tvsmvp]

Okay, a walk to clear my head and a cup of coffee later - and I think I've got this figured out.



I'll take a pass at it for those in the same boat:

1) Enter weight for each of your products on their respective product settings page. Ignore the other settings on this page (for this set up I'm describing at least). Package type and quantity can be set to anything. Just make sure you've got the weight in there.

2) Go to Seller Admin > Cart Shipping Settings and set all packaging costs and weights to 0.

3) Enter any additional handling fee you'll want added to each order.

3) Hit "next" and establish a few rules. (First, delete anything that's there now - they'll mess you up.)

The first rule: Choose "shipping method "USPS Priority," (NOT CHEAPEST!), set min weight to 0 and max to 35oz. The price will be figured automatically then for these products weighing in less than 3 #.

The second: Choose "flat rate," set min weight to 36 and max to 143, set price to $10.95.

The third: Choose "flat rate," set min weight to 144 and leave max set at 0, set price to $14.95.



Earlier I had toyed with the "USPS - Cheapest available" setting - and I think that was the cause of the issues because it was continually overriding what I wanted to see offered.



Doing what I describe here causes the system to simply offer the correct cost (in my mind) on the product order page and bi-passes the confusing dropdown shipping choices I was getting earlier. Obviously, you can build from what I've got here to add intricacies to your heart's content.



Make sure that - between them - the rules cover all possible combinations. That is, if you have a rule that covers 1-3 oz and another that covers 5-6 oz, your customer will get an error if there product weighs 4 oz.



It's also a simple thing to update costs later because costs for products weighing in under 3lbs is/has been figured out automatically - while changing the flat rates is as simple as changing those two numbers I list above ($10.95 and $14.95).

[tvsmvp]

Does choosing the "cheapest" method automatically cause the handling fee I've added (on the prior page) to be ignored? It seems to be factored in if I select "priority" and ignored if I choose "cheapest." Is this accurate?

[E-junkie_Guru]

USPS Cheapest just compares First Class vs. Priority and applies whichever rate is cheaper (usually First Class when available).



The Handling charge gets added once to shipping for each entire order with any tangible items (those with Shipping/Buyer's Address setting enabled), regardless of any Shipping Rules and and item quantities in the order.



If you wanted to add a per-item flat fee on top of the actual USPS rate, you could use a Packaging Cost and set each item's Packaging Capacity to 1; however, this will tend to inflate the actual USPS rate obtained, as it would presume each item gets sent as a separate parcel, rather than sending all items in a single parcel per order. You could make this Cost kick in every X number of items by setting all products to use the same Packaging Type with a Packaging Capacity of X. You may also wish to consider the option to add Handling as a "% of shipping" to make that surcharge more flexible.

[tvsmvp]

How is it possible that - if I have a $3 flat handling fee, that I can be given a total shipping cost of, say, $3.21? It's obviously not adding a postal fee of 21 cents plus the $3 - so where does that come from - and how do I prevent that?



I just did a test where I removed the rule that was bringing up that wayward fee - I got an "error" message in the shipping field when it was added - so I know I removed the rule that was driving that fee. I then added in a new fee, set to "cheapest" - and the cost to ship came in at $2.64 - which is under the flat handling fee. How is that possible if the flat fee is being added on top of each order? I've cleared my cache - I've waited - I've hit reload several times... and still get that price that is less than the handling fee.

[E-junkie_Monster]

Looking at your shipping settings right now I can't say for sure what might have happened in any of your tests because they've been changed... you currently have a $7 handling fee and a variety of shipping rules based on the weight range of an order.



The way you have things set up now the $7 handling fee will always appear on every order in addition to whatever rule is applied. Note that only one rule can be applied to an order though, rules don't stack when the conditions are right for several of them at once.

[tvsmvp]

I deleted all but one rule, the one that should be applying for this test - and I still get a cost to ship that is less than the flat handling fee alone.



Although, even if a rule did conflict, I don't understand how it is possible that if the flat fee is $7 (currently set for testing purposes) - and it's added to every order that the total can ever, under any circumstances, be under $7? I'm looking at one for $6.48 right now.



In each of my rules I have the min quantities and cumulative prices left at 0 - do they have minimum settings? I'm grasping at straws now....



Currently, this test product does have "shipping/buyer's address" checked.

Its weight is set to 4.00 oz, packaging type "box large" and pack cap is set to 1.



The flat shipping fee is set to $7.



Under "Define packaging" all costs and weights are set to 0.00.



I have one rule: Country: US, states: all, currency: all, units 1-1, weight 4.00-4.00, order total: 0.00 or more



Use shipping method: 5 FLAT.



I add that single product to the cart - and I get shipping: 6.48. Should that not say 12? I thought this might be some strange caching - but that's not it either, as I've tried several browsers with the same result.

[E-junkie_Ninja]

I think it might be best if you sending the exact weights and rates you want for you shipping and then we can give you steps to set up the shipping rules that will work the way you would like. If you want to use the USPS rules, that's fine just let us know. the more information you can give us the better.

[tvsmvp]

Please give me the following single rule:



Adding one or more products weighing between 4oz and 4oz should create a flat shipping charge of (for conversation's sake) $5 plus a flat $7 handling fee, making the total shipping charge $12, regardless of where it goes in the US.

[E-junkie_Guru]

Your Seller Admin > Cart Discounts screen has a few automatic (no code) discounts applied to shipping, triggered at various min. item total (pre-tax/-shipping order subtotal) thresholds, so that explains the apparent discrepancy you were reporting earlier above. The Handling fee was indeed getting added to shipping for every order in addition to whatever Rule(s) applied to the order, but then that full shipping charge was getting discounted depending on which discount's min. threshold the order happened to meet.



It appears you already have a Rule set up for all orders of exactly 4 oz., applying a $5 flat rate in addition to whatever Handling charge you have set up (currently $2 per order). You also have a USPS Cheapest rule set up that's applicable to all orders (no min/max thresholds), so orders of exactly 4 oz. would qualify for both Rules, and in that case the buyer would be offered a choice of shipping rates (one for each Rule + Handling).



Both rules are set for US-only, so buyers outside the US would be unable to place an order. If this is intentional, you may wish to select United States as the only permitted Shipping Destination in your Seller Admin > Cart Shipping Settings, so the US would be the only ship-to country available to select in the cart.

[E-junkie_Guru]

ParacordHi. We want to give the customers a coupon code with Buy 3 and pay for 2. How can i make this possible? Thank you for a great service!

Paracord: Sorry I just noticed your unrelated question got lost in the shuffle here; you can always start a new topic at the bottom of the main E-junkie Discussions topic list:

http://www.e-junkie.com/bb/forum/2



You would go to Seller Admin > Cart Discounts and create a discount with Min. Item Quantity = 3 and enter your coupon code in the Discount Codes field (or leave that field blank to apply the discount automatically to all orders of 3 or more).



If this deal will be an "order any 3 items, get 1 of them free", set the discount for All Cart Items with a Flat discount amount equal to the price of an item (presuming all your items are the same price, or this type of deal wouldn't really work anyway). In this case ordering more than 3 items wouldn't increase the discount, since it's a flat amount.



If the deal will only apply to one particular product, pick that product in the discount's settings, and set the discount amount equal to 1/3rd the item's base price (item-specific discounts can only modify the per-item price); if you don't want to grant 1/3rd off all orders of 3 or more units of this product, you may want to add another discount with Min. Item Quantity = 4 that grants a discount of 0.00, overriding the 3-item discount.

[tvsmvp]

Thanks - that's exactly what was happening. Removing those made things rather simple as I'm now seeing what I'd expect.