Heavy Product Components

[PFE]

We have several products which are heavy to send through the post so on order attracting Free UK postage we add a surcharge. As suggested in this community and I think in the knowledgebase, we have added a post component which is used for all products of a similar excess weight. This works fine for web orders in the UK.

When we get international orders, which are not exempt postage or orders under our £30 free UK postage limit we cannot delete the component and charge normal postage - the customer pays the full postage and a surcharge is not required. If we select the component as optional the customer can deselect the checkbox and not pay the surcharge!!

We have tried various ways butwondered if anyone else had resolved a similar issue and could share it with us!

Thanks.

[leehack]

The word surcharge is awful, it's up there (as a hated word) with VAT, the tax man and piles IMO. Why aren't you shipping by weight so that when heavy items are purchased their weight is accounted for already? Can you explain your setup and costs, from the little you've provided, it sounds somewhat over-engineered. Shipping by weight allows you to control costs in your zones individually too.

[parklifeclothes]

Do as Lee says, just remember that by charging shipping by weight doesn't have to be realistic weights, if you have an item that is light but ackward to send give it a higher weight and it once you have the weights and prices sorted set it to a higher price. For international buyers set the weight limits low and the products high.

[PFE]

Thanks to you both for your input.
I understand what you are saying and it would seem sensible but I am not the boss.

So UK orders are sent FREE of postage for orders over £30 but certain large products would incur unreasonable postage costs hence a surcharge is made, however, on orders where the customer pays postage the surcharge is removed - therein lies the problem with trying to remove the surcharge component on some orders. I have set the UK zones in Business Settings|Shipping and Handling so that "Orders in This Zone/Class are Free Over" £30. Each product for which a surcharge is required has a postage component added - we have several components for different values depending on weight of product.

I shall refer this back to the boss for a decision but he is less than happy with EC already - a system that is so flexible is quite restrictive.