Help with shipping - before I go mad

[DarrenM]

Hi all

I've been searching these forums and I've tried most things but still have this problem which is driving me mad...

All our shipping prices are based on weight, but there are a couple of items we need to make free shipping. We have 4 classes of shipping First Class, Second Class, Next Day and DHL. All the classes except DHL start at 0.06kg as we sell some small books (DHL starts at 7kg). I have made up a new weight band called 'free shipping' and set it to 0kg with a price of £0. I then changed the weight on the free shipping items to 0.

Now when you buy a free shipping product and get to the Shipping And Handling part of the order, the drop down menu still lists all the classes

I can't see what I am doing wrong, why are all the classes being offered. It is being a major problem because people keeping selecting Next Day etc when we can't offer that service on these products, so we spend parts of the day refunding everybody.

I'm sure one of you Actinic Guru's can see where I'm going wrong.

[DarrenM]

It's now getting more confusing

I'm having the problem with the free shipping (see above) but now even when you buy some books which are only 1kg all the shipping options now appear giving you the option of DHL shipping which is only set up for 10kg.

Could the software be corrupt in someway?

[calmncomfy]

I have a similar annoyance for my site. I have amended my terms and conditions to make it clear that express is not available on free postage items. Some customers still select express, but none have complained when it takes longer (I hope this is because it is clear on the T&C which must be agreed before the oder is accepted). But I do sympathise with you & hope Actinic can make some kind of upgrade on the next version.

I have pondered the idea of adding a component on the free postage products to allow customers to upgrade their postage speed If neccessary, and pay the extra as part of the items price. but haven't had time to deal with it yet.

Sorry I can't help further.

[wjcampbe]

The secret is to set the weight on the free items impossibly high. Define a maximum weight in all the existing shipping methods and select the 'do not allow shipping' option for excess weight in each shipping class table.

Now set the weight of the free items above the permitted maximum and add a new class for that weight with zero cost, and allow excess with take highest value.
The only class of shipping your free products are eligible for now is the free option.

NOTES: The maximum weight must be one that can never realistically be reached by any reasonable combination of ordinary products/quantities. Example - if the heaviest item you sell is 2kg and no-one could ever buy more than 500 each in combination with the second heaviest at 1.8kg and 500 each, then maximum realist weight is 1,900kg - set the tables for 2,000kg and the free product weight as 5,000kg.

[DarrenM]

Thanks for the reply William, I'll give it a go tomorrow.

One question though, what would happen if somebody brought say 3 products which they would have to pay postage and 1 product what was postage free. Would the whole order be postage free due to the total weight?

[wjcampbe]

Hmm - yes that would be a problem - but the solution would be to mark the free products as ship separately.

So you should get a shipment with postage for the weight of the ordinary products and a separate shipment with no charge for the free product.

[DarrenM]

mmm...no luck

I starting to think it's more of a software problem. I did as you said Bill and set a high weight value for free shipping and changed the weight on the product and selected ship separately. I tested it on a free postage product and it worked fine but if I add other items it still comes up with free postage and even if I select just one book on it's own (not free shipping) which is 0.3kg it still gives me the option for free shipping which is set to 500kg!!.

[Mike Hughes]

Shipping tables in actinic are for items up to that weight.

So a shipping band which says '500kg - Free' means all items up to 500 Kg will be free.

Set the free shipping band to be 0.01kg and the free items to be 0 kg weight.

Mike

[DarrenM]

Thanks for the reply Mike.

So if I set it at 0.01kg will it still come up with all the other delivery options (eg First Class 0.06kg, Next Day 0.10kg, DHL 10kg) as the items are 'upto' that weight?

I think Actinic should add a 'ignore postage' or 'free shipping' tick box on the product page in their next version.

[wjcampbe]

Mike is right of course, so the 500kg is falling over on that point.

Try his 0.1kg band and see if that works - if you have any products with a genuine weight of 0.1kg they will need to be raised to 0.2kg and you may need to clear any default weight settings you have in your shipping classes.

In fact, thinking further - default weight settings might have caused the problem when you previously tried zero weight for the products.

Actinic - can you add a simple 'free shipping' setting to products in a future version?

[Mike Hughes]

Hi Darren, yes, actinic will list all the valid options for that product.

But this is the way it should work. Just because you offer it with free shipping, don't you think the customer might want to have the option of 'next day' delivery?. Why don't you want to offer this if the customer wants to pay for it?

The problem with doing a 'weight over' approach is that even if you add in a shipping band for standard products then adding a free shipping item would make the whole package free.

Mike

[DarrenM]

Hi Mike

The problem I have is some of the items is a subscription to either of our magazines which includes shipping and is sent out second class every month so it is impossible to send them next day or any other service.

Darren

[Mike Hughes]

Hi Darren,

I can't think of an easy way of doing this where the free shipping is an independent option and the only one to show up for certain products.

If you use heavy weights, then the option will appear for all products as actinic uses weight 'up to' in the tables. It would also make all packages free is a free P+P item is included in the basket (although this might be got around by slecting 'ship separately' for these items).

If you use light weights, then yes the other options will show up as well.

The only sensible way I can think of to make this work (although not cleanly), is to use 0kg wieghts for the free items and have a line in all your non-free shipping tables that says 0.1kg - £999 or something. That way few shoppers will select anything other than the free shipping option.

Mike

[TonyF]

Been reading all these posts with interest as we have similar problems with some of the products we sell being collection only. It seems to me that if we had the ability to assign product codes to shipping bands then we could have much more control over how we handle shipping charges.

[Bruce]

Hi,

The ability to add product codes to shipping bands is an item for the wish list. I will add it there for you.

Bill : Have added the request for Free shipping too.

Kind regards,