Problem with shipping charges for long items.

[Lindan54]

How can I set the shipping to differenciate between long items (over 60cm) and short under (60cm) for shipping charges abroad.
I sell walking sticks and umbrellas and for the UK (using Royal Mail) the longer items go through OK. But when shipping abroad, any package over 60cm has to go by Parcelforce which is £10 to £15 pounds dearer than the same weight going by Airmail Small Packets.
I have set my overseas charges to the dearer tariff, but if anyone orders a mini umbrella or a folding walking stick, I can send it by airmail for a fiver - which means I have over charged them for postage. I refund the difference, but I feel it is not at all satisfactory or professional to do this. Not to mention the overseas customers who are put off ordering smaller items by the shipping charges.
Surely it is possible to have a flag on products to determine length as well as weight?

[wjcampbe]

Surely you can set the weight artificially high to move it into another band, or will that break your domestic shipping?

[Lindan54]

I've tried that and it ruins the pricing for the domestic shipping.

[Guest]

Hi Linda,
You can set the "Calculation Basis" to "Total Weight".For the products which measure less than 60 cms,go to the "Details" tab of the product and specify the weight as "0.2" kilograms for example and check "Ship Seperately".Specify the following value for Weight Versus Cost table 0.2/£5.00 within "View|Business Settings|Shipping and Handling" for rest of the world. Choose "Take highest value from the table" under "Excess".

[Lindan54]

Doesn't the ship separately tab cause each individual item to incur its own shipping charges? Which is fine if the customer only orders 1 item, but if they order 2 or more of the short items, will it not charge double, triple etc for shipping? Whereas, they are light enough to be packed together.

Linda

[Bruce]

I think Sumiya meant to tell you to use the ship seperately for the longer items. This will unfortunately add shipping every time an item marked 'Ship Seperately' is added to the basket.