combined shiiping costs

[daviddeer]

I have been running my site for 3 months now and have had no problems at all until today. Orders have generally been for one print so te shippping charge for one item applies. Today a customer wanted 4 prints. So Actinic dutifully added up the shipping cost of four prints at £5 each and charged the customer £20! I would unset the ship item seperately tick box but then the international standard delivery option is removed and it defaults to the urgent rate at £89. The biggest problem is that also I supply products with different rates and weights as mounted and framed items with higher shipping costs. How can I get actinic to take simply the highest shipping value in the table and charge that.

[wjcampbe]

Ship seperately does just that - make independent shipping calculations and total them.

Sounds like you need to look at how you have set up the international standard delivery.

When you are setting up the shipping tables, there is a checkbox for 'take the highest value' under Excess (or something like that) in the bottom right hand corner.

[daviddeer]

Thanks

So basicaly I should remove the ship seperate tick. Roled prints cost £5 to send unless the customer wants next day international. I have set the weights as follows - rolled 2kg - mounted 5kg - framed 7kg -giclee prints 7kg as the postage on these is the same. I have set the default rate to 1kg with zero cost. Thus when a customer selects 4 mounted = 8kg, however when they select one framed and one mounted = 7kg, will actinic apply the 7kg rate. If so do I then create postage rates for all possible weight combinations from 2kg to 300kg?
Bit confused as I am new to this.
Thanks for the reply

[wjcampbe]

when they select one framed and one mounted = 7kg, will actinic apply the 7kg rate.

One framed at 7kg plus one mounted at 5kg should see the rate for 12kg used.

If so do I then create postage rates for all possible weight combinations from 2kg to 300kg?

Normally, you would create a table that reflects where the carrier/courier changes their price, and look for a point where it becomes progressive. This may be 5kg, 10kg, 15kg, 25kg and then a progressive rate of £2 per kilo - which you would set as your action when the weight exceeds the highest weight in your table.

[daviddeer]

Grateful thanks

Thanks for the quick reply, looks like it's going to be along night for me. I guess there's no short answer I 'll just have to work everything out to get the postage just right.The problem really comes as I send 4 four items in one tube and the tube costs the same for 1 item up to about 10. I'll get to work and let you know how I got on.
Thanks for all the advice and help,
Kind Regards,
-David

[antnb]

I am following this method to add shipping costs, but find the Default weight is being added to the item weight to calculate the shipping band.

For example, if I specify a weight on some items but not others, I get the sum of the specific weight plus the default weight, if I have no specific weight, I get 2* the default weight. There is still only one item in the basket.

What have I done wrong?

[Mike Hughes]

The first things that come to mind are whether are you using components with weights or have you set up the tables correctly.

Actinic shipping tables are for weight up-to bands. So if you have bands of

1kg £2.95
2kg £3.95

Then something weighing 1kg or more will be charged at the 2kg rate.

Mike

[antnb]

Thanks for the reply.

The items have choices, but the weight is specified in the main product detail page. I am using one product per section.

If I tick ship separately, I can see, using the 1st Class post table as an example, that the default weight and item weight are calculated separately to sum the final shipping cost. If I untick the box, the combined weight will push the item into the correct band for the combined weight. With 2 items, I get 2 extra 'ghost' items at default weight.

I cannot reset the default weight to zero, even if I choose total value or quantity basis it asks for a value, so I make it 0.000001, and if I have a cost for a zero weight, it gets added in.

I am using By Zone, Take highest value in table, it seems to behave except for adding in the default weight like theres a 'ghost' item per selected item.

[antnb]

I can side step this by giving each product its own weight, rather than products without weight picking up the default value, and keeping the default weight close to zero with its own price band of zero. Still don't understand it though.

[wjcampbe]

If you have a price band of zero, only items which have a specified weight of EXACTLY zero will fit in this price band. An item with a weight of .0000001 will belong in, and be charged according to the next band limit.

Either leave default weight blank, so items without a weight will pick up the cost specified for zero - OR - use a default weight and specify a weight of exactly zero for items that are below that default.