Forcing a shipping option but only certain products in certain areas

[OriginalTouch]

OK - I am hoping that somewhere this has been covered before but I can't seem to get my head around it yet!

I have a load of product ranges that all get sent around the UK, UK islands and Ireland by carrier using weight value (from 0 - 1000kg - pallets). Zones all set up fine - weights all set up fine.

But in certain areas like UK islands and Ireland, pallets are very expensive and I have the option to add Royal Mail parcels. BUT (here is the query) - ONLY for certain products.

So in sort of summary, I need to add an option IN ONLY CERTAIN ZONES but FOR ONLY CERTAIN PRODUCTS.

Also, second query, once this option is set up, I do not want other zones able to choose this option. Can you only display classes of shipping to those certain zones in the cart? This option cannot be chosen for the other types of product.

Can't get my head around it so maybe the amount of options are sending me round in circles?

[leehack]

Rather than force or limit options on shipping, you actually restrict the ones they can use, usually by way of using the excess features. So if someone in Ireland orders a pallet and via lateral thinking you have used the excess features to your advantage, a user will be given a message saying cannot use that method etc. Just gotta get cute with your weights. A zone will only ever see the classes within it, if you have it set up correctly.

The sensible thing is to make sure your classes turn up the cheapest options on the shipping options you want them to use. There are only idiots to then cater for. The cheapest option can always be displayed at the top of the list, there is a patch to do so.

[OriginalTouch]

I have set up excesses but if I follow you correctly, then you mean that if someone in Ireland order a pallet then I can give them a message saying this is not available.

The situation is:

the client in Ireland can order a pallet (up to 1000kg) - delivery costs ｣65 - class is courier under that zone.
if the client orders a packet (say 10kg) , then by courier this would also be ｣65, rather expensive - that is the rate we are given to Ireland.
I want to give him the option of Royal Mail - only ｣15 up to 20kg
HOWEVER, Royal Mail only carry one line of goods (filters)
They will not carry the chemicals.
How can I only give the Royal Mail option for JUST filters not chemicals, if say he orders 1 filter at 10kg? If I set up both classes under that zone, then he may choose Royal Mail for the chemicals.

[leehack]

If Royal Mail can only be used for items a maximum of 20Kg, then if the chemicals were set to 25Kg and you have set Royal Mail to only allow up to 20Kg, they could not use that method and would get the error message?

When i said to think laterally i mean to forget the label of 'weight' and just use it as a number. In fact to make things simpler, think of weight as 'bananas' and Royal Mail will only ship 20 bananas, so if chemicals were 25 bananas, Royal Mail wouldn't let you send them.

[OriginalTouch]

That was quick! The trouble is chemicals go from 10kg too! I suppose that you mean to restrict purchases so that a client will not be able to buy chemicals under 20kg. The thing is that Royal Mail WILL NOT take the chemicals at all.
So in theory a client could put a 10kg chemicals into the cart and then Royal Mail will be his only option.

ACTUALLY HELP NEEDED HERE TOO
Having a problem at the moment, since putting in these classes, on upload, Actinic keeps crashing at the catalog stage:

Catalog-Internet Sales Application has encountered a problem and needs to close.

Error signatire :
App Name: catalog.exe

Have not changed anything else

[leehack]

That was quick! The trouble is chemicals go from 10kg too! I suppose that you mean to restrict purchases so that a client will not be able to buy chemicals under 20kg. The thing is that Royal Mail WILL NOT take the chemicals at all.
So in theory a client could put a 10kg chemicals into the cart and then Royal Mail will be his only option.

You either haven't understood or haven't read what i wrote properly. If chemicals weight is input at 25kg, how could they ever be 10kg as per your above example?

Let me try again:

Chemical 1 = 25kg
Chemical 2 = 25kg
Chemical 3 = 25kg

If i order chemical 1 my cart will weigh 25kg, if order chemical 1, 2 & 3 my cart will weight 75kg etc. Royal Mail is set to not allow shipping over 20Kg so how could 1 or 1,000 chemicals ever be sent using that method?

As for your other problem, i'd reboot your system and cross your fingers. I'd also hope that i was sensible enough to have made a snapshot before i started messing with things.

[OriginalTouch]

We are getting mixed up!

We manufacture the chemicals and they are sold from 5kg tubs.

A client can order:

1. 5kg chemical
2. 10kg chemical
3. 25kg chemical

Option here is only pallet - Royal Mail won't take chemicals.

1. 10kg filter
2. 10kg filter
etc

option here is Royal Mail unless charged a pallet (｣65)

1. 10kg filter
2. 5kg chemical
3. 10kg chemical

Here would still send a pallet as cheaper than 2 deliveries?

Is this too complicated for the weight based system?

Just doing a reboot....

[leehack]

We are getting mixed up!

Trust me Samantha, I am not the one mixed up here. I am not sure i can really explain it any more than what i already have. I will try once more though:

If you recall i said you needed to think laterally, i also said to forget about the real weight of the chemical, i also said put in 25kg as the weight of the chemicals and i also said to think of weight as bananas instead to get things simpler.

If you sell chemicals, in 5, 10 & 25kg tubs, then great, that makes no difference to my solution whatsoever. FORGET the real weight of the chemical and input a weight (ie 25kg) to help get you out of this problem. So for the 5 & 10 tubs, input 25kg as their weight too.

MAKE sure Royal Mail is set to not allow orders over 20Kg, then go into a chemical and put 25kg IN AS IT'S WEIGHT. Upload the store, go and buy that chemical and try to use Royal Mail for postage.

As the chemical will weigh over 20kg, it will not allow it. FORGET the real weight of the chemicals, concentrate on the dummy weight you have included or the 'bananas' weight as we have called it.

[OriginalTouch]

OK get your idea

What about the weight for the other zones though - when the weight of the chemicals will actually be needed to calculate shipping?

ie 6 x 5kg = 30kg which is a weight base for shipping?

Will that weight not carry over to the other zones?

Rebooted system - (snapshot taken)
Still error message at 'checking account data' uploading stage

[OriginalTouch]

OK got actinic working again through compacting and purging - seems it was looking for old images that are not within the database!

Thinking about the delivery options still - maybe using categories in which to include all filters - not sure yet if that will work

it's very hard to explain a complete business setup in a couple of emails and then transfer it to different software!

[OriginalTouch]

As a test I set up a Northern Ireland client.

Under zone Northern Ireland I set up 2 delivery classes:
- pallets <500kg = ｣65
- Royal Mail filters<20kg ｣15 (CATEGORY filters)

He orders 1 filter - great the cart says ｣15 (RM)
He orders 1 chemical (10kg) - no charge! (It doesn't know where to put it I guess)

I would have hoped that as the chemical is not in the CATEGORY filters, that it would have reverted to the pallets class.

Then I thought about putting another class for <20kg chemicals with the same settings as the pallets.
But category shipping prices require prices per item, not by weight.

I'll probably have to look at this again tomorrow!
If you take a look at my site -just look at the filters and the water treatment as they are the only ones I have set up with weights at the moment.

[OriginalTouch]

Just in case anyone is interested, had to rejig carriage charges to suit Acxtinic rather than the other way around but it's as close as it's going to get.

For that one zone that is a problem, deleted all shipping classes except the one based on category. Put the filters category at a set price per item and then for the rest of the items (or default) put a set fixed price per order (ie pallet).

Sort of works for me.

Just a shame that this "shipping by category" option does not allow a weight based calculation. Then we would have shipping by weight and by zone and by category in one!