Shipping issue with Scottish addresses

[ianhoughton]

I have our shipping setup using zones / class tables like this:

1. 1. UK Mainland - 3 working days
2. 2. UK Mainland - Next working day
3. 3. Aberdeen
4. 4. Scottish Highlands
5. 5. Guernsey - Jersey - IOM
6. 6. Northern Ireland

The problem is, we're getting orders from say Aberdeen that have the default shipping cost of UK Mainland. Our supplier charges extra for postage to Aberdeen, and we end up with cancelling the order and an upset customer. Is there a way to ensure that higher cost areas, select the correct postage class ?

[leehack]

Sounds like you are relying on your customers to choose the correct shipping service, where what you should ideally be doing is limiting the correct services to the correct locations and thus they could not choose an inappropriate service.

Setup your locations in the settings menu.

Create zones that use those locations.

Included the appropriate classes into those zones.

[ianhoughton]

Can you expand a little on your comment ?

I'm presuming I'll need to add all counties under the United Kingdom location ? Then say for Aberdeenshire, make sure that the correct shipping cost is associated ?

[leehack]

Setup your 'locations' as mentioned, these can be countries, areas, counties etc. basically an area of the world that is not setup as standard that you wish to ship to and treat differently.

When you create your zone in the shipping area, you choose the 'locations' to be included in it (right click > properties). You then choose the classes (shipping services) that you wish to provide to that location. Thus when someone chooses a location, they only get the shipping services (classes) that operate in that location.

The inbuilt help is probably better at explaining, have a read of that.

[Darren B]

we still rely on customers choosing the correct area charges, and to be honest most do now we have added clear text that says if you select the wrong area your order will be subject to delays while we contact you.

Seems to worrk for 99.9% but some still chance it. But this thread reminds me that i need to look at what you have suggested Lee