Shipping and Pre-Order/Upcoming Items

[comicmegastore]

We are having trouble charging fair shipping rates for items we have available for Pre-Orders/upcoming products.

Currently we are charging shipping on a per-item basis which works out great for items we have in stock. The problem comes in when customers order Pre-Order products and current items in stock at the same time.

We are an online comic boos store ... so for instance a customer may order 5 comic books and of those five one may be currently in stock, one may be released next month and than the next one released the next month and so on. We have t ship them as they are released.

Now if the customer orders all five comics that are in stock they pay one shipping charge with their order for the number of comics they ordered and I ship the comics.

But if they order comics that are to be shipped on consecutive months they still pay the one shipping charge, but we will have to ship the comics individually each month and our shipping charges will be much more than was paid at the time of the order.

Is there anything we can do to have separate shipping charges apply to pre-order products so when customers order them they are paying for the shipping for each individual comic. Basically an extra shipping fee that can be added to pre-order products only.

Our site is Comic Mega Store

Your help will be GREATLY Appreciated!

[comicmegastore]

I also wanted to mention that we are currently using the Zone Rate shipping module calculated by item.

[Ajeh]

Are you using the Date Available: (products_date_available field from the products table) to determine which of these Products needs the extra charge?

If so, you could customize the shipping module to calculate how many of the Products in the cart have a products_date_available set for greater than the current date and then calculate an additional charge for them to be added to the current shipping charge ...

It sounds like you need a an item charge based on products_date_available ...

This might be a bit tricky to write but it can be done ...

[comicmegastore]

Are you using the Date Available: (products_date_available field from the products table) to determine which of these Products needs the extra charge?

If so, you could customize the shipping module to calculate how many of the Products in the cart have a products_date_available set for greater than the current date and then calculate an additional charge for them to be added to the current shipping charge ...

It sounds like you need a an item charge based on products_date_available ...

This might be a bit tricky to write but it can be done ...

Thank you for responding to our post!

I do use the date available field. And an item charge based on products_date_available sounds like what we need, but unfortunately we have no idea how to implement this to work.

I was thinking for each pre-ordered item a shipping charge of $2.50 added for that item. Though, if a customer orders 5 of one particular pre-order item the charge should still only be $2.50.

Also if it makes things easier I could create a product category called "Pre-Order" and as the dates become current move the products to their proper category.

I have a basic understanding of programing and PHP, but am far from an expert. This is hurting us so we need all the help we could get!

[Ajeh]

If this Pre-Order category was the master_categories_id it would be easier if it were a charger per product x quantity ...

Let's say the categories_id was 10 ... if you had:
1 x Product 3
3 x Product 4
5 x Product 12

You would get from:
$_SESSION['cart']->in_cart_check('master_categories_id','10')

the quantity 9 ...

If you need to do this in a different manner where you want to charge 1 amount per Product vs Quantity, then you would need to work a more complex test for computing the charge ...

[comicmegastore]

If this Pre-Order category was the master_categories_id it would be easier if it were a charger per product x quantity ...

Let's say the categories_id was 10 ... if you had:
1 x Product 3
3 x Product 4
5 x Product 12

You would get from:
$_SESSION['cart']->in_cart_check('master_categories_id','10')

the quantity 9 ...

If you need to do this in a different manner where you want to charge 1 amount per Product vs Quantity, then you would need to work a more complex test for computing the charge ...

This way is a lot better than the way we have it now and I think it could work. I am going to create a master category "Pre-Order" now and add a few of the pre-orders.

Once this is done ... I'm not sure what to do next?

[comicmegastore]

This way is a lot better than the way we have it now and I think it could work. I am going to create a master category "Pre-Order" now and add a few of the pre-orders.

Once this is done ... I'm not sure what to do next?

OK, I just created a pre-order category and added a couple of the pre-order products. The category id is "123". I have it set as disabled for now until I understand what to do next.

Thanks for all your help!

[Ajeh]

This code change to the Zone Rate zones shipping module:
/includes/modules/shipping/zones.php

// bof: add additional charge for categories_id 123
      global $cart;
      $chk_products_upcoming = $_SESSION['cart']->in_cart_check('master_categories_id','123');
      $extra_charge = $chk_products_upcoming * 2.50;

      $this->quotes = array('id' => $this->code,
                            'module' => MODULE_SHIPPING_ZONES_TEXT_TITLE,
                            'methods' => array(array('id' => $this->code,
                                                     'title' => $shipping_method,
                                                     'cost' => $shipping_cost + $extra_charge)));
// eof: add additional charge for categories_id 123

Would add an additional charge per item per quantity for Products using the master_categories_id 123 ...

If using Item Rate item you would change the code in:
/includes/modules/shipping/item.php

to read:

// bof: add additional charge for categories_id 123
      global $cart;
      $chk_products_upcoming = $_SESSION['cart']->in_cart_check('master_categories_id','123');
      $extra_charge = $chk_products_upcoming * 2.50;

      $this->quotes = array('id' => $this->code,
                            'module' => MODULE_SHIPPING_ITEM_TEXT_TITLE,
                            'methods' => array(array('id' => $this->code,
                                                     'title' => MODULE_SHIPPING_ITEM_TEXT_WAY,
                                                     'cost' => (MODULE_SHIPPING_ITEM_COST * $item_total_count) + MODULE_SHIPPING_ITEM_HANDLING + $extra_charge)));
// eof: add additional charge for categories_id 123

[Ajeh]

NOTE: if you do not want the initial charge for the Item Count, you need to subtract the $chk_products_upcoming from the Item count being used in these modules to calculate the charges for the Upcoming Products totally separate from the other Products in the cart ...

[comicmegastore]

NOTE: if you do not want the initial charge for the Item Count, you need to subtract the $chk_products_upcoming from the Item count being used in these modules to calculate the charges for the Upcoming Products totally separate from the other Products in the cart ...

Wow this is great! I did not think I would be resolving this problems so soon!

Where should I insert the above code in the zones.php