Automatically Add / Remove Product to / from Cart

[digruk]

Trying not to reinvent the wheel on this one. Long story short, I am wondering if it is possible to do the following...

[ZenCart 1.3.9h, Several Customized Modules, but none that would affect the question at hand]

Here is the scenario I desire:

When a customer chooses Product A (at full retail price) a second (highly discounted) Product A is automatically added to the cart. If the full price Product A is removed, the Discounted Product A is removed as well. If the customer adds multiple quantities of full price Product A to the cart, the discounted Product A is also added in equal multiples.

I have looked closely at AutoAdd by ThatSoftwareGuy, but I need the solution to remove the discounted item as well (auto add merely adds the product). I have also looked at the BetterTogether Modules, but need the adding of the second Product A to be seamless rather than an Up Sell, Cross Sell or otherwise marketed product.

I have also read the article on Wiki on how to add Observer and Notifier Classes...
http://www.zen-cart.com/wiki/index.p...Observer_Class but I guess I am too dumb to fully understand how to implement this solution.

Any help or direction would be greatly appreciated.

-Digruk

[schoolboy]

If I was a customer I would get extremely annoyed at the store owners presumption (and insistence) that the store owner dumps products in my cart at THEIR call. And then if I don't want the auto-added product(s) I have to MANUALLY remove them.

Imagine if you are in a supermarket, pushing the trolley around, and tailing you is some store employee who - at intervals - chucks products into the trolley as you do your shopping. I would give the guy a fat smack, I'm sure - or at least a good tongue-lashing!

How DARE the store owner PRESUME I am interested in buying a product, or taking up a special offer?

I would abandon your store in a flash. I think many others would too.

[digruk]

I am going to ignore the tone of the previous post as you don't have all the information to understand WHY the Store Owner wants said functionality. I did not include the background information as it really doesn't affect the functionality needed. But since there is some question, I shall explain.

The store owner is running an "As Seen on TV" campaign. The TV deal is buy one of their advertized products for $19.95 and get the second one FREE (just pay additional Shipping and Processing). Like it or not, this is standard As Seen on TV promotions.

I have looked at (installed and configured) several Buy One Get One Free options, and those work fine, but I run into difficulty implementing a Processing Fee on the "Free" product. Meaning, the BOGO modules simply add the second FREE product to the cart... I am not able to associate a "Processing Fee" with it.

I am also utilizing the Advanced Shipper Module (by Ceon) as the store owner has some unique shipping offers too. Within Advanced Shipper, I have utilized the Surcharge Fee to add the additional processing fee. However, the heartburn I have is, I don't like to lump the Processing Fee into the Shipping Module as that ends up inflating the shipping costs and will ultimately scare away customers. I have modified the shipping modules to reflect "Shipping & Processing" and have added details and totals around the Shipping and Processing Fee, but I still don't like how quickly the "Shipping" portion of the checkout adds up. It just seems bloated to me.

Therefore, what I thought would be a better idea would be to have the customer add the regular priced Product to the cart and throw in the "Free" Product listing out the Processing Fee in the actual shopping cart (rather than in the shipping module). This would be much more visible and understandable than simply lumping it altogether in the Shipping Module. If the customer decides that they don't want to pay the processing fee for the second item, they can simply remove it from the cart, I am not forcing them to pay the Processing Fee for the "Free" product.

I can do all of this with AutoAdd or other modules, but what I can't prevent is the ability the consumer would have to increase the quantity of the "Free" product and get multiple products at the Processing Fee price rather than one at the retail price and one at the free price. In using the grocery store example, it would be the same as walking down the Cereal aisle, putting a box of Froot Loops in the cart, then pick up a second (or third or fourth) Froot Loop box, open it up, pull out the Free toy and putting the box(s) back on the shelf... After all, the Toy is "Free" with purchase right? This behavior is obviously not desired.

So essentially the way I have the offer currently is 2 Products for $19.95 plus S&P (Rather than BOGO + S&P). I was simply looking for a way to break out the Processing Fee from Shipping. Maybe that was the question I should have asked instead.

Hopefully that helps explain the “WHY” behind the request. Thanks for the response...

[schoolboy]

The store owner is running an "As Seen on TV" campaign. The TV deal is buy one of their advertized products for $19.95 and get the second one FREE (just pay additional Shipping and Processing). Like it or not, this is standard As Seen on TV promotions.

...

I would configure an attribute set for this, where selecting "Yes, I would like the additional product", adds the required handling fee to the cart.

So...

You set up an option NAME as a dropdown called "Do you want the BONUS PRODUCT?"

Option VALUE 1. "Please make a choice ..." (Default attribute, set to Display Only)
Option VALUE 2. "No Thanks ..."
Option VALUE 3. "Yes Please! ... " (and this is PRICED at whatever few dollars extra handling you wish to charge.)

In the COMMENTS section for that attribute, you can indicate that while the product is free, a small handling charge is levied.

In this way (just as it is in the supermarket) the CUSTOMER elects to invoke the option, and there is a clear indication that while the product is free, there is a handling charge.

[digruk]

Excellent... hadn't even thought about attributes (thinking of these mainly for size, color, etc.)

Thanks for the advice, I'll give it a shot.

Much appreciated.

[digruk]

Thanks again... I have messed around with the Attributes and have another question, if you don't mind.

I want the attribute price (in this case Shipping and Processing) to display as a separate line item in the cart. I can achieve this result if I set the S&P fee as "one time." However, the “One Time” obviously only adds the +S&P once per order, whereas I need it once per product selected.

If I set it as +Price, it adds the S&P fee per each item ordered (as desired), but it does not list out the S&P price separately, but rather merely adds it to the total product price. Am I missing something or is there a way to have the best of both worlds and show the +Price as a separate line item?

Or do I need to look at a “Handling Fee” Module to accomplish what I want?

Many Thanks!

[schoolboy]

As far as I am aware, it is not possible to separate out the attribute values in the checkout process displays.

Configuring a shipping feature (handling) would, I believe, obviate the idea to use attributes for your purpose.