Attributes with static quantities

[chowardart]

Greetings!
I'm working with a company selling product either by singles, with two different wrappings (single and double), and some products can be boxed, by 1 ,2, 4, 6, 12 & 15 per case, and there is additional charges by these different types of packaging (add UPC labels and one other packaging option that has 5 different colors). THEN, I have be able to offer 10% discount each on the product, but not ANY of the packaging.

I can figure out most of it, but where it gets crazy is the boxes. I tried looking at Stock by Attributes but that appears to move inventory by different products, not the packaging, AND, I'm NOT looking to give people discounts for buying more product (it's an industry thing...), but they do have to pay for the boxes, and still leave room for a few select customers to get a 10% discount...

Is there something I'm missing?...

Thanks in advance even for just reading this...

[stevesh]

Your first paragraph made my head spin. Can you provide a specific example (what kind of product, wrappings (what does 'single or double' mean?) and the boxes (what's the difference between buying a 'single' product and a box of 1?).

Give us an exact description of one of these products and all of the possible permutations.

[chowardart]

(Sorry, too much coffee when I wrote that...)

Sure... Plants!

First, let me say I would have set up the selling a little different. These people have a plant, then they add on each packaging choice as an add-on cost; I would have made each option a separate part number; but we gotta deal with the customer the way they like it...

Let's say for one product, plant a, comes in a six inch pot. The choices to ship are:
Loose (only for local customers, base price)
Single Sleeved (+.25)
Double Sleeved (+.44)
Box of 6 (6 of the product plus 3.50 for the box)
Box of 12 (12 and 4.95, etc...)

These options have some variances, for some plants there has to be "locks" for the fragile stalks, and plants of different sizes fit different numbers into different box sizes. All told, we have about 20 different box sizes, 12 different sleeves (6 single and 6 double), UPC labels, and also decorative add-on pots in 5 different colors. (One family of plants has single and multiple stalks, which are separate attributes.)

I can figure how to get most of this into attributes. I created a option name of packaging, with all the different sleeve sizes as values, both single and double, and all the box sizes.
Now, there are two ways to do this, one being have the price on the product page, then add on the packaging in attributes. Problem with this is that the displayed price in the store won't work with the boxes, and what I have to put into attributes to make it correct isn't understood by the customers.
The other way is to price everything in attributes, but as with both scenarios, the inventory won't be right because one box attribute pulls multiples of the product. I can put it so it displays in the store with the correct pricing, but every order in the accounting software (in this case, Quickbooks), we have to manually adjust the quantity sold.
I also need a way to separate the cost of the product from the cost of the packaging, so we can create a group of "special" customers who get 10% off the product, without discounting the packaging, which cannot be done the second way.

Ideal would be to be able to add the packaging, subtract the right amount from inventory, which I think means multiple attributes, but the customer would have to correctly choose the right options together (like THAT'S going to happen!), or is there a way to combine attributes together on the back-end?

Is that clearer?

Now, I've tried to use the factor and offset settings but can't find the right way...

And, I was looking at the "Attributes Qty Price Discount", and wondering, is this a place for a formula?

Thank you for your time!

[stevesh]

Clearer, I guess. So if you take inventory update out of the equation, you can get everything as you want it ?

It looks like pricing by attribute would be the way to go except for the inventory question. Have you looked at the Stock By Attributes mod ?

This might also be of use: http://www.zen-cart.com/downloads.php?do=file&id=618