Shipping Delima

[haredo]

Zen Cart 1.5.5
No Add On

Using Flat Rate Shipping
12 individual products/bottles fit into one Medium Flat Rate Box.
So if a customer selects 10 products it all fits into the Medium Flat Rate Box.
But I have 1 product with 6 bottles which is a package/special.
So If they order the package/special (6 bottle) plus 8 individual products I have to use 2 Flat Rate Boxes.
How can I configure the shipping to trigger after 12 products to add more shipping ?????

[kobra]

I suspect that using flat rate that you are not using weight function??

You can then assign a weight of "1" to all bottle products and then in your
admin > config > Shipping/Packaging >Enter the Maximum Package Weight you will ship > enter 12

This should trigger an additional box when order is over 12

[dbltoe]

What about this?

Let's say that you don't use flat rate shipping. You use the USPS shipping to allow low-price shipping for single/small items.

For example, in Haredo's scenario, the individual who orders 13 of an item winds up paying shipping for 24. A person who orders one, pays for shipping 12.

Today's customer is very savvy on shipping costs and may balk at buying a product if they feel they are being gouged by shipping.

We have a customer who sells sockets and light bulbs for night lights. They are about an ounce each. Using weight settings in USPS will let a customer checkout with 100 units which will NEVER fit in a small flat rate box. Of course they can ship priority by weight but our customer will lose money if their customer selects small flat rate box. But still, our customer needs to provide some method for shipping a small quantity of the item.

Can you think of a solution that might help in both of our situations?
THANX

[haredo]

@Kobra
Thanks worked perfect ...
For the special I used 6 for the weight and all the rest of the products 1 for the weight ...
Added the 12 to the: admin > config > Shipping/Packaging >Enter the Maximum Package Weight
When I added The Special 6 bottles and 7 individual bottles in an order the shipping triggered the extra box and increased the shipping ...

Thanks ....

[RixStix]

What about this?

Let's say that you don't use flat rate shipping. You use the USPS shipping to allow low-price shipping for single/small items.

For example, in Haredo's scenario, the individual who orders 13 of an item winds up paying shipping for 24. A person who orders one, pays for shipping 12.

Today's customer is very savvy on shipping costs and may balk at buying a product if they feel they are being gouged by shipping.

We have a customer who sells sockets and light bulbs for night lights. They are about an ounce each. Using weight settings in USPS will let a customer checkout with 100 units which will NEVER fit in a small flat rate box. Of course they can ship priority by weight but our customer will lose money if their customer selects small flat rate box. But still, our customer needs to provide some method for shipping a small quantity of the item.

Can you think of a solution that might help in both of our situations?
THANX

Similar situation here... our items weigh 0.1 pound
Up to 15.9 ounces: 1st class available.

We know we can fit X number items in a sm fr box, Y number items in a Regional A box, Z number in a medium fr box.
We set the min/max weight of the various fr boxes according to the weight of that number of items which can fit in the boxes.

In our case 0-1.5 pounds = sm fr
1.51 - 3.00 pounds = regional a
3.01 - 7.00 = medium fr
7.01 & up = large fr

0.1 pound is our tare.

Does that help?

[dbltoe]

I think our situation is just too complicated for that. It may be in our best interest to just go by weight and credit back to those who can fit in the various flat rate boxes.

You see, this customer has suncatchers which way about 4 ounces and they can put 10-15 in a small flat rate box. The key chains will fit 3-40 and sockets with bulbs about 4. One nightlight complete with socket and bulb is about all that will fit.

So it's sort of like shipping lead and feathers. One box does not fit all.

[RixStix]

I tried

Those small credits can be a PIA when the processors charge fees for payments and for refunds/credits.

[dbltoe]

I suspect that using flat rate that you are not using weight function??

You can then assign a weight of "1" to all bottle products and then in your
admin > config > Shipping/Packaging >Enter the Maximum Package Weight you will ship > enter 12

This should trigger an additional box when order is over 12

This worked great in a similar situation until.....
The solution was tested before the installation of the new USPS update. Setting items to 1 and max shipping to any number worked a treat each time.
Then, the new USPS settings were loaded and things went haywire. It appears that the USPS previous settings could have cared less about any tare settings in your_admin >> Configuration >> Shipping/Packaging.
Both Package Tare... and Larger Packages... had to be set to 0:0 or the added amounts would cause X (the ordered max amount) to become X + 1 and trigger another box fee for shipping.
Once set to 0:0, everything works just fine.

[kobra]

dbltoe,
Thanks for correcting this for USPS - -
Yes, making max pkg weight 12 would/will require tares to be 0:0 else the pkg weight trips another box