Need Major Help With SHIPPING! AUGH!!!

[thorax999]

Hello I must say first I love Zen Cart but getting my head around problems with shipping is messing me up big time. I am turning to you the community to help since lots of you have made this work.

I have installed the Canada post shipping module & it works but here is my problem.

I have products of all sizes & shapes. I can choose 2 options when entering a product into my store for canada post.

product one
8" long x 4" wide x 3" Height it weights 1.1 LBS
Here is where it gets confusing if a check the box for product is ready to ship then I get correct quotes for 1 item but lets yes a customer orders 50 of these units. Canada Post see it as 50 boxes being shipped. so the price take a teriable jump up.

OK same product with the check box off which in this case canada post will try to put said product into a box a predefined by me. ok I made a box 8x8x8 = 21cmx21cmx21cm the extra cm is to allow bubble wrap with a max weight of 1.9 Kg or 4.18 LBS I set it this way so that if customer buys 2 of this item they will go into that box if they order 4 it goes to my next larger size of 10x10x10.

Now Next problem I have another product with same dimentions 8"x4"x3" but it only weights 0.68kg or 1.49 LBS in this case canada post on a order of 4 would try to put all 4 into the 10x10x10 box but in reality they can fit but I get waisted space. agian price too high. It will not put 2 each into 2 8x8x8 boxes it sees it has one complete order.

I tryed pluging in a RFQ mod & edit order Mod for request a shipping quote but it will not roll back the checkout steps so customer can pay via paypal.

Can you change the checkout procedure so that I customer orders then you give shipping quote then add in the shipping & then they pay then you ship.

or any other suggested method would be cool here at this time. It seams like I can't have my cake & eat it too. flate rate & zones can't work because of freight costs on large orders I will loose money with these unless it can be explained how to get around this problem.

changing the checkout steps would work the best since I can take the order & pick the boxes myself then do the shipping quote & then have customer pay full invoice through the shopping cart.

All suggestions welcome

[kobra]

And your site to see this is?

[thorax999]

http://www.pre-ownedbarcode.com/store/

I don't have tons of stuff up yet as I have to figure this out

[kobra]

Waiting for approval

[thorax999]

I will add this as well:
Not sure how this helps cause customer can't see the boxes canada post is grabbing I can't see them either. I have to call.

I few of my products have the check box on the product I was playing around with is a ls 4005 a trigger scanner going to either a 8x8x8 box or a 10x10x10 box I have another product that I have not uploaded with the same diamentions but it only weights 0.68kg's.
first was 2 scanners second is 4 scanners anything more it goes to my largest box 18x18x18 & I get wasted space

Once I noticed a problem I stopped adding stuff.

Oh i approved your account

[kobra]

Looking at this and the product that you specified

adding one nets
Canada Post (1 box(es) to be shipped) (Regular, 2007-10-18) $11.01

adding 6 nets
Canada Post (6 box(es) to be shipped) (Regular, 2007-10-18) $79.52

From the Canada post site and specifying for 6 a weight of 8.4 lbs and a package of 30x10x20 that might hold 6 of these this was provided as the 5 day cost
$29.65

A large difference and predicated upon the Canada post module defaults somehow??

Calling for costs is normally a deal breaker IMO and better to provide a cost that your customer can see immediately and either accept or reject.

What is your goal?

[thorax999]

I would like to see the customer get the correct price & then checkout or process the order asking for a shipping quote which I can then do then update the order with correct shipping charges & then then pay checkout completed.

Your suggestions are welcome!

[kobra]

process the order asking for a shipping quote

If you are confirmed in this do not use any shipping and make them request a quote for shipping

[thorax999]

ok but but if I do that then I would have to edit the order which I can do through another mod but it does not allow me to redisplay the paypal button so customer can pay the correct total price & then I ship.

Only way around this is give quote then send out a paypal invoice with the total price then when customer pays I just update the order to show completed.

I don't think I would like to buy from a store that way seams like some odd is going on.

If I can get the a good working list of boxes from small to large with max values for for weight for each box I might be ok & have the larger products checked off that they are ready to ship.

[kobra]

I agree with your analysis and why I atated that I thought that this would be a reason for customers to abandon their purchases and asked you what your goal was and you replied with "request a shipping quote"....

I think that you can use another method and strike a balance that will appear much more reasonable but will also mean that on some you collect more than required and others will be much closer to the actual - and can be tailored so that you very seldom charge less than required