Shipping issues when download is included

[HeleneWallis]

We have both physical products and free downloads. If a customer chooses a download as the first item in an order, and then one of the physical products, the only option for shipping is Store Pickup. Sometimes people email us to ask how to choose an appropriate shipping method, but more often they just put the order through with no shipping included and we have to email them to explain that we can't ship for free. Sometimes we're able to get hold of them that way and sometimes we end up having to call them multiple times and sometimes we have to just cancel the order because we're never able to reach the customer. And sometimes even when we do get hold of them and explain the situation, they angrily demand to cancel the order because we're doing a 'bait and switch' on shipping.

I can't add shipping to downloads because it's common for people to just download one of our free articles without buying anything. If the download is not the first item in the product list, the shipping works fine. We really need some way for people to download things without them showing up as actual orders. I expected that to be possible but apparently it is not. Is there not some fix or workaround for this? I have three orders right now that I can't ship until I hear back from the customers.

[lat9]

Which version of 1.5.5, what template and which shipping modules are enabled?

[HeleneWallis]

1.5.5a, the classic template and the shipping modules are store pickup, USPS and UPS. We do have local sales, so store pickup has to be enabled to keep those people from being charged shipping. I guess what I don't really understand is why downloads are considered to be a product at all. I could see why some people might want to create a product category called 'downloads' and treat them as a product, but I wish that wasn't forced on us. I don't particularly care how many people download something and I don't need to track who they are.

[HeleneWallis]

I found a recommendation that downloads not be given free shipping status because shipping is free by definition for downloads, so I changed the single remaining downloadable item to standard shipping. When I confirm the update, it still shows as having free shipping and an order in which the downloadable file is the first item still does not show shipping options.