Is this possible???

[pewe]

I have searched and cannot find an obvious solution to my problem which is as follows -

In my store there will be items which require collection as well as items which can be sent by courier/post.

Each item available for courier/post has its own individual shipping cost (I use the weight mod from picaflor-azul.com to add the cost in the weight field).

The issue is that if more than one item is purchased it could result in a mix where there should be no shipping fee as one or more items are to be collected - so they could all be collected, or if multiple items with shipping are chosen the total shipping may be different due to economy of scale.

The way zen-cart works the customer has to purchase and pay for shipping fees they should not incur, and I then would have to refund the difference manually.

It would be better if customers could order items but not pay for them until I have an opportunity to amend the order prior to them paying, then for them to pay using Papal.

Does anyone have any ideas if/how I could do this?

(Alternatively, can anyone suggest alternative methods which removes the need for refunds.)

[twitchtoo]

My first take on a solution is to have the order total split out the shipping costs separately in the checkout.

The order would look like this:
Customer Order:
item 1 cost $2.00
- shipping - $0 pickup

item 2 cost $3.00
- shipping - $10 flat rate

item 3 cost $10.00
- shipping - $0 pickup

Order Total - Shipping Expense Summary:
pickup - 2 items = $0
flat rate - 1 item = $10

Order Sub Total:
All the pricing comes together here and the customer proceeds through to payment.

I'm uncertain of any code that exists to do this to date.

[mc12345678]

I have searched and cannot find an obvious solution to my problem which is as follows -

In my store there will be items which require collection as well as items which can be sent by courier/post.

Each item available for courier/post has its own individual shipping cost (I use the weight mod from picaflor-azul.com to add the cost in the weight field).

The issue is that if more than one item is purchased it could result in a mix where there should be no shipping fee as one or more items are to be collected - so they could all be collected, or if multiple items with shipping are chosen the total shipping may be different due to economy of scale.

The way zen-cart works the customer has to purchase and pay for shipping fees they should not incur, and I then would have to refund the difference manually.

It would be better if customers could order items but not pay for them until I have an opportunity to amend the order prior to them paying, then for them to pay using Papal.

Does anyone have any ideas if/how I could do this?

(Alternatively, can anyone suggest alternative methods which removes the need for refunds.)

Paypal has a setting in ZC that basically requires the store owner to intervene and authorize payment/collection. Generally speaking this would be for every purchase, not just for particular items/types of items. If you change payment option from final sale to auth only, then you should be afforded the opportunity to modify the payment amount before the customer is initially charged.

Again, not an ideal situation, but answers the question asked.

[pewe]

Paypal has a setting in ZC that basically requires the store owner to intervene and authorize payment/collection. Generally speaking this would be for every purchase, not just for particular items/types of items. If you change payment option from final sale to auth only, then you should be afforded the opportunity to modify the payment amount before the customer is initially charged.

Again, not an ideal situation, but answers the question asked.

Thanks for the responses guys.

I have the Paypal setting as Auth, and on checkout the purchaser is still sent directly to Paypal for payment.

Is there another setting I am missing?

[mc12345678]

Thanks for the responses guys.

I have the Paypal setting as Auth, and on checkout the purchaser is still sent directly to Paypal for payment.

Is there another setting I am missing?

They are still going to get sent to paypal to obtain payment information, the thing is that they shouldn't actually get charged until you have authorized the payment. (That's my understanding of how it works.) There is information on the paypal site about how that feature works, and I haven't read it for a long while.

The idea is that paypal collects the payment information (not you at your site) and "holds" on to the transaction until you have said "go". This maintains the privacy of the customer's payment info and allows you to eventually get paid.

[twitchtoo]

Solid state code will relieve the dependency of every process beyond the order subtotal... unless you like processing refunds? I've found everyone likes charging for 'mistakes' these days

[DivaVocals]

Paypal has a setting in ZC that basically requires the store owner to intervene and authorize payment/collection. Generally speaking this would be for every purchase, not just for particular items/types of items. If you change payment option from final sale to auth only, then you should be afforded the opportunity to modify the payment amount before the customer is initially charged.

Again, not an ideal situation, but answers the question asked.

Thanks for the responses guys.

I have the Paypal setting as Auth, and on checkout the purchaser is still sent directly to Paypal for payment.

Is there another setting I am missing?

^^^^ **co-signing on this suggestion

This was going to be my suggestion as I have one client who does this.. Because the product has to be ordered and packed before it can be shipped, he does not like to charge his customer's credit card until the order is on a truck and on the way to them.

Another suggestion is to look at the Ceon Advanced Shipper package.. it is designed just for shops where different products may have varying carriers and shipping costs.. It's BRILLIANTLY written (as was all of the late Conor Kerr's software) and well worth the small cost of the package..

[pewe]

Thanks again.

I had a look at the documentation about 'Auth' on the Paypal site, and it appears that it will allow me to do what I need - it just means I will have to go to Paypal and 'capture' full (for single item) or reduced payment (for multiple items) for every order.

I will test it out later.

----
In an ideal world it would be nice if there was a way to get the paypal system to use 'Order' if there was only one item in the cart and to use 'Auth' if there was more than one item - but unfortunately we don't live in an ideal world.
It could probably be done as a plugin by an experienced coder but I'm not sure how many zen-cart users would need such a facility and it would be a 'special'.

[mc12345678]

Solid state code will relieve the dependency of every process beyond the order subtotal... unless you like processing refunds? I've found everyone likes charging for 'mistakes' these days

Thanks again.

I had a look at the documentation about 'Auth' on the Paypal site, and it appears that it will allow me to do what I need - it just means I will have to go to Paypal and 'capture' full (for single item) or reduced payment (for multiple items) for every order.

I will test it out later.

----
In an ideal world it would be nice if there was a way to get the paypal system to use 'Order' if there was only one item in the cart and to use 'Auth' if there was more than one item - but unfortunately we don't live in an ideal world.
It could probably be done as a plugin by an experienced coder but I'm not sure how many zen-cart users would need such a facility and it would be a 'special'.

I didn't get a chance to ring in on twitchtoo's statement and maybe wasn't totally clear, having the issue repaired upfront (possibly using a utility such as CEON's described by Diva Vocal) is better for everyone than having to take all sort of extra actions downstream, even if that extra action is to keep the money from those that did not owe it.

As for the coding within paypal, all of the information should be available to accomplish the desired task. I guess the only thing that would concern me is that I am thinking that the value path to take is declared as a constant, if some comparison was to be done looking for one or one+ items what should be done to prevent any kind of outside influenced modification, if there is one to worry about. Thing is can't declare a constant again if it has the life of the session as what will happen if customer changes mind about cart contents? Ugh, starts down the path of addresses...

Anyways, all can be done, faster by some than others. :)

[twitchtoo]

Resolving the problem on the shopping cart page is simple math along with some code. Why jump through hoops?