Hopefully simple "Flat Rate" assistance needed...

Hi everyone,

I've looked about the forums for this and keep finding suggestions to 'edit' modules and such and I'm not sure thats what I need. I'm trying to understand how the Flat Rate shipping module works and how to effectively use it.

I sell sports equipment and clothing. My clothing is set to configure shipping methods and prices via the weight of the clothing. I also sell skateboards. These only ship via FedEx and have a flat rate set per skateboard.

How can I set my shop to sell my skateboards for one price and have the shipping be flat rate for each deck sold?

Deck One - $40.00 (shipping = $11.00)
Deck Two - $37.99 (shipping = $11.00)
No matter which deck they select, no matter what it actually cost, the shipping price is always the same.

I originally simply added the flat rate price to the cost of the deck and set it to Free Shipping ($39.99 + $11.00 = $50.99), but that taxes the whole fee (deck + shipping) and I don't think thats right...

Any suggestions?

Thanks much...

In theory, all of your Products with weight get shipped FedEx and all of your Products without weight should be sent Flat Rate ... is this correct?

If so, what happens if I have a Product in the cart with weight that FedEx says is $8.00 to ship and 1 Product in the cart with 0 weight ...

What happens if I have a Product in the cart with weight that FedEx says is $8.00 to ship and 2 Product in the cart with 0 weight ...

The idea being, if you could "count" how many Products have 0 weight, then you know how many items are in the cart that do not get the FedEx shipping cost ...

Well, no, I think I explained this wrong...

First, FedEx isn't calculated in the cart. Its not even turned on. Its shipping cost (as far as the shop is concerned) is based on weight or size... I want it to simply be a set flat rate. Always. The clothing is shipped by weight. My shipping options are only USPS. 1st Class, Priority or 1st Class International. I don't offer UPS.

What I am looking for is a way to make both of these work. If someone buys some shirts and a skateboard, I would like the shirts to calculate their shipping via USPS and the skateboard not to select a shipping method, but rather be charged a straight flat rate. In the skateboard product description, it will say 'all skateboards ship separately via FedEx.'

Hopefully I've made more sense this time...

Thank you

Let's assume I know nothing about your shop ... :smile:

You have some things that use USPS ... that is managed by the USPS shipping module, correct?

You have other things that are going to be shipped FedEx, but you are not using the FedEx module, you want a Flat Rate charge ... correct?

What I am trying to determine here is what happens when you have a mixed cart of stuff by USPS and FedEx (skateboards)?

What happens if you have 3 skateboards in one order?

If I calculated the USPS based on weight of the products ... then counted the number of skateboards ... wouldn't I some how be able to determine how much to add to the USPS shipping for the skateboards? :unsure:

"Let's assume I know nothing about your shop ... :smile:

You have some things that use USPS ... that is managed by the USPS shipping module, correct?"

Correct

"You have other things that are going to be shipped FedEx, but you are not using the FedEx module, you want a Flat Rate charge ... correct?"

One category only, but yes... Correct

"What I am trying to determine here is what happens when you have a mixed cart of stuff by USPS and FedEx (skateboards)?

What happens if you have 3 skateboards in one order?"

At the moment, nothing... I haven't sold them like this yet. I am just adding them to the shop. As of right now, until this is worked out, I have them set as Free Shipping, with the shipping price including in the shown price.

"If I calculated the USPS based on weight of the products ... then counted the number of skateboards ... wouldn't I some how be able to determine how much to add to the USPS shipping for the skateboards? :unsure:"

I'm not sure what you are asking here...

What I thought I could do was use the FLAT RATE module, set the price to $11.00 (which is what it cost me to ship a skateboard) and apply this to all skateboards in the shop. I imagined by using the Flat Rate module that should a customer purchase three t-shirts and one skateboard, the shop would calculate only the non-flat rate appointed products.

One Skate board $38.99 + $11.00 (flat rate) = $49.99
Three Tees $32.11 + $ 7.95 (USPS) = $40.06

Total to Customer $90.05

I don't want to add the FedEx module to my shop because I don't ship anything else out via FedEx and since the price is always the same, there's nothing to calculate. I'm thinking now though, this may be something the shop can't do without paying a chunk of change to have something written/coded.

Thanks for your assistance...

If all products except the skateboards are charged based on USPS charges, then you could set the skateboard weight to 0 to not affect that charge and then count the number of skateboards to add that charge to the USPS charge ...

All that is needed is something to identify the skateboards, such as 0 weight on them using:

$skateboards = $_SESSION['cart']->in_cart_check('products_weight', '0');

This would return the item count of the skateboards based on those Products using a products_weight of 0 ...

So if 1 is in the cart you get 1, if 3 are in the cart you get 3 ... now you can determine how much more to add to the USPS charge for the other products ...