Interesting Shipping Problem - Up for the challenge?

Hey All

I have a shipping system that I just don't seem able to fit into any of the current shipping modules (including the Multi Geo Zone, Multi Table).

If I can run this by you all and if anyone could make a suggestion as to how to tackle this it would be great as I am not one to give up easily but after two days of bashing my head against the wall I am pretty much stuck and ready to learn from the masters. :smartalec:

So...

There are two different types of product each with a different delivery price to each zone and there are four zones. Each item has a higher delivery price in each zone for the first item of its type and then subsequent items have a lower price

Zone A
Product Type A - 20.00
Subsequent Type A - 10.00

Product Type B - 40.00
Subsequent Type B - 10.00

Zone B
Product Type A - 48.00
Subsequent Type A - 15.00

Product Type B - 68.00
Subsequent Type B - 15.00

Zone C
Product Type A - 55.00
Subsequent Type A - 20.00

Product Type B - 95.00
Subsequent Type B - 20.00

Zone D
Product Type A - 55.00
Subsequent Type A - 20.00

Product Type B - 20.00
Subsequent Type B - 10.00

The zones are all areas of the British Isles so Scotland, Ireland, UK etc.

From experience, how would you guys go about tackling this as I have looked at all the options and I just dont seem able to make any of them fit.

Has anyone got any suggestions on the best way to make this work or will i have to compromise and look at something different?

Many thanks to all that reply!
Marcus

This can be done, but you would need a custom shipping module able to identify the various product types and know how to count the number of items per type ...

You would need some type of identifier for this to know which product is which product type ...

If you do not use products_weight, that field could be worked into this code ...

It would take some work to write this, but it could be done ...

Hey Ajeh

So I take it this can't be done in the confines of the currently available modules etc so it would be a custom module to do this.

Thanks for the reply, I am going to have to give that one some thought as I am a programmer but am just getting started with Zen. Maybe this could be something that would be useful to the zen community so maybe I will give it a shot :)

Still, I do need to get this store up and running with postage to different zones costing less. Could I do this with the geo zone mod if I forgot about the subsequent postage being less?

Thanks again!

Marcus

There is a Per Unit perweightunit Shipping module where the products_weight is used as the cost ...

If you were to set these as relational to one another ...

You could clone this module for each zone and by setting a products_weight to 20 then the unit rate to 1 it would be $20.00 shipping ...

Next clone for the 2nd zone set the unit to 2 and it would be 20 *2 or $40.00 ...

This might be an alternative for you ...