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Which options are not showing up, so that we can try to get this resolved for anyone having the same problem, because I am sure there is more out there.
i mentioned this in a previous post, but i cannot get USPS Airmail Parcel Post to show up as a valid option for Canadian customers.
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I do not understand what you mean by the first part here, but in regards to changing charges for supplies, I do not think this is heard of. I do not know anyone that charges or does not charge because they did or did not pay for the shipping supplies. It is great to be honest about shipping, but you can only go as to far as being as accurate as you can. I do not think anyone hits their charges right on, and thus either use flat rate shipping or issue a markup so no losses or out of pocket money occurs.
my domestic customers are smart enough to know that USPS Priority Mail supplies are free from the post office. if i try to charge them a "shipping materials" fee for that method of delivery, they'll see it as a transparent attempt to pass along a fee that i didn't have to pay on their behalf. however, if i ship via UPS or USPS Airmail Parcel Post overseas, I have to charge $0.50 or whatever it is for the cost of the boxes and packing materials. the global S/H charge feature as implemented by MC does not allow for this distinction. for people who want to pass along overhead charges and enforce a handling fee for all shipments no matter where they go or how they go, then the MC S/H charge is a perfect place for it. however, i don't charge handling fees, and as long as the S/H line item stays implemented as it is, i have to put a $0.00 entry in there.
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Isn't this currently possible in the shipping manager in one of the first steps or are you refering to something else?
well, yes. but at this point i'm explaining how i think the system should be configured. all i'm really saying is that MC can keep the global S/H line item for customers who want to charge handling fees. for me, even if MC changed the implementation to the one i recommend, i'd still enter $0.00 for a global S/H charge line item.
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For the time being why not just markup the products weight for yourself by your specified "global amount"
i simply can't do this. i have approx. 1300 products, varying in weight from 0.1 lbs to 1lb. i have no way of knowing for a given shipment weight of 1lb whether i have ten 0.1lb items or one 1lb item. to build in a fudge factor for each product weight would be next to useless. for example. my packaging averages 0.5lb in weight. if a customer orders a 1lb product, then i want the shipping calculator to have 1.5lb as the working weight for use in determining the rates. by your suggestion, i should enter this 1lb product weight as 1.5lb. however, let's say somebody orders 3 of those 1lb products... the shipping calculator would use the offset amount of 1.5lb and calculate a working weight of the package as 4.5lb when it is really 3.5lb. now, working in the other direction... what if a customer orders one 0.1lb item? should that also get a 0.5lb offset? what about the customer who orders ten 0.1lb items... if my system used an offset amount of 0.6lb for each item, the shipping calculator would see 6lbs instead of the accurate 1.5lb amount it should see.
as implemented, the MC solution just doesn't allow for proper shipping calculations for my merchandise, and even if i were to pull numbers out of thin air to try and adjust my weights, the results would be equally as bad.
MC needs to have a weight offset per shipping option. this would allow some weight fudge factor to account for boxes and packing materials and allow the real-time weight calculators to work on REAL weights.
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Undejj created a script that allows you to add text in the checkout pages:
although clever, that's not really the correct solution. i haven't looked at the script, but it uses javascript to bring up a pop-up window, right?
what i'm asking for is a store owner textbox just like what's made available in the HTML options elsewhere in the admin manager. i'd also like to customize the verbage presented to the customer for the real-time shipping options. right now, you can only select from a list already prepared by Monstercommerce.
for example, for USPS Airmail Parcel Post, i'd like the option presented as "USPS Airmail Parcel Post (insurance required)". if i could edit the text description of that real-time shipping option, i would. right now, i cannot.
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As a lot of people have this goal, I think it is very hard to accomplish considering all the charges and changes with shipping these days. I understand were you are coming from, but to hit it right on the nail I would think is somewhat immposible. I think you can come close but not exact. I think after a few times of studying shipping patterns and cost you should be able to do this. I think if you keep trying to fiiddle with hitting it right on, you are going to keep eating that money.
but it shouldn't be hard! all of the pieces are in place to do this, it's just that MC HASN'T PUT THEM ALL TOGETHER!!! shipping is simple algebra...
(A + B) * R + C + D = E
A = product weight
B = shipping materials weight
R = rate by weight for a given shipping method
C = global charge (handling, etc.)
D = insurance as a function of product cost
E = total shipping costs
all of this can be specified and looked up in real time.
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I have complained about the rates not being right but they are pulled directly from this shipping carriers servers. I think the problem is that when calculating these costs there is not way to calculate other costs such as residential fees, fuel, signature, surcharges , etc. Therefore , I do not think it is a problem with
's integration.
i haven't yet reached the point where i can complain about the rate lookups being wrong... i still can't get a reasonable estimate on shipping from the MC formulas or even get all of the valid shipping options to show up properly.
my customers are repeat customers, and i have lots of international sales. the typical order is $40 - $80 worth of merchandise, and typically comes in at between 0.75lb and 1.5lb. for international Airmail Parcel Post rates, we are talking $14 - $16 in proper postage, plus $1 or $2 for insurance. these are steep rates and i am as unhappy about the USPS price gouging as anyone else, but the last thing i need to do is compound this problem by overestimating my shipping charges by $3 or $4 because of the generous use of fudge factors (shipping mark-ups and S/H charges in the current MC implementation). once the postage rates start looking ridiculous, the customer will just abort the checkout process and i'll lose the sale - THIS IS WHAT MY BIGGEST CONCERN IS! i simply must have a way of conveying accurate postage/insurance costs to the customer during the checkout process because i'm not involved at that point and cannot clarify what the actual rates would be. once the order goes through, i can follow up with an e-mail and let them know what the actual weight/rate for their package would be. but how many sales will i lose because i can't get the MC implementation to work properly during the checkout process (sure, the MC implementation "works" right now, it's just not implemented in the way that i think it should be).
so i am at a loss. i can't get USPS Airmail Parcel Post to show up for Canadian customers (for example), i cannot get accurate cart weights to use with the real-time shipping calculators, i cannot get insurance costs generated as a function of price/shipping method, and i'm losing a couple of bucks out of pocket on every order i ship. i'm frustrated, annoyed, and concerned about this issue all at once, and i would like to see MC address it in the very near term. this is not the sort of thing that can wait for v4.1. it needs to be fixed now, or i'll have to switch over to flat rate custom shipping methods (which i personally hate as a customer).
does anyone know how to get a custom shipping method to either show up or not show up depending upon destination country?
. When i put in my zip code (with an item that weights 10 pounds in my cart) what happens? Does the 
In reality they are not going to be able to do that! They may come close, but it will take some time. 
In any service related industry, you can make and sell a product and the best you can hope for is to make it the best possible solution for as many of your clients as possible. 
Our best feature is really our service and support.