Combined Postage Issues

[plantosphere]

Hello,

Cross posting this from the member-member board, posted there in error.

We're having some issues with combined postage, and having gone through the settings several times it's starting to make my head spin, so hopefully someone can offer some pointers?

Here's what we do / want to do:  We offer several different items and several different postage rates, e.g. Large Letter, Small Parcel, Medium Parcel, and of those Royal Mail Tracked 24, Tracked 48, Special Delivery.  All of these are defined in our Business Policies, for each Type/Method combination.

If a buyer purchases multiple items at once, it may be items with different postage rates (or multiples of the same postage rate).  We would like it to take the highest postage rate, and add a set amount per additional item, e.g. 25p/50p - this accounts for the extra packing, and potentially extra weight pushing us into the next 'band' with Royal Mail - this is mostly for Large Letter items.

This used to work just fine, but recently it's stopped working, so we're seeing orders coming through with multiple postage charges on them, which of course we're having to refund the excess.  It also seems eBay is getting extra transaction fees where buyers are paying for items separately, because combined postage isn't working.

In account settings/postage preferences, we have Combined payments allowed (5 days), we have 1 Flat Postage rule "Add an amount for each additional item" set to 25p.

In our Business Policies, each Postage Rule is set-up to Charge the postage rate, and each additional is set to zero, then below it's got "Apply my flat postage rule" ticked.

Weirdly, when I go back into a particular policy, it's somehow changed the zero/blank additional charge to the full price of the postage item again!  E.G. Tracked 24 Large Letter is £3.99, and it's now trying to charge £3.99 again for additional items, this is being reflected in the buyers basket / payment.

Initially, we did have the 25p/50p per item surcharge in this box, but that stopped working too, so we took it out and left that box blank.

Help, please, if you can, as i'm losing my marbles with this.

Thanks,

Chris.

[ile136yz]

I offer combined postage & had experience the same problem as you of the additional item going to the full postage cost on its own.

Solved the problem by

On each of my Business policies I entered  one of "My flat postage rule with profile name   -----"  so this appears on my adverts of any quantity (I have 5 different postage rules)

At the moment I have 6 Business policies Settings for the different postage rates for the UK & International & they are combining okay.

[plantosphere]

Thats interesting, I don't have the 'profile name' part after "My Flat postage Rule" it's just use my flat postage rule, with a checkbox, but no option to choose a profile.  I do only have 1 flat postage rule though, maybe i need several.

😂😩

[ile136yz]

I've just checked that the flat postage rule with profile name is still an option as I have been using it for years.

Yes it is still an option   -    Go to Sellers Preferences,   then Postage Preferences, it is below the Combined postage setting.

I have 10 different options set up at the moment.

[plantosphere]

Yep, it's set-up in there, I just don't have profile names, so in my business policies, i just have a checkbox to use it or not, no option to choose a particular flat-rate profile.

I may delete it and set-it up again from scratch, it's definitely buggy!

[ile136yz]

Before you delete anything.

Go back to Postage Preferences

Set up a Profie

for example    call the Profile  25    

Add 25p

This will add 25p or whatever number you have added.

Press Save

Then go to you Business Policies

in Combined postage discounts

Apply my flat postage rule with profile name    25   or a choice if you have set up different Profiles

Press Save

[plantosphere]

Hi,

Ok, I've set-up 2 different flat rate profiles, 25p surcharge which I've applied to Business Policies using Large Letter rates, and 50p profile applied to Business Policies using Small/Medium Parcel rates.

Only thing that's confusing me is that in the Business Policy i'm also having to say each additional item will be 25/50p, as if I leave it at zero or blank, it defaults back to each additional being the full postage rate for that policy.

e.g., I've just had an order through where it's tried to charge the customer £9.98 postage for 2 items, but for that one I was able to to a combined postage invoice and manually set the rate correctly.

God only knows why it's stopped working, but it's a pain.

The most annoying thing is that when refunding customers you need to wait until after the items have been dispatched or you are unable to add tracking to those items.  Unless that's just me too!

Thanks for your help.  Will update with how it goes.

Cheers,

Chris.

[ile136yz]

Hi

Just had a look at your postage -   I & your Buyers can see the following in the postage section:-

25p  for additional    on    £2.49,   £2.99  &  £3.99

50p  for additional   on     £5.99  &  £8.99

So I think it looks okay.

All the Best

J

[plantosphere]

Thanks, hopefully that wee tweak has sorted it and it won't revert again.

Much appreciated!

Chris.