Domestic vs Continental Shipping - The Great Restrictive Shipping Issue

[massagestore]

Hi all.. I spent hours today wrestling with the 3dCart system, including a long tech support session.. and I am wondering if I am alone in this issue, or other people are being faced with the same challenge. I submitted a 'feature request' for this item that is awaiting moderator approval, and in the mean time, I wanted to see if there is interest for this feature from others. With V7 coming out, it couldn't be a better time.

Here is my situation: I send a lot of big / heavy items (with free shipping) to customers in the lower 48 states. I must charge more to go to Alaska and Hawaii - costs of $150+ is not uncommon. When I turn on the free shipping setting, and get the free shipping icon showing, the system automatically says that free shipping is available to all states that are included in the US (they call it the shipping country in the shipping settings area), which includes Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, and the USVI. I have the restrictive shipping module, excluded those areas, and it is ignored by the 3dCart system when free shipping is turned on. If I take free shipping off, then the free shipping icon goes away, and that is not good either.. people want free shipping, and a lot of them are not willing to go to the checkout process to see if they are going to get it - they want to know right then and there. I offer free shipping on almost everything to the lower 48, and many things to alaska / hawaii.

I get on the horn with tech support, and I am told to set up a promotion and exclude states that I don't want to ship for free to. That doesn't work because people won't know about the free shipping until they check out, and they will bounce before they get there. It is also not simple to do this for all of the products I have that ship free (it will be thousands). I am then told to exclude Hawaii / Alaska / PR / USVI from the shipping country setting (in this case, the US), so they are not included in the free shipping area - this is no good because when I do that Alaska and Hawaii is gone from any products that ship free, which is every one.. to the lower 48 (I offer free shipping on everything). We go round and round, and to no avail. I ended up removing Puerto Rico and USVI, and that is fine.

What I can't understand is that this issue has been around for a long time, and 3d knows about it because they have KB articles offering workarounds. All they need to do is have either a continental free shipping setting(48 lower states and no territories or protectorates) in addition to domestic (all 50 states, territories and protectorates), or have a restriction on the free shipping setting where certain states can be taken out.. like a bunch of other settings / modules have. This is a drop ship world now, and more shipping controls are needed. Big / heavy items need more options associated with them. 3d is a bit behind on this.. is there anyone else who needs / would like to see this in place?

This is not a hater rant.. but when I was close to leaving 3d for shopify, I noticed that they had this functionality very handily set up. You clicked on a link that showed all of the states in the US under free shipping, and selected the ones to exclude. Done. Easy. 3d offers so much more than shopify, so this functionality added would be one more thing that the competition doesn't have to offer when someone is looking for a reason to go with one or the other. If I was a wayfair type of company, shipping a lot of large items, this would be a deal breaker.

I look forward to hearing from you.. and hopefully, getting your support in getting this feature added. Andrew

[Toobusy]

In your promotion rules in the promotion manager when you choose united states, click on advanced, the box beside it says "ALL", build an exclude list there for states/possessions you do not want to offer free shipping to. It's worked for me in the past on my promotions with free shipping. Hopefully that will solve your issue for you?

[massagestore]

Toobusy - thank you for writing back. I tested out the promotion manager, and while this works during the checkout, on the actual product page, the free shipping icon is not there because I unchecked it - if I keep the free shipping at the product level, then it over rides the promotion manager, as well as the restrictive shipping module. I need to have the free shipping icon be obvious for this, and so many other of my products so that people can know based on a quick glance that free shipping is offered. I could always jimmy rig it, keep the promotions manager turned on, and put the free shipping information in the Product Features section, but that is not a visual reference, and truth be told, I don't think I should have to jump through so many hoops to do something so simple and necessary. Again, I truly appreciate your feedback. I will continue to try to work with 3d on this.. I think it will make a lot of peoples lives easier moving forward if this functionality is added. Andrew

[J'aime Paris]

Hi massagestore, I have had a similar problem,(e.g. restrictive shipping and promotion overrides when offering a free ship) which I visually corrected by creating a 'FREE ship truck icon' (in photoshop). I then added it the top of all my category pages (and I think you could also add to all product pages). I know you said your catalog is extensive, but once you create the icon and upload it into your files, it will not take much time to input it onto each page. I know this isn't the preferred solution, but visually your customers will see the FREE ship icon.

-Deby

[Toobusy]

It gets back to the same thing. Jumping through hoops and making work arounds, but it is what it is currently and I think we all do it

[massagestore]

J'aime Paris, thank you for your response. Can you send me a link to what you are talking about? I have a free shipping cart icon that I designed with my logo on the truck that you can see here: http://massagestore.3dcartstores.com...kage_p_19.html, I could always do what you are suggesting with it. Yes Toobusy, I don't mind doing the work around stuff.. but this would be such a major PIA considering how many products I would have to do this with. Not preferred. I appreciate both of your assistance. Andrew

[J'aime Paris]

Hi massagestore,

Sorry for the late reply, the plaza my B&M store is in, had a slight fire today and we all just got out electricity back. Here is the link to one of my category pages http://www.accentsongifts.com/BEAUCO...GNS_c_126.html. If this is not what you were asking me for, just let me know. PS I like your truck design.

Thanks,
-Deby

[massagestore]

Thank you J'aime Paris I wanted to post a quick update. I heard back from my account rep, and she not only opened a ticket, but submitted a request to development to get a quote on how much it would cost to have this functionality built for me. She also told me to look at Advanced Shipping Manager, which I am not interested in at $1000 / year. I told them I am not interested in spending that kind of $$ for another piece of software, and that I don't want this functionality developed just for me.. I want it built for all 3dCart users, and if it is reasonably priced, and can be incorporated into the core functionality of 3d, then I am all in.. $$ in hand. I believe that Advanced Shipping Manager already has the functionality that 3d would need, and would gladly come in to help develop / implement that for and with them.

I was also told to open a uservoice request, which I did, but it turns out was already in place at this link: http://3dcart.uservoice.com/forums/7...-hawaii-or-mak - if you are interested in this functionality being added, please go there and vote for it - it is not 100% exactly what I was asking for, but it is close. I don't think 22 votes are enough. My rep told me that 3d does in fact look at uservoice, so much more participation is sorely needed. At least we are taking a step in the right direction. Jump in! Vote away.. thanks. A-

[J'aime Paris]

Hi massagestore, Thanks for this update. voting now....
-Deby

[Toobusy]

It's sad that that suggestion has been sitting there for almost three years. I voted, which leaves me one vote left LOL