Offline calulation problems

[busi6292]

I did a dummy run with my shopping cart and I have it set for international order (outside the UK) are offline calculated.

So i do the dummy run with someone buying from the USA. I get the email from both sides and it just says pending calculation.

SO where do i actually enter the postage costs - after the person has completed their order?

[lwyau]

Shipping fee offline calculation places the onus of figuring out shipping fee, communicating it to and charging the shipping fee to the customer on you. You have to do these thing "offline" with your merchant account or whatever means you have to charge your customer.

[DrJon]

In Shipping Options it says this:

1. Which method do you want to use to calculate shipping?

Offline/Manual Calculation

Offline/Manual Calculation means that no shipping calculation is performed during the checkout process, but customer is notified on initial invoice that final total including shipping charges will be emailed to them for approval before their order is processed.

2. Format notification to customers regarding shipping cost calculation.

Please note that applicable shipping charges are not included in the total shown below. Your final invoice, including shipping costs, will be emailed to you shortly after you complete your purchase. Once you have approved the final total, your order will be processed immediately.
I guess that means that you have to calculate the shipping charges and notify the customer after all it does say 'manual calculation'..

[busi6292]

Thanks for both your replies. I understand what Offline calculation means.

I just thought that once I know what the customer ordered and country they are from, I can work out the shipping cost and there would be a box where I put the cost and soho emails the buyer and tells them the cost.

Surely this doesn't mean I just email them myself saying it costs $6 - I thought once I know the cost myself (which i have worked out) and stated the cost then soho would email them automatically and add it on to the final invoice.

It says "Shipping and handling Pending calculation" where do i change that then?

It says "customer is notified on initial invoice that final total including shipping charges will be emailed to them for approval before their order is processed." Where do I state the cost for that particular order?

[lwyau]

There is nothing in soho's shopping cart that supports further processing of an "offline" order.

[DrJon]

Surely this doesn't mean I just email them myself saying it costs $6

Yep. The key to this is the phrase 'Manual Canlulation'.

If you are using the manual calculation, you wouldn't want to change the 'Pending' notification on the intial email surely.

[busi6292]

Right OK I understand that I would not want to change the pending notification of the initial email, but after all that would happen - where can i change the pending notification?

Maybe I just don't get it..!

[DrJon]

Maybe I dont !

What pending notification do you want to change? If you're using manual calculation, Soho will send an email saying that the postage is being calculated so that your customer knows what's going on. They have to complete the order then, accepting the postage that you've calculated.

If you don't want any pending, don't use manual calculation.

[busi6292]

If you go on to view invoices it says "pending calculation" under shipping and handling.

You said

They have to complete the order then, accepting the postage that you've calculated.

Where do I tell soho the postage I have calculated? I know soho send an email to the customer saying the postage is being calculated.

Thanks.

[DrJon]

I've never had to do a manual calculation, so I've never seen the process in operation, this is just what I gleaned from what Soho says.

I'm guessing there has to be a process to be able to add the shipping to the invoice.