Loaded Commerce Community

i use a drop shipper for most of my goods. i used to offer expedited shipping, but stopped bc i got screwed pretty majorly a couple of times due to the parcel being "oversized" and there was subject to a different shipping cost scale. is there a way to set up the shipping modules (mostly UPS and FedEx) to take package size into account depending on how many items are purchased?

So you offered a shipping service on an order / items that your dropshipper didn't have a rate for?
You've talked to all parties concerned and checked the rates? What % of your sales are affected by this?
How much do you want to spend to get a solution?

If you've found out the answers to these and it doesn't add up or you can't afford to send that sort of parcel, then perhaps that order (or item) isn't something you want to be in the business of selling.

Simon

here's some more detail... i sell multiple items, none that are particularly huge in size, but the problem arises when a customer orders a lot of stuff that cannot fit in a smaller sized box. orders of, say 15 items may need to go into a box size that triggers dimensional weight, particularly with UPS air shipments where UPS always charges the greater of DIM or actual weight no matter the box size. as i have it now, my fulfillment company has to call me whenever this happens so that i can then call the customer and see if they want to pay the diff or cancel the order. just wondering if there was a more automated, streamlined way to do this beginning with the CRE shipping module.

So put a cap on the number of items in a box and send more than one box? Volumetric shipping isn't handled well by the included UPS Advanced module - it'll break at a certain point. If it really is a must have requirement of your business then fork out the dosh to get it written BUT surely there must be a better way of using the existing options without having to do this.

If the items are small anyway why try to cram them into one box?

Simon