Bill to Customers UPS Account - Option or Idea?

[traysure]

Hello,

I am wondering if it is at all possible to set up a condition to allow certain customers to use their own UPS account number to pay for their shipping, and not show any shipping charge or charge any UPS shipping charge that our web site normally charges.

Example.

A certain customer places an order with us and wants to use his / her own UPS account number to pay for their actual shipping charges.
In the drop down box for choosing what shipping method they would like to use…they would select "Bill To My UPS Account".
Then they would provide their UPS account number and we process their order via UPS world ship and have their shipping charges charged to their UPS account.

I am currently using UPS Custom Integration and the Sort Shipping Plus Free Shipping, set up and module.

[darian]

Re: Bill to Customers UPS Account - Option or Idea?

It may be a bit messy, but you may be able to work something out with Availability groups.

Create a new 'product' with a weight over 151lbs with Product Attributes for capturing Carrier and Account Number. This should keep the module(s) from calculating a shipping cost, with an "Unable to calculate shipping costs" error. It'll show as a $0.00.

You can assign this product to an Availability group. Then, only customers with Login Accounts assigned to this Availability group will be able to see the 'product.'

Then, the only issue I could think of is getting these customers to the product. If you happen to have Emporium Plus' Tool Kit, you can write a conditional on your basket page that's essentially "If you are using your own account, click here" if the customer is logged in and assigned to your Availability group.

Hope this helps and makes sense.

[Keitho]

Re: Bill to Customers UPS Account - Option or Idea?

Why not just set up a shipping option that says "Use Your Own UPS Account" that doesn't charge anything. I have one that says "Free Local Pickup (Requires Approval)." Then create the conditional (like suggested above) and a custom field that says "Enter Your UPS Account Here!" This wouldn't exclude any customers but why would you want to?

[Siamese-Dream.Com]

Re: Bill to Customers UPS Account - Option or Idea?

Out of curiosity...

What happens if you use the customer's UPS Account, and then they dispute the charges? (similar to disputing a credit card charge.)

I had one customer do this with UPS to Canada several years ago, saying they didn't order the items we sent. I sent UPS a copy of the invoice showing their information and ship to address, and UPS basically said to us that we were on the hook for the shipping charges and that we would have to work it out with the customer directly.

Long story short, we were out about $150.