Omitting certain shipping products from shipping charges

[WylieE]

We have an odd situation with gift certificates and shipping. We generate nice embossed gift certificates for our customers and mail them out. (The certs can be redeemed online or over the phone, btw.)

Our US shipping rates are based on the merchandise value of the order. When customers buy multiple gift certificates ($25 ea), they end up with some rather large shipping charges. We're going to put the certs in an envelope and throw a few stamps on it.

We need to find a way to omit the gift certificates from shipping charge calculations. Best guess is this will require custom programming, but I'd like to know if anyone else has faced this issue?

Anyone?

[kastnerd]

Just make the certificate from a different warehouse with a different shipping method.

[WylieE]

Just make the certificate from a different warehouse with a different shipping method.

That works fine if the customer only orders gift certificates. If they order GCs in addition to any other items, the customer is presented with shipment #1 and shipment #2 during checkout. This would be very confusing for most folks.

I'm totally open to other suggestions. We have the part marked as shippable, if that makes any difference.

[WylieE]

Anyone? This came up in our departmental meeting today.

How to omit gift certificates from shipping costs without making checkout confusing for our customers???