USPS Insurance?

[mc12345678]

How disappointing. You would think that something as important as insurance would be a feature in the official USPS module. I will try the optional insurance module, but based on what I've read it looks complicated.

But it is a feature, just store owner instead of customer configured. Always on or always off.

There is the possibility and it would be a pain, that you ask customers to leave a note to exclude insurance and then you figure out what that associated cost is and refund it. Doesn't look good, would be burdensome, and could always make a mistake in doing it, but you could also tout that you are providing a service to ensure that the product(s) arrive in quality shape, or some other statement. There might also be some configurable options in the file through coding, but yes there are some complicated aspects to the whole thing. At least it's available in some regards.

[brillarmory]

Is there any way to petition USPS or ask them to make insurance a fully functional feature?

[mc12345678]

Is there any way to petition USPS or ask them to make insurance a fully functional feature?

Ah ha, so now the perspective is understood. If such a petition were sent to the USPS, a conversation internal to the company similar to the following might occur:
Rep1:"But we offer all of these options as available to be used by programmers, why is someone asking us to do what we have already provided?"
Rep2:"You know I was looking at a couple of different groups that have or have not implemented this and well this one site, they seem to work off of each other and build these programs to do a lot. Seems that they have an entire ecommerce store that is built entirely from code that has been contributed by other authors."
Rep1:"Yeah, so what you're saying is that everything that is used to operate that ecommerce store is written by contributors?"
Rep2:"It sure is. As we have added capabilities, someone has to figure out a way to tap into that functionality and to do so with consideration of the largest audience. Sure the USPS module well predominantly serves just the US, but some of the same can be said about other postal methods. So what's the issue?"
Rep1:"It seems that no one has devoted all of the necessary resources to add the functionality so that a customer can choose certain items that we offer, but instead the functionality has been incorporated so that the store owner can choose to factor it in or not essentially for all items."

That's just my thought of a potential conversation related to this. The "official usps plugin" is considered official by the authors and significant contributors to ZC, not the USPS. The USPS does not control the code that is provided here, but instead provides resources to be able to access their information and the code that is written to do that is by public individuals willing and able to provide such a product.

[Ajeh]

You could try this for allowing an Optional Insurance with USPS March 7, 2014 K3 ...

What this will do is place a choice on the checkout_payment page of the checkout to allow the customer to choose whether or not they want the insurance for USPS shipping ...

The USPS shipping will still show the total of the shipping plus the insurance, but the Optional Insurance will reduce the Order Total by the amount of the USPS Insurance if the Customer decides they do not want the insurance ...

[brillarmory]

That didn't work...

Do they offer insurance with the official USPS module yet? Every time I ship an expensive package I feel like I'm rolling the dice.

[Ajeh]

The USPS module in post #14 is most likely out of date as the current USPS September 7, 2014 K5 version has been released ...

I would have to try to get the time to re-write this optional shipping method yet again for you to see if I can get it working for you with the current USPS code ...

Are you still using Zen Cart v151? What version php are you on?

[brillarmory]

Yes, I'm still using 151. I'm not sure what PHP version I'm running. How do I check?

[Ajeh]

Look in your Zen Cart Admin in the Tools ... Server Info ... it will be listed near the top where the color area starts on the server info ...

[Ajeh]

You could try this test version of USPS September 7, 2014 K6 version that will be released in the next day or two ...

I added to the USPS file the code for the optional insurance ...

NOTE: you still will need the Order Total module from the previous code that I wrote for you on post #14, the only thing that changes is which usps.php file you would be using ...