Products shipping price & weight increased by 30.97%

[Ben]

Aaaaahhh!!!! This one’s driving me crazy!!!!

I install a brand new copy of Zen Cart v1.3.6 with demo products.

I go to Admin > Shipping/Packaging and set the following options

Country of Origin: Australia
Postal Code: 3350
Enter the Maximum Package Weight you will ship: 50
Package Tare Small to Medium - added percentage:weight: 0:0
Larger packages - added packaging percentage:weight: 0:0
Display Number of Boxes and Weight Status: 3
Order Free Shipping 0 Weight Status: 0
Shipping Estimator Display Settings for Shopping Cart: 1

I go to Modules > Shipping > Store Pickup and set “Shipping Cost” to $10.

I go to the catalog and purchase any item. During the checkout process the Store Pickup option is $13.10 NOT $10.00.

Store Pickup is just one example, all shipping methods are affected the same i.e. all shipping costs are increased by 30.97%. So if shipping cost is $1,000 the displayed cost is $1,309.70.

The products weight is also increased by the same percentage when viewed in the “shipping estimator”. So an 8 lb mouse is displayed as 11 lb.

My server details are:

PHP Version: 4.4.2 (Zend: 1.3.0)
MySQL 5.0.24-standard
Server OS: Linux 2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp

I have an older installation of Zen Cart on the same server which does not have this problem - v1.3.0.1 patched to 1.3.6

What could be causing this problem? I would be very grateful for any advice.

[Ajeh]

Could you peek at the files:
/includes/configure.php
/admin/includes/configure.php

Are they both using the same database, server, username and password?

NOTE: do not show this information here ... a simple yes/no will work ...

[Ben]

Thanks for your reply Ajeh.

database - yes
server - yes
username - yes
password - yes

I currently have four unique installations of ZC on the same server. This is for testing only, when I'm done there will only be one installation. Each install uses a unique database but the same server, username and password. Within each installation the "/includes/configure.php" and "/admin/includes/configure.php" files use an identical database, server, username and password.

[Ajeh]

The only way the weight increases above what the Product weight is would be to add a Tare Weight ...

You say you have this set to 0:0 in the Shipping Packaging ...

That doesn't make sense ... as that is where the 3 extra lbs would come from when set to 0:3

Can you also check how many tables are in your database?

Is there a prefix showing on the table names of your database?

Do either or both of your configure.php files on the server show a prefix? And again check the files on the server for any database differences ...

[Ben]

Well now I'm more confused than ever.

The shipping estimator is showing different weights to that in the checkout - sometimes more sometimes less. If I check multiple times sometimes it will repeat the same mistake and sometimes it will come up with a new number.

Shipping is still adding 30.97%.

My database has 93 tables.
There are no table prefixes in my database.
Neither of my configure.php files on the server show table prefixes.

My SQL_CACHE_METHOD is set to "none" because of the issue I'm having here http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50836

Could these two issues be related?

[Ben]

Here's another piece to the puzzle...

I have deleted my previous installations of Zen Cart and installed yet another fresh install of v1.3.6.

The following table shows the results I get in the shipping estimator when I add 1, 2, 3... 7 printers to my cart.

qty  |  Checkout Weight  |  Shipping Estimator Weight
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1    |        45         |  26.25
2    |        90         |  34
3    |       135         |  37.875
4    |       180         |  40.2
5    |       225         |  41.75
6    |       270         |  50
7    |       315         |  49.9285714286

These figures are based on the following settings in "Shipping/Packaging":

Enter the Maximum Package Weight you will ship = 50
Package Tare Small to Medium - added percentage:weight = 10:3
Larger packages - added packaging percentage:weight = 10:3

These results are repeatable i.e. I get the same weight in the shipping estimator for the corresponding qty whenever I check it.

[Ajeh]

You are saying add a Tare of 10% + 3lbs ...

[Ben]

Yes, but my point still stands. The calculations are incorrect.

e.g. 1 printer in cart

45 lb * 1.1 + 3 lb = 52.5 lb NOT 26.25 lb

e.g. 2 printers in cart

2 * 45 lb * 1.1 + 3 lb = 102 lb NOT 34 lb

etc

[Ben]

I just tested the shipping estimator on the ZC demo site at www.opensourcecms.com and got the same result. Could this be a bug?

A 100 lb item shows as 36.666666666667 lb in the shipping estimator.

I think the problem only occurs when shipping weight exceeds the "maximum package weight you will ship"

[Ben]

So having got my head around the shipping estimator problem, I'm still stuck with 30.97% being added to my shipping costs. It seems these two problems are not related. I can't reproduce this problem on the ZC demo site at www.opensourcecms.com