USPS Small Flat Rate Module- Incorrect Quote

[a02l1zz]

Hi All,

Server Information:
https://www.bnm-hobbies.com
Zen-Cart 1.5.6c (Updrade from 1.3.9h)
PHP Version: 7.3.20 (Zend: 3.3.20)
MySQL 5.7.23-23
mysqlnd 5.0.12-dev - 20150407
Linux 4.14.146-225.ELK.el7.x86_64
Hosted @ BlueHost.Com

Plugins
Quantity Discount Plugin from swguy

I have an interesting issue, and I've searched the forum for a few weeks now, and I can't seem to find an answer on this. My issue is the USPS Shipping Module for USPS Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box, is quoting retail numbers that are higher than the standard retail price for this service which should be a fixed price, regardless of US Destination. I use retail pricing on the site, to ensure that I cover my costs if I have to ship from a Post Office on the rare occasion that USPS.Com is down.

I believe the current retail price of a Small Flat Rate box is $8.30, for a shipment that is 0-70 lbs.

In some cases, I am seeing the USPS Shipping module quote Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box at $11.15 and even $11.85.

I have checked my settings, i don't have any handling charges in the USPS module. The interesting thing is that the quotes jump from $8.30 to $11.15, but I can't figure out why.

I initially thought it was related to the Quantity Discounts module, as in my data collection on actual orders, it seemed to be only showing up on orders that had quantity discounts applied. On certain products, the first discount is 10 or more, and that's when the price jumps from $8.30 (for a quantity of 9) to $11.15 for a quantity of 10.

However, upon testing on the store, I see that even products where the quantity discount isn't allowed, the same $11.15 price is being quoted, however, and there's no explanation as to why. It happens when there's only a single item in the cart, or when there's 2 or 3 items in the cart.

Does anyone have any information on what might be going on and where I can look to figure out what's driving the $11.15 and higher quotes for a flat rate service currently at $8.30?

Regards

James

[dbltoe]

There are tare settings outside the Modules menu. Checkout https://docs.zen-cart.com/user/shipp...ulations/#tare

[a02l1zz]

There are tare settings outside the Modules menu. Checkout https://docs.zen-cart.com/user/shipp...ulations/#tare

dbltoe,

Thanks for the response. I do have some of the tare settings set, for small to medium packages, along with large packages, here are my settings:



These settings do work for standard non flat rate services of course, and that is why I have them place, adding the weight in for the box, and packing materials.

I set my tares for both back to 0 and 0 for small to medium and large, and this made no difference in the shipping quote. In fact, i added Medium and Large Flat Rate Boxes as well, and these prices are consistently higher than the current retail rates for these Services, quoting at USPS.com.

I added new product that has a weight of 2lbs, and removed the tare settings so that there's no additional calculations. For a 2 Lb box, here's what's quoted:

USPS.Com
Priority Mail Express: $50.85
Priority Mail: $14.90
Large Flat Rate Box: $21.10
Medium Flat Rate Box: $15.05
Small Flat Rate Box :$8.30
USPS Retail Ground: $13.60

My WEB Site:
Priority Mail Express: $27.15
Priority Mail: $8:25
Large Flat Rate Box: $21.10
Medium Flat Rate Box: $15.05
Small Flat Rate Box :$8.30

Now I know the first two have the wrong price, based on experience, and that's why the tare weights have been added.

I did another testing. Added a product to the cart, that was 0lb 4oz, and did USPS.Com and my WEB Site, here are those results.

USPS.Com:
Priority Mail Express: $37.15
Priority Mail: $9.60
Large Flat Rate Box: $21.10
Medium Flat Rate Box: $15.05
Small Flat Rate Box :$8.30
USPS Retail Ground: $9.35
1st Class Package: $4.20

My Site:
Priority Mail Express: $26.35
Priority Mail: $10.35
Large Flat Rate Box: $23.95
Medium Flat Rate Box: $17.90
Small Flat Rate Box: $11.15
First-Class Package Service: $6.65

I added the 2lb Product as a test called Test Weight, with a value of $0.10. It has no discount, or sale marker applied, and it calculates correctly, even after adding the specific tare weights back in, the Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express options went up, but the Flat Rate options remained the same as the USPS.com quoted retail rates. The issue seems to be with products, already on the site, that are the problem.

What I am confused about is why this should actually matter that, and impact the shipping cost of a flat rate service from USPS. If the Priority Mail Small Flat Rate Box is $8.30 for any weight between 0lbs and 70 lbs, these particular settings shouldn't impact the cost of the Small Flat Rate Box, unless the order is over 50 Lbs, as that is the max weight I will ship.

Am I correct here?

I am trying to figure out whether this is Zen-Cart presenting the wrong value, after getting the quote from USPS or if the USPS is providing the wrong amount. I think it's the former, but how do I figure it out?

I have just discovered that my USPS Shipping module is not displaying the most current version, it says it's: USPS Version Date 2017-09-16 in the Admin -> Module -> Shipping, however, when I check the files versions, here's what I see:

The file located: /includes/modules/shipping/usps.php has the following header information:

 * USPS Module for Zen Cart v1.3.x thru v1.6
 * USPS RateV4 Intl RateV2 - March 28, 2018 Version K10 

Which matches the most recent version for the USPS Shipping module.

The file located at: /includes/languages/english/modules/shipping/usps.php file has the following at the top of the file:

 * USPS Module for Zen Cart v1.3.x thru v1.6
 * USPS RateV4 Intl RateV2 - Sept 16, 2017 Version K10 

This seems to be the old version. I assume that version information isn't going to be the cause here, although I don't know if the language file is the same or not, and the reason that this is happening, so this is potentially a small Version Display bug, but not the cause of my issues?


James

[swguy]

The USPS module has a setting called “Debug Mode” which you can configure when you go to Admin > Modules > Shipping > USPS > Edit. Turning debug on (i.e. to Email, Logs or Screen) will show you the raw responses from the USPS server.

[a02l1zz]

The USPS module has a setting called “Debug Mode” which you can configure when you go to Admin > Modules > Shipping > USPS > Edit. Turning debug on (i.e. to Email, Logs or Screen) will show you the raw responses from the USPS server.

swguy,

Thanks. So I ran two tests, and had the data emailed to me, one where I got the correct results, and one where I seemingly get the wrong results.

So, $11.15 is a valid option for a small flat rate box, it's ServiceID is 190, ServiceName is Special Handling - Fragile, however, this not the issue. I have figured out what the problem is, but only after looking at the XML code.

All Flat Rate packages, are having $2.85 worth of insurance, added to the shipping quote.

Small Flat Rate $8.30 + $2.85 = $11.15
Medium Flat Rate: $15.05 + $2.85 = $17.90
Large Flat Rate: 21.10 + $2.85= $23.95

I assume that the $2.85 is based on the order total, before shipping, and that's how it's calculated and then added to the respective Small / Medium / Large Flat Rate options. Orders up to $50.00 include that amount of insurance with all Priority Mail options.

I do have insurance turned on, and didn't even notice that this is "included" in the shipping rate to the customer in the USPS Shipping Module. Is there some way to work around this, I want to offer insurance, but I don't want to charge it automatically, I want to leave that to the buyer, and doing refunds all the time is time consuming. Is there an option to have the insurance show up as separate option within the Checkout_Shipping option, so that someone can chose whether they want to buy that?

Regards

James

[a02l1zz]

Thanks to swguy and dbltoe,

Ultimately, what I was seeing was by design. I think I need to look at installing the optional Shipping Insurance Module, and see if that will solve my issues.

Thank you again.

James