Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12
Results 11 to 18 of 18
  1. #11
    Join Date
    Apr 2007
    Location
    Manchester, NH
    Posts
    52
    Plugin Contributions
    0

    Default Re: UPS and USPS are charging store more than zen cart is charging customer.

    I don't think UPS is taking dimensions into account. We're not sending any, at any rate.

  2. #12
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    los angeles
    Posts
    2,669
    Plugin Contributions
    11

    Default Re: UPS and USPS are charging store more than zen cart is charging customer.

    Quote Originally Posted by lankeeyankee View Post
    One thing to keep in mind. UPS (and FedEx) will often charge by dimensional weight and (by default) zen cart has no way of telling the shipping service the box dimensions required by the cart contents. The rates displayed on your site will be for actual-weight only, and if your box is over the relatively small dimensional limit it will go by dimensional-weight instead of actual and could be substantially higher, especially for zones further away from the shipping origin.

    I have been tinkering on and off for years with some code that will attempt to match a predefined box to the cart contents. It even has the ability to program if a product is nestable inside of another product and thus should not be added into the dimension calculation, and even more is adding an item to different nesting groups so you can create rules such as nesting group A can nest with group B, but not group C for more granular control. It's working at around 95% accuracy, but requires programmed dimensions of every product. I plan on releasing as a module at some point once I get it closer to 99% and get my long-suffering site overhaul completed, so maybe next decade
    as someone who has dealt with shipping and dimensional weight calculations for many years, i understand the difficulty as well as the nuance. nestable items, ie plastic trays, are a classic example.

    i look forward to your effort and if you want a second set of eyes to look at it, feel free to PM me.

    best.
    author of square Webpay.
    mxWorks has premium plugins. donations: venmo or paypal accepted.
    premium consistent excellent support. available for hire.

  3. #13
    Join Date
    Nov 2005
    Location
    los angeles
    Posts
    2,669
    Plugin Contributions
    11

    Default Re: UPS and USPS are charging store more than zen cart is charging customer.

    Quote Originally Posted by CarolineBogart View Post
    UPSXML Transportation Charges: $20.22
    Quote Originally Posted by CarolineBogart View Post
    UPSXML Transportation Charges: $20.22
    UPSXML Grand Total: $14.26
    UPSXML Discrepancy: $5.96

    UPSXML Grand Total Zen Charges Customer: $14.26
    WorldShip Charges: $21.43
    CUSTOMER UPS SHIPPING CHARGE LOSS: $7.17
    quoting is just a courtesy rate quote. i have not dealt with this module, but it looks like you are charging the customer your "preferred rate". $20.22 v $21.43 are very close.

    i would switch back to the retail rate, to see if that charges the customer a closer approximation with regards to worldship.

    with regards to the numbers that worldship is providing and your client's losses, numbers that worldship provide are also not necessarily what the customer gets billed for. UPS invoices are the only definitive amount that UPS (or any carrier) charges for the package; despite what worldship may say.

    Quote Originally Posted by CarolineBogart View Post
    I don't think UPS is taking dimensions into account. We're not sending any, at any rate.
    concur on that one. no dimensional issue here at all.
    UPSXML Grand Total: $14.26
    UPSXML Discrepancy: $5.96

    UPSXML Grand Total Zen Charges Customer: $14.26
    WorldShip Charges: $21.43
    CUSTOMER UPS SHIPPING CHARGE LOSS: $7.17
    quoting is just a courtesy rate quote. i have not dealt with this module, but it looks like you are charging the customer your "preferred rate". $20.22 v $21.43 are very close.

    i would switch back to the retail rate, to see if that charges the customer a closer approximation with regards to worldship.

    with regards to the numbers that worldship is providing and your client's losses, numbers that worldship provide are also not necessarily what the customer gets billed for. UPS invoices are the only definitive amount that UPS (or any carrier) charges for the package; despite what worldship may say.

    Quote Originally Posted by CarolineBogart View Post
    I don't think UPS is taking dimensions into account. We're not sending any, at any rate.
    concur on that one. no dimensional issue here at all.
    author of square Webpay.
    mxWorks has premium plugins. donations: venmo or paypal accepted.
    premium consistent excellent support. available for hire.

  4. #14
    Join Date
    Jan 2004
    Posts
    66,364
    Blog Entries
    7
    Plugin Contributions
    274

    Default Re: UPS and USPS are charging store more than zen cart is charging customer.

    Given that dimensions aren't a convenient option, one approach I've seen used is to simply increase the weight of the product slightly to accommodate the difference. In such case you might want to avoid displaying the weight if customers would be confused by it in such a circumstance.
    .

    Zen Cart - putting the dream of business ownership within reach of anyone!
    Donate to: DrByte directly or to the Zen Cart team as a whole

    Remember: Any code suggestions you see here are merely suggestions. You assume full responsibility for your use of any such suggestions, including any impact ANY alterations you make to your site may have on your PCI compliance.
    Furthermore, any advice you see here about PCI matters is merely an opinion, and should not be relied upon as "official". Official PCI information should be obtained from the PCI Security Council directly or from one of their authorized Assessors.

  5. #15
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    1,484
    Plugin Contributions
    10

    Default Re: UPS and USPS are charging store more than zen cart is charging customer.

    you need to give a little more info. What is the weight zen cart is quoting and what is the weight they are using in worldship? Are they equal or round up to the same value? If they are equal weight, that would indicate there is a rate difference between the 2.

    I agree that padding the weight a little is a better idea, or add a handling fee into the ups rate displayed on the site. Or, use the settings in admin>configuration?shipping/packaging to add extra weight (tare) per package.

    Also, this isn't clear:
    UPSXML Transportation Charges: $20.22
    UPSXML Grand Total: $14.26
    UPSXML Discrepancy: $5.96


    Are you saying that the site shows $20.22 shipping somewhere but then only charges $14.26 in the order? Somehow it is discounting?

    Zen Cart and it's community are the best!!

  6. #16
    Join Date
    Jul 2005
    Location
    Orlando, Fl
    Posts
    324
    Plugin Contributions
    0

    Default Re: UPS and USPS are charging store more than zen cart is charging customer.

    Quote Originally Posted by lankeeyankee View Post
    One thing to keep in mind. UPS (and FedEx) will often charge by dimensional weight and (by default) zen cart has no way of telling the shipping service the box dimensions required by the cart contents. The rates displayed on your site will be for actual-weight only, and if your box is over the relatively small dimensional limit it will go by dimensional-weight instead of actual and could be substantially higher, especially for zones further away from the shipping origin.
    Do you know what dimensions UPS will base the rate in the estimator on since they are no dimensions are specified?

  7. #17
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Posts
    1,484
    Plugin Contributions
    10

    Default Re: UPS and USPS are charging store more than zen cart is charging customer.

    Quote Originally Posted by djdavedawson View Post
    Do you know what dimensions UPS will base the rate in the estimator on since they are no dimensions are specified?

    They don't base it on dimensions at all unless you provide them, which is currently not possible in the stock zen cart or any module, commercial or free, that I am aware of.

    Zen Cart and it's community are the best!!

  8. #18
    Join Date
    Jun 2016
    Location
    Suffolk VA
    Posts
    590
    Plugin Contributions
    0

    Default Re: UPS and USPS are charging store more than zen cart is charging customer.

    Quote Originally Posted by lankeeyankee View Post
    They don't base it on dimensions at all unless you provide them, which is currently not possible in the stock zen cart or any module, commercial or free, that I am aware of.

    UPS absolutely does take dimensions into account, and so does FedEx. USPS does not, unless you get over a specific size, though I think they ought to. I've never had a problem with USPS in this regard, but it's an ongoing problem with UPS. I had to add a substantial handling charge to all UPS orders to get the customer's charges at least equal to what we're being charged. Changing to UPSXML didn't help.

    Depending on the product, some companies may be able to tweak the shipping weight. I couldn't do that because adding weight to accommodate UPS put some of our products over the weight limit for First Class shipping. If we had a higher percentage of UPS orders, I would simply forget First Class shipping for those products. But many of our customers do order those and choose First Class USPS shipping for them. It isn't worth those people having to pay $2.00 or more extra in shipping in order for us to take a small loss on our few UPS orders. So I just put a whopping handling charge on the UPS orders, and most of the time we come out close to even.

 

 
Page 2 of 2 FirstFirst 12

Similar Threads

  1. UPS double charging for items less than 1 pound
    By mek113 in forum Addon Shipping Modules
    Replies: 10
    Last Post: 18 Jan 2012, 05:14 PM
  2. store suddenly charging shipping for downloads
    By pjgscrap in forum Built-in Shipping and Payment Modules
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 6 Jul 2009, 04:55 PM
  3. Shipping Calc charging more than UPS site.. Cant figure ratio
    By STFlats in forum Built-in Shipping and Payment Modules
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 27 May 2008, 06:31 PM
  4. Store is not charging tax why?
    By wmorris in forum General Questions
    Replies: 3
    Last Post: 7 Aug 2007, 11:10 PM

Bookmarks

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •  
disjunctive-egg
Zen-Cart, Internet Selling Services, Klamath Falls, OR