2 shipping zones in UK

[pcmt]

Still try to unravel this, having spent the best part of a whole weekend attempting to set up simple flat rate shipping for 2 just zones within the UK.

As the Zones shipping module only seems to accept countries, I've uninstalled it. Instead I've cloned the Table Rate shipping module, so I can set up a shipping rate for UK Mainland and another for UK Highlands and Islands (as that is what many UK courier services do). So far, so good.

Next job: attempt to set up the zones. So I set up the 2 extra zones in Zones, putting them in the United Kingdom, then went through the Zone Definition thing. But there seems to be a linkage between the zones and a registered user's shipping address. The address details of a UK user no longer showed the county they registered but instead showed one of those new zones. Weird. I've now deleted those new zones.

Now, I can see that I can easily set up each UK county as a zone (like Spain, Switzerland, etc) so that the above problem goes away. But then it seems I'd have to clone the Table Rate shipping module as many times as the number of UK counties.

Can this really be so? Or is there a way to unhitch new UK zones from a registered user's shipping address? I don't really want all the counties as zones - just the Mainland and Highlands & Islands.

[Chuckl]

Ouch Patrick, still battling? From your description, your main problem sounds like the zone definitions rather than the shipping implementation. These 'I want all of it except that bit and that bit' definitions are always tricky.
If you visit www.mutualadvantage.co.uk, Kevin has a UK template which has a pretty good Country, County Zone setup for the UK, which should solve your problem, as the country is divided up into England, Wales, Scotland, Channel Islands, etc etc.

Rgds,

Chuck

[pcmt]

Yes, I'm battling. Why is this application so impressive in most respects but totally unfathomable when it comes to this ever-so-simple requirement:

Two shipping rates within one nation?

Great credit to the community that developed, maintains, and supports Zen Cart, but if I'd known about this issue at the start, I would have most likely used something else.

Does Kevin's system require a full install of a new template or can I select just the UK split you describe. That sounds useful.

Thanks for the reply.

Best regards,

Patrick

[Brent]

You can just extract the bit you need from the sql patch.

Also as suggested above look at MZMT as this gives you your shipping zones which are distinct from the country zones. You can therefore break up the UK into zones to suit you.

[pcmt]

Well, to try to keep things relatively simple, what I've now done is:

(1) Created in Zones the "UK Mainland" and "UK Highlands and Islands" zones and put them under "United Kingdom" country code GB.

(2) Created in Zone Definitions the same two new zones: "UK Mainland" and "UK Highlands and Islands", put them both in the drop down "United Kingdom" country, and applied tax rates.

(3) Created 2 additional cloned Flat Rate shipping modules for "UK Mainland" and "UK Highlands and Islands", and applied the appropriate shipping rate for each.

So far, so good. But when, as a UK registered user, I enter the store and select an item to purchase, then enter the checkout, I see a message that says "Sorry, we are not shipping to your region at this time." So I'm still bewildered. Somehow those two zones aren't getting picked up (the same thing happens with the MZMT shipping module).

Patrick

[pcmt]

Also, now, when I try to register as a new user, I can't register and I see a dropdown with the only choices for "State/Province" being those two zones: "UK Mainland" and "UK Highlands and Islands". Those should be UK counties or nothing at all - no dropdown.

[Ajeh]

If you are not running v1.3.6 and have this error in v1.3.5 you need to upgrade ...

[pcmt]

Thanks. I have 2 Zen Cart installs - one is 1.3.5 and the other is 1.3.6. I will upgrade the 1.3 5.

I'm not sure if this relates to the problem though. On both installs I've noticed that in Shipping Modules the little coloured blobs remain orange unless I select --none-- for Shipping Zone, in which case they go green. So it doesn't like something in the way I've set up the Shipping Zones. I can't imagine what though (butts adjacent wall to aid thinking process).

Patrick

[Ajeh]

After the upgrade, edit the Shipping Module and save your settings to NotePad or something then remove/install/configure ...

[pcmt]

I'm not sure what that means. I need to set up the zones before I upgrade, as the issue applies equally to the 1.3.6 install, and if I can't get this working I'll be abandoning Zen Cart altogether.

I have installed all the UK counties as zones, and set up VAT, then applied the rate to a Zone Definition UK that includes all the UK zones. When I enable Flat Rate in the Flat Rate Shipping Module the blob shows green, but when I "only enable this shipping method for that zone" (ie UK) the blob goes orange.

So how am I supposed to enable the shipping rate for the UK?