[Old] Royal Mail Modules

[Laurenn]

Please please help?

Why can't I get 2nd Class Packet Signed for to work? All I get is...

The shipping rate cannot be determined at this time

1st Class Packet signed for works fine.

ljnardone##################

[Laurenn]

I FIXED IT!

its the tare setting in configuration - shipping/packaging

set it to 0:0 (was on 0:3)

at last!

[JSR]

Let's hope RM doesn't keep changing the rates every few months ..

I suspect they will. This change was part of a familiar "con" that a lot of companies take part in these days.

A few months back, RM introduced "pricing by proportion" and made great efforts to assure us that "90% of post would be the same price or cheaper". That statement was based on the fact that a 1st class stamp would now cover 100g rather than 60g.

Then, as soon as they get "pricing by proportion" in, they put up all the prices. If they'd put up the prices at the same time as introducing pricing by proportion, they wouldn't have been able to say "90% of post will be the same price or cheaper". So they just delay the price rise for a few months to ensure they can use the headline-grabbing con - in other words "placate the customer so they don't cause a fuss".

I suspect we'll see more of this over coming months. Change one section of prices to make another section look favourable, shout about "unchanged prices or cheaper", then a few months later change those prices too.

(This kind of "con" happened a while ago with my ISP. They increased the price of the broadband connection one month, then the following month they changed the speed but claimed "at no extra cost" - legally it's true, but morally they've just increased the price one month earlier.)

[Chuckl]

I've uploaded a modified Big Royal Mail with the April 2007 RM price changes. Only changes are to the RM prices, taken from their website.
It's available in the downloads area.

Please treat with caution as all were entered manually, and while checked and double checked, odd errors may have crept in. Please report any that you find.

Rgds,

Chuck

[pwhyles]

> as all were entered manually ... odd errors may have crept in

Just a thought...

I use a spreadsheet to calculate Royal Mail's new rates for the long lists of
international rates; I need printed-paper rates which go up to 5kg so its even more
tedious for me to do it by hand.

The first 12 (ish) rate bands are not consistent but after those each rate increases by
a fixed amount and you can do relative copy/paste in a spreadsheet to get it to
calculate the amounts automatically.

With a bit of creative thinking (or even a macro to export the data in exactly the right
format) you can export the file as a csv and then process it with search/replace in a
simple text editor to produce the required strings for the various RM shipping modules.

Chances of error practically zero; only takes a few minutes to update the lot.

[Chuckl]

You are indeed right, I could have screen scraped the tables off the Royal Mail site as well, but I'm a secret Luddite, and have a love of hand chiseled code....

Pixxi has been trying to get the files out of the RM folk for several weeks now, without success, so I used the manual update as a way to postpone several other even less enjoyable tasks.

Chuck

[pwhyles]

> I could have screen scraped the tables off the Royal Mail site as well

Indeed; but that would make you a masochist rather than a Luddite. (Way too much work).

> Pixxi has been trying to get the files out of the RM folk

Ah, a head-banger...

[theflyingbeard]

I've uploaded a modified Big Royal Mail with the April 2007 RM price changes. Only changes are to the RM prices, taken from their website.
It's available in the downloads area.

Please treat with caution as all were entered manually, and while checked and double checked, odd errors may have crept in. Please report any that you find.

Rgds,

Chuck

I wonder if I have found an "odd error" or two?

apologies for the long post but I want to be clear about exactly what I did to get this.

I downloaded the updated version: big_royalmail_v2.2 (big_royal_mail_2.21.zip)
Unziped it and uploaded everything in

includes\languages\english\modules\shipping
and
includes\modules\shipping

to the same on my site, overwriting the existing (I have backups).
I then went to admin and uninstalled each module that I was using and reinstalled it to get the new values. Not so sure this was the right way to do it but it seemed sensible at the time.

I was sure I screwed up somewhere because some modules came up with no values and one in particular gave me a duplicate entry error........

Panic took hold and I restored my backup.... everything working again, phew! ok so no real notes on what I did or didn't do there.

With renewed bravery I tried again with slightly better results but still have an error:

uploaded files as before then went to admin shipping modules and starting at the bottom sequentially uninstalled and re installed:-

RM Special Delivery Next Day : worked fine

RM Standard Parcels : worked

RM International Signed For Small Packet Extra Insurance : screwed up with the error listed below.

RM International Signed For Small Packet: worked (tried the extra insurance again in case it needed this one first but same error)

RM 1st Class Recorded Signed for Packet: worked

RM 1st Class Recorded Signed for Letter: worked

RM 1st Class Recorded Signed for Large Letter: worked

As these are the only RM modules I am using I have not tried any others to date.


-------------------------------------------------------

Also I found another error / Omission in the international section.

RM International Signed For Small Packet does not include "Jersey" or the "channel Islands"

Royal mail counts Jersey, Guernsey etc. as international but there is no option for these.

-------------------------------------------------------


RM International Signed For Small Packet Extra Insurance gave this error:


1062 Duplicate entry 'MODULE_SHIPPING_RMAMISFSMALLPACKET_ZONES_COUNTRIES_1' for key 2
in:
[insert into configuration (configuration_title, configuration_key, configuration_value, configuration_description, configuration_group_id, sort_order, set_function, date_added) values ('Royal Mail defined European Countries', 'MODULE_SHIPPING_RMAMISFSMALLPACKET_ZONES_COUNTRIES_1', 'AL, AD, AM, AT, AZ, BA, BE, BG, BY, CY, CZ, DE, DK, EE, ES, FI, FO, FR, GI, GL, GR, HU, HR, IS, IE, IT, KZ, LI, LT, LU, LV, MK, MT, NL, NO, PL, PT, SE, SI, SK, SM, RU, UZ, UA, TM, TR, TJ, CH, MD, MC', 'two character ISO country codes for Europe.', '6', '0', 'zen_cfg_textarea(', now())]
If you were entering information, press the BACK button in your browser and re-check the information you had entered to be sure you left no blank fields.



Any suggestions welcome.

Regards

TFB

[theflyingbeard]

Quick Note
having uninstalled
RM International Signed For Small Packet Extra Insurance
The error appears right after clicking on the install button.

TFB

[theflyingbeard]

Sorry if I am being picky but, found another little one.... well a couple actually.
In the text on each module it says "Correct on 1th April 2007 from information published March 2007"
maybe that's right (apart from 1st not 1th ) but according to RM web site the tariff changes were from Monday 2nd
April 2007........

OK, Ok I know that's picky, but seriously what I wanted to point out is that in
Royal Mail 1st Class Recorded Signed For "Letter" the basic 1st class is set as 32p but should be 34p (including in
the example)

Correct on 1th April 2007, from information published March 2007.
Example: 0.1:0.32 means weights less than or equal to 0.1 Kg would cost £0.32.

actually many of the examples use pricing that is out of date though the examples themselves are correct in their
explanations and the pricing is also correct.
eg
Royal Mail 1st Class Recorded Signed ForTM "Large Letter"
Text states:

Correct on 1th April 2007, from information published March 2007.
Example: 0.1:0.44 means weights less than or equal to 0.1 Kg would cost £0.44.

but actual rate states:
0.1:0.48

Chuck
Thanks for your hard work updating the new prices, I Hope you don't mind my pointing out these little anomalies but you did say to report any errors.

Regards

TFB