Eagle75au:
Hi Rob,
going from a couple of other ideas my TARE weights are set to 0:0 exactly how does this affect the auspost calculations?
I've never really understood the logic of setting tare weights to zero. Far to many people appear to do it though (in my opinion).
Tell me, how do you think it will affect the calculations?
Before answering, consider this:
Your item weighs 480gm.
Your packaging (assume a number 2 padded bag) weighs around 50gms.
How much will Australia Post charge you? will it be for a package weighing less than 500gms (your product weight), or will they charge you for a parcel over 500gms (the parcel weight)?
As you are probably aware, there is a noticible price jump between parcels <500gm and those over.
That tare weight may make the difference between a profit and a loss!
Eagle75au:
my auspost module is now set to kgs .. and as i previously mentioned all my products are in fractions of kgs...
Although it doesn't make any difference to the calculations, after all, a gram is a gram no matter how it is expressed, I fail to see the logic in setting it up that way (however I do realise that this is also a matter of personal preference).
All you appear to be doing is making it hard on yourself, especially if this is a new store with very few products already entered and weighed (having to enter everything as a fraction can't be fun).
Oh, another common mistake is failure to set the 'maximum weight you will ship'. I think the default is '50', which isn't what you want no matter whether you are using grams or kgs.
If you are using Kgs there may be times the module will be asked to quote on something weighing 25kgs, well under the 50kgs defined. This is heavier than AustPost will accept at the counter so the AP module considers this to be an invalid item and will generate an error.
If using grams, and your max shipping weight is left at the default 50gms, guess what is going to happen if you try to mail a 'parcel' weighing 500grams?
Thats right, it splits the parcel into 10 smaller parcels each weighing 50grams each. This is performed by zencart, not the AP shipping module.
The AP module is asked to quote on these 10 parcels and will dutifully return a quote about 10 times greater than it should be.
Ideally, the 'max weight you will ship' should be set to '20' if using kgs, or '20000' if using grams. This is the 'limit' set by Australia Post.
As with the all weight related issues, this doesn't really have anything to do with any given shipping module, these are global settings that pertain to all shipping methods, so if you have more than one shipping method you'll need to take their requirements into account.. eg, they may force the use of grams (or kilos), in which case you'll need to configure the AP module to match those requirements.
Perhaps you have another shipper that takes parcels up to 50kgs, in which case you'll need to set the max shipping rate higher than the AP limit (but lower than the alternate shipper).. Then anything <20kg will be quoted by bother shippers, and the AP module will produce an 'unable to get a valid quote' message, leaving the alternate shipper to supply its quotes (if it can).
Bottom line is, and aways has been, use as close to 'real world' values in your store as possible and the shipping modules will take care of the rest (accurately, but sometimes seemingly inexplicably).
You'll find that enabling the weights display in the shipping estimator window will provide valuable information as to what is being quoted for.
Cheers
Rod
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