ozpost shipping module

A (very honest) customer alerted me today that my postage wasn't calculating properly and all postage costs come to 55c.

I did notice when I went in to check that it said the server was down (and still is as of now) but normally when this happens the flat rate option normally takes over.

Is anyone else having this problem and can anyone tell me why this was happening and why it was calculating a postage of 55c?

Anna

https://www.toycrazy.com.au

annav:

when I went in to check that it said the server was down (and still is as of now)

Yoiks, you need to update your module. The version you are using is really old, and only 'knows' about one of the ozpost.net servers.
We now have three of them online, on different networks, but only the later modules are aware of their existence.

annav:

but normally when this happens the flat rate option normally takes over.

This behavior would still occur if the problem was failing to connect to the server. This isn't actually the case though, which is why you are getting the 55cent quotes.

annav:

Is anyone else having this problem

Hopefully not, but I am keeping a watchful eye on things at the moment, on account of the fact ozpost has recently reached its 1st year (plus 60 days) as a subscription based service, which means that a number of people that registered for 12months are now coming up for renewal.

annav:

and can anyone tell me why this was happening and why it was calculating a postage of 55c?

The amount of 55c consists of your 50cent handling fee, and a 5cent postage 'cost'. The 5cent 'cost' is what makes it a valid 'quote' and prevents the module from falling back to the static rate option ('flat rate' in your version of the module).

This 'quote' will appear with the description
"The site owner's subscription to our service has expired. This quote is currently unavailable. Please contact the store owner for shipping costs".

Needless to say, the idea is to draw attention to the merchant as soon as possible to alert them to the fact that something is amiss. Without this (admittedly crude) behavior a merchant could go for months thinking it was a server problem.

Most versions of the ozpost module are coded to generate reminder emails before subscriptions expire, but the early versions didn't have this capability.

Anyway, to sum up, it appears that your subscription expired just a day or two ago. As this has obviously caught you by surprise I've just extended it out by another week so as to get your store fully functional again. (renew at ozpost.net)

Cheers
Rod

RodG:

Anyway, to sum up, it appears that your subscription expired just a day or two ago. As this has obviously caught you by surprise I've just extended it out by another week so as to get your store fully functional again. (renew at ozpost.net)

Cheers
Rod

Thats strange, because it says I still have 164 remaining days to go?

annav:

Thats strange, because it says I still have 164 remaining days to go?

I'll wager that it has been saying that for the last 6 months (well, about 160 days ago).

I don't know what it is about the old module that you are using that has caused it to stop reporting the true number of days remaining (which obviously isn't going to help matters), but the expiration details stored on the server shows the expiration date was 9/10/11 (12mnths sub taken out on Monday 04 October, 2010).

I assume that the quotes are working again since I updated the expiration? If so, it should be showing 6 or 7 days remaining. If it still shows 164 days then you have yet another reason to upgrade.

If for some reason you are still not getting valid quotes, and the days remaining hasn't changed, then there is something else amiss as well as the lapsed subscription status. Although improbable, it isn't something to be ruled out.

I would still need to ask you to upgrade though, because whatever the cause of the problem, it has long been fixed.

Cheers
Rod

I am thinking of using this module but have a question re Fastway quotes - what destination data is it based on?
I have just discovered at some cost that Fastway freight is not necessarily calculated on postcode - there might be multiple towns with the same postcode and the freight varies significantly between them.
Does this module check town or posctode or both?

divine:

I have just discovered at some cost that Fastway freight is not necessarily calculated on postcode - there might be multiple towns with the same postcode and the freight varies significantly between them.

This is true.

divine:

Does this module check town or postcode or both?

Both, but using the following 'rules'.

If postcode and suburb are both provided, a name lookup is performed on the postcode to ensure the name has a valid match. If so, then both values provided are used.

If the lookup fails, for example, if a person enters 3000 for the postcode, and Adelaide for the suburb, the test will fail, and the quote will be based on the first name that does match the postcode. In this example, Melbourne.

If no suburb name is provided, again, the first suburb name in the lookup list will be used.

In either case, the suburb name that is actually used is sent back to the client and displayed in the shipping estimator.

There are many reasons why a legitimate postcode/name may fail, misspelling being very common.

One problem that has been identified is when it comes to the 2000 postcode, which we all know to be 'Sydney', is that if this is misspelt (yes, it happens), or not supplied, the lookup again returns the first name in the list, which is " BARANGAROO", and for some reason or other, FastWay consider this as an invalid destination suburb, and no quotes are returned.

To mitigate against these problems, the latest versions of the ozpost module uses a little bit of JavaScript to provide a list of suburb names for the customer to select from (where needed).

Cheers
Rod

RodG:

I'll wager that it has been saying that for the last 6 months (well, about 160 days ago).

I don't know what it is about the old module that you are using that has caused it to stop reporting the true number of days remaining (which obviously isn't going to help matters), but the expiration details stored on the server shows the expiration date was 9/10/11 (12mnths sub taken out on Monday 04 October, 2010).

I assume that the quotes are working again since I updated the expiration? If so, it should be showing 6 or 7 days remaining. If it still shows 164 days then you have yet another reason to upgrade.

If for some reason you are still not getting valid quotes, and the days remaining hasn't changed, then there is something else amiss as well as the lapsed subscription status. Although improbable, it isn't something to be ruled out.

I would still need to ask you to upgrade though, because whatever the cause of the problem, it has long been fixed.

Cheers
Rod

Yes, it's all working OK now. I also renewed my subscription but I never received any confirmation. Should I have?

It's still showing 164 days to go, but I still have to upgrade to the latest version.

Anna
https://www.toycrazy.com.au

Hi RodG -

I am a subscriber and my ozpost module is not working correctly and only showing $4.05 for anyware I put in, it could be the same problem with renewing can you please check.

http://www.gogoandco.com

thanks mate, I may have got an renewal notice on a defunt email address.

Tyler

The wizzard:

it could be the same problem with renewing can you please check.

thanks mate, I may have got an renewal notice on a defunt email address.

It appears that your subscription expired last week. I've given it a 7 day extension so it should be working again now.

It appears that you are still using v1.0.2 of the module. It would be prudent to update this as soon as possible. You'll find the latest V3.x.x series to be a lot faster, a lot more reliable, with a lot more supported methods.

Cheers
Rod

annav:

Yes, it's all working OK now. I also renewed my subscription but I never received any confirmation. Should I have?

It's still showing 164 days to go, but I still have to upgrade to the latest version.

Anna
https://www.toycrazy.com.au

Hi,

I have upgraded to the new version and renewed my subscription last week but have just had an international sale where the postage charges were only 55c again and the following message appears on the invoice:

Australia Post (The site owner's subscription to our service has expired. This quote is currently unavailable. Please contact the store owner for shipping costs. ):

Anna
Toy Crazy

OK this is getting urgent now. I have just had two sales where the postage has come up at 5c and notice on the invoice saying the subscription has expired. How can this be fixed please.

Anna
https://www.toycrazy.com.au

OK this is getting urgent now.

I have just had two sales where the postage has come up at 5c now and a notice on the invoice saying the subscription has expired. How can this be fixed please.

Anna
https://www.toycrazy.com.au

annav:

OK this is getting urgent now.

If you have something that needs urgent attention you will get a much quicker response by emailing me directly rather than expecting me to monitor this forum every minute of every day.

On Oct 14th, you stated:
"Yes, it's all working OK now".

What has changed between then and now?

annav:

I also renewed my subscription but I never received any confirmation. Should I have?

You should have received two emails. An automatically generated one when the order was placed. This one would indicate whether the the subscription was successfully updated or whether it needed manual intervention. The second one is generated after I've reviewed the order and flagged it as being completed.

Check your spam filters/folders.

annav:

I have just had two sales where the postage has come up at 5c now and a notice on the invoice saying the subscription has expired. How can this be fixed please.

This is a mystery. I'm not finding anything that needs to be fixed. All of our database servers appear to be correctly synced. All of them show that your subscription doesn't expire until 2012-04-16, our log files show that the last access from your store was via the admin panel for an expiration check about 30 mins ago (3:22pm).

I've just been to your store and for reasons I can't explain ALL of your quotes appear to be falling back to a Flat rate of $9.50 for both overseas and local. This is suggesting that your store isn't even connecting to our servers for a quote.

Could you please temporally enable the DEBUG option and do a screen capture of the output when trying to obtain a quote (email it to me at [email protected]). Hopefully this will give me a clue as to what could possibly be going wrong.

Thanks
Rod

Dear Rod,

Over last few days some customers have reported that the Collect from Store, shipping option is the ONLY option displayed during check out.

I checked my store with a test order this morning and the shipping options all show in checkout, I used 2000 as the postcode for the test order.

However, several orders in the shop (between Friday and Sunday night) all processed with "collect from store" and one customer is in Adelaide and our store is in Brisbane. She has ordered previously with no problems selecting a delivery options such as Aust Post or Fastways. She emailed us to advise us the shipping options were not showing for her during checkout.

I will keep monitoring this but would appreciate if you have any ideas on what might be happening?

PS Your lastest update did seem to sort out the 2000 postcode hiccup we were having using Fastways in the delivery options- thank you!)

Kind regards,
Sandy
http://www.ozmosaics.com.au/shop

ozmosaics:

I will keep monitoring this but would appreciate if you have any ideas on what might be happening?

I would have to assume that it is somehow related to the input data (products weight/dimensions, destination postcode, etc) because the logs don't indicate anything has been amiss with any of the servers.
It may also be some kind of glitch or problem with your own server not being able to make a connection with offsite servers.

Simply put, I don't know of any current or recent issues that would cause this, and all I can do is make a wild guess, which is almost certainly going to be worse than any ideas that you may have.

Now having said that, the last request made from your store (we only log the last request) was for a parcel that weighed

8921grams (a little under 9kg, including any TARE weight), the dimensions were
height=1165mm
width=1370mm
length=1370mm

This makes this product (or group of products) too large for Australia post (max length = 1050mm), and the cubing rules make it too heavy for FastWay (cubic weight = 547kgs).

In other words, whatever was being quoted for** in this instance **would have failed to produce any valid quote, leaving just the store pickup (and/or static rates) available to the customer.

Furthermore, the fact that the parcel's deadweight is less than 9kg, and the cubed weight is well over 500kg would imply that there is something amiss with the dimensions (That, or you are selling pre-inflated helium balloons) <grin>.

I really can't say if this will explain all of the reports that you have had, but it does explain at least one of them.

Cheers
Rod

RodG:

It appears that your subscription expired last week. I've given it a 7 day extension so it should be working again now.

It appears that you are still using v1.0.2 of the module. It would be prudent to update this as soon as possible. You'll find the latest V3.x.x series to be a lot faster, a lot more reliable, with a lot more supported methods.

Cheers
Rod

Hi Rod sorry I missed your reply, how do I update the subscription please and I will get the newest version installed

thanks mate

Tyler

RodG:

It appears that your subscription expired last week. I've given it a 7 day extension so it should be working again now.

It appears that you are still using v1.0.2 of the module. It would be prudent to update this as soon as possible. You'll find the latest V3.x.x series to be a lot faster, a lot more reliable, with a lot more supported methods.

Cheers
Rod

Hi Rod sorry I missed your reply, how do I update the subscription please and I will get the newest version installed

thanks mate

Tyler

I can't seem to find the latest version can you send a link to it please.

thanks Rod

The wizzard:

I can't seem to find the latest version can you send a link to it please.

http://www.zen-cart.com/index.php?main_page=product_contrib_info&products_id=1286

RodG:

I would have to assume that it is somehow related to the input data (products weight/dimensions, destination postcode, etc) because the logs don't indicate anything has been amiss with any of the servers.
It may also be some kind of glitch or problem with your own server not being able to make a connection with offsite servers.

Simply put, I don't know of any current or recent issues that would cause this, and all I can do is make a wild guess, which is almost certainly going to be worse than any ideas that you may have.

Now having said that, the last request made from your store (we only log the last request) was for a parcel that weighed

8921grams (a little under 9kg, including any TARE weight), the dimensions were
height=1165mm
width=1370mm
length=1370mm

This makes this product (or group of products) too large for Australia post (max length = 1050mm), and the cubing rules make it too heavy for FastWay (cubic weight = 547kgs).

In other words, whatever was being quoted for** in this instance **would have failed to produce any valid quote, leaving just the store pickup (and/or static rates) available to the customer.

Furthermore, the fact that the parcel's deadweight is less than 9kg, and the cubed weight is well over 500kg would imply that there is something amiss with the dimensions (That, or you are selling pre-inflated helium balloons) <grin>.

I really can't say if this will explain all of the reports that you have had, but it does explain at least one of them.

Cheers
Rod
Default ITEM Dimensions
Default ITEM dimensions (in cm). Three comma seperated values (eg 29,24,2.5 = 29cm x 24cm x 2.5cm). These are used if the dimensions of individual products are not set

Hi Rod,
I can't enter product dimensions for each product in the store in the product set up area. I only enter weight in kg.
The OzPost module shows the above info that I have set in the shop back end.

We are having problems at the moment with Fastway and Australia Post - seems out of whack!
We have version 3.1.3 and auto update installed.

Thanks for the info in your reply to earlier post, I try and figure out what I have done, but Dave (husband and packer of goods!) reports to me that the AP and Fastway are returing incorrect info last few days, so now my headache starts LOL!

ozmosaics:

I can't enter product dimensions for each product in the store in the product set up area.

Why not? The fields don't show? The data you enter isn't accepted? or some other reason?

ozmosaics:

I only enter weight in kg.

This is why the ozpost modue has a kg/gm setting. Some people enter the weights in Kg's, some enter them in gms. The setting in the ozpost module is to let the module know what any given customer is using.

ozmosaics:

We are having problems at the moment with Fastway and Australia Post - seems out of whack!

What does this mean? OK, I know what it means, what I want/need is something a lot more specific, such as 'for an item weighing 'z' kgs with the dimensions W,X,Y I am getting a quoted $abc when it should be $def. Better still would be a link to a product that will demonstrate the issue as well (a store may have 1000 items, with all but one showing a problem, and left to chance it is almost guaranteed that my random checks will be on the one item that doesn't have an issue).

Without specifics the only thing I can say for sure is that the input data is 'out of wack'. :smile:

Garbage in = garbage out.

ozmosaics:

Thanks for the info in your reply to earlier post, I try and figure out what I have done, but Dave (husband and packer of goods!) reports to me that the AP and Fastway are returing incorrect info last few days, so now my headache starts LOL!

Until proven otherwise I think it best for all concerned to assume the servers are returning the correct data for the information that they are given. If this wasn't the case I would imagine all users would be informing me of the situation.

I suggest that you have you hubby enable the DEBUG option to see the weight/dimensions of the parcels being quoted

Oh, and if "I can't enter product dimensions for each product in the store in the product set up area" is because there is no where to enter this information it will be due to an incomplete installation. Specifically, there are 3 files located in the /admin/ folder (or whatever this folder has been renamed to) that need to be replaced by the same named files from the ozpost.zip file.

Cheers
Rod