Royal Mail Basic UK Shipping Modules

Question: When a customer selects an uninsured shipping option, I'd like the text to display something like: Uninsured: Customer accepts responsibility. Is it possible to have this occur automatically but only on the uninsured options?

Thanks!

Meltdown, the arbitrarily decided default across the modules is to display insurance where it applies. i.e. the inverse of what you have described. Where there is no insurance e.g. straight first or second class mail, nothing is shown.
Where insurance applies, as in first class recorded mail, it explicitly states 'Insured up to 46' or whatever, pounds.

And let me just add that if you want to change this, simply edit the text in the appropriate text in the languages files, found in the

/includes/languages/english/modules/shipping

folder, for each shipping method.

e.g.

for first class mail, you would edit the rmfirst.php file there and, for example, change the MODULES_SHIPPING_RMFIRST_DELIVERY_SHIPPING_TIME definition from 'Ships normally within 1 to 3 days', to
'No Insurance, Ships normally within 1 to 3 days', and save the changes.

I should also mention that there is a LOT of flexibility in these modules. The standard installation is simply my idea of what people will probably want to get them up and going.
You can set the minimum and maximum weights and goods values that will use a particular shipping method, and whether these should be checked at quote time.
Some of the modules have an experimental 'Hide invalid shipping' option that would require these to be set to work.
Handling and packaging fees, packaging weights, number of boxes per order, can be changed as well,
etc etc
All of which underlines why it is a very good idea to spend a bit of time thinking very carefully how you want to structure your shipping and what the consequences of those decisions are. e.g. if someone orders an item worth 500 pounds, and normal 1st shipping is selected, you'd better hope it doesn't get lost in the mail. Better to disable the ability to select the option.

Chuckl, thanks for your detailed explanation. It seems, though, that I must have my head up my arse as I can't get my brain around a particular Compensation Rates issue: No matter the value of the items placed in the cart, it states the base compensation rate, i.e. Insured up to £46.

Example: On a £450.00 order, Destination US:

Royal Mail International Signed For (Delivery Weight : 1 package of 1.01 Kg's (Insured up to £46, Time to Ship: Normally within 3 to 5 days))
Royal Mail Airsure (Delivery Weight : 1 package of 1.01 Kg's (Insured up to £46, Time to Ship: Normally within 3 to 5 days))

My Compensation Rates for Royal Mail International Signed For are:

46:0,500:2.60,1000:4.00

My Compensation Rates for Royal Mail Airsure are:

46:0,250:2.5,1000:3.95

Can you spot where I'm making my mistake? Thanks ever so much for your help :)

Meet me halfway, register as a customer on your site and log-in. :)

The Zen Cart core code considers insurance separate to shipping, so if you are not logged in to an account with a defined 'Ship To' address, the shipping estimator only includes the costs of shipping that weight to the Zone selected.

It is probably 'fixable' by changing a bit of code in each affected routine, - i.e.change $order->info['subtotal'] to $order->info['total'] in the 2 places the insurance is calculated in the affected routines, but I really have no idea of the wider ramifications of doing this, so YMMV.
I'd leave well alone.

Chuckl:

Meet me halfway, register as a customer on your site and log-in. :)

The Zen Cart core code considers insurance separate to shipping, so if you are not logged in to an account with a defined 'Ship To' address, the shipping estimator only includes the costs of shipping that weight to the Zone selected.

It is probably 'fixable' by changing a bit of code in each affected routine, - i.e.change $order->info['subtotal'] to $order->info['total'] in the 2 places the insurance is calculated in the affected routines, but I really have no idea of the wider ramifications of doing this, so YMMV.
I'd leave well alone.
See, this is what I love about the forum; Another pair, or pairs, of eyes. I hadn't noticed that the login customer was seeing it differently!

No luck in swapping out $order->info['subtotal'] for $order->info['total'], it threw an error. Robert had a thought, though; Turn off the shipping estimator for non-logged-in customers. However, if I disable the estimator in admin/config/Shipping/Packaging it disables it completely, also when logged in. I'll look around for a fix to that... Thanks!

MeltDown:

See, this is what I love about the forum; Another pair, or pairs, of eyes. I hadn't noticed that the login customer was seeing it differently!

No luck in swapping out $order->info['subtotal'] for $order->info['total'], it threw an error. Robert had a thought, though; Turn off the shipping estimator for non-logged-in customers. However, if I disable the estimator in admin/config/Shipping/Packaging it disables it completely, also when logged in. I'll look around for a fix to that... Thanks!
OK, here's what I did to force the shipping estimator to display only when logged in: In includes/templates/your_template/templates/tpl_shopping_cart_default.php at around line 180, I changed this:

<?php
      break;
      case (SHOW_SHIPPING_ESTIMATOR_BUTTON == '2'):

To this:

<?php
      break;
      case ($_SESSION['customer_id'] > 0 && SHOW_SHIPPING_ESTIMATOR_BUTTON == '2'):

My setting in admin/configuration/Shipping/Packaging/Shipping Estimator Display Settings for Shopping Cart is set to option "2".

Also, in define_shopping_cart.php I added the following text:

If logged in to your account, your shipping options and costs are also listed below.

This looks to be working well. Thanks again for your help!!

Glad you got it sorted out to work the way you wanted it. It's always a toss up whether to achieve something by way of code/calculation or in the display process. MVC and all that I suppose.

Regards,

Chuck

Some changes in Royal Mail delivery practices from next week -

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/09/27/post_office_deliveries/

Hi - just testing the shipping costs to the Isle of Man - and they are showing way more than (I think) they should - any way to check - and alter the IOM rates ?
Thanks.
(AFAIK - IOM is considered uk - so same as uk postage rates)

Isle of Man is usually UK for Royal Mail, what Royal Mail Service is being used, what weight is being reported, and what price is being quoted?

Rgds,

Chuck

Chuckl:

Isle of Man is usually UK for Royal Mail, what Royal Mail Service is being used, what weight is being reported, and what price is being quoted?

Rgds,

ChuckThanks for getting back to me - only by chance i noticed this - just testing to see if everything was working somewhere near right - and just randomly set the destination to IOM - here's an example - would normally ship this item 2nd Class @ £2.20...
**Available Shipping Methods Rates
**Royal Mail Airmail (Delivery Weight : 1 package of 0.315 Kg's (Ships normally within 3 to 5 days)) **£6.76
**Royal Mail International Signed For (Delivery Weight : 1 package of 0.315 Kg's (Insured up to £46, ships normally within 3 to 5 days)) **£11.91
**

Yup it's using 'not in uK, but Rest of World' type rates. i.e Airmail and International Signed For.
Have you added any Zones to the Basic Zen Cart install? If not, the IOM is probably being caught as Rest Of World as it's not defined in the Basic install.
There are UK counties Zone add-ons in the Downloads section here that add all the UK counties and zones to ZC and allow this sort of 'fine grained' dissection :)

Hope that helps,

Chuck

Chuckl:

Yup it's using 'not in uK, but Rest of World' type rates. i.e Airmail and International Signed For.
Have you added any Zones to the Basic Zen Cart install? If not, the IOM is probably being caught as Rest Of World as it's not defined in the Basic install.
There are UK counties Zone add-ons in the Downloads section here that add all the UK counties and zones to ZC and allow this sort of 'fine grained' dissection :)

Hope that helps,

ChuckHi - don't think I've added anything - although my memory isn't foolproof - I notice Isle of man has ISO code of IM / IMN in the countries section - what would happen if the code was changed to the same ISO code as GB......?

If I understood you correctly, you're saying that when you scroll through the countries in the ZC admin section you get an entry for the Isle of Man and it has an ISO country code of IM/IMN?
I seem to remember that a 'well behaved' entry would have ISO codes of GB and IMN, but no matter.

If you DO have an entry under Locations/Taxes-Countries for the Isle of Man, you can either edit that directly, or you can edit each of the UK Royal Mail shipping modules you are using, and add that code.
e.g. if your IOM entry only has a code of IMN, highlight the entry in Countries, and select the edit button. Change ISO code 2 to GB and ISO code 3 to IMN.

OR

Go to a Royal Mail UK ONLY shipping module under Modules-Shipping and edit it e.g. RM 1st Class Standard.
Chamge the Valid ISO codes entry from GB to GB, IMN and save it. Repeat for any other UK modules, and it should now reflect the correct zonal shipping

Rgds,

Chuck

Many Thanks - Now changed ISO code 2 to GB and ISO code 3 to IMN - seems to do the trick - just wasn't sure whether to alter one or both of the codes for IOM - so - it's IOM (code 3) situated in GB (code 2) - whatever - seems to work - although I'll have to keep an eye on any other possible errors in that country codes section...
Thanks again - appreciate the fast response - not that I've any orders from IOM at the moment - nor from much of anywhere for that matter.....

Glad that's sorted out, the zones can be very confusing. The Big Royal Mail add-on round about version 2.1 or so included an optional UK zones SQL script that added most UK counties and countries in a fairly logical form. i.e. England, Wales, Scotland etc were defined as being in the UK(GB), then the various counties were defined as being in the respective countries, and it worked fairly well.
I think it was originally set up by Kevin Polley at Mutual Advantage for his UK template, but it's some years back, so don't quote me on that, but it worked very well.

The only other 'gotcha' that springs to mind for RM is the channel islands, as most of the shipping quirks come in when couriers are used.

Rgds,

Chuck

I've just had another quick look at this - the ISO codes for the IOM are:
code 2 = IM and code 3 = IMN - so I took a look at one of the shipping mods - and this is what is there:

"Valid ISO Country Codes
Comma separated list of two character ISO country codes that are valid destinations for this method (Default: GB)"

So - to correct the error properly - I would need to adjust all the shipping methods by adding IM to the valid countries ?
I don't have time to do it just now - so will have to leave as is for the moment - also there may be others needing to be added (channel isles ?? )
Cheers - Gordon.

Hi - sorry to trouble anyone - I was just testing the estimated shipping cost for an item I have just added to the shop - the item is priced at £79.99 - the following is the estimated shipping result:

**Royal Mail 2nd Class Standard (Delivery Weight : 1 package of 0.84 Kg's (Ships normally within 3 to 5 days)) £3.50
**
I really don't want to send this £79.99 item for that shipping cost - without insurance - I thought that shipping option would not be shown with that value above £46 ?

Anyone have any thoughts on where I may have missed a setting ??

Many Thanks.

You're not missing a setting, just that you're not logged in to the store, so you're window shopping. Log in as a customer, add to cart and estimate shipping, or go to checkout, and the restrictions apply.

Rgds,

Chuck