shipping costs don't show in cart

I am using zen cart on the basic Godaddy linux hosing. The installation was performed by a service called Installatron. I had been using an earlier version of zen cart on a different server with success.

This is silly but I can't make my flat rate or per item shipping costs appear in the shopping cart, or in the total. I only have these two shipping methods enabled. These shipping methods do appear when I select "estimate shipping". My products are not flagged as free shipping.

Also, I am not sure if I should see the order total when I select the shopping cart, or if it only shows up when I select "go to checkout". When I go to checkout I do see the order total, without any shipping or taxes included.

Thanks

johnnyDoe:

This is silly but I can't make my flat rate or per item shipping costs appear in the shopping cart, or in the total.

My initial thought was 'shipping zones'. Perhaps you have these methods restricted to certain zones?

but then.......

johnnyDoe:

I only have these two shipping methods enabled. These shipping methods do appear when I select "estimate shipping".

This puts a spanner in the works. The reason being is that the same code is used for this as is used for the other.

johnnyDoe:

Also, I am not sure if I should see the order total when I select the shopping cart, or if it only shows up when I select "go to checkout". When I go to checkout I do see the order total, without any shipping or taxes included.

I may be misreading/misunderstanding things a little, but try this: Go to the 'Shipping/Packaging' settings for your store, then check/change the setting for "Shipping Estimator Display Settings for Shopping Cart" to "2". From your description of things this is probably set to '1' (which I think is the zencart default).

I don't know if this is going to 'fix' things, but it will almost certainly change things (which may or may not provide further clues).

Cheers
RodG

OK, did that.

Setting the "Shipping Estimator Display Settings for Shopping Cart" to "2" moves the shipping calculator to the main page, showing under "Your Shopping Cart Contents". However, it doesn't change the functioning.

I'm wondering if part of the page isn't showing, and there should be more to my shopping cart. I think I will look for the server error logs. It would help if I knew better what things were supposed to look like, that is when the software works correctly.

Thanks

Seems that the problem is related to PayPal Express which I am using. When checking out I've been skipping the step where I would create a login. If I instead a go through the trouble of creating an identity, then going on to step two of checkout, that is where the order is totaled with shipping and sales tax which can to be seen. Once that has happened if I go back to the cart, select PP express again I will now have the correct totals for my order.

johnnyDoe:

Seems that the problem is related to PayPal Express which I am using. When checking out I've been skipping the step where I would create a login.

If I instead a go through the trouble of creating an identity, then going on to step two of checkout, that is where the order is totaled with shipping and sales tax which can to be seen. Once that has happened if I go back to the cart, select PP express again I will now have the correct totals for my order.

Take a step back and think about the problem and the solution. Not seeing it? ZenCart (or any other Ecommerce system) can't be expected to provide a shipping cost until it knows the destination. The 'default' method for Zen is to use the address supplied when the account is created.

When PayPal express is used for checkout the initial connection to PayPal has no info for this - so it can't be seen of the 1st of the PayPal screens. When the customer completes the paypal login, the address is then available (via thier paypal account) and the customer is sent back to the store, with enough info to supply the shipping quotes, where they complete the order (resulting in another PayPal access so the total amount can be charged.

Even if the postage costs are 'fixed' - ZenCart still needs the destination info so that it can check that the order is to an allowed zone (or not).

The one thing I can't explain why, if all settings remained equal, why you are apparently getting different behaviour with your current install than you were with your earlier installation. Nothing has really changed in the way this all functions.

Cheers
RodG

Of course that's how it works. Thanks for setting me straight!

RodG:

The one thing I can't explain why, if all settings remained equal, why you are apparently getting different behaviour with your current install than you were with your earlier installation. Nothing has really changed in the way this all functions.

Sorry, hadn't been paying enough attention before. I'm sure it's always been like this. https://www.zen-cart.com/images/smilies/lookaround.gif

Again, thanks!

johnnyDoe:

Of course that's how it works. Thanks for setting me straight!

Not sure that I was trying to 'set you straight' (as that implies that you had said/done something 'wrong' ).

It was more a matter of giving a bit of an explanation as to the interactions between ZenCart, PayPal and the shipping modules that could explain the issue that you'd observed.

Cheers
RodG

Sort of a stretch, but what about things like sort order for the shipping modules and in modules->order totals?

Another possibility is template related. From what version was this site upgraded? There were at one time changes in obtaining shipping information from using get related functionality to post related information. Does the "problem" persist if you temporarily use the default template?