Products shipping price & weight increased by 30.97%

Aaaaahhh!!!! This one’s driving me crazy!!!! :bangin:

I install a brand new copy of Zen Cart v1.3.6 with demo products.

I go to Admin > Shipping/Packaging and set the following options

Country of Origin: Australia
Postal Code: 3350
Enter the Maximum Package Weight you will ship: 50
Package Tare Small to Medium - added percentage:weight: 0:0
Larger packages - added packaging percentage:weight: 0:0
Display Number of Boxes and Weight Status: 3
Order Free Shipping 0 Weight Status: 0
Shipping Estimator Display Settings for Shopping Cart: 1

I go to Modules > Shipping > Store Pickup and set “Shipping Cost” to $10.

I go to the catalog and purchase any item. During the checkout process the Store Pickup option is $13.10 NOT $10.00.

Store Pickup is just one example, all shipping methods are affected the same i.e. all shipping costs are increased by 30.97%. So if shipping cost is $1,000 the displayed cost is $1,309.70.

The products weight is also increased by the same percentage when viewed in the “shipping estimator”. So an 8 lb mouse is displayed as 11 lb.

My server details are:

PHP Version: 4.4.2 (Zend: 1.3.0)
MySQL 5.0.24-standard
Server OS: Linux 2.6.9-42.0.3.ELsmp

I have an older installation of Zen Cart on the same server which does not have this problem - v1.3.0.1 patched to 1.3.6

What could be causing this problem? I would be very grateful for any advice.

Could you peek at the files:
/includes/configure.php
/admin/includes/configure.php

Are they both using the same database, server, username and password?

NOTE: do not show this information here ... a simple yes/no will work ... :smile:

Thanks for your reply Ajeh.

database - yes
server - yes
username - yes
password - yes

I currently have four unique installations of ZC on the same server. This is for testing only, when I'm done there will only be one installation. Each install uses a unique database but the same server, username and password. Within each installation the "/includes/configure.php" and "/admin/includes/configure.php" files use an identical database, server, username and password.

The only way the weight increases above what the Product weight is would be to add a Tare Weight ...

You say you have this set to 0:0 in the Shipping Packaging ...

That doesn't make sense ... as that is where the 3 extra lbs would come from when set to 0:3

Can you also check how many tables are in your database?

Is there a prefix showing on the table names of your database?

Do either or both of your configure.php files on the server show a prefix? And again check the files on the server for any database differences ...

Well now I'm more confused than ever.

The shipping estimator is showing different weights to that in the checkout - sometimes more sometimes less. If I check multiple times sometimes it will repeat the same mistake and sometimes it will come up with a new number.

Shipping is still adding 30.97%.

My database has 93 tables.
There are no table prefixes in my database.
Neither of my configure.php files on the server show table prefixes.

My SQL_CACHE_METHOD is set to "none" because of the issue I'm having here http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=50836

Could these two issues be related?

Here's another piece to the puzzle...

I have deleted my previous installations of Zen Cart and installed yet another fresh install of v1.3.6.

The following table shows the results I get in the shipping estimator when I add 1, 2, 3... 7 printers to my cart.

qty  |  Checkout Weight  |  Shipping Estimator Weight
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
1    |        45         |  26.25
2    |        90         |  34
3    |       135         |  37.875
4    |       180         |  40.2
5    |       225         |  41.75
6    |       270         |  50
7    |       315         |  49.9285714286

These figures are based on the following settings in "Shipping/Packaging":

Enter the Maximum Package Weight you will ship = 50
Package Tare Small to Medium - added percentage:weight = 10:3
Larger packages - added packaging percentage:weight = 10:3

These results are repeatable i.e. I get the same weight in the shipping estimator for the corresponding qty whenever I check it.

You are saying add a Tare of 10% + 3lbs ...

Yes, but my point still stands. The calculations are incorrect.

e.g. 1 printer in cart

45 lb * 1.1 + 3 lb = 52.5 lb NOT 26.25 lb

e.g. 2 printers in cart

2 * 45 lb * 1.1 + 3 lb = 102 lb NOT 34 lb

etc

I just tested the shipping estimator on the ZC demo site at www.opensourcecms.com and got the same result. Could this be a bug?

A 100 lb item shows as 36.666666666667 lb in the shipping estimator.

I think the problem only occurs when shipping weight exceeds the "maximum package weight you will ship"

So having got my head around the shipping estimator problem, I'm still stuck with 30.97% being added to my shipping costs. It seems these two problems are not related. I can't reproduce this problem on the ZC demo site at www.opensourcecms.com

If your biggest box is 50 ... I do believe your weight is being divided between 2 boxes ...

I have finally found the source of my frustration. Currency conversion was adding 30.97% to my shipping cost.

During the installation process I selected "Australian dollars" as the default currency. But its value is NOT set to one during the install.

Under - Admin > Localization > Currency - "Australian dollar" is marked as being the default, however it has a value of 1.30970001 and "US dollar" has a value of 1.00000000.

I think the default currency should be given a value of 1 during the installation to save confusion.

Thanks for the update that you had a configuration setting of on the Currency ... :smile: