XML UPS strange rates and limited shipping options

Good day to you all,

This is my first post...but I know how forums work so i have spent nearly about an hour searching through other posts to find this problem and I didn't have any luck. As I am new to this I'd like to apologize for any questions i have that may waste your time but your help will be greatly appreciated.

I have the UPS xml installed and its giving rates, but there is a slight problem with the rates. There way too expensive. Being located in Canada myself, I tested the shipping rates to send to another province in Canada and for the standard shipping it came out to be nearly $40 for an item that weighs nearly a pound. All weight additions for shipping have been turned off under config -> packaging/shipping. I've looked through the settings and can't seem to find anything wrong. But because I am new to this im sure there is something im missing.

It also does not show any other option for other styles of shipping via UPS...what i mean by this is that it only offers the standard shipping. There is no option displayed for 2 day or 1 day or express etc. They are checked in the UPS XML shipping module but don't seem to show. As for shipping to USA it does show other options. But only 2 more and still the shipping rate is ridiculously high. For a shipment of the same weight (nearly a pound) to California using the express is displayed to cost nearly $80. Although im not familiar with the shipping costs and rates myself i know that this is just way too high.

I was wondering if anyone else had this problem or if anyone could direct me on where i should look in order to fix this problem. Again all help is appreciated. Thank You everyone and Thank You ZenCart!

anyone have any idea?

Please provide an example of from and to addressing costs from the UPS XML and same address's from UPS.COM for root cause analysis.

Dennis

Was this problem resolved? I've been looking all through the archived upsxml thread but this is the only thread that addresses the exact problem I am also having. I have not yet tried a US address but have tried 1 local and one long distance test accounts and only get the UPS "standard" rate. My rates look OK dollar wise so its just the shipping options that I am looking to fix.

Like ejeffay I have other rates selected on the admin screen but they just will not show up. I've tried changing the various options of pick ups and billing but no change.

I am just trying to get this working for the first time today if that matters. If anyone could point me in the right direction that would be great.

Thanks,

Graham
https://www.brochureworld.ca

Please tell me what the shipping options are not working for you.

Well for fun I just ticked all the options
Next Day Air
2nd Day Air
Ground
Worldwide Express
Worldwide Expedited
Standard
3 Day Select
Next Day Air Saver
Next Day Air Early A.M.
Worldwide Express Plus
2nd Day Air A.M.
Express NA1
Express Saver

and I did get 1 more to show up (express saver) but none of the rest seem to work.

Thanks for responding so fast!

Graham

Ok, now go to UPS.com, using the same from and to addresses and see which ones show up in the list.

I get UPS Express, Express Saver, Expedited and Standard off of UPS.com. Of which (I maybe see where you are going here) the only 2 that match the list above are the ones that display. Express saver (for this address) is listed as just as fast as express and is next day. So the long and short are covered.

I would like to get a 2nd day air if possible (which is the expedited by the looks of things) if only because 3 is a nice number of options.

I assume I would need to go into the mod somewhere and add the code to pull that rate and display it? If you have any guidance I can try that but I am a newbie and really only copy suggestions I see elsewhere with any success so I might just leave it too.

Thanks,

Graham

I also just tried it with a US address and I get lots of options. So I think its just not pulling the 'expedited' rate for Canada.

Graham

I am convinced you understand now. UPS has plenty of documents to help you out. I you need some links, let me know.

Yeah I think I've surprised myself... I just had to add the options to the selectable list that you see in the admin section and reconfigure the Canada Origin codes to include expedited. Then I reinstalled and viola expedited and express appeared.

For others with this problem here's how to change it (for Canada - other points of origin may be similar):

in catalog/includes/modules/shipping/upsxml.php find

// Canada Origin
        'Canada Origin' => array(
            '01' => MODULE_SHIPPING_UPSXML_SERVICE_CODE_CANADA_ORIGIN_01,
            '07' => MODULE_SHIPPING_UPSXML_SERVICE_CODE_CANADA_ORIGIN_07,
            '08' => MODULE_SHIPPING_UPSXML_SERVICE_CODE_CANADA_ORIGIN_08,
            '11' => MODULE_SHIPPING_UPSXML_SERVICE_CODE_CANADA_ORIGIN_11,
            '12' => MODULE_SHIPPING_UPSXML_SERVICE_CODE_CANADA_ORIGIN_12,
            '13' => MODULE_SHIPPING_UPSXML_SERVICE_CODE_CANADA_ORIGIN_13,
            '14' => MODULE_SHIPPING_UPSXML_SERVICE_CODE_CANADA_ORIGIN_14,
            '54' => MODULE_SHIPPING_UPSXML_SERVICE_CODE_CANADA_ORIGIN_54

These match up with definitions in the english language file upsxml.php so you can match the code to the service (the codes can also be matched to the XML documentation that you can download when you sign up to get the XML developer's key). In this case I wanted to offer code 02 'Expedited' and code 01 'Express'. You'll notice that expedited 02 is not on the list and express 01 is but I could not get either to work on checkout or show up as an option on the admin screen (they both WERE in the language file - if the option you want isn't you'll need to define it there too).

Express only needed 1 change while Expedited needed 2 changes.

For expedited I copied the line:
'01' => MODULE_SHIPPING_UPSXML_SERVICE_CODE_CANADA_ORIGIN_01,
and inserted it right below, then changed it to
'02' => MODULE_SHIPPING_UPSXML_SERVICE_CODE_CANADA_ORIGIN_02,

Which added 'Expedited' to the list.

However it still wasn't on the list of the options I could select from the admin screen so I found the code:
// add key for allowed shipping methods
$db->Execute("insert into " . TABLE_CONFIGURATION . " ( configuration_title, configuration_key, configuration_value, configuration_description, configuration_group_id, sort_order, set_function, date_added) values ('Shipping Methods', 'MODULE_SHIPPING_UPSXML_TYPES', 'Next Day Air, 2nd Day Air, Ground, Worldwide Express, Standard, 3 Day Select', 'Select the UPS services to be offered.', '6', '20', 'zen_cfg_select_multioption(array('Next Day Air', '2nd Day Air', 'Ground', 'Worldwide Express', 'Worldwide Expedited', 'Standard', '3 Day Select', 'Next Day Air Saver', 'Next Day Air Early A.M.', 'Worldwide Express Plus', '2nd Day Air A.M.', 'Express NA1', 'Express Saver'), ', now())");

and added the options 'Expedited', and 'Express', to the list.

Then I uninstalled the mod and reinstalled - selected the new options and Viola they appeared!

Hope that helps. I am a newbie so I feel pretty lucky that this turned out ok but I am not sure if I can answer questions regarding it if things don't go well when others try it.

And thanks Dennis for the Mod and pointing me in the right direction with your questions.

Graham

We should all be impressed at how quick you picked up on the fixes. I know I am. Good for you! I tip my hat to you. :clap:

I'd like to re-open the "strange rates" topic originally posted on this thread for discussion

The issue I'm having is exactly the same as originally posted. I'm from Canada and trying to ship from Westbank, BC to Kelowna, BC (which border one another) and the shipping costs calculated in Zencart are more than CAD $19. The item is only 0.5 pounds.

This is obviously a very excessive calculation. I've tried changing many options in the module admin itself but to no avail. The price lowers a little when changing weight options but not enough.

There didn't see to be a clear solution posted in this thread for this particular issue so I feel like the options are running thin but if anyone DID figure this out please let me know!

Thanks a million

:frusty:

Please post the ship from and ship to addresses, package weight, shipping method, and the cost of the shipment from the UPS site. Then the same addresses, package weight, shipping method and cost from your stores UPSXML module.

Thank you so much for replying. After this one step I'll be finally done.... after an ardous journey of doing e-commerce for the first time :)

Cost my website shows with Canadian shipping address:
From Westbank to Kelowna, BC - 0.5 pound item - $19.06
(and only shows UPS Standard option in ZenCart, no other possibilities)

Cost the UPS website shows - $19.06 - same price

Note: Not sure if this matters, but the account I've set up at UPS still says "UPS United States" at the top right corner even after I'm logged in. Perhaps I need to set my "locale" to Canada or set up an account at UPS Canada? I'm not sure this has any bearing on the costs, etc. My address by default IS set to Canada so maybe there's no conflict here, but thought I'd mention this.

2nd note: I really haven't customized any options on the UPS website under my acct, aside from my home address, profile, etc. Perhaps that's where this battle is won, let me know if you remember.

Cost my website shows with US shipping address
From Westbank, BC to San Francisco, California - 0.5 pound item - $21.33 (UPS Standard)
3 options for shipping now show up as well - UPS worldwide express, UPS Standard and UPS 3 Day Select. Cost for Worldwide express - 63.06, cost for 3 day select: 47.75

Cost the UPS website shows - all same prices.

In summary, looks like the UPS account estimates are matching up with the estimates in ZenCart. By intuition this tells me maybe I have to change some kind of settings in my UPS account admin. Let me know if you have any thoughts.

Thanks a bunch

Just to be sure, are you now saying there are no "excessive calculations"?

$19.06 seems very excessive for a 15km journey, which is Westbank to Kelowna.

After testing costs on the UPS Canada site, the prices are the same, so is it safe to assume that 19.06 is just the actual cost?

If so, I guess UPS isn't an option. This almost doubles the price of my product for the shortest distance possible. Is there anything else I can change to bring this price down?

I figured this journey should only cost 5 dollars or something.

Thanks

I will call UPS in the morning and enquire about pricing to confirm... I guess I was just naive to the fact that shipping this way costs much more that I originally thought and I'll have to venture to alternatives.

Have you made the changes suggested in post number 11 above?

That thread deals specifically with getting more shipping options to show up which is lower on my priority list.

I wanted to "fix" the calculated price but as it seems nothing is broken, it's just much more expensive that I thought, so I assumed it was no calculating properly.

If I do determine (after talking to UPS) that the price should be lower and I decide to use UPS XML, I will definitely look to Post 11 then and fix the options, but right now the default option is the cheapest.

Thanks