No Shipping Zone when Customer registers

Hi all,

I have a problem with the customer creation process. When I create a new account from the public shop (as would a new customer if they wanted to purchase from us), everything seems to be going well. The customer info gets stored, the customer can login, the customer can place an order, BUT when you go to the check out: NO tax is displayed.
Soooo, I go check in the address_book table via phpMyAdmin and sure enough: the column 'entry_zone_id' contains a '0' (zero) where is should contain a '190' (the id of our shipping zone.)

Has anyone any idea how to solve this? We've only got one shipping zone set for the country (New Zealand) so surely it should be automatically filled in. By the way, the customer country does set itself to the right country (New Zealand.)

Help? Please?:dontgetit

Pierrick

Hi there
not sure uf this is your issue, however you need to make sure that your shipping zone need to be set within every shipping module you use (admin > modules > shipping)

Hi wolfsz,

Thanks for the reply.
I use 'Store pickup' (just because I have to use a shipping method although I don't want to use any at all). And regardless of the shipping zone setting in the shipping module, clients accounts still don't get a shipping zone at creation time?????

:frusty:
Regards
Pierrick

Hi all,

Still stuck here. Tried all sorts on my development cart and still no joy!

Regards
Pierrick

Hi,

Apologies for barging in like this but I have an urgent problem with the Zones, and I am intrigued by DrByte's comment:

DrByte:

Zen Cart uses state/province information for the "zones" system to work.
If you wish to be able to use zones to calculate taxes or shipping methods at the state/province level, you'll need to set up zones matching the state/province divisions within each applicable country.
Using "none" is fine if you don't need the granularity of detail at the state/province level.
In this case, setting your zones to work for a certain "country" and "all states" within each country should suffice.

My problem is that new customers registering online do not get a the Zone assigned to them.
Now for a start my customer's shop is not interested in shipping AT ALL at ordering time. Shipping is worked out later. But since I haven't found a way of disabling shipping zones without major hassle with Tax Code (why they should be linked is a mystery to me...) I made up one single zone for the entire country (New Zealand). I assigned a tax class (GST) and a tax rate (12.5%).
On the customer registering form, I did away with the State/Province drop-down altogether (admin->configuration->Customer Details->State = false and admin->configuration->Customer Details->State-always display pulldown = false). Thus my customers (who MUST be from New Zealand to order anyway) don't get bothered with a State/Province which is irrelevant to them.

Now what's wrong with this picture? Obviously something is but I can't find what.

Thanks for any help.
Regards
Pierrick

pierrick:

My problem is that new customers registering online do not get a the Zone assigned to them.

...

I made up one single zone for the entire country (New Zealand).How exactly did you set up your Zone ?
What country and regions did you tie to it?

pierrick:

I haven't found a way of disabling shipping zones without major hassle with Tax Code (why they should be linked is a mystery to me...)Taxes are tied to shipping address by default. If you want to change that, alter the setting in Admin->Configuration->My Store

• Basis of Product Tax
• Basis of Shipping Tax

BTW, I've moved your above post from the other thread where you repeated the issue. Please keep things in one place ... continuity of thought gets lost otherwise, and makes support a nightmare.

Hi DrByte,

Thanks for the reply.

DrByte:

BTW, I've moved your above post from the other thread where you repeated the issue. Please keep things in one place ... continuity of thought gets lost otherwise, and makes support a nightmare.
Good on you. And apologies again.

DrByte:

How exactly did you set up your Zone ?
In the order of events:

1. admin->Locations / Taxes->Zones
   Added new Zone: Country=New Zealand Name=NZ Wide Code= NZW

2. admin->Locations / Taxes->Zones Definitions
   Added new Zone Definition: Name=NZ Wide Description= New Zealand Wide

3. admin->Locations / Taxes->Zones Definitions
   Zone Details: Country=New Zealand Zone=NZ Wide

4. admin->Locations / Taxes->Tax Classes
   Added new Tax Class: ID=1 Tax Classes=Taxable Goods Description=Goods and Services Tax

5. admin->Locations / Taxes->Tax Rates
   Added new Tax Rate: Priority=1 Tax Class=Taxable Goods Zone=NZ Wide Tax Rate=12.5% Description=GST (12.5%)

DrByte:

What country and regions did you tie to it?
Country=New Zealand
Region= ??? pass, perhaps steps above will tell you?

DrByte:

Taxes are tied to shipping address by default. If you want to change that, alter the setting in Admin->Configuration->My Store

• Basis of Product Tax
• Basis of Shipping Tax
  The settings in Admin->Configuration->My Store are as follows:Country=New Zealand
  Zone=NZ Wide
  Basis of Product Tax=Store
  Basis of Shipping Tax=Store
  What I meant was that I do not understand why one is **forced **to link tax to geographical location (Store/shipping/billing.) This system is totally irrelevant for New Zealand for example, and has been driving me nuts to be frank.

I hope you can make heads or tails of this, 'cause I sure can't.

Regards
Pierrick

PS: Whereabouts are you from? I lived in Downsview then Markham for 7 years...

I tried to reproduce your scenario here and have no problems when it comes to tax calcs. However, the zone code is still 0 ... because it's not needed in the following scenario:

Admin->Locations->Zone Definitions

• add new zone "New Zealand Test"
• click Details, add "New Zealand", and "All Zones"

Admin->Locations->Tax Rates

• add new tax rate for New Zealand Test, GST, 12.5%

Turn off State field and pulldown in Admin->Config->Customer Details.

Create a customer account, using New Zealand as country. No state, since not requested.

Left the Tax Basis settings as "shipping" for now.

Attempt checkout after adding product to cart.
Taxes calculate fine, showing fine at 12.5% as expected.

I guess the question then becomes .... why are you concerned about entry_zone_id ?
It's okay for it to be 0, since a state was not specified, and the tax calcs work on the Zone being defined as "New Zealand - All Zones", meaning all the zone tax calculator refers to is the country, and not the state/province portion.

pierrick:

PS: Whereabouts are you from? I lived in Downsview then Markham for 7 years...

Lived in Toronto for about 12 years up until 5 years ago, when we decided to get way out of the city and enjoy country life ... way out in the boonies ... We still like southern Ontario and love the countryside.

Hi DrByte,

DrByte:

I guess the question then becomes .... why are you concerned about entry_zone_id ?
It's okay for it to be 0, since a state was not specified, and the tax calcs work on the Zone being defined as "New Zealand - All Zones", meaning all the zone tax calculator refers to is the country, and not the state/province portion.

Point taken, resetting my test shop the same way you did does work and does display the tax at ckeckout time. One of the settings I had must have had some weird effect.
Thanks heaps for your help. It's all good now.:clap:

One more question if I may. As I said before we do not use ANY shipping option at this time. We work shipping out at packing time and then when we invoice. Now is there a way of NOT having any of the shipping options installed? At the moment if I uninstall them I can not proceed beyond step 1 of the checkout path. In desperation I installed the least intrusive: store pickup but it's not really satisfactory.

Regards
Pierrick

pierrick:

One more question if I may. As I said before we do not use ANY shipping option at this time. We work shipping out at packing time and then when we invoice. Now is there a way of NOT having any of the shipping options installed? At the moment if I uninstall them I can not proceed beyond step 1 of the checkout path. In desperation I installed the least intrusive: store pickup but it's not really satisfactory.

I think I'd "use" the store-pickup module, but change its description (via its language file) to something like "Shipping to be Calculated Later".

Hi DrByte,

DrByte:

I think I'd "use" the store-pickup module, but change its description (via its language file) to something like "Shipping to be Calculated Later".

Brilliant idea. Just done that (added the file to the template rather than edit the original of course.)
Still comes up with the shipping costs at $0.00 A bit misleading but infinitely better than before. I looked at the storepickup.php file in the includes/modules/shipping to see if there was something obvious to comment out but promptly closed it back...

Thanks for all your help.

Regards
Pierrick

Our shop if you want to visit: www.lrt.co.nz

DrByte:

...we decided to get way out of the city and enjoy country life...

Way out in the boonies eh? I used to go up Huntsville way a lot. The city was getting to me, you know: sitting on the 401 or the DVP, breathing octane fumes...

PS. You've got to come visit New Zealand then! Local nickname for the country: God's own or God's backyard! THAT's how great it is.

PPS. And none of this -40 thing in winter either.

Cheers.
Pierrick