Zen Cart Logo
Forums / Currencies & Sales Taxes, VAT, GST, etc. / Strange currency exchange behavior

Strange currency exchange behavior

Locked

Views: 3,537

Results 1 to 12 of 12
This thread is locked. New replies are disabled.
20 Jul 2008, 3:29 AM
#1
jenpen avatar

jenpen

Zen Follower

Join Date:
Sep 2007
Location:
Far South Coast, NSW, Australia
Posts:
427
Plugin Contributions:
0

Strange currency exchange behavior

I have Australian dollars as the default currency. On an item with a price of A$110, when I switch to US$, the price goes up a bit, to $112.18, when it should go down a bit. Same prob with euro, pound, etc. What could cause this?
http://www.glasscrafts.com.au/store/ (password-protected for now, use log-in: admin, testpw)
TIA, Jen

20 Jul 2008, 4:20 AM
#2
kobra avatar

kobra

Black Belt

Join Date:
Aug 2005
Location:
Arizona
Posts:
31,500
Plugin Contributions:
4

Re: Strange currency exchange behavior

Did you update currencies??

20 Jul 2008, 4:36 AM
#3
jenpen avatar

jenpen

Zen Follower

Join Date:
Sep 2007
Location:
Far South Coast, NSW, Australia
Posts:
427
Plugin Contributions:
0

Re: Strange currency exchange behavior

Yep, a few times, makes no difference.

22 Jul 2008, 8:01 AM
#4
jenpen avatar

jenpen

Zen Follower

Join Date:
Sep 2007
Location:
Far South Coast, NSW, Australia
Posts:
427
Plugin Contributions:
0

Re: Strange currency exchange behavior

This is my last bug before I can go live with my store so does anyone have any ideas? I'm not allowing purchasing online by OS customers but I want them to be able to price the item they want and email for a quote for delivery, so I don't want to remove this sidebox. Anyone?

22 Jul 2008, 9:04 AM
#5
drbyte avatar

drbyte

Sensei

Join Date:
Jan 2004
Posts:
63,513
Plugin Contributions:
176

Re: Strange currency exchange behavior

What are the exchange rates set in your admin for each currency?

Your "default" currency needs to be set to 1.000000 otherwise all the other rates are calculated from a different base.

22 Jul 2008, 10:54 AM
#6
jenpen avatar

jenpen

Zen Follower

Join Date:
Sep 2007
Location:
Far South Coast, NSW, Australia
Posts:
427
Plugin Contributions:
0

Re: Strange currency exchange behavior

My default currency, AU$, is set to 1.0000 and I have updated the exchange rates several times, to no avail. Unfortunately our server is down tonight but I will doublecheck tomorrow what the stated exchange rates are. Thanks.

23 Jul 2008, 12:35 AM
#7
jenpen avatar

jenpen

Zen Follower

Join Date:
Sep 2007
Location:
Far South Coast, NSW, Australia
Posts:
427
Plugin Contributions:
0

Re: Strange currency exchange behavior

OK, here's my Currencies page, after another "update currencies":

My head's starting to spin. Is this right?

23 Jul 2008, 12:46 AM
#8
drbyte avatar

drbyte

Sensei

Join Date:
Jan 2004
Posts:
63,513
Plugin Contributions:
176

Re: Strange currency exchange behavior

The automated process goes to xe.com to check its rates, or oanda.com if there is a problem reaching xe.

If the numbers you're getting via the automated update are incorrect, then you're free to set the correct numbers manually. Just edit each currency individually and set the appropriate rate relative to your default currency.

23 Jul 2008, 1:00 AM
#9
jenpen avatar

jenpen

Zen Follower

Join Date:
Sep 2007
Location:
Far South Coast, NSW, Australia
Posts:
427
Plugin Contributions:
0

Re: Strange currency exchange behavior

OK, thanks, will do.
I understand that exchange rates need to be updated manually so I need to go in and change them every day, yes? Even though, on my site, it doesn't affect purchase price as we're only accepting orders from Australians in AU$. I'm just putting the currency sidebox there as a service to OS customers.

Is it common for the automatic update to fail like this?

23 Jul 2008, 1:55 AM
#10
drbyte avatar

drbyte

Sensei

Join Date:
Jan 2004
Posts:
63,513
Plugin Contributions:
176

Re: Strange currency exchange behavior

jenpen:

I understand that exchange rates need to be updated manually so I need to go in and change them every day, yes?Daily? I guess if your currencies are that volatile, sure. But generally most exchange rates fluctuate only a little each day ... so unless your prices are in thousands of dollars a daily update is probably way overkill. Once every couple of weeks or even monthly may suffice, depending on the markets.

jenpen:

Even though, on my site, it doesn't affect purchase price as we're only accepting orders from Australians in AU$. I'm just putting the currency sidebox there as a service to OS customers. I'm not sure what "OS customers" means, but I assume you're certain that your customers won't be confused when they can look at prices in various currencies but only purchase in AUD.

jenpen:

Is it common for the automatic update to fail like this?Not as far as I've seen.

23 Jul 2008, 2:13 AM
#11
jenpen avatar

jenpen

Zen Follower

Join Date:
Sep 2007
Location:
Far South Coast, NSW, Australia
Posts:
427
Plugin Contributions:
0

Re: Strange currency exchange behavior

Dr Byte, thanks for all your attention to this. Aren't you up late?
Sorry, over here OS means overseas, I should have said international. We are only accepting orders from people with Australian delivery addresses, but are inviting international customers to email us for a shipping quote and will handle these offline. Long story I won't bore you with, but it's basically because our parcels are very big and there's an idiosyncracy with the Australia Post Module which won't accept parcels with such a large deadweight, even though our post office does.
Anyway, about 98% of our online sales are within Australia.
If we get more attention internationally, we may review the situation.
I have left the Currency sidebox there to help those international customers work out the cost in their own currency, even though they can't place an online order.

23 Jul 2008, 2:18 AM
#12
drbyte avatar

drbyte

Sensei

Join Date:
Jan 2004
Posts:
63,513
Plugin Contributions:
176

Re: Strange currency exchange behavior

Thanks for the clarification.