USPS rates not calculating correctly

[circlekstrings]

We are having a problem with international shipping rates being calculated, incorrectly - and over charging all international shipping for Express service - is anyone else having this issue? We are running Shopsite 10

thanks in advance

[loren_d_c]

Check your USPS Container Type settings for the product and make sure that they are correct. USPS may charge more for certain container types.

-Loren

[circlekstrings]

Thanks for chiming in....

Yeah I went through all the containers and weights thinking that it may be specific to a large order or something, but alas not the case - everything works fine on Domestic, but once it leaves the USA the Express fee (that should be in the 13-20 range) jumps to $30-$40 when selected on the site - no matter what order is placed - very very strange indeed.....

[Jim]

You need to have your store patched to fix bugs that USPS introduced with changes they made last year in January and again this year in January.
See the kbase articles about this type of issue at http://support.shopsite.com/KBase/search/usps%20shipping

[circlekstrings]

Once again Jim saves the day - were moving to 11SP1 so hope that fixes everything

C

[circlekstrings]

OK we updated to shopsite 11 sp1, and there is no change - customers are still be WAY over charged for international Priority Mail... by almost 40%... so there was no change when updating to SS11.SP1 - any thoughts?

[circlekstrings]

On our site at circlekstrings.com/store - you purchase one item and the shipping to Canada says:
Subtotal $49.75
Shipping $23.25
Tax $0.00
Total $73.00

but if i go to usus.com for the same location:

Priority Mail® International Flat Rate Envelope**More info about Priority Mail® International Flat Rate Envelope**
Maximum Value for Contents: $400.00
USPS-Produced Envelope: 12-1/2" x 9-1/2"
Maximum weight 4 pounds.
6 - 10 business days
$12.95

$12.95


so more than DOUBLE the price and this is now starting to scare our customers away....

could use some help

[Jim]

What settings to you have configured for USPS for the individual product, on the edit product info page, weight, package type, etc.
What settings do you have on the Commerce Setup > Shipping > USPS configure screen?

[circlekstrings]

OK so here is my theory (seems solid enough)

We have been using shopsite since version 8 - and we have always left the packaging section in our products empty, we assigned weight but no packaging (our products weigh less than 0.1lbs per unit)

USPS always defaulted to flat rate envelope (for priority or express - our only 2 options) and this was good/normal operations for us - we can process orders of up to 10 items (more than most ever order) and fit them in the flat rate envelope

Everything was fine through the shopsite 9 and 10 upgrades, but in Jan (thanks USPS) things simply started defaulting to the HIGHEST flat rate fee (large box) instead of the lowest. SO even after updating to shopsite 11 we didn't see the lower pricing kick in.

THE FIX:
I went through every product and assigned the flat rate envelope as the shipping container, and now we are working correctly. The only problem with this is if we grow and people start placing larger orders (we hope!!!) we may have an issue with not charging enough in shipping... so if anyone has any thoughts on how to dynamically assign a shipping container based on quantity of items purchased (any KB articles out there?) that would be awesome

but for now we are all fixed

thanks Jim for all your help - it is greatly appreciated!

CKS crew