A quick rant born of total frustration

[JPW2105]

Why oh why would ShopSite actively choose to omit the shipping insurance that is contained within the UPS API information leaving shipping charges completely inaccurate.

Sometimes, I wonder why I bothered.

[BFChris]

See my response to your post under Enhancement Requests.

I don't think you're ever going to get EXACT rates for shipping in a cart like this. There are too many variables...discounts, dimensional weight issues when different products combine, etc.

It's best to hope for a close approximation, and perhaps add a little padding to make sure it errs in your favor.

[JPW2105]

Unfortunately for shop site, I have been looking into it and many other carts do it and do it well, even open source carts do it.

I have asked them directly and currently not received an answer which is the best wasy to lose someones business in all honesty.

I find this staggering that it is being avoided by them.

[Jim]

When ShopSite implemented the UPS shipping rate quotes functionality in ShopSite version 6 there was no option to include Insurance in the rate quotes, UPS returned strictly shipping rates. The current implementation has worked well for the vast majority of ShopSite users since then.

As BFChris pointed out even with the best rate quotes you won't get an exact shipping rate because there are so many variables to consider. Using the handling charge you can add a little extra to the shipping cost returned by UPS that should cover any insurance costs.

A new shipping rate quote API version has been released by UPS and we are looking at implementing that API in a future release of ShopSite.

[jnarayan]

This is an issue we have seen with a few Ordoro customers across other shopping cart platforms too. Here are my observations.

There are two things to consider -

1. Shipping & Handling fee collected - This is the amount you charge your customers when they buy from your site
2. Actual Shipping Cost - This is what you ACTUALLY pay UPS (or Fedex or USPS) when you print out the shipping label

In a perfect world, these two numbers should match exactly. But it never works out that way. Just like BFChris has mentioned, there are too many variables that go into calculating the Actual Shipping Cost and it is difficult to get it right during the checkout process. So what is the solution?

What I've seen many merchants do is to look at the history of "Shipping & Handling Collected" and history of "Actual Shipping Cost" and take an average across time or product category. If it turns out that average S&H collected is less than the average Shipping Cost, then they add that difference to the S&H collected during the checkout process. That way, on average, you are not losing money on Shipping & Handling.

I hope this will work for you. Is there a reason why you think this approach is not appropriate for you?

[JPW2105]

I originally thought the same, there are too many variables so I just accepted it.

Then, I started to dig around - The thing that kind of sticks in my throat is that if an open source solution such as ubercart (drupal) can do it for every order accurately (a company who we are very closely connected to uses this system and it works it out exactly every time), then why can't ShopSite..?

I may be looking at this on a too basic level, but when a customer orders something, and a shipping cost is displayed and then they pay for that order, are we expected to go in, recalculate it and then invoice the difference..? Surely this negates the entire point of a automated system..?

I know that there are lots of variables involved, but sure that is why we have computers, because they can calculate variables.

The info is within the UPS data. Why is it not included..?

I have asked this question, now twice, to ShopSite and they don't answer. I have two pro systems installed, this is a major fail for our operation, the lack of communication and lack of good manners in answering a query makes me think that they don't want our continued business.

As you can see, my frustration is growing. ShipSite is intrinsically a great product, but it most certainly cannot claim to work out shipping accurately when it is missing part of the cost. Yes, they can move the language around and say "Well, it does calculate the shipping, from a certain point of view" but that kind of answer is unacceptable to our customers who want to know how much they are paying for the service, not just part of it.