Product Variations not utilizing Flat Rate packaging.

  • Resolved Polarize

    (@polarize)


    7 years, 9 months ago

    At first I thought this was a problem with selectable options, but upon further investigation it seems that products are not being given the option of a flat rate envelope, even though they easily fit into them. I believe this is a problem with the shipping sizes being set on individual variations instead of for the global product. For instance, if a product has both downloadable and physical printed options, and one variation is a standard piece of paper with the weight and dimensions set within, there should be no problem using a Priority flat rate envelope. However, when I enabled the USPS shipping calculation method and disabled standard options using my own packaging that I have saved, USPS shipping methods are not offered during checkout. It seems incapable of reading the variation size and weight to fit it into a standard flat rate envelope. The global product settings are not set, due to both the virtual product variations and the different sizes of physical variations (think digital and physical printed material with different size options). There’s not one standard shipping size within the product.

    My site is still under development, but I have a test product with a variation size of 10 L x 8 W x 0.125 H. I have also tried it with a 0 for height with the same results. USPS lists the standard flat rate envelope as 12.5 L x 9.5 W. They do not offer a height measurement or internal measurements. I have tried this with both domestic and international destinations. I’m less worried about the domestic shipping but I’d like these options to be available for international shipments.

    The settings I have enabled are as follows:
    Region/Zone: United States
    USPS: Based in 98____
    Services: Priority Mail – Flat Rate Envelope, Priority Mail – Flat Rate Padded Envelope
    Show all available rates and let customers choose
    Fallback rate: $0
    Retail pricing
    Packing: When cheaper, combine. (have tried with individual as well)

    Problem: Shipping options during checkout do not show USPS flat rate options for product variations that should allow a flat rate shipping packaging.

    When selected, standard shipping (via my own packaging that’s NOT flat rate) options are available and the shipping options and prices DO work in those cases. It’s just the flat rate options that don’t seem to reading the shipping information for the different variations.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • Plugin Contributor Jeff Stieler

    (@jeffstieler)

    Hello @polarize, and thanks for writing in!

    It appears that the stated dimensions of the USPS Flat Rate Envelope might be incorrect, or perhaps there is an issue with the USPS service that provides live rate quotes.

    The USPS quick reference defines Flat Rate Envelopes as 12-1/2″ x 9-1/2″, but the service expects the contents of the envelope to be a maximum of 12″ x 9-1/2″ x 1/2″. See: https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm100/flat-rate-reference.htm

    I’ve reached out to the USPS to see what the correct resolution is. We should have this resolved soon. Thanks for your patience!

    • This reply was modified 7 years, 9 months ago by Jeff Stieler.
    Thread Starter Polarize

    (@polarize)

    Thank you for looking into this. I’m hoping USPS can illuminate what might be going on here.

    My test product dimensions (mentioned above) that I expected to return flat rate should easily fit into those measurements. It is set to 10″L x 8″W x 0.125″H. The only difference that I can see is that I used a decimal instead of fractions.

    Plugin Contributor nabsul

    (@nabsul)

    Hi @polarize,

    I just wanted to let you know that we’re investigating this issue and I believe we’re close to resolving it. The USPS official documentation isn’t always clear on the requirements for different packages, so we’re going back and testing all of our different services and package types to figure out exactly what the dimension limits are.

    Cheers,
    Nabeel.

    Thread Starter Polarize

    (@polarize)

    Thanks for the update. ??

    Plugin Contributor nabsul

    (@nabsul)

    Hi @polarize,

    We just deployed an update to our service that should allow you to start seeing results. This was a fix on our servers, so you shouldn’t need to update the plugin.

    Please let us know how it goes.

    Cheers.

    Thread Starter Polarize

    (@polarize)

    Apologies for the delay, I have finally had some time to look at this more thoroughly.

    It is now working for my needs, and I just need to limit options to keep it from being too confusing.

    It is showing flat rates now, in addition to standard/express rates. This is, of course, much better than before. That said, it is only offering the cheapest option for flat rate. I had set up both a standard flat rate cardboard envelope and a flat rate padded envelope, which is something like a dollar more. However, I am removing the padded envelope because none of my products would benefit from it, so this issue is solved for me.

    But, in the interest of being thorough, I do feel like mentioning that only the cheaper option is showing, and when I removed the standard envelope the price changes to reflect the difference, but is not labeled to show that it’s a separate option.

    So for shipping options I see:
    Standard rate–my packaging, not specified, and ONE flat rate option (flat rate packaging). If I have it set to padded envelope only it shows that option but does not specify that it’s a padded envelope to explain the price difference from, say, my own flat rate pricing. This is really two issues side by side.

    For instance, I have set up flat rate (my pricing) to Canada and added additional USPS options for express international flat rate. I had wanted to add an option to upgrade both flat rate options to a padded envelope. For the express option, it simply defaults to the normal envelope and does not offer anything additional. For the standard option, the price shows up for the single flat rate upgrade, but doesn’t specify WHY that flat rate is offered on top of the normal flat rate option, as in: Flat Rate Padded Envelope.

    If I have both flat rate standard and flat rate padded envelopes enabled, there is ONLY the option of the cheaper flat rate option, even though it’s still showing other options and not set to default to the cheaper pricing.

    Again, I’m removing the padded option to keep things from being overly confusing, and none of my products are fragile enough to need it, so this issue is solved for me, as flat rate does actually work now for international orders, but I just thought I’d bring that up in case it’s still not working completely as designed. If it is then no worries, as this isn’t an actual issue for my purposes and I’m not interested in starting another support thread for it.

    Thank you for spending so much time on this. I’m really happy to have this working so I can add less extreme shipping options when my site goes live in the next month or so.

Viewing 6 replies - 1 through 6 (of 6 total)
  • The topic ‘Product Variations not utilizing Flat Rate packaging.’ is closed to new replies.

Tags