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Lyonsperf  
#1 Posted : Tuesday, March 1, 2022 8:39:55 AM(UTC)
Lyonsperf

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The plugin for UPS online is returning shipping prices way to low.

For example: A new order that should be $21 to ship, charged the customer $11.95.

When checked on the UPS site,the lowest price is $21.

Where is the error?

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ray22901031  
#2 Posted : Tuesday, March 1, 2022 9:10:31 AM(UTC)
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The information being returned by UPS will never truly match the order because of the many factors involved, but basically because of dimension shipping.

You need to make sure that the information that you're sending to UPS from your order is correct. The amount being returned is also based on your specific account with UPS.

You give an example that it should be $21, but it charged 11.95.

- What are the weights involved?
- Are there multiple packages involved?
- Are you calculating insurance with UPS?
- What particular UPS service are you attempting to use?

I would first check the weight that you are sending UPS against their online calculator. I also believe that there is a shipping log file somewhere on the system where someone else can identify its location.

I hope this information is useful.

-Ray
Lyonsperf  
#3 Posted : Tuesday, March 1, 2022 9:49:40 AM(UTC)
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1 lb package
No insurance
UPS Ground

Have it set to use retail rates, but its lower than our cost!
ray22901031  
#4 Posted : Tuesday, March 1, 2022 9:55:34 AM(UTC)
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You need to run tests to make sure that the amount being returned is as close to the actual amount charged by UPS. But it will never match. In fact, you will not know the actual amount being charged by UPS until you get your bill.

The best you can do is make sure that the weight that you're sending is the correct weight, and then you can adjust the individual UPS shipping method by adding a percentage to that.

Unless you don't have a UPS account, using retail rates is not a good idea. This is something that you're going to have to investigate, and play with and adjust it until it conforms to your needs.

But you will never get an exact amount.

Again, I hope this helps.
Lyonsperf  
#5 Posted : Tuesday, March 1, 2022 10:14:44 AM(UTC)
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Used to work fine when we were on oscommerce.
ray22901031  
#6 Posted : Tuesday, March 1, 2022 10:32:45 AM(UTC)
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Both systems used the same UPS APIs. If you're not willing to invest the time, do a bit of troubleshooting, and make adjustments including adjusting a percentage to the individual service used by UPS, then you're going to have to live with the results.

Your first problem is: You're using retail rates, I suggest you get an account and start using negotiated rates. That is the foundation that you need to start from.

We use ShipStation, which provides a report that we examine in detail that shows the rates that we are charging versus the rates from UPS. If you have access to the backend database, you can create your own report using a report builder. In fact, it would be nice if AbleCommerce were to include this type of report in a future version.

Even with all the tweaking that we do, there will be a small percentage where we lose money, but overall, we either break even or make a little bit of money. That is the best you can do, anything else, you're fooling yourself.

Perhaps somebody else wants to come in and offer more advice.

-Ray
Katie S  
#7 Posted : Tuesday, March 1, 2022 1:04:24 PM(UTC)
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Ray, I wanted to thank you for providing some solid advice...

When working with UPS rates, I have found that the log files we generate when debugging are the best source you can get to find any discrepancies.

Using dimensions would be critical to getting accurate rates. The dimensional weight is sent in with the actual weight. The higher number is used by UPS. I've even suggested that merchants enter the dimensional weight into the weight field to make sure it's used in the case of having multiple different items in the order.

As Ray suggested, make sure to get your account information in there and use negotiated rates, and it also might be a good idea to talk to your UPS rep and make sure your account is providing them to you.

It only takes a few minutes to do some testing. Check those log files and it shows you exactly what information is being sent to UPS. That same information should result in rates from the website that are close...maybe not exactly the same...but they should be close.

If you do have oversized items to ship, there are some "Special Condition" shipping options that can be used. These are important when you have multiple items in the shipment, because we can't send the total of all dimensions when there are multiple items.

Please keep us posted. I'm interested in hearing why the rates on AbleCommerce are so much lower than what you are actually charged.

Thanks for your support!

Katie
Secure eCommerce Software and Hosting
Lyonsperf  
#8 Posted : Thursday, March 10, 2022 1:42:55 PM(UTC)
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OK, UPS tech services is useless.
And since I don't speak Hindi or Farci, I can't understand what the person there is saying.

What we ended up doing was adding a percentage handling fee to the shipping.

It really a crime that these people take our money but won't offer capable support for their product. Meaning UPS.
Lyonsperf  
#9 Posted : Saturday, March 12, 2022 9:53:48 AM(UTC)
Lyonsperf

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Apparently there was an update to the UPS ONline Tools code in Febuary of this year.

Is our code updated in the addon?

The info in the developers kit is very confusing.

I'm not a coder, so I wouldn't even attempt to make a change.
judy at Web2Market  
#10 Posted : Monday, March 14, 2022 6:53:44 AM(UTC)
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Do you have a link to the details of the UPS update in February?
Thanks
Lynsperf  
#11 Posted : Monday, March 14, 2022 7:00:25 AM(UTC)
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Its not even called online tools anymore.
They changed it to UPS Developer Kit
Here's a link to the new section: https://www.ups.com/upsdeveloperkit?loc=en_US

The api's are different.
judy at Web2Market  
#12 Posted : Tuesday, March 15, 2022 6:28:15 AM(UTC)
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Thanks for posting that information. I'm sure the old one is still working- none of our sites have reported that it was down. In the past, some sites have increased the weight of their products to get the rates they wanted as an alternative to adding a handling charge.
nadeem  
#13 Posted : Tuesday, March 15, 2022 6:35:10 AM(UTC)
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Based on the UPS Developer Kit Annuncements https://www.ups.com/us/e...-kit-announcements.page, there are two types of updates, that are;

The January 2022 updates that are related to the Developer Guide Updates which is verbiage updates only to Developer Guide (e.g. Congested is updated to Remote Area).

The February 2022 updates are related to the Landed Cost Quoting API that we don't use. So this isn't applicable to AbleCommerce it seems.
Lyonsperf  
#14 Posted : Tuesday, March 15, 2022 6:55:09 AM(UTC)
Lyonsperf

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I finally got in touch with my UPS sales rep.
He is going to have the tech dept look at the site and see what is wrong.

I will post updates as I get them.
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