Thread: [Q] - What are my real-time shipping options when combined weight exceeds max weight?

V: ML 7.0.1.2

I'm using RTS to pull UPS rates with my maxweight appconfig set to 150 lbs. I have a product that weighs 1 lb. A customer orders 100 of these and then eight other products that have a combined weight of 55 lbs. The total cart now weighs 155 lbs., which is 5 lbs over the UPS max weight.

When the customer tries to checkout, he receives the "No shipping methods available...blah blah blah" message, thus preventing him from completing the checkout.

Does ASPDNSF have a method to handle this situation other than just leaving the customer dead in the water during the checkout process? Can someone help me?

Thanks much!

Jason

P.S. It does not make sense to set each of the 1lb items to ship separately, and this is the only option I've found that would seem to provide a remedy.

That was actually a known issue in 7.0.1.2 which has been corrected in the latest version. Instead of the "no valid shipping method" error, customers will see a (customizable) prompt asking them to contact you for shipping prices. They can finish the order with no shipping fees added, then have to contact you to set up shipping and you can do an ad-hoc charge to add the fees.

This is a problem we all face. Your store works great until someone places an order for 100 widgets, then they cannot get a shipping cost. And marking the widget as "Ships Separately" breaks everyone elses carts.

In reality, you'll divide the shipment into four or five 30-40 lb boxes (light enough to lift, but not too heavy enough to split the box), and possibly use UPS Hundredweight shipping.

The box packing routine is contained in the GetRates method of the ShoppingCart class inside AspDotNetStorefrontCommon. It handles ship-separate items and downloadware, but lumps everything else into a common box.

To change this behavior, you need to divide the weight of the "common box" by the maximum weight you want to ship; I use 50 lbs, but it can be whatever:

Code:

                //divide remaining items into (maximum) 50 lb packages
                int numPackages = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Ceiling(remainingItemsWeight / 50.0M));
                decimal avgPackageWeight = remainingItemsWeight / numPackages;

Then iterate once for each numPackages, adding each package to the shipment.

You are in source-code modification territory here, but you can easily come up with your desired behavior in 20 lines of code.

Jon,

Terrific, that's exactly the type of response I was seeking. I knew that we were not the only ones having this problem, but before I started on any custom solution, I wanted to hear how other people were solving it so I wasn't reinventing any wheels.

Thanks for taking the time to respond and for sharing your know how.

Jason

Would it be possible to get a more complete snipet of code for this? I'm using ML 8.0.1.2. Here's what I have so far but I think there's somewhere else that the weight is being calculated because it's still showing the "call for shipping rates" message. This starts at around line 6427 of ShoppingCart.vb.

Code:

 
' Now get all itmes that do not ship separately, but group them into shipments by distributor
Dim DistID AsInteger = 0
Using con As SqlConnection = New SqlConnection(DB.GetDBConn())
     con.Open()
     Using drs As IDataReader = DB.GetRS("SELECT max(DistributorID) as DistID from ProductDistributor", con)
If drs.Read() Then
DistID = DB.RSFieldInt(drs, "DistID")
EndIf
EndUsing 
EndUsing
 
Dim i AsInteger = 1
 
DoWhile i <= DistID
remainingItemsWeight = 0.0D
remainingItemsInsuranceValue = 0.0D
 
shipment = New RTShipping.Packages()
 
     ' Set destination address of this shipment group:
shipment = ShipmentDestination(shipmentAddress, shipment)
realTimeShipping.DestinationResidenceType = shipment.DestinationResidenceType
 
'set origin address of this shipment group
     shipment = ShipmentOrigin(shipment, i)
 
Dim Weight AsDecimal = 0.0D
ForEach c As CartItem In m_CartItems
'Only calculate rates for products that require shipping
If (Not c.m_IsDownload) AndAlso (Not c.m_IsShipSeparately) AndAlso (Not c.m_IsSystem) AndAlso c.m_DistributorID = i AndAlso c.m_Shippable AndAlso (Not GiftCard.s_IsEmailGiftCard(c.m_ProductID)) Then
Weight = c.m_Weight
 
               If Weight = 0.0D Then
Weight = AppLogic.AppConfigUSDecimal("RTShipping.DefaultItemWeight")
EndIf
If Weight = 0.0D Then
Weight = 0.5D ' must have SOMETHING to use!
EndIf
remainingItemsWeight += (Weight * c.m_Quantity)
remainingItemsInsuranceValue += (c.m_Price * c.m_Quantity)
EndIf
Next c
     If remainingItemsWeight <> 0D Then
' divide remaining items into (maximum) 75 lb packages
Dim numPackages AsInteger = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Ceiling(remainingItemsWeight / 75D))
Dim avgPackageWeight AsDecimal = remainingItemsWeight / numPackages
Dim smallerPackage AsInteger = 1
 
DoWhile smallerPackage <= numPackages
' Create package object for this item
Dim p As RTShipping.Package = New RTShipping.Package()
 
p.PackageId = PackageID
PackageID = PackageID + 1
 
p.Weight = avgPackageWeight
p.Weight += AppLogic.AppConfigUSDecimal("RTShipping.PackageExtraWeight")
 
' Set insurance. Get from products db shipping values?
p.Insured = AppLogic.AppConfigBool("RTShipping.Insured")
p.InsuredValue = remainingItemsInsuranceValue
 
shipment.AddPackage(p)
 
p = Nothing
smallerPackage += 1
          Loop
 
EndIf
 
shipments.AddPackages(shipment)
shipment = Nothing
i += 1
 
Loop

Originally Posted by ASPDNSF Staff - Jon

This is a problem we all face. Your store works great until someone places an order for 100 widgets, then they cannot get a shipping cost. And marking the widget as "Ships Separately" breaks everyone elses carts.

In reality, you'll divide the shipment into four or five 30-40 lb boxes (light enough to lift, but not too heavy enough to split the box), and possibly use UPS Hundredweight shipping.

The box packing routine is contained in the GetRates method of the ShoppingCart class inside AspDotNetStorefrontCommon. It handles ship-separate items and downloadware, but lumps everything else into a common box.

To change this behavior, you need to divide the weight of the "common box" by the maximum weight you want to ship; I use 50 lbs, but it can be whatever:

Code:

 
                //divide remaining items into (maximum) 50 lb packages
                int numPackages = Convert.ToInt32(Math.Ceiling(remainingItemsWeight / 50.0M));
                decimal avgPackageWeight = remainingItemsWeight / numPackages;

Then iterate once for each numPackages, adding each package to the shipment.

You are in source-code modification territory here, but you can easily come up with your desired behavior in 20 lines of code.

Figured it out! The same logic needs to be applied to GetHeaviestPackageWeightTotal() in ShoppingCart.vb. That function also checks the weight and shows the "call for rates" message if it exceeds the max.

hi,

Please see www.beadsbythedozen.com

We do this however, the max amount of boxes you can send UPS is 50, they will not accept orders over 500 boxes.

Sorry for reviving an old thread, but we're trying to work around the same problem. Does anyone have a full sample of working code for this? I've found a few snippets from different threads but only part of the solution. If someone can post more details about what needs to be modified or all of the code changes needed, we would very much appreciate the help.