Checkout functionality

[Steve G Griggs]

We are in the process of redesigning our website, and have got to the stage of running on a test server for trial accounts only, so that we can ask people to do usability test for us.
The site is designed and running in V10.03.
On point raised has been that in the "shipping and tax" stage of the checkout you can change your delivery method at this stage, but the shipping cost shown in the shopping cart contents section above doesn't change.
Having had this ponted out I can well understand how this could lead to a loss of sales due to "checkout abandonment" when a customer realises they have selected courier by mistake with a delivery charge of £7.50, changes to 2nd class post which would reduce the shipping to say £1.50--but the checkout still shows courier £7.50! (even though it updates when you go to the next (confirmation and payment) stage.
I have two queries about this:

1. Have I missed a setting somewhere?
2. If I haven't misssed a setting is it possible to add this function to the "shipping and tax" section (please be kind I'm not a Perl, PHP or JavaScript wizard).

If anyone has any ideas or suggestions I would be very grateful.

I have tried doing a JS page refresh but this just diplays the same information.

[leehack]

Steve

I think this happens when an order has been placed previously using a certain shipping method, the next time they shop it auto selects the last method they used for this one unless they change it, presuming of course that they will choose the same, much in the same way it presumes the same name and address etc. Does this happen for a brand new customer who has never shopped before? i can recall a VAT issue that i think Duncan found on the cart summary, not one on delivery though.

[Steve G Griggs]

Thanks for the reply Lee.
That explains partly why it's happening, I'm using a login and test accounts to keep the site restricted to allowed "testers".
I would have to set up a new account and place an order to see what's happening for completely new orders/customers.

[Mike Hughes]

I suspect that to change the shipping value on the page you'll need to submit the new shipping option and refresh the page.

If you want to you should be able to create an 'update' button beside the shipping options that would submit the new shipping method and redisplay the page.

Mike

[leehack]

That's a good idea Mike, there's an update button on the cart page:

<input type="image" name="ACTION_UPDATE" src="button_update_button.gif" alt="<Actinic:Variable Name="UpdateButton"/>" />

Wonder if adding that will work, worth a try.

[Steve G Griggs]

Hi Mike and Lee.
That was the first thing I thought of trying that update button, I also tried a couple of other page refresh methods, and it just reloads the same info, if I go back to the previous stage then forward to the page again it shows updated info.
From this I suspect the page is being cached, and would need to be forced into completely reloading as a "new" page.
I suppose a (clumsy) way to do it would be to use a link that sends the customer to another page and immediately redirects to the page again, but I would hope to use a simpler method than this.