mischarging

[john harding]

My website is mischarging on postage and on handling. I've only just noticed it, but it's causing me serious losses, and while I await a response from tech support I wonder if anyone here can explain the mechanisms.

What I don't understand is the "Original", "Calculated" and "Current" lines on the shipping and handling tab in Order. To take a single example, shipping cost is listed as:

Original: £2.14
Calculated: £3.25
Current: £2.14

and the handling charge is listed as:

Original: £0.75 (which is correct)
Calculated: £0.75
Current: £0.00

The customer was charged a total of £2.14 for shipping and handling, instead of £4.00.

I can't go back and check whether the "calculated" figure was calculated correctly, but I do know that the calculations are fallacious. In a recent case SD rejected the correct postage of £1.40 in favour of a "calculated" £1.23 - a figure which does not appear in the Royal Mail list of charges, accurately entered in my Zone/Class tables.

But quite apart from the miscalculation, that leaves me with two other puzzles: what is meant by "original" - how can Actinic start off with a figure prior to calculation? And how can it arrive at a "current" figure which ignores both "Original" and "Calculated"?

Looking back, I can see that I have been unwittingly seriously undercharging, to the extent that I am probably running at a loss.

Can anyone throw any light on these mysteries?

[leehack]

Are you considering VAT in your calculations? 99% of problems of this sort are usually down to a misunderstanding on VAT.

[Mike Hughes]

I can't go back and check whether the "calculated" figure was calculated correctly,

I'm not sure I understand why not. I would have thought this is the first thing to do.

The other thing I wonder is whether you have any Shipping or Handling settings set at the product level.

Without any details on how you've set up your shipping an handling settings and what might be happening at the product level then it's a bit like being asked to find a needle in a haystack without being allowed to look.

Mike

[john harding]

Do these screenshots of my settings help?

Perhaps I should have said it seems pointless to recalculate the "calculated" values because there is a strong presumption that they're correct. £1.40, for example, is a valid item in the Royal Mail postage scales: the £1.23, with which Actinic overrules it, is not. All the "Calculated" values are valid in this way, and I've no doubt that they're usually what I pay. The "Original" values bear no relation to Royal Mail charges. And I cannot see why a handling charge of 75p should sometimes be corrected to 25p and sometimes 0.

I've never educated myself on Actinic's handling of VAT because my goods are zero-rated, and there is no VAT on the classes of postage that I use. In Business settings Tax Mode is "Simple" and prices are Exclusive of Tax. The Include Tax boxes are of course unchecked.

On the Product Details tab the Handling Supplement is 0.00. I have assumed that this meant a supplement for the individual product over and above the Handling Charge of 75p set in the Shipping section.

I hope this helps.

[leehack]

On the Product Details tab the Handling Supplement is 0.00. I have assumed that this meant a supplement for the individual product over and above the Handling Charge of 75p set in the Shipping section.

I hope this helps.

My experience would say the other way, if on the product it is 0.00, i would say that is overriding the global setting you have in business settings, not in addition to it.

[john harding]

I find that hard to believe. What does the global setting mean if it had no force unless repeated at the product level - about 1,500 times in my case.

And anyway that's not what's happening. I looked at several cases. The absence of a handling charge setting at the product level was consistent, but the results were not. In some cases (with the number of items ordered varying between 1 and 3) the charge was reduced to 25p. In other cases, the charge was left unchanged at 75p. In some cases it's reduced to 0.

Moreover the global handling charge has been implemented in full for most of the past 3 years. The first instance I can find of its being reduced was on the 13th March this year.

On the other hand, the mysterious "original" shipping charge, which does not correspond to a Royal Mail value but trumps it, seems to have been happening for ever.

I am trying to charge the customer as nearly as possible exactly what it costs me to ship the goods. I have told Actinic the precise weight of the products and the Royal Mail scales. I don't see what more I can do.

[Mike Hughes]

The Include Tax boxes are of course unchecked.

The 'Tax applies to shipping' box is checked in the 'zone / class' settings which is a little bit odd.

Can you post a screenshot of the product shipping settings for the product that gives a problem.

Also the example you give in the first post says the customer should have been charged £4.00 for shipping and handling. How does that work from your shipping tables and handling Charge? I can't see it myself.

Mike

[john harding]

I see what you mean about tax being applied to shipping. But it's greyed out and I assume it therefore doesn't have any force. Anyway I've no idea how to ungrey it. Can anyone advise?

In the example I gave, the calculated cost of postage was £3.25 and the handling charge should have been £0.75, so that if Actinic had no second-guessed me the customer would have been charged £4.00. As it was, he was charged £2.14, which includes a handling charge of 0.

[Mike Hughes]

the calculated cost of postage was £3.25

I understand this but £3.25 doesn't appear in your shipping table. The nearest price breaks are £1.90 and then £3.50?

Mike

[john harding]

It would have been an overseas order. I gave the screenshot for UK postage. I didn't think the other table would add much, but £3.25 is for printed paper (large letter) up to 250g.

The lowest Royal Mail charge in that category, for 0-100 grams, is £2.60, and that is what I entered in the overseas Zone / Class tables.

Actinic charged £2.14.

It's trying to ruin me! And I've been unsuspectingly suffering this for three years.

Unfortunately, tech support are not going to be helping, since I have not yet managed to implement v11, and support for v10 is withdrawn.

[Mike Hughes]

It's all very odd.

And nothing is set on the product shipping details? No boxes ticked for 'apply shipping band supplement only once per order' ? or 'apply handling supplement only once per order' ? or 'exclude from shipping band calculation' ? or 'Ship Separately'?

And the right shipping category is showing?

Mike

[john harding]

Can I come at this from another direction? Could I ask people to have a look at the Shipping and Handling tab on a few orders and see whether in their case too SD overrules the shipping cost calculated from the weight and Zone / Class tables, and / or alters any handling charge set? If not, I don't really see why the "original" and "current" figures need to be there. (I don't understand that in any case ....)

[Mike Hughes]

Mine always add up except when I manually over ride them which is why I think it would help to understand your settings to see if they're what's causing the problem.

Sellerdeck will use the values in the shipping tables unless something is set that supercedes them. The two most likely causes are 1. Tax (as Lee has already said) and 2. something is set in the product settings.

It might be a bug, but if it is it's a rare one as there are thousands of people using sellerdeck and most of would notice if the wrong shipping and handling charges were being used.

I'm not convinced we've eliminated either of the setting areas yet but there's only so many times I can ask for details.

I hope you find a fix for your problem.

Mike

[john harding]

Sorry, I'm not trying to be unhelpful.

Here are screenshots for one transaction. The first shows the original, calculated and current values assigned by SD. The second shows the Details at the product level for that product. On the basis of the weight, the calculated postage price of £3.25 is correct.

Can you suggest any other places where there could be settings that could affect the issue? If so I'll investigate.

[Mike Hughes]

Hmm.

What have you got set shipping wise for the 'Rest Of The World' category?

Only Actinic seems to be chargeing £1.89 for something weighing 0.189Kg which I would say looks like a bit of a clue.

It isn't by any chance set to £1 per 0.1kg or something similar is it?

A screenshot would be useful.

Mike