Carriage costs display in checkout - query

[NickD]

I've had a customer moan that he was surprised to see carriage costs added to his bill, when these were not shown in the checkout. (Catalog 6.1.3)

What appears to happen is that wen you have finished adding stuff to the cart, and click on "Checkout Now" then the contents of the cart are summarised on the screen, with product costs & a total, but exclusive of carriage. Then in later screens the carriage charges are shown.

I think that the customer has a point - and I wonder if there is any way that Catalog can be configured to show the carriage charges when displaying the contents of the cart in the checkout - so that the total cost shown here is the same as on the final invoice? That way there are no surprises for the customer (who in most cases will not have taken the trouble to read T&Cs, where carriage is explained).

All input gratefully received

Nick

[Ben]

Hi Nick

The shipping and handling charges only appear in the latter stages of the checkout because they must be calculated by the shipping destination location on the first checkout page and the class of service on the second one, as selected by the shopper.

This information is held in the session file (or in the cookie if the 'remember me' feature is used) and if the shopper returns to the checkout within the session file expiry period, their shipping charges for the new order will appear on the first checkout page.

The final amount payable, including carriage, will be displayed on the final checkout page before payment and there should not be any differentiation between this and the amount on the receipt page.

Ben