Aust Post shipping plugin

-- HikaShop version -- : 2.4.0
-- Joomla version -- : 3.4.1
-- PHP version -- : 5.4.40

Just wondering if anyone is using the Australia Post shipping plugin successfully. I have just been testing it out, and it seems to give low postage values, as compared to the latest rates from Aust Post (02 March 2015).

I am looking to send out bottles of wine, each is 1.25kg, so that should be fairly straightforward. But the values I'm getting don't match the ones in the pdf download.

How does the plugin work? Does it collect the latest rates automatically, or do I have to manually add them in somehow?

Right - after further searching I have found that we seem to now be using an outdated link for getting the postage costs.

I have tried changing the link address in the aupost.php file from:

drc.edeliver.com.au/ratecalc.asp ? to
auspost.com.au/api/postage/parcel/domestic/calculate.json ?

But this gives an error message: "The cart items combined quantity is too small for all the possible shipping methods"

Can anyone who has got this to work please let me know how to set it up?

Hello,

How does the plugin work? Does it collect the latest rates automatically, or do I have to manually add them in somehow?

The Australia Post shipping plugin is only sending your order information (shipping address, order weight/dimensions,..) to the Australia Post shipping platform through that link : drc.edeliver.com.au/ratecalc.asp
And then the plugin just display what was returned from the Australia Post platform after the request.

Note that if you have set the "Group products together" option YES, your shipping rates will probably lower.

drc.edeliver.com.au/ratecalc.asp? to
auspost.com.au/api/postage/parcel/domestic/calculate.json?

But this gives an error message: "The cart items combined quantity is too small for all the possible shipping methods"

Editing that request address won't be enough, you'll have to adapt ALL the plugin code to that different API.
==> The request and the response won't be the same.

"Note that if you have set the "Group products together" option YES, your shipping rates will probably lower."

Thanks for the reply Mohamed. I am sending bottles of wine, so if I send out 6 they will be grouped together. I tried this at NO and it gives ridiculously high values.

I have been searching online and find comments like this: "For those who are not aware AusPost are killing the old drc.edeliver.com.au/ratecalc.asp rate calculator and have introduced a new API." This is dated October 2011.

So, does this mean that the Hikashop's Australia Post Shipping Plugin is now outdated?

Nicolas... I am a complete idiot. Please accept my apologies. I have just spent the last 2 days working on this with the wrong parcel charges schedule. We are 100km away from Sydney and we are definitely not in Sydney and yet it seems we fall into the Sydney zone for postage.

Your plugin works perfectly... my brain does not.

I have been testing the Australia post plugin for the past couple of days, and I am getting ludicrous results. My client sends satchels up to 2.5 Kg, for $12.50, but the plugin tells me it is $8.25 using dimensions of 30cm x 30cm x 15cm. This has a weight of 1.1Kg. I have configured it to "Use Price Per Product" to "NO" in the generic configurations. This is where it gets crazy. If I select 2 items, it wants to charge me $24.75, not $16.50. I have worked out that the plugin says that I need 3 satchels. This is also OK. Now I change the dimensions to 1cm x 1cm x 1cm and change the weight to 1gram, something about the size of a dice and now if I select 1 item, it charges $8.25, which would be 1 satchel. If I select 2 items, the charge is $24.75 which is 3 satchels and 3 items equals $33.00 which is the equivalent of 4 satchels . No matter what weight I put into the product, or what dimensions I put in, the rate always comes up the same amounts, $8.25, $24.75 and $33.00 for 1, 2 and 3 items respectively. Does this sound right to you? I can't work it out.
Just an edition to this, why doesn't the manual shipping plugin work the same way the aus post plugin is supposed to work. The only way that I can get it to work is to charge per item. All other options result in free shipping at the shopping cart end. I should be able to set the dimensions in the product page and if multiple items fit into these dimensions, then it should only charge the one shipping amount. This would allow people to offer better package deals, 2 for 1 freight etc.

Hi,
I am using the new V2 plugin with the API from Aus Post. As you can see in the screenshot, AUS-PostPlugin, at this point I am using the "Price per product" option. If you look at the Product restrictions and dimensions, you can see a weight of 1.1kg and a volume of 30 x 30 x15 cm. 1 item selected equals $8.25, 2 items equal $24.75 and 3 items equal $33.00.
If I change it to "Price per product" No, then the same selections give me 1 item $8.25, 2 items $8.25 and 3 items $33.00. If we assume Aus Post calculate that 2 items will fit into 1 satchel at $8.25, selecting 3 items would have to fit into 2 satchels which should be $16.50, not $33.00, which equates to 4 satchels, by the way. I understand that Hikashop doesn't have anything to do with the calculations, this is done at AU post, but there is something wrong with the figures that are being sent there as you can see that 1 item will fit into 1 satchel. 2 items will also fit into 1 satchel but 3 items needs 4 satchels. This doesn't make sense to me. If I can fit 2 of the same items into 1 satchel, I should be able to calculate in my head that if I want to send 10, 20 or 30 items the numbers should be 5, 10 and 15 satchels respectively. Happy to keep testing, all the best.

Hello and sorry for the late reply,
Some of our customer are facing similar issues where the rate doesn't raise with the quantity when the "Group package" option is set to YES. I sent an email to Australia Post yesterday to have more information about it so that I can understand and fix that issue, so for the moment we are waiting for there reply.