USPS Plugin HikaShop

Hi Guys,

I have a question regarding the USPS Shipping Plugin for HikaShop Business (latest build). When setting up the plugin, is there a way to setup for both First Class and Flat Rate Small and Flat Rate Medium Box types? I did some tests and if you select the First Class Postage with First Class Mail Type - Rectangular and Priority Mail Container (Size of) Flat Rate Box, you can have the system decide which option is best for the customer, however, my packages can span First Class (1-2 items) Flat Rate Small (6-10 items) and Flat Rate Medium (10+ items). I was wondering if there were any plans to add additional options for a case like this.

Right now, I can stay with just using First Class and Medium Flat Rate but I might wind up having to manually adjust the shipping after an order goes through as my product weights vary but the sizes are pretty constant, meaning that I can easily tell based on the order volume and mass, which shipping choice would be best, and it would be great if there were a way to allow the plugin to do that all. Perhaps creating an "Alternative" shipping method / container.

Is this something at all in the works? I noticed that International has all the Flat Rate choices available but domestic is very limited for some reason.

I also noticed that when you have more then one Postage Class, (in this case, Priority Medium Flat Rate Box and First Class Parcel. When adding items to my cart, it displayed both postage options until I added multiple items, it then only displayed the Flat Rate Postage Options. Anything over 1 item, displays Flat Rate Only, and not until you dwindle your cart back to 1 item does First Class become a choice again. While it's good to know that it does show both options with only 1 item in the cart it defeated the purpose of having more then one Postage Class to choose from.

Is there anyway to setup restrictions or anything so that you can allow the use of more then one Postage Class? Do the Weights or Dimensions play a role in this at all?

Is this a known issue?

Your welcome to test this if you use the link in the with this post as well just create your own login and password on the site. It's highly repeatable.

Many thanks and Kudos on this plugin. Got it up and working after only a couple minor changes, and had USPS switch my webtools account over. Was the easiest thing I have setup on my store thus far lol

Cheers!

Hello,

Firstly, the USPS shipping plugin is actually only displaying the rates returned from the USPS platform, so it's only responsible of :
- Sending details of your customers order
- Displaying what's returned from the USPS shipping platform

By "shipping class" do you mean the "First class mail type" option ? If that's the case, yes you'll just have to create several USPS shipping methods with different values for that option and also different restriction values.

Also, yes weights and dimensions will have an impact on the available rates and also its prices.

Hey Thanks for your reply. However, you just took everything I thought I understood and turned it completely upside down lol

Would you be able to provide me a link or copy and paste of a configuration I could look at to understand how to properly configure the plugin?

Im confused that it doesn't get the rates from USPS as I don't see where else it would get the rates from since I don't have them configured anywhere else, and the rates displayed to the user are accurate for a personal (non-business) account.

Also, when using "Restrictions" particularly "Zone" are you setting the Zones you will ship to here, or specifying the Zones that you are NOT shipping to? For me, I only ship within the US only, so would I set the Restriction / Zone to United States? and that then only will parse shipping info for US addresses only? or is it the other way around and I tell it where I will NOT ship?

I learn best from examples, and can understand it once I see it. If this is at all possible it would be of great help for me. Please note that this is my first experience with HikaShop or any ecommerce site for that matter, so this is all very new, and I am tryiing to read as much as possible, but I tend to get lost easily not knowing much about this.

Thanks very much!

Yeah, disregard my confusion statement, I miss read what he wrote at first. I get it. I would love to see a fully working US example complete with set restrictions etc. The restrictions are the parts that throw me for a bit of a loop, however.

I need to figure out why after more then 1 product is placed in my cart, does the plugin stop displaying the multiple postal rates for the different delivery classes (ie I have selected Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate Container, and First Class Package type Parcel) however, when I enter more than one item, (size and dimension would allow for up to 6 items to be priced under First Class, but First Class disappears as an option when +1 items are added and Im left with only Priority Mail Medium Flat Rate. This happens regardless of the products added to my cart.

There in lies my largest bit of confusion. If USPS returns the rates, why would it only return the Priority Mail? I know the rates and sizes that USPS allows for these classes as I use them daily in my business outside of this site, using Stamps.com so I know at what weights and dimensions First Class would no longer be an option, but I am not hitting those limits.

I really appreciate your help, I truly do. It is getting easier, I only wish that the help documents would provide more real life examples so one could see what things might or should look like (both code and end result). The support you guys provide is stellar, and it really make a huge difference for someone like myself who has some coding experience, but not to the level that might be required for many of these things. I spent 12 years in IT in Application Development Support and Systems Admin, so I can fumble my way around but Im definitely not a pro lol

Cheers!

Hello,

As it's said on there website, there's also a limitation for "First class package type Parcel" :

Maximum Weight:
Maximum Weight: 13 ounces (over 13 ounces, First-Class Mail becomes Priority Mail).

Thanks Mohomed, I will see about ensuring we have the latest plugin. I knew that there was a weight limitation, but in my tests, I was not exceeding the 13 oz limit In fact, I was testing with items that weighed only a couple ounces a piece, hence my confusion.

Perhaps there was something else that was triggering the cut off. Either way, I will be likely adding the manual shipping plugin as well for areas where I know the weight will be specific, and I can provide my discounted business rates I have with a 3rd part USPS postage supplier. This way I can ensure my customers always are getting the best possible rates since USPS has still yet to turn my webtools account into a business account so I can get the business discount.

Lastly, I would like to ask (possible in the documentation I haven't finished reading yet) but does the latest plugin support adding insurance to the First Class Postage Class? I ask because a good 65-75% of my sales would fall under the best rates using First Class, and after I had a customer try to pull one over on me regarding a "missing" package that was never missing, I decided to start adding insurance to all my postage rates. I see the international ones all have insurance, and I know Priority and Flat Rate have insurance by default, but with First Class it is not defaulted and one must request it when buying the postage, (which I do once the order is placed, but I would prefer that I am able to quote the insurance in the postage rate at the time of purchase on my store.

Thanks!

Hello,

There's actually no option to add insurance cost to First Class Postage Class but, you can still add a fixed cost to the returned rate through the "Price" option of the USPS shipping method configuration page.

Ok, so basically I would be returning two cost, That fixed rate would be added to their final postage cost or the price returned from USPS would always include that amount plus the First Class postage amount?

Meaning would they see two rates one for First Class and one for the fixed that they would select both or one or the other or would the rate I set as the fixed rate would be added to the Post Rate returned from the USPS plugin?

Hello,

The value fixed on the "Price" option through shipping methods configuration page will always be added to the shipping method total cost displayed through the "Shipping" step of your checkout workflow.

Does anyone how a configuration that they can share that I can look at to see how to properly set this up? Yes, i will test with just making some changes, but I was looking for some examples I could look at to get an idea of what I need to do.

In the meantime, I will make some changes and see what the results are.

Thanks friend.

One problem with doing it this way is that I can not charge extra for Priority Mail since that already has insurance added to it. So is there a way to add the extra cost to the First Class Postage Class Only?

I would also still request if someone can please show me an example of a working USPS Plugin Setup, because I have been trying to get this to work for 2 weeks now and I have read every thread on this forum, and every piece of documentation on the USPS plugin and nothing is working right. Half the time, I cause the plugin to fail completely with every custom change I put in. I really could use an example since I seem to be the only person who can't get this right and it's becoming highly discouraging.

Right now, I am concerned because one of the things I have always promised my customers is that I would NEVER over charge them for postage, yet over charging is the only way my config ever seems to work without issue and I can not comfortably do that.

Anything you guys can share I would appreciate it.

Hi Jerome,

I did kind of ask this question again, with a little more detail in a new thread. I hope the new thread offers enough details that would explain things a little better.

As for the example config I understand why you can't post that not a big deal. However, I posted again because I don't think I was able to adequately explain my issue fully and the new thread includes a screenshot which should mske things a LOT clearer of my issue. You answer may be the same, I don't know, but if the answer is the same, then I really need to see about a feature request to some how correct this behavior because this is a very serious issue, and if I cant get this to work properly, then I either have to go against my policy which I take very seriously which is NEVER over charging for Shipping, or I need to take a loss, and undercharge. In either scenario, it's a big problem for both me and my customers and one that I am unsure how no one has ever reported such an issue in the past about.

I don't know how international shipping works however, it appears that there are far more favorable options to configure International USPS Postage that might fix my issue then Domestic options, and I don't understand why.

Thanks a bunch.

Im sorry did I read that right, you can add the USPS Plugin more than once? If that is the case, that may just fix my issue, I was unaware that you could do that. Let me go have a look at that.

Thank you for that suggestion! I did not know that was even an option. I will let you know how that works.

In fact yes, yes you can more then one USPS Shipping Plugin Instances. In the case where you use mutliple classes of USPS Postage, and each Class needs it's own configuration, just add the USPS Plugin as many times as you need specific configurations.

In my case, I needed to configure the USPS Plugin 3 times.

1. USPS First Class Parcel - with the rates as USPS Provides, No Insurance.
2. USPS First Class Parcel - Added $1.89 so that users could choose to add Insurance to their First Class Option (USPS Does NOT offer
Insurance by default for First Class, if your customer chooses to add insurance just configure this second instance with a Price of the Insurance coverage you choose. In my case, I needed to add Insurance coverage up to $50.00 which I added $1.89 to the price.
3. Priority Mail - Flat Rate Postage - I configured this option to trigger when the total weight of the products exceeds 13 oz. This will cover all my products and give the customers the shipping choices they want and need.

Thanks So much for the info, this really helped me to understand not only the plugin, but fixed my confusion of how in the world to offer the same shipping I offer today through my Direct Sales Channel

I hope others will find this thread useful!
Cheers!