Shipping Options Display

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   Hello,
We use Fed Ex and the US Postal Service (USPS) for our shipping providers.
Product Cart is setup to be United Parcel Service (UPS) compliant, which means they cannot display other shipping providers' rates on the same page.
We don't use UPS, however due to the way Product Cart is currently setup we are forced into this compliance configuration.

USPS is set as our default shipping provider due to the fact that most of our orders are 3 lbs. or less.

The problem is that many of our customers who have heavier orders do not realize they need to select from the drop-down menu to view the Fed Ex rates (which are usually much cheaper for heavier orders).

Since they don't realize this, they end up paying a much higher shipping rate for USPS Parcel Post or Priority Mail or even worse, they do not place an order at all.

Is anyone else experiencing this problem?
I can understand that Product Cart wants to be UPS certified, but if a Product Cart user isn't using UPS they should not be subjected to the negative effects of this.

Product Cart used to display all shipping rates on one page, which was much easier for the average consumer to process. Sure, you and I can easily place an order on any e-commerce website, but what about those who are first-timers or are not computer savvy?

As a Product Cart user of over 4 years, I have helped resolve a countless number of bugs. Now, Early Impact seems to be outsourcing their tech support (who will now answer your question with a question of their own). I have requested many times to have an option of how the shipping rates are displayed, but this does not seem to be a concern, even though it would be something so simple for them to implement. At the moment they may be too preoccupied creating add-ons to generate more revenue.

I believe that those of us who do not use UPS should be able to display all of our shipping rates on one page (THE WAY IT USED TO BE) and not be subject to UPS's rules.

Thank you,
Brandon Kats
www.GrandmasGiftware.com

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bkats Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 24-November-2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote bkats Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: Shipping Options Display Posted: 05-May-2008 at 11:54pm
	Hello, We use Fed Ex and the US Postal Service (USPS) for our shipping providers. Product Cart is setup to be United Parcel Service (UPS) compliant, which means they cannot display other shipping providers' rates on the same page. We don't use UPS, however due to the way Product Cart is currently setup we are forced into this compliance configuration. USPS is set as our default shipping provider due to the fact that most of our orders are 3 lbs. or less. The problem is that many of our customers who have heavier orders do not realize they need to select from the drop-down menu to view the Fed Ex rates (which are usually much cheaper for heavier orders). Since they don't realize this, they end up paying a much higher shipping rate for USPS Parcel Post or Priority Mail or even worse, they do not place an order at all. Is anyone else experiencing this problem? I can understand that Product Cart wants to be UPS certified, but if a Product Cart user isn't using UPS they should not be subjected to the negative effects of this. Product Cart used to display all shipping rates on one page, which was much easier for the average consumer to process. Sure, you and I can easily place an order on any e-commerce website, but what about those who are first-timers or are not computer savvy? As a Product Cart user of over 4 years, I have helped resolve a countless number of bugs. Now, Early Impact seems to be outsourcing their tech support (who will now answer your question with a question of their own). I have requested many times to have an option of how the shipping rates are displayed, but this does not seem to be a concern, even though it would be something so simple for them to implement. At the moment they may be too preoccupied creating add-ons to generate more revenue. I believe that those of us who do not use UPS should be able to display all of our shipping rates on one page (THE WAY IT USED TO BE) and not be subject to UPS's rules. Thank you, Brandon Kats www.GrandmasGiftware.com

Greg Dinger Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Certified ProductCart Developers Joined: 23-September-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 238	Post Options Post Reply Quote Greg Dinger Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 06-May-2008 at 12:20am
	<<<At the moment they may be too preoccupied creating add-ons to generate more revenue.>>> I'm sorry, but I really have to come to EI's defense. This is entirely out of line. In the past month, Sheri and the team have implemented solutions to significant issues that confronted stores we have built for clients. From fixes to the QB module, a shipping problem that arose due to an unusual data circumstance, to hastily responding to Paypal's sudden implementation of a new SDK for PayFloPro - they have jumped on major challenges and resolved them quickly and competently. Their tech support response time is simply unmatched by other software providers and I find it absolutely infuriating that you feel they are spending all their time creating add-ons to produce revenue. They deserve far more respect than this.

ProductCart Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group ProductCart Team Joined: 01-October-2003 Status: Offline Points: 135	Post Options Post Reply Quote ProductCart Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 06-May-2008 at 4:32am
	Brandon, We partially outsourced technical support for a few months in 2007. That was simply an experiment, and it was terminated several months ago since we were not completely satisfied with the outcome. All technical support is currently done in-house and there is no plan of outsourcing any of it in the future. As for your recommendation with regard to the shipping module: it is a legitimate suggestion, but you need to stand in our shoes and understand that we receive an incredible number of perfectly sensible, useful suggestions for improvements to our software every single day. We have to prioritize them based on: - how many requests of the same kind we receive - the overall impact on the source code - our development schedule In fact, we are currently working on a number of new features that have been requested by ProductCart users, and that will be part of a free update to be released this summer. And... we have not charged for an upgrade in 2 years. Massimo Arrigoni CEO Early Impact, Inc. Edited by earlyimp - 06-May-2008 at 4:33am

katharina Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 25-October-2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote katharina Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08-May-2008 at 10:29am
	I don't want to tread this out to much, since the originator is loaded with negativity and an ebay mind. I do have a suggestion on displaying the shipping options, since some of our customers are a little bit confused. It would be more visually catching to the shopper to not use a drop down option for shipping options. I would suggest a line saying "Click on the individual shipper to see rates:" Then display a row of tabs with the logo of each shipping company and their name right below the logo. Katharina

bkats Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 24-November-2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote bkats Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08-May-2008 at 11:37am
	Sorry...sorry...I am having a bad week

Stuck Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 09-March-2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote Stuck Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08-May-2008 at 6:40pm
	Just an idea & perhaps this could be a solution as a way to better display real time shipping rates. For all of us ProductCart users whom prefer to use carriers other than UPS, display all the rates inline on the shipping rates page (no dropdown box, no rates possibly being overlooked by potential customers). For users desiring to have UPS as there default carrier, then the dropdown box must be used & the UPS rates would initially be displayed on the page. Hopefully this would be the best of both worlds for non-Ups users and UPS users alike.

katharina Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 25-October-2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote katharina Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08-May-2008 at 6:56pm
	Right now we have it to display postal first. Thinking about it would be better not to show any shipping cost, until the customer clicks on one of the tabs I've mentioned above. The drop down is just to small in my point of view. Tabs with text and logos are just easier to understand. Remember you always have to pre-chew options for the customers. Many are just not that bright or computer literate. Still PC is easier to use then most carts. Katharina

Stuck Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Groupie Joined: 09-March-2007 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote Stuck Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 08-May-2008 at 6:59pm
	Oh, and Brandon......... I can understand your frustration in regards to the shipping rate display restrictions! However, I believe you directed your frustrations in the wrong direction, it is UPS's arrogance that is the source of this whole issue! Essentially UPS believes they have obtained such a large portion of the parcel shipping business that they can attempt to tell everyone how to run the shipping portion of their business (at least if they want to use UPS as their shipper). Basically any supplier, vendor, service provider, etc. that pulls "that" card on my company will walk away with the card in their hands. We actually did use UPS as our daily pick-up parcel carrier for several years, we now ship 85-90% of all our parcel shipments with FedEx Ground. Done venting

ProductCart Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group ProductCart Team Joined: 01-October-2003 Status: Offline Points: 135	Post Options Post Reply Quote ProductCart Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09-May-2008 at 3:37am
	In the future we'll look at using accordion content panels to do this. The accordion content panels we use on our "Just In" section of the Support Center are based on Adobe's SPRY framework and they seem to work quite well across browsers. Still - believe me - we're certainly not making things up when we say that we receive daily requests for good, smart new features and suggestions. So it goes back to the issue of having to choose and prioritize among lots of good ideas for enhancing ProductCart. Massimo Early Impact

katharina Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Senior Member Joined: 25-October-2005 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote katharina Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 09-May-2008 at 12:19pm
	Cool, I like that idea. Do you have a that page available for download now? Katharina