AbleCommerce Shopping Cart Software

I'd like to see an option for this added to the drop down lists?

Ditto, we have customers that ship to these military service addresses, this is a must.

Dave

Intelliflex Corporation

Yes,
We agree. We ship a lot to APOs and they take a lot of extra time to process... but it is the right thing to do.
Don

Over the years, we too, have done quite a bit of business with the brave men and women in the US Military.

To add the capability to AC7 we just need to add 3 new states under the United States country listing. Those states and their respective codes are as follows:

code_____name
AE_______Armed Forces - Europe (AE)
AP_______Armed Forces - Pacific (AP)
AA_______Armed Forces - USA/Canada (AA)

The code is mandatory but you can actually name the new 'state' anything that you wish. We choose to start with the words Armed Forces because it places all 3 together and close to the top of the list.

Walmart.com uses the term Armed Forces Americas, Pacific, and Other

Eddie Bauer.com uses the terms: APO/FPO-Air Atlantic (AA), APO/FPO Air Europe (AE) and APO/FPO Air Pacific (AP)

Newegg.com uses AA, AP, AE

Troutlet.com uses the list above.

How do the additions affect shipping with UPS?

Dave

Intelliflex

As far as I know it will be fine although I've not tried it. This method is what was used in our old cart. There were many people using the old cart that also used UPS.

Those codes are taken from the USPS service just like all of the other codes. But if in doubt, try it and perform a test order.

Where does the Zip code come into play here? I'm not sure that's an optional field.

Dave

Intelliflex

I added AA, AE, AO to my provinces table in RC2 and they show up OK at one page checkout. There was no zip code validation on them, but when I changed the state back to OH and put in in invalid zip code for OH, there was no zip validation then either.
I just checked Joe's site and it doesn't validate the zip code either. Cool, if I live in California, I can put an Indiana zip code in, get lower shipping rates because Joe's in Indiana, then I'll call him and tell him I typed the zip code in wrong and in his hurry to get my order to me, he won't even think about the fact that I might night have paid enough for shipping.
Sample scenario above, but if some of our customers figure it out, they wouldn't hesitate to try it.

Judy

Does UPS caculate shipping costs to the military addresses without the use of zip codes?

Dave

Intelliflex

I got to thinking, maybe there is no zip code validation on Joe's site if he doesn't use any of the UPS online rates.
UPS to military- on our 5.5 site, I had to put code in to keep UPS rates from showing up for military addresses. [Edited- this was wrong- UPS doesn't return rates for military addresses] I will check that later today- I know the code is there, I just haven't tested the UPS rates with a military zip lately.

if I live in California, I can put an Indiana zip code in, get lower shipping rates because Joe's in Indiana, then I'll call him and tell him I typed the zip code in wrong and in his hurry to get my order to me, he won't even think about the fact that I might night have paid enough for shipping.

I'm not sure I appreciate the tone of this thread

I have UPS, FedEx and DHL all set up with online rate calculation. But my shipping estimator isn't working at all and I can't troubleshoot it - it's a compiled class and I don't have source code.

Accurate shipping rates do occur during checkout on the shipping method dropdown.

Hey Judy

Could you hummmm... a few bars in a different tone for... well you know... Joseph...

Dave

Intelliflex

Well, I was trying to make a point that I think there is a problem if the zip code is not validated against the state. Joe knows I wouldn't cheat him, don't you Joe? I don't even like Pepsi- give me Dr. Pepper.
Anyway on our 5.5 site, if you put in the wrong zip code you can't go any further- it changes the state in the drop down to match the zip code and shows an error message. When I put in a zip code on 99901 instead of 45385 (OH), it changed the state to AK.
Military addresses and UPS- I checked our site and UPS doesn't show up for them even if I take out the custom filter I made-- I had it filter for UPS methods not to show up for PO Boxes or Military. I was incorrect in the previous post- Able 5.5 and UPS didn't show shipping rates for military locations. I just ran a test on my test site and UPS rates don't come up for military addresses.

Another reply to myself- I activated UPS online tools on my test site and if I put in a zip code and state that don't match, there is no error message, they stay the same as entered, but no UPS rates show up for that address. So Joe, your customers might not know what is wrong, but they can't gyp you by putting in a wrong zip code.

Hmmm I haven't tested it enough to notice that yet. There goes my Sunday

Let me pose a similar question though. You haven't mentioned "warehouses" at all yet. Doesn't the freight calculation use the address of the warehouse assigned to the product as the source address for shipping calculations?

Maybe that's just assumed for all your veterans out there, but I'm young(er) and uneducated in these things.

Ya know....

It makes sense that one could add the FPO, APO, etc. as seperate zones and then assign manual shipping charges to those based on a rate table, tweak the table based on the averages as orders are processed to make sure you're covering the cost of shipping.

Dave

Intelliflex Corporation

Dave,

A military address has a zip code.

Based on these constructs, a typical Overseas Military Mail address looks like this:

Name
Postal Service Center + Identifier
APO, AP ZIP
or
Name
Postal Service Center + Identifier
FPO, AP ZIP

All you should have to do is add the sates.

AA Armed Forces Americas (except Canada)
AE Armed Forces Eur., Mid. East, Africa, Canada
AP Armed Forces Pacific

I just tested mine using this address

PFC Gomer Pyle
CMR 345, Box 12334
APO AE 09250

It returned USPS online rates just fine. UPS does not allow shipping to Military addresses.

Army Post Office (APO) and Fleet Post Office (FPO) addresses are not accepted.

How do you add those 3 states for military addresses? I don't see any way to in the admin.

Thank you.

Can we have a poll on this feature? I hate shipping via USPS, but I would be willing to go the extra mile for military guys and gals. I think there should be an option to activate military zones.

Hello Charles,

I didn't add it as it appeared it was solved*. If it's not please let us know what we need to improve (enhance) and I'd be happy to add the poll.

* I mostly moved the solved issues to the other forums or removed them, but wasn't sure about a few issue this being one of them.

Yeah, after reading the whole thread it looks like there is a way to make it work. That is OK with me, I guess I was looking for 'out of the box' type of feature. But it does appear easy enough to implement.

Hello Charles,

Good deal. Trust me after reading all of the posts this afternoon, I'm sure I could of misread a few. It's likely we have polls open for features that have been added already

Did anyone list the way to add the military state codes? I really need this added to my store?

Thanks.

You can go to Configure-->Shipping-->Countries, find the United states and click the link in the provinces column and you can add AP, AE, etc as a new province.

Thanks so much, exactly what I needed.