Shipping Weight vs Dimensional Weight Issues

[gdelorey@mitcs.com]

Hi -

We've got a client that makes wood box products and often times the dimensional weight of the boxes is greater than the shipping weight, therefore causing UPS to charge based on dimensional weight. Are there any tips for getting this to work properly in AC and calculate shipping properly? I've done some testing with increasing the size of products, as well as choosing the 'ship separately' option but nothing seems to work. Anyone have any insight to correcting this issue?

Thanks,
Greg

[Katie]

Hi Greg,

Can you enable the debug option from the UPS configuration page? We should be able to see the weight being sent to UPS. It might be helpful to provide the actual weight and dimensions of one of these wood boxes, so we can run through the different calculations.

Thanks

[Katie]

I did a quick test on this today, and it does appear to be working correctly if the dimensions do not go over UPS limits. So, you might want to check the dimensional weight.

http://www.ups.com/content/us/en/resour ... eight.html

[gdelorey@mitcs.com]

Hi Katie -

Sorry for the late reply, I have been out of town. I was able to get some more information that might help us troubleshoot.

Order had two items, shipped together in 1 box:

1) Item 1 Dimensions: 11.75" x 4.5" x 25.5"
2) Item 2 Dimensions: 9.25" x 9.75" x 16"

Package Sizing: 31” x 24” x 15.5”
Actual Shipping Weight: 9.8 lbs
Dimensional Weight (calculated): 69.47 lbs

The customer was charged roughly $11 for shipping because it's being based off the package weight, but since the dimensional weight is so high, actual shipping costs were much higher. In your tests, did you mark each item as having to ship separately? Any other tips you can provide that might help us get closer to actuals?

Thanks,
Greg

[Katie]

Hi Greg,

I can't remember if I was using Shippable or Ship Separately...sorry. Now, AC cannot calculate the package size when 2 items are being shipped together. If the items 1 and 2 are not marked to ship separately, then AC will calculate the shipping on each item individually and then add them together. I don't know of any shipping integration that is clever enough to figure out box sizes when multiple items are being shipped together.

The best thing I can recommend is to enable debugging. Run a shipping test with both items. If you want to see the difference between Shippable and Ship Separately calculations, you can try that too. The debug will be in the app_data\logs folder. Open the file and it will show you what information is being sent to the gateway.

I don't have a lot of experience with shipping large packages, but maybe you could trick the system by entering the dimensional weight into the weight field, and not worry about the dimensions. You might have to play around with it some more to see what works for you.

Let me know if you have any questions, and I'll be happy to help.