shipping weights and sales tax

[Medworks]

issue number 1: I have the weights of items designated in units of tenths of ounces because I had the suspicion that oscommerce was rounding to the nearest integer BEFORE adding weights together. But now I discover that it turns any weight I enter in an amount of 100 ounces or more (6 pounds 4 ounces) from 1000 or 1200 or 1400 or whatever into 999.9. Which is totally ludicrous. Whether it's a float or a long, there is no data type with a cutoff at 999.9! So I looked in the "Maximum values" under configuration and I don't see anything relating to this limit of 1000. How do I fix it so that it lets me set the weight of my two heaviest items to their proper values instead of turning into 999.9? One's 1158 and one's 1575 so it's not catastrophic to have them be 999.9 but all the same I bothered to weigh them so precisely and I have the shipping all done by weight, I want it to use 1158 and 1575 and not 999.9 and 999.9!

 

issue number 2: I'm tired of having to contact customers every time one happens to be in Tennessee and inform them that the total they got was incorrect because it won't charge sales tax. It LOOKS like this should be handled explicitly in "locations/taxes" but all I could do was change it from what it had said by default apparently - Florida - to the word I entered in, Tennessee. I need it to add 9.5% TN sales tax whenever they select the state TN from the dropdown menu when they place an order and are entering their address and what it's doing now isn't working!

 

Anyone who can solve either of these 2 problems, thank you in advance.

[easytech]

issue number 1: I have the weights of items designated in units of tenths of ounces because I had the suspicion that oscommerce was rounding to the nearest integer BEFORE adding weights together. But now I discover that it turns any weight I enter in an amount of 100 ounces or more (6 pounds 4 ounces) from 1000 or 1200 or 1400 or whatever into 999.9. Which is totally ludicrous. Whether it's a float or a long, there is no data type with a cutoff at 999.9! So I looked in the "Maximum values" under configuration and I don't see anything relating to this limit of 1000. How do I fix it so that it lets me set the weight of my two heaviest items to their proper values instead of turning into 999.9? One's 1158 and one's 1575 so it's not catastrophic to have them be 999.9 but all the same I bothered to weigh them so precisely and I have the shipping all done by weight, I want it to use 1158 and 1575 and not 999.9 and 999.9!

 

issue number 2: I'm tired of having to contact customers every time one happens to be in Tennessee and inform them that the total they got was incorrect because it won't charge sales tax. It LOOKS like this should be handled explicitly in "locations/taxes" but all I could do was change it from what it had said by default apparently - Florida - to the word I entered in, Tennessee. I need it to add 9.5% TN sales tax whenever they select the state TN from the dropdown menu when they place an order and are entering their address and what it's doing now isn't working!

 

Anyone who can solve either of these 2 problems, thank you in advance.

 

 

I'll take a newbie stab at it...

 

Issure Number 1: It may seem weird but have you tried setting maximum weight higher? e.g if you tried 2000, try 10000

Issue Number 2: In Admin can't you just add the seperate zone in "Zones" then give it a different value in "Tax Zones" or does that not work?

[♥geoffreywalton]

Set you wt in lbs, 1.5 = 1lb 8oz etc problem solved.

 

Problem 2 set up a tax rate for a Tennessee zone with the right rate and make sure the delivery address is for a TN address.

[rybus]

issue number 1: I have the weights of items designated in units of tenths of ounces because I had the suspicion that oscommerce was rounding to the nearest integer BEFORE adding weights together. But now I discover that it turns any weight I enter in an amount of 100 ounces or more (6 pounds 4 ounces) from 1000 or 1200 or 1400 or whatever into 999.9. Which is totally ludicrous. Whether it's a float or a long, there is no data type with a cutoff at 999.9! So I looked in the "Maximum values" under configuration and I don't see anything relating to this limit of 1000. How do I fix it so that it lets me set the weight of my two heaviest items to their proper values instead of turning into 999.9? One's 1158 and one's 1575 so it's not catastrophic to have them be 999.9 but all the same I bothered to weigh them so precisely and I have the shipping all done by weight, I want it to use 1158 and 1575 and not 999.9 and 999.9

 

I'm experiencing the same problem - each product seems to have a maximum weight which isn't enough to correctly charge the shipping - if I try to change the weight above 999g and save it it just goes back to 999g which suggests that there is a maximum somewhere. Previously they've been able to increase the weight but since it was transferred to a new server this maximum has appeared.

 

The main issue I'm struggling with is that this is a heavily customised oscommerce store (by the previous host). I've looked through the oscommerce documentation but it seems that the maximum shipping weight is set up during installation. I've no access to the administration pages (only the customised version which basically allows orders to be processed and new products to be added - no other configuration options are listed). I need to increase the maximum shipping weight - is this stored in the mysql database or in a php file?

 

Thanks in advance

 

Helen

[Medworks]

Modderman:

 

Issue 1: A newbie stab, eh? Yes, you're very good at stabbing. You might consider becoming a butler. "It may seem weird but have you tried setting maximum weight higher? e.g if you tried 2000, try 10000". Ok. And HOW do I do that? I can't find this variable which is set to 999.9 which is the maximum weight! How do I change the maximum weight? I'd LOVE to set it to 2000 or 10000 or 137 trillion. But it's 999.9. I'm asking how to change it. Kind of like Q telling Captain Picard "Just change the gravitational constant of the universe". Ok, then tell me, where to I go to change this constant? For issue number 2, Tennessee is already in "Zones". So I go to tax zones. There is no value for it. There are 2 fields and only 2 fields. "Zone name" which is Tennessee" and "description" for which I entered in the text "TN 9.5% sales tax". It is not, nor was I expecting it to be, smart enough to know to pick out from that text I entered that it should add 9.5% sales tax to any order that comes from Tennessee. And indeed it doesn't.

 

geoffreywalton:

 

Problem 1: "Set you wt in lbs, 1.5 = 1lb 8oz etc problem solved." As I said already, oscommerce was rounding to nearest integers. That's WHY I changed it from pounds to tenth-ounces. Are you suggesting that I change all 200 of my items back to pounds, to fix the 2 items it underestimates the weight of by 15% and 35% and in the process of taking hours to divide every weight in the database by 160 and change the shipping table rate, to make it so that everyone's orders for just about anything gets just as much rounding error? That's what they call cutting off the face despite the nose. Problem solved. No face equals no nose. Problem 2: That's what I'm asking how to do. You too might as well have said "just change the gravitational constant of the universe".

 

rybus:

 

Sigh. Unfortunately this is the only person who has understood what I have written and she's vexed by the same problem it seems. I guess we'll both have to wait for an answer.

[rybus]

rybus:

 

Sigh. Unfortunately this is the only person who has understood what I have written and she's vexed by the same problem it seems. I guess we'll both have to wait for an answer.

 

I think I've fixed the issue I was having by directly altering the mysql database using phpmyadmin (I'll tell you what I did but don't blame me if it doesn't work for you or if it breaks).

 

In the products table there is a field called products_weight - the type is decimal (5,2) which I assumes would give the maximum of 5 numbers total and 2 decimal places i.e 999.99. I changed the length/values to 8,2 and this seems to allow me to enter larger numbers into the product descriptions - one of the products needed to be 70000g. If my assumptions are correct then with 8,2 the maximum should be increased to 999999.99.

 

So far I haven't seen any negative effects of my actions so fingers crossed.

 

Best wishes

 

Helen

[Medworks]

I think I've fixed the issue I was having by directly altering the mysql database using phpmyadmin (I'll tell you what I did but don't blame me if it doesn't work for you or if it breaks).

 

In the products table there is a field called products_weight - the type is decimal (5,2) which I assumes would give the maximum of 5 numbers total and 2 decimal places i.e 999.99. I changed the length/values to 8,2 and this seems to allow me to enter larger numbers into the product descriptions - one of the products needed to be 70000g. If my assumptions are correct then with 8,2 the maximum should be increased to 999999.99.

 

So far I haven't seen any negative effects of my actions so fingers crossed.

 

Best wishes

 

Helen

 

 

Hurray! It worked! Thank you rybus! The 1575 and 1158 stuck and now that issue is FIXED.. now for the sales tax issue if anyone can help.

[bwolf]

Set you wt in lbs, 1.5 = 1lb 8oz etc problem solved.

 

Where do you set this?!