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Why aren't my rates showing? Customers are getting an error at the checkout!

If an error message appears when customers try to check out, this could be down to a number of reasons in your Shopify and Addition settings.  Here's a checklist to help you troubleshoot this! 

Australia Post restrictions:

  • Keep in mind Australia Post has weight and dimension limits for MyPost Business and eParcel users, review the current size and weight guidelines
    • International Packages can not exceed 140 cm in girth and/or 20kg in weight
    • Domestic Packages can not exceed 105 cm2 in length and/or 22kg in weight
  • Send products over the above restrictions? If you have a StarTrack account, connect this account to Addition and setup StarTrack rates in the 'Rate' section, to ship and quote rates for items over the above size or weight restrictions.

Shopify Checklist:

Check your Product Settings

  • Make sure you input weights for your products in Shopify. No weights = no rates!  Our app cannot provide a rate at the checkout without being able to calculate the total weight of the cart.
  • Common issue: Wrong metrics have been used when entering product weights in Shopify.  This is especially relevant if you notice your customers get shipping rates for some products, but not others... 100kgs vs 100g makes a big difference.  Take note of all the products in the cart and check each of the product settings. 
  • Ensure your products are set to physical products, not service or digital products

Check Shipping & Delivery Settings

*From Shopify > Go to Settings > Shipping and Delivery, and check the below:

  • Do you have Shipping Profiles for different products? Make sure Australia Post Shipping is set up as a carrier in all the necessary profiles. i.e. the app may be set up in the General Profile, however if a customer selects a product that is in a different profile where the app is not set up as a carrier, they may not be able to check out. Shopify_Profiles.png

* In the example above, products in the heavy and fragile product profiles won't be able to show shipping rates, as I have not configured Australia Post Shipping properly.

  • Have multiple warehouses/locations? Make sure your 'Product inventory location' vs 'Shipping origins' align.  If you have products stocked in your Sydney Warehouse, but that warehouse is not set up in the Shipping origin - the app won't be able to provide rates for those particular products stocked in Sydney.

Product_inventory.png

Shipping_Zone_settings.png

Multiple_warehouses.png

  • Sometimes... Shopify Shipping Zones, in particular the 'Service levels' need a refresh.  Watch the demo below, and test the checkout again.  Note: there can be up to a 5 minute delay for Shopify to register these changes, just enough time to make a cuppa! 

Addition Checklist:

Check your Product Dimensions

  • The most common issue: Your products don't fit into the packages that are set up, if your product dimensions are 105cm x 10cm x 10cm, make sure you have a package with the same or slightly bigger dimensions so the app recognises "This is the package the item can to be sent in! This is the package I'll use to calculate shipping!"
  • Items measuring over 105cm can not be sent via Australia Post, unless you have a StarTrack account.  Check your products are within the AusPost acceptance criteria
  • Product dimensions within the app are in centimeters, make sure you haven't mistakenly entered dimensions assuming the metric is millimetres
  • Selling apparel or clothing?  Enter product dimensions when the item (a t-shirt for example) is folded and ready to be shipped, i.e. don't enter the full dimensions as if the shirt is laid out flat
  • Selling items in a poster tube? Similar to the above, ensure the product dimensions of the poster, is when that poster, is rolled up and can fit into the poster tube, e.g. 90cm x 6cm x 6cm - the length being the longest dimension and the width and height are equal/the same

Check Packaging Settings

  • Highly recommend reviewing our article "Setting up packages" for a full step by step on configuring packages correctly
  • At a bare minimum, the app needs at least one package, in order to quote shipping rates
  • Make sure package(s) are set to 'Customer checkout'.  If the package is set to 'Fulfilment' only, the app won't use that package to calculate rates at the checkout

Check your Location is valid

  • To check if Australia Post will accept your 'send from' address(es), within Addition > Go to Settings > Locations. If you see an 'Invalid' error next to any address, make the amendment directly in Shopify Settings > Locations, as this is where the Addition app pulls your address details from.  Once you've updated your address(es) in Shopify, pop back into the Addition app and hit 'Resync'. 

eParcel/ParcelSend/StarTrack Users

  • Your contract service codes may require refreshing.  When Australia Post make changes to your contract, they can wait up to 6 months before deprecating the old service codes. From the Addition dashboard > in Settings > Accounts > Click 'View' next to the account type (eParcel or StarTrack) and click 'Refresh'.  Note: You will then need to refresh the 'Rates' section of the app by selecting the current available services.

Lastly, have you set up your rates in Addition?

  • Ideally upon first install you'd go through the Rate Setup Guide on the homepage of the app. Otherwise review how to set up your rates here.  A quick demo:

Tips when testing your checkout:

Are you testing your store by putting items into your cart and proceeding through checkout to the point where it calculates shipping?

  • If the rates are not showing at this point, it could be because the delivery address you have used is not real or is the same as the address you set your products to dispatch from. Try again using a real address that is not your own dispatch location.
  • Test in an incognito browser, or clear your browser cookies and cache.  Often the Shopify cache will keep prompting an error message, even when you have fixed the settings within Addition and/or Shopify.
  • Try using a different postcode every time you test the checkout; this forces Shopify to send a new shipping calculation request to our app.

If you've worked through all these steps and are still having trouble with your rates please contact our support team.