Hiding Local Pickup Field

Hello Alex. We're trying to figure out how we can hide the Local Pickup field (that has a $0 shipping fee assigned to it) in our shipping when someone outside the state orders an item. We saw the instructions where it says:

"A note about the "SHOW ZERO VALUES" option:
Generally, zero values will not be shown as options for customers, as such a value may indicate the option is unavailable for the chosen zipcode."

Is there a CSV spreadsheet that we can put together to define the specific zip codes that will be associated with the Local Pickup option with the $0.00 price? If not, is there another way we can define that so only a select few zip codes or regions have that option?

Hello,

I am not really here to reply, but to say I'm not going to reply now. Makes sense?

Jokes aside, I'm now leaving (in 4 hours I'll be on the plane), so I'll not be online for a little while.
If Mark will see this he may be able to help you on the matter. In general, there's a "all zeroes" CSV file in the shipping cost area, which can be used as a base to have it only for some specific zones/zipcodes.

Now leaving, have a great weekend!

Well, we reviewed your tutorial on shipping costs again and spent about 4 hours this morning using trial and error (for example, we've set up all states with zone 2 and then Ohio we made zone 1. We wanted Ohio to have a local pickup "$0" option, and for that option not to be shown to customers who enter in a non-Ohio shipping address. We tried switching the show zero options to yes or no and we ran several tests using each setting. We get the same result using any state we try. There's no difference between each zone)

See Attached zone file.

We understand that each line in the csv represents a weight. True or not?
Based on comments in the tutorial video, we understood that each comma separated value on each line represents a "Zone" and we assumed that these "zones" are ordered: Zone 1 is the first comma separated value on each line, etc. We have 8 zones on each line, as presented in the video.

WHAT WE'VE TRIED IN THE CSV FILE
We tried all zeros (each zone on each line being "0"). We then tried using spaces for all zones other than the OHIO zone 1 (as you see in the attached file).

Are there better / more exacting instructions anywhere on how to completely define and assign a shipping zone to a csv file, so that a zone is targeted with $0 shipping options, while the UPS live quote prices for all other zones are not overridden or provided as an option to customers?

What are we missing.

The CSV files are something UPS created long ago so we didn't try to explain it too detailed. It sounds like you've got them figured out now...

weight,rate for zone1,rate for zone2,....
weight+1, rate for zone1,rate for zone2,....
weight+2, rate for zone1,rate for zone2,....

Giving the customer the ability to select local pickup with zero shipping cost is done by uploading a csv file with all zeros into the "UPLOAD YOUR UPS (US only) CSV FILES" portion of the UPS SHIPPING SETUP screen. Unfortunately there's no logic in RTD or UPS that will hide or show this based on the state the buyer lives in. I'm not sure what you are requesting would be of use to other RTD users. Many may be located near a state line where its only a short drive and here in Florida we get tons of folks from out of state saying they'd like to pickup when visiting relatives.

I think there is a fix for you though. Try adding descriptive text to the name you give the shipping method - it can contain much more than the name...

Here's a valid name that was given to a csv file with all zeros
"Free Shipping on Orders over $75 <br>or Pick Up at our Port Charlotte, FL location."

It can even handle inline html to format the text. You can see this in use if you do a test order at http://designer.realtimedesigner.com/stickerz

Here's a link to a csv file containing all zeros http://designer.realtimedesigner.com/csv/7/333.csv

Hope this helps.

Mark Sr.

Hi customsigncenter. Instead of hiding for out of staters, we approached this by changing the text label " Cart Order popup: show shipping and sales tax" to instruct local pickup and then added the csv file with verbage about no shipping with local pickup at out location.

Our take-away from the two responses (thanks for responding, btw):

There is no way to hide the local pickup (zero dollar shipping), based on a state or set of zip codes.

Our thinking was that we could define a shipping zone (in our case, Ohio, let's say as "Zone 2") and then define all other US states as something else (e.g., Zone 1).

Ohio = 2
All Other US States = 1

Having distinctive zones defined, we felt there might be a way to override UPS values in Zone 2 only with a CSV file constructed with empty values for all zones except Zone 2:

(Our Label for the CSV is "Local Pickup-Central OHIO Only")
EX:

1, ,0, , , , , ,
2, ,0, , , , , ,
3, ,0, , , , , ,
4, ...etc.

where the first column contains a shipping weight, and the following 8 columns contain shipping fees for, in this case, 8 zones. Being ordinal so that the first empty value is for zone 1, meaning "don't override UPS for this zone" and the "0" value meaning "Zone 2 Free Shipping with Local Pickup".

Apparently this is not possible, as you say.
Our trial and error efforts using the above CSV and Zone Definitions in RTD failed to make the Local Pick Up Option available only for Zone 2.

Unfortunately this won't work as simple as described. Let me describe what RTD does and what we rely on UPS for....

When you enter your SHIP FROM zip code, we go to ups distance tables to determine how far away the SHIP TO address is. if its close it may be 2 zones; far away may be 6-7 zones. There are 999 of these tables so that every area (first 3 digits of zip code) has its own table. Every one of the 999 tables has a line for all 99,999 possible zip codes that you may ship to. There is no editing of these distance tables - they are incredibly large and shared amongst all RTD users.

Once the number of zones is determined, we then go to the editable CSV table to determine the rate for that weight being shipped that number of zones.

What you are asking is that you be able to edit the distance tables and that would require a lot of programming. I'm sure we could find a simpler way to accomplish "pickup within state" but this would entail custom programming just the same.

You can put "PICK UP AT OUR LOCATION IN ANYTOWN, USA" as the method of shipping. That way if someone were to be visiting your area, he could still pick up. You may submit a support request and we will quote a price for custom programming if this is critical to you.

Interesting, if I understand correctly, that RTD hosts UPS shipping tables, and references those tables in determining the number of zones and cost.

I assumed RTD used the UPS API, connecting through our UPS account license, username and password to receive live shipping quotes based upon our UPS account. (UPS provides discounted rates to some of their customers, based upon how many packages a customer ships per month).

Quick jump into the discussion:
You assumed right, as RTD uses both API and CSV tables.
If you will fill in your live UPS data, then the price will be live directly from UPS servers based on your credentials (so, even your negotiated rates).

CSV mode is a way for you to add or alter extra shipping options in a manual way.

I thought so, Alex. We do use the live quotes from UPS servers, and added the Local Pickup CSV file as a free shipping option for Ohio residents.