order qty 1 of item

go to admin

cick edit order

click shipping

enter qty 1 in textbox

click ship items

now enter qty -1 in text box

click ship items

you now have 2 packages




suggested packages..............

this shows 3 identical suggested packages for 1 book



packages............................

you cannot edit.

you cannot add tracking number later



this is totally unusable.



Scott Mech

Justin,

a. why would the system add ANOTHER package if I ship a negative number? If zero items are shipped, how do I have a package.

b. Say the tracking number was miskeyed by an employee. how do you edit the tracking number on the package?

c. If I ship a package at USPS counter and employee returns with a tracking number in his hand, how do I add the tracking number?
do i delete the package, change order status, and reship the item, spitting out additional emails to customer.

d. if i provide a volume customer an estimated freight charge and bill the customer accurate freight how do I edit the shipping charges on the individual package.

perhaps what makes sense is that the data on the screen is editable by the user without having to rely on a DBA to go in and manually edit the info or a custom developer to modify the system to allow you to edit a field.

Scott Mech

a. do you propose a different method to "unship" an item? am I overlooking how to "unship" an item? there is need to unship an item. consider you have qty 10, and you ship 8, but mistakenly enter that you shipped 10.

b. if I delete the package, I lose the data associated with the package. if I learned of the miskey 10 days after shipment, and deleted the package and reshipped, the packages shipdate would not be accurate. if customer calls in and asks when item shipped, I will have inaccurate info.

c. I do not know how to express this any better, but I will try. If I box up a package in my warehouse - I want to mark it shipped. Then I send employee with package to the counter at post office. employee returns with tracking number and enters it in system. It is possible that employee may run to the post office at end of day and return the next day with the tracking number. The tracking number may take a day or two to be entered in the system. If I do not mark the package "shipped" when it is boxed up, the order may end up double shipped. Most likely track that the order has shipped at the point that they tape up the box. There is no method to track where the package goes from this point.

d. i would expect that editing shipping charges is a necessity for many merchants. thank you for addressing the need.

Justin, I believe that my post, in its entirety, contains significant value. and yes, I believe that my comment is very applicable. The user sees the data on their screen and they cannot edit the data. As far as approach, I do not believe that deleting the data and creating new data is the best approach. I have no concern if this is a new product, a competing product, or an upgrade product. As a merchant, the need exists to edit a package. The need exists to edit shipping charges. In fact, to meet the needs of the broadest range of users, it would reasonable to make pretty much everything that you can view in the admin editable. With that in mind, data should NOT need to be deleted or destroyed in order to make a change to a subset of the data.

Perhaps the reactionary, combative, and defensive posts need to stop. I would say that there are a great number of customers in this community that are providing you feedback that you can use to build a better product. If this is not your concern, fine. As far as respect, I am YOUR customer. You are not MY customer. Don't lecture me on respect. My opinion is that you should listen to and acknowledge your customers and their needs. Your customers are being more than generous to share their needs with you. Your customers are being more than patient while you work to address their needs.

Scott Mech

I too find that the shipping module is lacking.

I don't understand why BV seems to be telling us that it isn't the right way to run our business.

I often have to redirect or have (by fedex etc) my products rebardcoded due to customs problems. When this happens I would prefer to be able to edit the tracking information without deleting the original shipment. I prefer for the original shipment to stay for auditing purposes alone.

I also want the package marked as shipped when they leave my wearhouse regardless of when the tracking number becomes available. I often use local couriers to deliver my packages to the final shipping company and I receive the tracking number a few days later. Am I supposed to let the customer beleive that the package has not shipped. No. I need to mark it as shipped. Leave it up to the merchant to "re-send" the shipping email or they could create their own manual template that advises the customer of their updated tracking information.

As for admin editable data there are already a few other posts around that have made it very clear that users want the ability to edit orders in all aspects from the admin. The fact that BV is getting defensive about this upsets me when it is clear that many of us want this feature, but BV keeps passing off "alternate" methods like using admin discounts to modify product prices (by the way using the admin discount the tax is not calculated on the discount and makes it completely useless). Please take head and let us know when and if these features will be available. There way absolutely nothing unrespectfull in Scotts post. He offered a suggestion that many have asked for. Thats all.

Scott,

Maybe a way to solve the shipping problem (this is the way I do it):
1. Define two extra order states (Options->Orders->Edit Order Statuses)
1.1. Can be shipped
1.2. Ready for Shipping
2. When you get an order if you know you can fullfill and the payment is allright it you mark it to "Can be shipped". This means the warehouse guys can pack it.
3. Once the order is packed and "at the door" ready to be shipped, you mark the order as "Ready for shipping".
4. Once the delivery guy gets back from the post office you mark the orders as Shipped and set the tracking numbers.

This is quite nice because you can control exactly the state of the order. I only print invoices and pack for orders that are marked as "Can be shipped'. You could also create a new state in between "Preparing shipping" that the delivery guy that picks the order to pack will have to set for the order so you know it's beeing processed.

Before I get the orders in the boot of my car I set a filter on "Ready for shipping" and verify the number of packages with the number of orders on the screen. It happend several times that we packaged one order less than expected.

Regards,
Corneliu.

Let me see if I can add a little more fuel to the fire. Or at least some things you should consider in the operation of your own business. There are Rules on how you should operate your business and BV doesn't make them. They are call Generally Accepted Accounting Practices (GAAP).

These are all pretty complicated even for the Bean Counters. But there is one simplistic method you can apply to see if you have the proper controls in place or if those controls can be circumvented.

Ask your self these questions: Can I or one of my employees circumvent the system to steal from the business or overstate or understate the income? In other words, can someone skim from our internet cash drawer?

As I see it, if I can get into your business and Ship 3 Stereos out, (2 to my brother in a different state and one to the customer) and erase or edit out all evidence of the first 2 including the tracking numbers, you got a problem. 80% of the people will steal from you if they think they can get away with it.

Everyone makes mistakes and you should be able to edit the order, but (after it is posted) you want an audit trail. If for no other reason, the IRS is going to be looking for it when they do an audit. If you have a sizable business, the IRS will bring in their own computer geeks to test your software to see if it can be circumvented on that audit.

I think Corneliu has the right approach. Add some other order states and maybe some other error handling email templates so the integrity of the software is not compromised.

Bob Noble

It's Christmas. Everyone is suppose to be grouchy this time of year. lol