Displayed Shipping Options Schema is Flawed - Not designed for "real world" business

[APC]

PROBLEM - The displayed Shipping Options Schema is flawed and not designed for "real world" business and customer needs. We use BigCommerce and process phone, mail, and online orders. Here is the specific issue - As per ShipStation customer support staff - For delivery options we have automatic filtering logic that runs and removes any services that have the same or longer delivery time and that are more expensive. Since the Standard shipping has the shortest delivery time and is the cheapest, the other two options are automatically removed. The automatic logic is flawed for a number of reasons. Assuming the business has the standard range of UPS and USPS shipping options activated (USPS priority mail, UPS ground, 3-day, 2-day, next day) 1. The ship station automatic logic doesn't take into consideration that many customers have a PO Box as a shipping address. Because of the weight and cube of the item being shipped, the USPS option can be filtered out (because it is more expensive and longer shipping time estimate) the customer will not have the ability to select USPS shipping. UPS doesn't deliver to PO boxes, This is a major issue which leads to abandoned shipping carts and or customers selecting UPS ground which causes delays in shipment while we attempt to contact the customer for a physical address and billing issues related to the additional USPS shipping expense. 2. The USPS "shipping time estimates", 1-3 days in most cases, are grossly underestimated and wishful thinking at best. As a internet retailer that has been shipping packages for over 20 years my experience is the USPS is the least timely in delivery. Removing shipping services such as UPS ground based on questionable USPS "delivery time estimate" is questionable in itself. 3. Holiday shipping periods (Black Friday, Christmas, etc) where shippers experience massive increases in volume are not taken in to consideration in terms of which shippers delivery estimates are actually achievable. 4. Many consumers are not driven by the lowest price shipping rate and express a preference to ship by a particular shipper based on positive experiences with a particular shipper. 5. As a business that often ships higher value items (over $1000) I prefer to ship UPS, but those options are sometime filtered out. The best solution is to give the ShipStation user the ability to either use filtered results or allow the user to pick certain shipping options tat will always be displayed.

[APC]

PROBLEM - The displayed Shipping Options Schema is flawed and not designed for "real world" business and customer needs. We use BigCommerce and process phone, mail, and online orders. Here is the specific issue - As per ShipStation customer support staff - For delivery options we have automatic filtering logic that runs and removes any services that have the same or longer delivery time and that are more expensive. Since the Standard shipping has the shortest delivery time and is the cheapest, the other two options are automatically removed. The automatic logic is flawed for a number of reasons. Assuming the business has the standard range of UPS and USPS shipping options activated (USPS priority mail, UPS ground, 3-day, 2-day, next day) The ship station automatic logic doesn't take into consideration that many customers have a PO Box as a shipping address. Because of the weight and cube of the item being shipped, the USPS option can be filtered out (because it is more expensive and longer shipping time estimate) the customer will not have the ability to select USPS shipping. UPS doesn't deliver to PO boxes, This is a major issue which leads to abandoned shipping carts and or customers selecting UPS ground which causes delays in shipment while we attempt to contact the customer for a physical address and billing issues related to the additional USPS shipping expense. The USPS "shipping time estimates", 1-3 days in most cases, are grossly underestimated and wishful thinking at best. As a internet retailer that has been shipping packages for over 20 years my experience is the USPS is the least timely in delivery. Removing shipping services such as UPS ground or expedited options based on questionable USPS "delivery time estimate" is questionable in itself. Holiday shipping periods (Black Friday, Christmas, etc) where shippers experience massive increases in volume are not taken in to consideration in terms of which shippers delivery estimates are actually achievable. Many consumers are not driven by the lowest price shipping rate and express a preference to ship by a particular shipper based on positive experiences with a particular shipper. As a business that often ships higher value items (over $1000) I prefer to ship UPS, but those options are sometime filtered out. The best solution is to give the ShipStation user the ability to either use filtered results or allow the shipStation user to pick certain shipping options that will always be displayed to the customer