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The Courier Guy rates wrong in WooCommerce

The shipping price at checkout does not match what The Courier Guy charges you, or it looks far too high for a small order. Live rates come from The Courier Guy's API (ShipLogic), so the price is only as good as the parcel and address your store sends. These are the causes we see most often, with figures from our own API tests.

1. Volumetric weight, not scale weight

Couriers charge the higher of the real weight and the volumetric weight. The ShipLogic quote includes both. In our tests a 1 kg parcel of 20 x 15 x 10 cm was charged at 1 kg, but the same 1 kg in a 60 x 40 x 40 cm box was charged at 24 kg (length x width x height / 4000). If a light product has large dimensions on its product page, every quote will be priced as a heavy parcel.

Check: open a few products, go to Product data > Shipping and make sure the length, width and height are the packed size in centimetres, not millimetres or the display size.

2. The declared value adds cover

The rate request carries a declared value for the parcel, and a higher value can cost more. In our sandbox test the same parcel was quoted R95 at a declared value of R1,000 and R195 at R10,000. If your store sends the cart total as the declared value, expensive orders will get higher shipping quotes. Your contract rates may differ, so compare a high value and a low value order on your own account.

3. VAT added twice

ShipLogic returns a rate that already includes VAT (it also returns the amount without VAT). If your shipping method is set to Taxable and WooCommerce adds VAT to shipping, the customer pays VAT twice, about 15% too much.

Check: in WooCommerce > Settings > Tax, see whether shipping is taxed, and set the courier method's tax status to match how the quote is priced.

4. Products with no size or weight

If products have no weight or dimensions, the plugin has to guess. Some plugins send zero and get the minimum price back, others use a default parcel that may be much bigger than your real one. Either way the quote will be wrong for most orders.

5. Several items in one parcel

A cart with several items is usually quoted as one parcel. How the plugin adds up the items decides the price: the total weight is easy, but the box size is an estimate. If your real boxes are smaller or bigger than that estimate, the quote will be off for multi-item orders.

6. Markup, rounding and cached quotes

Check the method settings for a markup or discount you forgot about. Rate plugins also cache quotes for a short time, so a change you just made in your portal may not show at checkout straight away.

7. Sandbox key or another account's rates

A sandbox key returns demo prices, not your contract rates. In our sandbox tests the economy price stayed at R95 from 1 kg to 5 kg, which is not how a live account prices. Make sure the live key from your own portal is in the settings and the environment is set to live.

How our free plugin handles these

Skillmerc Shipping for The Courier Guy, Pudo and PAXI sends one parcel per cart: the weights of all items added up, and a box as big as the largest length, width and height among the items. Products without a size or weight use the default parcel you set. It sends the cart subtotal as the declared value and shows the rate The Courier Guy returns (VAT included), with the tax status set to None by default. You can add a fixed or percentage markup (or a negative one for a discount), set free shipping over an amount, and choose which service levels to show. Quotes are cached for 10 minutes. It is an independent plugin, not made by The Courier Guy.

More: The Courier Guy not showing at checkout, Fastway rates in WooCommerce and Print a The Courier Guy waybill from WooCommerce.

More South African shipping guides for WooCommerce

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