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Q. Why has my postage module suddenly stopped working?
A. If it has been working and you haven't changed anything it is possible that your subscription has expired.
Q. I thought this software was free?
A. It is. However, access to the quotation servers require an ongoing subscription.
Q. I am a zencart user, why haven't I heard of this subscription until now?
A. Until July 2010 the servers and maintainance thereof had been free to use for zencart merchants. Merchants using this system with other shopping cart software have always been aware that it is a subscription service (provided they read the 'readme' files). When it was decided to pass the costs onto zencart merchants too, a similar disclosure was made in the updated zencart documentation. Along with this an announcement was made in the appropriate forum on the zencart.com website. It is quite possible that you have been caught unaware because your software is dated and you don't read or monitor the zencart forums.
Q. Why is there a subscription fee?
A. The subscription fees were introduced to enable us to rent more reliable servers and give us the ability to devote more time to the project allowing us to add more features, more couriers, and more of the things that you want from a shipping module/quotation server.
Q. Why is the subscription fee so high/low?
A. The question is the answer. What one person considers to be high, another will consider to be low.
Q. Seriously, my store gets hardly any sales and the subscription fees will eat all of my profits.
A. The fees are not designed to eat into anyones profits. They are designed to be an affordable investment in the profitiability of your store. Using our services will allow you to keep your shipping costs as low as possible for your customers, while ensuring you'll never lose your profits because your fixed price quote was $10 under the actual cost. From our end we have to constantly monitor the servers, update prices when required, add new methods, remove the obsolete methods (Econonmy Air anyone??), provide support where needed (and if support isn't needed it generally means we are doing our job properly).
Q. There are other shipping modules I can use, why should I subscribe to your service?
A. Our server is (currently) the only one that supports multiple methods from multiple carriers and presents them all in a unified format that can easily be used by your store. Other methods require you to use multiple modules, or require the setting and updating of multiple zones (which means a lot more work and maintenance).
Q What are the advantages of using your module rather than using Auspost module ( http://drc.edeliver.com.au/ )?
A. http://drc.edeliver.com.au/ and http://ozpost.net *servers* perform similar, but not identical functions.
http://drc.edeliver.com.au/ will provide quote for parcels, and nothing else. No letters, no satchels, no registration or insurance options, and of course, it only provides quotes for Australia Post.
http://ozpost.net will provide quotes for all of the above, as well as TNT, FastWay, e-Go and Transdirect Couriers (for those times where Australia Post aren't suitable).
Perhaps a more pertinant question to ask of yourself though isn't so much about the server(s), but the client software (the modules) that connects to these servers.
I (Rod Gasson) am the Author of both (currently) available zencart modules. The module that connects to the drc.edeliver server (thus bypassing the needed financial support) is over two years old, has a number of bugs, and is no longer supported (by me). It has been 'kludged' to make it a 'functional alternative' to 'ozpost'.
So, as to the advantages of ozpost/edeliver
1. Edeliver is very specific, very limited, and has no ongoing support.
2. Ozpost offers more options, and is actively supported.
Q. I've just subscribed/resubscribed, how long does it take for the details to be updated.
A. In most cases the subscription database will be updated within 24 hours of payment. Please contact us if it takes any longer.
Q. I have several stores, can I combine subscriptions?
A. If you are the *owner* of more than one store we will be happy to combine any two of them (specify both when subscribing), and provide discounts on any others.
If you are a *developer* or have other special needs (for example, running a demo site only) please contact us via email to discuss other options.
Q. How do I know if my subscription is valid and for how long?
A. The latest versions of all client software have a counter showing the number of days until your subscription expires.
Q. Is there any other way of checking for the remaining length of my subscription.
A. Yes. You can temporarily enable the 'debug' option of your client software and examine the XML output for the "<expires>" field, or, you can send a 'GET' request to our servers with the following information: Store Name, Store Postcode, and "flags=expires". The storename should be URL encoded, so that "my hobby shop" is sent as "my+hobby+shop".
An example request URL would look like: http :// ozpost. net / postage.php?flags=expires&host=my+hobby+shop&fromcode=5000
Q. Why can't I simply change thename of my store every so often and gain another 60 days free access?
A. I'm glad you asked. You can - At least for a short period - You will however be caught. You are not one in a million, you are 1 in 100 .. We probably even know each others names.
Q. How many people use the ozpost.net service?
(Ok, not a FAQ, but interesting statistics - perhaps)
A. In the 2 year period Jan 2008 - Dec 2009 there were an average of 135 Australian zencart merchants per month using zencart/ozpost.
Considering the alternate options, such as zone rates, table rates, fixed and zero priced shipping, and taking into account ease of installation and configuration, along with the number of downloads, I suspect the total number of active zencart merchants in Australia at any given time would be no more than 150 or so. Yes, that is one hundred and fifty!! (and you thought you were just one of 1000's didn't you? Well, I did, and that was true 4 years ago to)
This means if we are lucky I/we will 'earn' a maximum of $1500.00 per month ($375p/w) ... In reality, recent figures indicate that only ~10% of merchants are transitioning from the free to the paid service, so expected income is down to ~$200p/m ($50p/w) ...... (This is actually more than I'd expected, but less than I'd hoped). I am declaring this in the hopes that those merchants that are currently undecided will realise that I'm not getting rich, and your support really will go a long way into continuing the service and code development long into the future. There may be easy/other alternatives at the moment, but the zencart team don't care about the unique needs of any given country, and with so few of us here, few developers will have anything more than a passing interest other than patching things up to keep things going. Surely your store is worth more than taking this risk, isn't it?
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