ShipRush / Z-Firm User Forums - Blogs http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php ShipRush: Shipping for eCommerce and More! en Thu, 17 May 2012 14:16:48 GMT vBulletin 60 http://forums.zfirm.com/images/custom/vuel/misc/rss.jpg ShipRush / Z-Firm User Forums - Blogs http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php New Google Checkout Integration: More compatible! http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=122 Tue, 03 Apr 2012 17:08:00 GMT Attachment 1356 (http://forums.zfirm.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1356) Note: This change is transparent for existing users. Nothing changes for existing users. One of the problems we have had with Google Checkout is that if the Google Checkout system needs to post out to your cart as part... Name: google-checkout.png Views: 308 Size: 5.4 KB

Note: This change is transparent for existing users. Nothing changes for existing users.

One of the problems we have had with Google Checkout is that if the Google Checkout system needs to post out to your cart as part of the checkout flow (and it often does), then you cannot use ShipRush with your Google Checkout system.

This is now resolved. When you set up a new Google Checkout store, the process is simpler, and you do not need to set or change the post out URL in Google Checkout.

Now all Google Checkout users can use ShipRush! ]]> Rafael Zimberoff http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=122 More That Is Good In My.ShipRush: Updates for Week of March 26 http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=131 Mon, 26 Mar 2012 20:44:00 GMT Name: myshiprush-logo.png Views: 344 Size: 6.7 KB

We don't release improvements to My.ShipRush every week, but we do many weeks!

There are a lot of enhancements in My.ShipRush. A partial list of recent enhancements (for some of the PHP cart enhancements, you need to put the newer PHP kit on your web server):
  • Case 30867: New: Zen Cart: v1.5 now supported (note, new php plugin needed to get this fix)
  • Case 30819: Yahoo: Ship method now flows to ShipRush
  • Case 30394: Zen Cart & Magento: When shipping a FLAT (no track #), we now mark ordr in ecommerce system Shipped
  • Case 30775: As above for Magento GO
  • Case 30766: Prestashop : Gift message and customer notes fields now flow properly
  • Case 30839: PHP Carts: Improvements in the FTP Setup of plugin
  • Case 30856: ZenCart Attributes are improved on multi item orders
  • Case 30869: Rare issue: Magento Go : Error "Unable to convert Webstore XML to ShipRush TRequest XML. Object reference not set to an instance..
  • Case 30764: Amazon orders: In certain cases, cancelled orders flowing in with blank addresses
  • Case 30860: Rare error with CS Cart : Error downloading orders "Invalid argument supplied for foreach()"
  • Case 30744: Sears: In specific cases, some orders fail to update Sears Orders with shipment information.
Thank you for using ShipRush! ]]> Vladislaw Poniedelnik http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=131 ShipRush v9.6 Released: with Stamps.com Letter Post http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=130 Tue, 20 Mar 2012 14:36:00 GMT Attachment 1357 (http://forums.zfirm.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1357) ShipRush continues to grow, and we thank you for your great involvement and participation! v9.6 has a bunch of new features. Here are the biggest: * Case 30396: Stamps.com: *Letter post *with erefund support! *... Name: shiprush-v9-splash.png Views: 444 Size: 26.6 KB

ShipRush continues to grow, and we thank you for your great involvement and participation!

v9.6 has a bunch of new features. Here are the biggest:
  • Case 30396: Stamps.com: Letter post with erefund support!
  • Case 30433: Stamps.com: New option to require signature confirmation if value over $100
  • Case 30477: Stamps : Support for 3.5 oz letter post
  • Case 30376: You can now do Puerto Rico shipments in Bulk and Combined area
  • Improvements in international shipping
  • Improvements to the Order Manager
  • Improvements to PrestaShop integration
  • Improvements to Magento integration
Thank you for using ShipRush. The full fix log is on this page: http://www.zfirm.com/Product_Documen...d_Fix_List.htm ]]> Rafael Zimberoff http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=130 ShipRush FedEx: Many New Features and Enhancements in v9.6 http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=129 Mon, 19 Mar 2012 20:27:00 GMT Attachment 1355 (http://forums.zfirm.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1355) ShipRush v9.6 is now on the web site, and it has many good features. - Case 29550: NEW: Now possible to do FedEx *International shipments* from Bulk area of Order Manager - Many new enhancements for International... Name: shiprush-fedex-banner.png Views: 386 Size: 11.3 KB


ShipRush v9.6 is now on the web site, and it has many good features.
- Case 29550: NEW: Now possible to do FedEx International shipments from Bulk area of Order Manager
- Many new enhancements for International shipping from Order Manager
- Case 30349: All new Sears integration for Sears marketplace sellers
- Case 30169: New: Scale override for orders from order mgr
- Case 30128: Packing list : New option for the number of packing lists to print
The full changelog is here: http://www.zfirm.com/Product_Documen...d_Fix_List.htm

If you have needs for My.ShipRush, please let us know. Thank you for using ShipRush. ]]> Vladislaw Poniedelnik http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=129 Many Improvements Now In My.ShipRush http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=123 Thu, 15 Mar 2012 20:20:41 GMT Attachment 1354 (http://forums.zfirm.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1354) We have released a lot of improvements in My.ShipRush. - New web store support: *Sears.com merchants* - New web store support: *Magento GO* - *BigCommerce *also now supported (perhaps this has been mentioned before)... Name: myshiprush-logo.png Views: 386 Size: 6.7 KB

We have released a lot of improvements in My.ShipRush.
- New web store support: Sears.com merchants
- New web store support: Magento GO
- BigCommerce also now supported (perhaps this has been mentioned before)
- Case 29985: php carts now pull much less data, this makes a lower impact on your web store server (important optimization for both the my.sr side, and impact to the php store) -- Update your PHP plugin to get best results on this
- Case 24750: Google Checkout: We can now work with Google Checkout stores that need the post in URL set to their web store system (cart). Before, ShipRush could not be used with Google Checkout setups of this kind. Now ShipRush works with all Google Checkout users and setups.
- Case 30144: Magento v1.4.1.1: For all the Magento orders, My.SR was inserting special symbols at the end of Address Line1. This is fixed now.
- Case 29504: Paypal : We improved the dollar amount calculations on some orders
- Case 29964: My.ShipRush: Data Freshness: Lots of improvement in this area. Data is much fresher now, for all ecommerce systems.
- Case 30091: Magento: For sites that move to the new 48764 or higher PHP plugin kit, reduced load on magento server
If you have needs for My.ShipRush, please let us know. Thank you for using ShipRush. ]]> Vladislaw Poniedelnik http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=123 Passwords are bad. What to call a bad password? http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=120 Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:31:00 GMT Bill Gates said that passwords were going to go away (http://www.wired.com/wiredenterprise/2012/01/simple-pw/all/1). But it seems they are still here. And some web sites, even a big one like Adobe, require you to have a bad password. Attachment 1310... Bill Gates said that passwords were going to go away. But it seems they are still here.

And some web sites, even a big one like Adobe, require you to have a bad password.

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Seems bad to me. ]]> Vladislaw Poniedelnik http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=120 ShipRush for Stamps.com: Improved Insurance and Email Notifications http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=128 Tue, 13 Mar 2012 18:03:45 GMT Attachment 1352 (http://forums.zfirm.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1352) Some enhancements have been made to the Stamps.com servers which help smooth out some process issues. *Insurance*: Stamps.com insurance is now available to and from more U.S. territories. Now more of your shipments are... Name: stamps-com-logo_sdc.png Views: 147 Size: 1.9 KB

Some enhancements have been made to the Stamps.com servers which help smooth out some process issues.

Insurance: Stamps.com insurance is now available to and from more U.S. territories. Now more of your shipments are insurable.

Email Notifications: If you have ShipRush set to allow shipment email notifications to be sent by Stamps.com (this is the default), and you process a shipment for a future day (say two or three days in the future), Stamps.com will now send the email on the shipment date (aka "mailing date"), not the date the label is printed.

These enhancements should be useful to most ShipRush users.

Thank you for using ShipRush! ]]> Rafael Zimberoff http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=128 When Consumer Electronics Appreciate In Value: What is the message? http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=125 Fri, 02 Mar 2012 18:40:00 GMT Attachment 1319 (http://forums.zfirm.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1319) There has been research and academic discourse on what eBay can teach us about ourselves. I would like to ask: Is eBay a tool for informing us of mistakes in product marketing or development? Here is the scenario: A... Name: ebay-logo.png Views: 172 Size: 2.2 KB

There has been research and academic discourse on what eBay can teach us about ourselves. I would like to ask: Is eBay a tool for informing us of mistakes in product marketing or development?

Here is the scenario: A consumer electronics maker, say Dell, makes a product. They make it and (presumably at a profit), they sell it.

Say they sell a given product for a year and then take it off the market or replace it with a newer (presumably better) model.

If the price of the original product then goes up from what it was selling for, what does this mean?

Some possible answers:
a) The original product design was exceptional in some way (so demand continues to be high after it is no longer available).
b) The original product was underpriced (so Dell failed to properly understand demand for this item, and perhaps failed to achieve the profits that were available).
c) The replacement model is worse than the original model (which indicates that Dell did not understand the marketplace sufficiently to be sure the new model was at least as good as what it was replacing).
d) Demand for the specific attributes of the original product is small yet intense. Perhaps too small to justify production, but willing to pay a premium for the specific attributes of the original model (which may indicate Dell made a product that does not have the broad market appeal intended or needed).
e) Other (fill in): ______________________________
I find it interesting that this should happen at all, especially in consumer electronics, which is characterized by a high churn rate and a persistent drive toward more features and lower prices.

Two examples I am familiar with:

Digital camera: The Fuji Finepix F30

Have you tried to purchase a digital camera in the past few years? Crazy making! The pace of change, the plethora of options. Enough to paralyze the most ardent consumer. The research needed to purchase efficiently is daunting.

In 2006, the Fuji F30 was released. It was and still is a remarkable camera. As was said at the time (from Wikipedia): "The F30's claim to fame is its high ISO performance, which is unmatched in the compact camera arena."

I can attest that it is a remarkable camera, able to take shots that only an SLR can do in low light, and really amazing at night.

Fuji discontinued it, and look, the F30 sells for as much today as it did brand new five years ago:

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Wild, no?

If the successor to the F30 was as good or better, we would be paying $150-200 for it, and the F30 would be under $100, or even under $50 today. To my eyes, the high price of the F30 at this late date tells us that the successors failed to match the original in some important ways.

The Dell 2408-WFP Display

LCD flat panel displays. Truckloads of em out there, right?

Well, there aren't actually very many really good models that are also less than $800. Sad, but true.

A real winner is the now discontinued 2408WFP, which is a real winner, but was discontinued a year or so ago. While in production, they were available brand new for $400-450. Until just a few months ago, these could still be purchased brand new in the box on the secondary market for about $400 delivered. Today, they are $250-350 as refurbs, and are essentially unobtainable new. And when one shows up, it commands a hefty premium.

You would think that it would be pretty easy to match the performance of the 2408, right? A panels specs are measurable and the measurements are standardized. It would appear that the market thinks more of the 2408 than its successor.

Perhaps the interesting aspect is that in the face of what look to be clear signals from the market, it is still difficult to consistently make forward progress in consumer electronics.

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(Thanks to eBay for the supporting data for this thought excersize.) ]]> Rafael Zimberoff http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=125 Shipping Scams, er, Deals, er, Arbitrage? http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=127 Mon, 27 Feb 2012 17:41:34 GMT Name: ecommerce-bytes-2-27-2012 9-27-50 AM.png Views: 309 Size: 15.6 KB

When AuctionBytes discussed "shipping arbitrage" recently, I had to laugh. What will crafty merchants think of next?

On the one hand, the profiled merchant is being creative.

On the other, how many orders is Amazon really going to ship for free before they smell a rat? 50? 100? 500?

Further, while there are automated ways to process shipments, there are not automated ways to place orders on Amazon. That seller is hand placing each of those orders on the Amazon web site.

(Not to mention the actual buyers, who could probably purchase those items on Amazon directly and pay about the same price they are paying on eBay once shipping is included.)


Ina Steiner, the author of the piece, identifies that the merchant appears to be violating the rules of Amazon Prime, by using Amazon Prime benefits for commercial purposes, but the real hot water may be related to sales tax collection. For example:
  • The eBay web site generally avoids collecting sales tax from buyers (sellers can opt for their sales to collect sales tax, but it is done for a small percentage of merchants).
  • If the eBay seller is in a state where Amazon does not collect tax, the seller does not pay sales tax to Amazon.
But, if both the eBay seller and the ultimate buyer are in the same state (and it is not Oregon or one or two other sales-tax-free states), then the seller may be over the line in terms of sales tax collection obligations. Based on my business experience in California and the state of Washington, both of these states would require sales tax collection if the buyer and seller were both "in state" even if the merchandise is being fulfilled by a third party from out of state.

Regarding the state tax man... as my father always says, it isn't if you will be audited, it is when.

Or, as the saw goes, what can't go on, won't. ]]> Rafael Zimberoff http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=127 Magento Go: Now integrated in ShipRush! (Free shipping software for Magento Go) http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=124 Tue, 31 Jan 2012 18:27:59 GMT Attachment 1318 (http://forums.zfirm.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1318) Magento Go: Now integrated in ShipRush, and free of charge! ShipRush has had a nice Magento integration for awhile now. Your FedEx and postal shipping is tightly integrated to your Magento store (or stores). Now you... Name: magento-go-logo.png Views: 456 Size: 4.7 KB

Magento Go: Now integrated in ShipRush, and free of charge!

ShipRush has had a nice Magento integration for awhile now. Your FedEx and postal shipping is tightly integrated to your Magento store (or stores). Now you can use Magento Go with ShipRush.

Get started!

FedEx shippers: http://fedex.shiprush.com/ (%100 free of charge, including updates and support)

Postal shippers (free system, does not print postage): http://www.shiprush.com/products/shiprush_usps.shtml

Postal shippers (free 30 day trial, then $29.95/month): http://stamps.shiprush.com/

Thank you for using ShipRush. ]]> Rafael Zimberoff http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=124 Add Soup to Your Laptop: Making the Sony Vaio VGN-SZ545P fly with Windows 7 http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=118 Mon, 23 Jan 2012 23:55:00 GMT Name: windows-7.jpg Views: 443 Size: 6.9 KB

We don't usually write about simple stuff like PCs, but we thought this might be useful to somebody. It can be hard to put Windows 7 on a laptop that was manufactured with XP or Vista. However, often Windows 7 can be installed, and it can be a very nice result. In this case, it was a little hard to make everything work, but the final result was really good.


So you have a good laptop, 3 or 4 years old. Buy a new one? We found a nice way to make this Vaio model run better than most new laptops. My manager did a lot of the work, but I had to fix the video (which is at the bottom of this blog post). He likes really "nice" (expensive) laptops. This upgrade prevented him from buying a pretty expensive laptop (at least for another year maybe two).

First: There must be a Windows 7 chipset driver for your model laptop. For this Sony, there is. But this page can mislead you:

http://esupport.sony.com/US/perl/os7...?mdl=VGNSZ645P

This page says that "Your Vaio Model VGNSZ645P Is Supported for Windows 7"

Good news!

Kind of good news. Not perfect news. We did the upgrade, and a lot didn't work at first!
  • The "Sleep" function was disabled, we could just do Hibernate
  • No brightness control for the display (makes the battery go down fast)
  • The "Fn" keys didn't work
  • No external monitor! We could not use the laptop with an external monitor. (This almost made the project a failure... until we fixed it!)

We made a paid support call to Sony support, and it was a horrible waste of time. They have no ideas and could not make it work. (Sony should fire this company, they are really bad support people.)

We solved all these things except the Fn keys. The laptop is faster than when it was new with XP.

There are three things we did to this laptop to make it better than new:

#1: We put in a brand new keyboard. This part of a laptop wears out a lot as you use it. Brand new parts can be bought on the internet. We bought a brand new keyboard for about $110, and it is just like that "new laptop" feeling.

#2: We replaced the hard drive. For a Windows 7 install, you should always reformat the hard drive and do a new fresh install of Windows. The best way to do this is to get a new hard drive inside the laptop, and connect the old hard drive as an external drive (with a USB to SATA cable). After Windows is installed, you can connect the old hard drive to move over files.

We made a step farther: We replaced the hard drive with an SSD. This is a great upgrade for an old laptop (or desktop) and makes it faster than most new machines.

#3: We installed Windows 7 32 bit Ultimate. (Any 32 bit version of Windows 7 would be fine.) Don't put the 64 bit version on a system unless you require 64 bit software (you don't) or you have more than 4GB RAM. On a laptop with 1-3GB RAM you will get better performance from 32 bit Windows 7.

OK, what we did:
  1. Install new SSD Hard Drive
  2. Install Windows 7 32 bit from CDROM/DVD
  3. Download and install all the Windows 7 drivers from the Sony web site for this model Vaio
At this point, we have the problems I wrote above: No Fn keys, no sleep, no external monitor, no brightness control. Also no Aero in Windows 7.

However, what really DOES work is speed. It is FAST:
  • Cold boot time: 9-12 seconds
  • Hibernate and unhibernate: 10-14 seconds (system has 2GB RAM, more RAM is slower for Hibernate)
This is improved from 45-60 seconds for these steps on the original XP.

Now to kill the big problems with video.

Why can't it sleep? Because Sony does not make a video driver for Windows 7 for this model.

How to fix? (Please play a trumpet sound in your mind.)

This Vaio has the NVIDIA GeForce Go 7400 256 MB video system. You can download this driver from the Nvidia web site. But it will not work.

The magic is to do TWO things:
  1. Download the driver kit from the NVidia web site for the GeForce Go 7400
  2. Get the patched inf file from http://www.laptopvideo2go.com
  1. You unzip the driver kit from NVidia (the exe you download from NVidea can be unzipped using the free 7-Zip tool). Unzip to an empty dir, like c:\temp\nvidia\
  2. Then you copy the patched .inf file into c:\temp\nvidia\, overwriting the .inf that is already there
  3. Then you run the NVidia setup.exe

Reboot, and wow!
  • You now have Aero
  • You have the Nvidia control panel, and can use the external video connector
  • You have sleep!
  • You can dim the monitor
The laptop is now really really fast (with "just" a Centrino Duo processor). Stuff like Chrome and other apps open faster than you can click. They are instant.

The laptop is better than a new expensive laptop, for a cost of about $600 (Windows 7 Ultimate, SSD, Keyboard).

Also, when done, uninstall all the Sony Control Panel, Vaio Support and stuff. Vaio Update. It is all useless. ]]> Vladislaw Poniedelnik http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=118 New Intelligent Mail Barcode on Express Mail Labels http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=121 Mon, 23 Jan 2012 16:54:00 GMT You may have noticed that the tracking # on Express Mail has changed! Attachment 1312 (http://forums.zfirm.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1312) Attachment 1313 (http://forums.zfirm.com/attachment.php?attachmentid=1313) The new 22 digit IMpB / IMB barcodes are a USPS specification. “The... You may have noticed that the tracking # on Express Mail has changed!

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The new 22 digit IMpB / IMB barcodes are a USPS specification. “The Postal Service created these new barcode formats to promote the use of a concatenated barcode structure that joins routing information and a package identification code together in a single barcode.”

Happy shipping! ]]> Rafael Zimberoff http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=121 New: ShipRush for Sears.com: Available Now! http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=119 Wed, 18 Jan 2012 16:45:00 GMT Name: sears-logo.png Views: 394 Size: 3.6 KB

The first of many new-year's items! Integration with Sears.com!

Existing ShipRush users:

In ShipRush, simply select Order Manager Settings | Add Web Store, select Sears, and follow the prompts.

New ShipRush users:

When presented with the list of ecommerce systems, select Sears and follow the prompts.

Happy shipping! ]]> Rafael Zimberoff http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=119 eBay Sellers: FedEx Tracking Now Built In to eBay.com for ShipRush shippers http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=116 Mon, 16 Jan 2012 16:52:00 GMT Name: ebay-logo.png Views: 447 Size: 2.2 KB

ShipRush for FedEx has long saved the FedEx tracking number into the eBay sale. Now FedEx tracking is really built in to eBay, where both the buyer and the seller can "click to track."

Here is how it works:

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And now when you click the tracking number, you get the real tracking status. This is for both buyers and sellers:

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And after delivery:

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ShipRush automatically puts tracking numbers where they need to be, so everyone can track, all the time.

Thank you for using ShipRush! ]]> Rafael Zimberoff http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=116 ShipRush, My.ShipRush and Ecommerce: New enhancements and repairs are live now! http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=115 Wed, 11 Jan 2012 18:23:00 GMT Name: paypal_logo.gif Views: 235 Size: 1.1 KB

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Now that the holidays are over, we are rolling out the work we did for late 2011. Here are the first parts that are "live":

BigCommerce: Some errors were fixed and really large orders (100's of line items) now have all the line items. (ZF Case 48227)

PayPal in My.ShipRush: Rare case that the total dollar or item dollar amount would be incorrect and not have subtracted the shipping cost. We think we fixed this. (ZF Case 29504)

Data Freshness for My.ShipRush: Many improvements were turned on in December. More progress here is coming soon! ]]> Vladislaw Poniedelnik http://forums.zfirm.com/blog.php?b=115