Automated order process not automated at all

[DanKru]

There is a problem with the automated order process of AliDropship WooCommerce. In the WC order form for many countries the state field is missing, e. g. Germany. Without state in the address form of AliExpress the order process stops, you have to fill it out manually, and then the town field is empty also, have to type that in too. That is not an automated process at all. The databases should be programmed, so the state field is not mandatory. The zip code is sufficient for shipping.
On June 22 I already posted about this topic, without any reaction:
https://forum.alidropship.com/threads/problems-with-order-fulfillment.14322/#post-64486
This problem should be solved ...

 

[Direct Webstore]

This problem is caused by Aliexpress and not the Alidropship plugin. Have you written to Aliexpress about it?

On June 22 I already posted about this topic, without any reaction:

See above.

This problem should be solved ...

Write to Aliexpress.

In the meantime, just spend a couple of extra seconds to fill in the missing State, etc on the rare occaisions, it happens. That's what I do. I accepted that the order processing is "semi" automatic long ago.

 

[Mar]

There is a problem with the automated order process of AliDropship WooCommerce. In the WC order form for many countries the state field is missing, e. g. Germany. Without state in the address form of AliExpress the order process stops, you have to fill it out manually, and then the town field is empty also, have to type that in too. That is not an automated process at all. The databases should be programmed, so the state field is not mandatory. The zip code is sufficient for shipping.
On June 22 I already posted about this topic, without any reaction:
https://forum.alidropship.com/threads/problems-with-order-fulfillment.14322/#post-64486
This problem should be solved ...

Placing automatic order was never smooth as it is now. Yes there are shipping destinations that the system cannot fill all fields automatically. It is not perfect but it work. I have come across cases like this but never failed to order due to this issue. Saying it is not an automated process at all is exaggerated.

 

[DanKru]

This problem is caused by Aliexpress and not the Alidropship plugin. Have you written to Aliexpress about it?


See above.


Write to Aliexpress.

In the meantime, just spend a couple of extra seconds to fill in the missing State, etc on the rare occaisions, it happens. That's what I do. I accepted that the order processing is "semi" automatic long ago.

Thanks for your appreciated comment!
... a couple of seonds ... on the rare occasions ...
Well, I as a German living in Germany specialised on selling to all 28 countries in the European Union. On rare occasions like the Netherlands the automatic order works, but for most orders I have to spend a lot of time typing in the missing state and town manually, what is error-prone.

No, I did not write to AliExpress yet, because they don't tout with automated orders like AliDropship. AliDropship should clear that topic with AliExpress, not me as a customer, because they state in their salescopy:
"Fulfill Orders Automatically
Forget about ordering every product manually. Just click the 'Order' button and quickly confirm your order on AliExpress."
This is not true and misleading!

 

[Direct Webstore]

Again ... the problem lies with Aliexpress.

This is not true and misleading!

Yes. It should say "Semi Automatic" ... but it's good enough for me and I'm not prone to pedantics. I love it.

I don't know what you could use as an alternative. This problem with Aliexpress even affects Shopify/Oberlo and other platforms.

 

[DanKru]

Placing automatic order was never smooth as it is now. Yes there are shipping destinations that the system cannot fill all fields automatically. It is not perfect but it work. I have come across cases like this but never failed to order due to this issue. Saying it is not an automated process at all is exaggerated.

As mentioned above to comment of "Direct Webstore", AliDropship touts on https://alidropship.com/features/:
"Fulfill Orders Automatically
Forget about ordering every product manually. Just click the 'Order' button and quickly confirm your order on AliExpress."

This is exaggerated, indeed!

It should say: "Fulfill Orders Automatically for the US and maybe some other countries, we don't care about" (Trump style)
This typical American arrogance and ignorance for the rest of the world always annoys me.

 

[Yaros]

As mentioned above to comment of "Direct Webstore", AliDropship touts on https://alidropship.com/features/:
"Fulfill Orders Automatically
Forget about ordering every product manually. Just click the 'Order' button and quickly confirm your order on AliExpress."

This is exaggerated, indeed!

It should say: "Fulfill Orders Automatically for the US and maybe some other countries, we don't care about" (Trump style)
This typical American arrogance and ignorance for the rest of the world always annoys me.

Hello, actually I think such cases can be fixed. The problem is that AliExpress often changes the list of regions/states/provinces/cities. And WooCommerce for example uses its own lists that do not meet the regions/states/provinces/cities lists of AliExpress.

If you could send me exact examples, probably we can update these lists in the plugin.

 

[Victoria Kudryashova]

Thanks for your appreciated comment!
... a couple of seonds ... on the rare occasions ...
Well, I as a German living in Germany specialised on selling to all 28 countries in the European Union. On rare occasions like the Netherlands the automatic order works, but for most orders I have to spend a lot of time typing in the missing state and town manually, what is error-prone.

No, I did not write to AliExpress yet, because they don't tout with automated orders like AliDropship. AliDropship should clear that topic with AliExpress, not me as a customer, because they state in their salescopy:
"Fulfill Orders Automatically
Forget about ordering every product manually. Just click the 'Order' button and quickly confirm your order on AliExpress."
This is not true and misleading!

Hello, could you please make a list of countries that you've experienced the issues with auto-complete? Thank you in advance!

 

[WoooShipper]

@Victoria Kudryashova @Yaros
Hi ... maybe you guys can help me out.
In our case, we can't even 'Place Order Automatically' - we get the popup on click and then take the step to log in to AliE and come back and hit the 'Continue' button but still 'not authorised on AliExpress'. Tried new customer login to AliE, reloading Chrome extension/authorizing the site, etc. Nope, not working.

Actually, we raised this in another thread and got as far as sending a PM to @Victoria Soloveva as requested but then the ADS downtime happened and we have not heard from her since or at all. Thing is we just launched the site and now testing orders - even the 'Place Order Manually' doesn't work onClick but if you copy link address and open in new tab it takes you to the correct product page on AliE and we can then place the order manually - which is rather tedious (albeit a much appreciated fallback if auto is temporarily down). But now we are stuck with no auto* only manual. Any ideas?

*FYI, this was the first Order and first attempt - so it's not liked it worked before and not working now; our 'auto' link is not working from first try.

 

[Mar]

Hello, could you please make a list of countries that you've experienced the issues with auto-complete? Thank you in advance!

I gave one country in the past, I remember it was Norway. I don't know if something was done about it. Making a list is next to impossible. You will only know when you have an order in these countries.

 

[DanKru]

Hello, actually I think such cases can be fixed. The problem is that AliExpress often changes the list of regions/states/provinces/cities. And WooCommerce for example uses its own lists that do not meet the regions/states/provinces/cities lists of AliExpress.

If you could send me exact examples, probably we can update these lists in the plugin.

Hi Yaros, thanks for your appreciated response, looks like I eventually got highly competent attention.

The problem here is obviously to coordinate the databases of WC, AD and AE.
In WC there are states missing for many countries in the order form, example Germany , so AD can't automatically fill out the AE order.
Just for testing I coded the WC file for states in @package WooCommerce/i18n, see attached brd_länder.pdf. Now "Baden-Wuerttemberg" shows up in "Bundesland"
But AD did not process the state in my testorder, cause it's not in the AD database. So that does not work and the files would be overridden with the next WC plugin update anyway, I guess, much work for nothing.

Please see my list of European countries.txt attached with and without states, what a mess. There are many countries without states or counties anyway you can ship to, though. It does not make sense to require states to fill in when there aren't any.

So as long as there is the state field mandatory in AD and AE forms, the automated order process can't work. It should be removed from the form, it is not necessary for shipping anyway, ZIP code is sufficient.
Name
Country
Zip
Town
Street

BASTA
All additional shipping information should be optional or ignored.

 

[Victoria Kudryashova]

Hi Yaros, thanks for your appreciated response, looks like I eventually got highly competent attention.

The problem here is obviously to coordinate the databases of WC, AD and AE.
In WC there are states missing for many countries in the order form, example Germany View attachment 9846, so AD can't automatically fill out the AE order.
Just for testing I coded the WC file for states in @package WooCommerce/i18n, see attached brd_länder.pdf. Now "Baden-Wuerttemberg" shows up in "Bundesland" View attachment 9849
But AD did not process the state in my testorder, cause it's not in the AD database. So that does not work and the files would be overridden with the next WC plugin update anyway, I guess, much work for nothing.

Please see my list of European countries.txt attached with and without states, what a mess. There are many countries without states or counties anyway you can ship to, though. It does not make sense to require states to fill in when there aren't any.

So as long as there is the state field mandatory in AD and AE forms, the automated order process can't work. It should be removed from the form, it is not necessary for shipping anyway, ZIP code is sufficient.
Name
Country
Zip
Town
Street

BASTA
All additional shipping information should be optional or ignored.

Hello, we could add option to enable AliExpress regions for WooCommerce, but it could cause issues with Taxes, Shipping and geolocation of WooCommerce itself and third-party plugins. I don't know what solution is the best - to give that option or leave everything like that. What do you think?

 

[Mar]

Hello, we could add option to enable AliExpress regions for WooCommerce, but it could cause issues with Taxes, Shipping and geolocation of WooCommerce itself and third-party plugins. I don't know what solution is the best - to give that option or leave everything like that. What do you think?

If it cause other issues, better leave it like that. Again, I never failed to place an automatic order because of this missing state.

 

[DanKru]

I think we all don't want to improve automation for the worse here.
If you and I don't know what solution is best and , the programmers and eggheads of AD and AE should know what is practicable and feasible.
As mentioned before, my idea is not to add something that maybe cause problems with whatever I know, but to CHANGE the state field from mandatory to optional in AD and AE. Or to N/A by default. Please let me know why not??
We in Germany have the same 19% VAT in all 16 states, but I know that in the US for example the taxes depend on your nexus. But hopefully Americans know in which state they live, without seeing it on invoices? Or are there any IRS regulations regarding state verification?
Maybe the state plolice must take care of state borders, but not the postman, the ZIP code tells him all he needs to know, I guess?

 

[Yaros]

I think we all don't want to improve automation for the worse here.
If you and I don't know what solution is best and , the programmers and eggheads of AD and AE should know what is practicable and feasible.
As mentioned before, my idea is not to add something that maybe cause problems with whatever I know, but to CHANGE the state field from mandatory to optional in AD and AE. Or to N/A by default. Please let me know why not??
We in Germany have the same 19% VAT in all 16 states, but I know that in the US for example the taxes depend on your nexus. But hopefully Americans know in which state they live, without seeing it on invoices? Or are there any IRS regulations regarding state verification?
Maybe the state plolice must take care of state borders, but not the postman, the ZIP code tells him all he needs to know, I guess?

WooCommerce has its own structure for countries/regions/cities. If we change it, that will affect WooCommerce shipping zones, taxes, geolocation and currency converter settings.

There is no point to compare Alidropship original and AliDropship Woo plugins. In AliDropship original plugin everything created from scratch and it does not depend on WooCommerce and its functionality.

As a solution we can add an option to use WooCommerce country structure or AliDropship country database that is related to AliExpress country list.

 

[DanKru]

WooCommerce has its own structure for countries/regions/cities. If we change it, that will affect WooCommerce shipping zones, taxes, geolocation and currency converter settings.

There is no point to compare Alidropship original and AliDropship Woo plugins. In AliDropship original plugin everything created from scratch and it does not depend on WooCommerce and its functionality.

As a solution we can add an option to use WooCommerce country structure or AliDropship country database that is related to AliExpress country list.

Sorry, I don't understand, please explain.
What do you mean by "If we change it"? What "it"?
I did not mean to change anything in WC. And it would not be necessary anyway.
When you would change the state field in AD and AE from requested to optional or N/A, that would not change anything in WC? All order information goes from WC to AD/AE, and not back? How could a state field modification in AD/AE affect WooCommerce shipping zones, taxes, geolocation and currency converter settings??
Thanks for enlightenment.

 

[Victoria Kudryashova]

Sorry, I don't understand, please explain.
What do you mean by "If we change it"? What "it"?
I did not mean to change anything in WC. And it would not be necessary anyway.
When you would change the state field in AD and AE from requested to optional or N/A, that would not change anything in WC? All order information goes from WC to AD/AE, and not back? How could a state field modification in AD/AE affect WooCommerce shipping zones, taxes, geolocation and currency converter settings??
Thanks for enlightenment.

AliDropship for WooCommerce doesn't have its own region list - it uses regions from WC. These regions are not the same as AliExpress uses, more over we can't change AliExpress regions - all we can do in that situation - to make changes in WooCommerce regions to make them the same as AE for smoothing auto-complete process, but as I said before - it will effect shipping zones, taxes, geolocation and currency converter settings - because all of them based on default WooCommerce regions list.

 

[DanKru]

AHA! As mentioned before, I thought there were 3 separate databases of WC, AD and AE for the order forms, that must be coordinated. Wrong? Now it seems to me that what I see in an AD "automated" order form is actually a form from WC, that you guys can't change?
I still don't get it: when then there is in the WC order form a country without the state field, why does the (empty) state field show up in the AD form at all?
Looks like I have to take it as is. Annoying ...

BTW: when the AD order form shows up with an empty state field, there is the town name in the town field shown correctly. But when I write in the state name, the town name is gone, have to type it in again as well. This whole procedure sucks ...
And you guys can't make it really AUTOMATED without messing around with WC? (and maybe ruin the whole thing ....)
Disappointing.

Maybe you find a way someday to make this work as you advertise it: automated, not semi automated.