USPS Web Service Issues?

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   Yesterday it seemed that USPS's price API went down again for a short while. This affected our cart, basically making it so people can't check out.

1) Is there a "fallback" method for ProductCart, in case it can't reach USPS/UPS?

2) Has anyone else experienced this sort of issue?

Thanks,

Nicholas

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nicholas_head Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Newbie Joined: 27-July-2010 Status: Offline Points: 0	Post Options Post Reply Quote nicholas_head Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Topic: USPS Web Service Issues? Posted: 19-April-2011 at 2:15pm
	Yesterday it seemed that USPS's price API went down again for a short while. This affected our cart, basically making it so people can't check out. 1) Is there a "fallback" method for ProductCart, in case it can't reach USPS/UPS? 2) Has anyone else experienced this sort of issue? Thanks, Nicholas

Hamish Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Admin Group Joined: 12-October-2006 Location: United Kingdom Status: Offline Points: 56	Post Options Post Reply Quote Hamish Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19-April-2011 at 6:28pm
	Hi Nicholas, Yes, you can set the store to allow checkout even when rates are not returned - see http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/productcart/shipping-no_shipping_rates_returned
	Editing ProductCart Code? See WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code

Matt Members Profile Send Private Message Find Members Posts Add to Buddy List Moderator Group Joined: 20-July-2006 Location: United States Status: Offline Points: 73	Post Options Post Reply Quote Matt Report Post Thanks(0) Quote Reply Posted: 19-April-2011 at 6:51pm
	Hamish is of course correct, but I wanted to add something. In very rare cases the issue with USPS is that their servers are not down, but rather just not responding in a timely manner (more than just sluggish). Had they been down ProductCart would have displayed the "no results" style message. In other words, ProductCart doesn't get an error and is perpetually waiting for the response (until the timeout specified in the script). There is a fine line between giving USPS enough time to respond on a bad day, and the amount of time a customer will wait before we need to display a message. There is an item in our tracking system for this issue. I’ll check on the status, but from memory it was already in testing for the next release. If the server is still not responding please open a ticket so we can provide assistance.