USPS Server Issues?
Printed From: ProductCart E-Commerce Solutions
Category: ProductCart
Forum Name: Using ProductCart
Forum Description: Running your store with ProductCart
URL: https://forum.productcart.com/forum_posts.asp?TID=2229
Printed Date: 26-February-2025 at 4:52pm
Software Version: Web Wiz Forums 12.04 - http://www.webwizforums.com
Topic: USPS Server Issues?
Posted By: rotokirby
Subject: USPS Server Issues?
Date Posted: 08-December-2008 at 5:03pm
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Anyone else having trouble getting rates from USPS?
I'm getting lots of "Shipping charges to be determined" orders all of a sudden...and testing it myself I either get the same result or it returns the rate for Priority Flat Rate Box which is an option we don't even offer. I've got an open support request already, but given the time of the year I figured it wouldn't be such a bad idea to reach out here to see if it's just me or a problem with USPS servers. ------------- Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery Chicago > IL > US http://rotofugi.com - http://rotofugi.com |
Replies:
Posted By: ProductCart
Date Posted: 08-December-2008 at 5:10pm
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Yes, several ProductCart users have been reporting problems on stores that were retrieving rates from the USPS without any issues until yesterday. We seriously doubt that this problem has anything to do with ProductCart, since all of these stores are reporting that nothing had changed on the hardware/software side. The issue will likely fix itself as the USPS figures out what is malfunctioning on their side. If it turns out, however, that there is an issue in ProductCart, of course we will address it and update this post accordingly. ------------- The ProductCart Team Home of ProductCart http://www.productcart.com" rel="nofollow - shopping cart software |
Posted By: rotokirby
Date Posted: 08-December-2008 at 5:13pm
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Is there a way for us to complain directly to USPS? Or for Early Impact as a developer to do so on our behalf?
Obviously, this isn't a great time for us to have problems. ------------- Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery Chicago > IL > US http://rotofugi.com - http://rotofugi.com |
Posted By: Stuck
Date Posted: 08-December-2008 at 5:27pm
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Hello Rotokirby,
We have also just started experiencing odd behaviour today with USPS realtime rates not being returned at all (definately worked just fine for us over the weekend as I was updating to version 3.5 & tested regularly). I have also noticed the shipping rates being returned from FedEx are taking 3-4 times longer than normal & I suspect this is only because the US postal rate requests are hanging up the process!
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Posted By: rotokirby
Date Posted: 08-December-2008 at 5:29pm
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Yeah...we're ex-Miva users so I checked on their forums as well and lots of people are reporting the same problems.
At least Product Cart handles it better than Miva does (a lot of Miva users are reporting that it just crashes when people try to check out). So....props to EI! Boo to the good ol' USPS! ------------- Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery Chicago > IL > US http://rotofugi.com - http://rotofugi.com |
Posted By: Stuck
Date Posted: 08-December-2008 at 7:55pm
Yep, however, I have experienced the same thing at times in the past (as in communication server hickups) even with FedEx & UPS servers not returning rates. And even with the PayPal Pro gateway for that matter. Fortunately these hickups are few & far between these days and are typically short lived issues. Certainly money is on our side in these cases, if for example, you consider the amount of money the US Postal service is loosing for every minute they are unable to return shipping rates! 
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Posted By: karlclayton
Date Posted: 08-December-2008 at 9:50pm
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We have experienced the same problem with USPS. This bring up another problem. We have created a custom shipping setup with increasing rates for units ordered but because I had to remove the USPS settings from the control panel to get it to work properly we cannot print USPS labels anymore. We have the enable the USPS settings to print labels but then this stops customers from placing orders. You should not need to define a USPS method so you can print labels. ------------- Karl |
Posted By: Hamish
Date Posted: 09-December-2008 at 4:26am
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See : http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/productcart/shipping-general_settings - http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/productcart/shipping-general_settings You can set the shipping so that if USPS returns no rates the customer can still complete the purchase. ------------- Editing ProductCart Code? See http://wiki.earlyimpact.com/developers/editcode" rel="nofollow - WIKI Guidelines for Editing ProductCart's ASP Source Code |
Posted By: rotokirby
Date Posted: 09-December-2008 at 1:05pm
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Hey Hamish....yeah, we've got it set that way, but it's a real pain to have to contact customers and have them pay separate shipping. Not to mention the orders we'll just lose because customers are frustrated.
It's been over 24 hours and the good folks at the USPS still haven't managed a fix to the problem. We can't just turn off USPS until it's fixed because we have a lot of international customers whose only options are USPS and we'll just lose those orders altogether if we turn it off. I realize that this isn't Early Impact's problem. But it's frustrating none-the-less! ------------- Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery Chicago > IL > US http://rotofugi.com - http://rotofugi.com |
Posted By: Stuck
Date Posted: 09-December-2008 at 1:44pm
| Our site is receiving US Postal rates fine today. |
Posted By: rotokirby
Date Posted: 09-December-2008 at 3:13pm
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It does indeed seem to be working again at the moment, although as recently as 2 hours ago it wasn't. Fingers crossed! ------------- Rotofugi Designer Toy Store & Gallery Chicago > IL > US http://rotofugi.com - http://rotofugi.com |
Posted By: Stuck
Date Posted: 09-December-2008 at 3:38pm
See, it is no wonder people like "Go Postal" on them.........
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Posted By: karlclayton
Date Posted: 09-December-2008 at 4:57pm
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Hi Hamish. The problem with letting the USPS rates being calculated is that it takes over a minute for it to go to the shipping screen if the USPS system is not working correctly. Customers simply keep on pressing buttons and then cancel the order because the screen is not responding. The shipping license values should be enabled for the print label functions but it doesn't mean you have to have real time rates enabled. This must be fixed incase this happens again so that we can print labels and provide incremental shipping quotes without hanging up on the rates returned code for USPS. ------------- Karl |
Posted By: karlclayton
Date Posted: 09-December-2008 at 5:12pm
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To have the USPS rating system go down so close to the holidays shows how amateur USPS is. They should have redundency servers. There must have been hundreds of thousands of dollars lost in sales yesterday. In productcart there should be an email sent when a postal server does not respond to a call so that we know there is an issue. I only knew there was an issue when we tried to enter a phone order. ------------- Karl |
Posted By: ProductCart
Date Posted: 09-December-2008 at 6:41pm
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Here is some information on what's behind the problems you have experienced. http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=28718 - http://www.internetretailer.com/dailyNews.asp?id=28718 Today (12.10.08) we received the following, official message: Webtools Interruptions: Updates The Postal Service continues to experience intermittent system interruptions in our Webtools API’s.. We apologize for the inconvenience this is causing, especially at what is one of the busiest times of the year. We are hopeful that full service, across the country, will be restored as soon as possible. We thank you again for your patience. We have taken every step to resolve the situation, and continue to work around the clock both internally and with our external partners. We appreciate your business and your patience. United States Postal Service Internet Customer Care Center ------------- The ProductCart Team Home of ProductCart http://www.productcart.com" rel="nofollow - shopping cart software |