USPS too frequently doesn't return rates

[efficiondave]

We've run into a lot of cases where USPS doesn't return calculated rates. I'm adding logging to see how often this happens but it seems like it's happening at least of couple times a week. It's happening for valid addresses as if you put in the same address when testing, it comes back fine.

Are other people seeing this? Is there any retry logic built into the provider? I'm thinking I will just have it retry the request 2 or 3 times if nothing is returned with perhaps a half second delay between each request.

[ForumsAdmin]

What error is logged when UPS fails to return rates? Is it timing out? Is it responding with an invalid response?

[efficiondave]

It doesn't appear any errors are getting logged currently. Should there be. I haven't done the "Enable Debug Mode" as the associated warning has dissuaded me, "This should only be enabled at the direction of qualified support personnel." and, I'd rather only see messages when it doesn't return something.

[efficiondave]

Looking further back in my app_log files, I did find two errors files but only when I went all the way back to Feb 7 and we know we've had this a lot more than 2 times in the last 2.5 months.

WARN 2013-03-08 09:30:12,186 51582654ms Object a - Failed to obtain rate quote for the given ship method 'USPS Priority Mail International'

WARN 2013-02-10 12:19:57,132 19453427ms Object a - Failed to obtain rate quote for the given ship method 'USPS Priority Mail International'

[jmestep]

I have seen multiple error messages re: USPS on various sites. It happens regularly, but not overwhelmingly. My thought has been "Its the post office, what do you expect?". There don't seem to be as many message for UPS.

[efficiondave]

It turns out this was happening for orders that include a product with weight = 0.