First Class Mail - Regular letter rate missing

[Anklejive]

I tried to research this topic on the forums, but this is the closest I could find - viewtopic.php?f=42&t=16066&p=69044&hili ... ail#p69044 - and it does not quite coincide with my problem.

A few days ago, I noticed that all of the USPS options in my shopping cart disappeared, so I checked my logs and found that I missed the update in July. We are running 7.0.5.

Over the weekend, I followed the directions to update: http://help.ablecommerce.com/index.htm# ... h_2013.htm

I applied the January update and installed the new CSV file uspsmethods_July_2013.zip (unzipped) and recycled the application pool at my host.

But when I went to Admin to add the USPS integrated carrier methods, regular First Class mail for a standard letter was not an option.

I went back and opened the new csv file but found no option for regular First Class mail listed.

There is an option for U.S. Standard Post, but the cost using that, for a standard letter size envelope, is over $6.

So, right now, the only option I have for sending a standard letter size envelope is U.S. First Class Large Envelope ($1.12).

Can you help please? Thanks.

[Katie]

USPS renamed most of their services, and there are so many that it's hard to know for certain which ones are valid. Can you go to this page -

http://postcalc.usps.com/

Plug in the applicable information and select a package shape. Let me know the type (Letter/Envelope) selected and which services USPS says are available to the destination. Then go into AbleCommerce Admin and make sure that the services returned from USPS are selected as available in Able.

If they are, then take a closer look at the item being mailed. Does it have dimensions or a shipping weight that is over limit for standard letter sizes?

[Katie]

Anklejive,

I see this is your first post here. I just wanted to say Welcome and thanks for joining!

[Anklejive]

Hi, Katie. Thanks for the welcome!

I did as you suggested. I chose the "Letter" radio button in the Postage Calculator, shipping from 98228 to 04106 (South Portland, ME, but actually it won't matter).

Continuing on to the next screen, I clicked on Letter and the options are the same as in the Admin on AC, EXCEPT for the last one, which on the USPS site is listed as First Class Mail(R) Letter.

In the AC Admin, there is no entry for First Class Mail(R) Letter.

The item being mailed is an envelope measuring 11 inches by 4.75 inches, which is considered a regular first class mail letter by USPS. The weight of each item I sell is less than one ounce. Together with the item, envelope, stamp and return address label, the total weight is under an ounce.

As I mentioned, I looked at the uspsmethods.csv file and there is no First Class Mail Letter option, which makes me think that they might be assuming that everything shipped from AbleCommerce-endowed web sites is some sort of larger item.

Why wouldn't they have included First Class Mail Letter in their options?

What now?

[Katie]

That's a good question. I'm stumped. But give me a chance to do some more research and let's see what we can find.

Thanks!

[Katie]

I tracked down the integration guide, and from what I can tell, they should be in the CSV file. I have asked the dev team to look into this. It might take a day or two for them to respond, so I hope that will be ok.

[Anklejive]

Yes, Katie. The sooner the better, but I have no other options.

Thanks very much.

[Katie]

In case you're curious. Here are the domestic First class options from USPS. We are missing 2 of them.

First-Class Mail^&reg; Large Envelope <---EXISTS
First-Class Mail^&reg; Letter <---MISSING
First-Class Mail^&reg; Parcel <---EXISTS
First-Class Mail^&reg; Postcards <---MISSING

I haven't tried it, but I wonder if you would be able to manually add these to the CSV file. If you really needed this in a hurry, it might be worth a shot.

[Anklejive]

Thanks, Katie. I'll try it and report back.

Do the two missing items need to be in this order for it to work?

[Katie]

I wouldn't think the order would matter, but you might want to add them near the existing ones, just to keep the file organized.

Here is my best guess for the 2 missing entries in the CSV file:

First-Class Mail^&reg; Letter|USPS First-Class Mail Letter
First-Class Mail^&reg; Postcards|USPS First-Class Mail Postcards

If this works, be sure to let us know.

Katie

[Anklejive]

OK. It worked, however the code in the .csv needs to be more accurate.

It needs to be EXACTLY:
First-Class Mail^&#174; Letter|USPS First-Class Mail Letter

I tried this several times to no avail and then remembered I needed to delete ALL of the existing USPS methods, before adding the new ones.

Once I did that, it worked. Apparently the order in which they are listed does not matter, but I may have gotten lucky and put the Letter line in the correct place. I did not try it in different places in the list.

Thanks for your help, Katie!

[Anklejive]

Hi. My problem is back. I no longer see USPS options in my shopping cart. Please help.

[Katie]

If nothing has changed with your site since October, then you need to go here -

http://postcalc.usps.com/

Plug in the applicable information and select a package shape. Then go into AbleCommerce Admin and make sure that the services returned from USPS are selected as available in Able. It's always a good idea to check the product information as well. If you are missing a weight, then shipping cannot be calculated.

[Anklejive]

Katie,
I don't ship packages AT ALL. All of my shipments are normal sized U.S. Letters. Please read the earlier comments from last year.

Thanks.

[Katie]

My last advice still stands. Whether you are shipping a parcel or letter, you can still use the link I provided to make sure that you have the applicable services selected in AbleCommerce.

[Anklejive]

OK, thanks. I did as you suggested and the two options for First Class Letter came up as First-Class Mail® Stamped Letter and First-Class Mail® Metered Letter.

These are new descriptions and I am assuming because they don't match my previous fix - First-Class Mail^&#174; Letter|USPS First-Class Mail Letter - that that is the reason I am not seeing ANY ship options in my shopping cart area.

Now what should I do?

Thanks.

[Anklejive]

Should I change the .csv file?

[Katie]

I'm only guessing at the new services that need to be added to the CSV file, but until I have a chance to get a developer's feedback, this seems to be the correct format -

First-Class Mail^&#174; Stamped Letter|USPS First-Class Mail Stamped Letter

First-Class Mail^&#174; Metered Letter|USPS First-Class Mail Metered Letter

Please add these to the CSV file, and then select them from the USPS configuration page.

Please let us know if it works,

Katie

[Anklejive]

Worked, Katie. I don't know how much business I lost because of this. Any thoughts on why USPS changed their csv file and descriptions and didn't alert AC or me?

Thank you.

[Katie]

Thanks for reporting back. I think these are very uncommon shipping services for online retailers. You are likely the only customer who mails letters, so I don't think they were ever included in the CSV file. I'll open a bug report to make sure the next USPS update includes them. I'll also have the developers check to see if there are any other missing services.

I'm sorry for any trouble this has caused. I would have expected USPS to return standard letter options instead of requiring 'stamped' or 'metered' mail options. Maybe they did change something on their end? If they did, no notice was given to us or anyone else that I know of.