USPS Webtools eCommerce API stopped working

[Mizmo67]

Is anyone else experiencing an outage of USPS live rates?

My hard coded stuff works but live hasn't been function for a day or so. We aren't exactly sure when it went out.

I sent an email to USPS tech to find out if there was some kind of programming change or problem on their end, etc.
Haven't heard back yet.

~Mo

[compunerdy]

I have been having some issues lately as well.

I am having issues with UPS as well though.

[Mizmo67]

Checking my error log, I do see that sometimes UPS is throwing errors as well, even though my last two days of testing I have been able to get live rates for UPS.

USPS is still not showing live rates.

From USPS tech support

I was able to locate your Web Tools Account in our system and I was also able to see that you are set up with the proper API permissions. I do not see anything on this end which would cause the unique error message you reported. It is my recommendation to run a debug on the coding in your 3rd party software to verify there have been no updates to the Shipping Cart program.

Updates that pass through the Web tools API Program is relayed to our customers and as of yet, no updates have processed within our servers. This leads me to believe that the issue may lie inside the 3rd party software.

I put in a hosting support ticket for this one, I'm stumped.

[jmestep]

I might be having a problem with both , but thought it was a problem with some code I was customizing. Shipping quotes disappear (no shipping method error) then when I turn my back they come back!

[Mizmo67]

Hi Judy,

Yes - UPS the problem seems to be intermittent. I haven't seen them disappear yet but I saw errors for them in the log.

USPS is just..gone..

[Michael Ward]

The UPS issue could be attributed to this. Seems someone was being naughty on the net. We are looking into the USPS issue. from what we can tell from the debug information the request are going out but nothing is coming back.

http://www.zdnet.co.uk/blogs/mixed-sign ... -10024266/

[calvis]

Another call for shipping gateway failover built into the program.

We need to have the ability to setup some predefined rates just in case the shipping gateway does not work on the domestic side. International would be nice as well, but domestic would be priority. We have been getting burned a lot recently because of shipping gateway failures. We are seeing more evidence that hackers and hacker groups are targeting shipping gateways as a means of disrupting eCommerce. If shipping gateway failover was employed such interruption could minimized on the merchant side.

[compunerdy]

My large issue yesterday was that the 4.2.2.2 and 4.2.2.1 dns servers went down evidently.

[Mizmo67]

We need to have the ability to setup some predefined rates just in case the shipping gateway does not work on the domestic side.

Calvis, you can do this via the "Add Custom Shipping Method" at the bottom of the Methods page. Either add a flat rate or vary by weight, etc.

This is what we had already done for first class. We added another as an emergency stopgap for USPS priority when this failure occurred. So at least the small, lightweight orders have some USPS options. The priority mail rates aren't perfect due to zone differences, but at least they are relatively close.

~Mo

[calvis]

We need to have the ability to setup some predefined rates just in case the shipping gateway does not work on the domestic side.

Calvis, you can do this via the "Add Custom Shipping Method" at the bottom of the Methods page. Either add a flat rate or vary by weight, etc.

This is what we had already done for first class. We added another as an emergency stopgap for USPS priority when this failure occurred. So at least the small, lightweight orders have some USPS options. The priority mail rates aren't perfect due to zone differences, but at least they are relatively close.

~Mo

Sure, that is what I have done in the past. That method is good when you know when gateway is down and are near the computer to make the changes. I think we need way to automate fail over when a shipping gateway experiences an error. It seems that shipping gateway issues are becoming more prevalent recently and having the system be proactive about those issues would be nice.

[Mizmo67]

What I did is moved my (C) labeled custom USPS rates down to the bottom of my methods page. That way, if live rates display, the live rates are at the top, and the customer will not really notice the hard wired rates down at the bottom, below the USPS. If they do, it's likely the live rates will be the better pricing anyway.

ATM of course, it's moot, since there are no live USPS rates

[Mizmo67]

UPDATE AND SOLUTION

Per Katie at Able, we redid the USPS postal patch.
http://help.ablecommerce.com/upgrades/a ... s_2011.htm

That by itself didn't solve the lack of live rates, BUT.............

I may need to have the Shipping methods deleted and remade.

was Mike @ Able thought yesterday.

Today I did that, deleted both my USPS Priority and USPS Express, and remade them.
It looks like the rates are now live again and in the right price range for the test item's weight.

So whatever got bugged or glitched did need to be cleared completely out by erasing the old methods.
Redoing the postal patch probably wasn't a bad idea either.

Seems to be working now, anyway! *knock on wood*

Hope that helps everyone else that was having the problem, as well.

~Mo