USPS module not working for many countries

[dbrewster]

Hi.

I once posted a question about this over a year ago, but now, with the fancy drop list shipping estimator, I can specify which countries do not work with the USPS module. It's hard to believe that they don't work because the USPS won't ship to those places... Switzerland? ... but if anyone has an answer about why it works this way, I'd love to hear it. This is the latest-and-greatest USPS shipping module in release 1.3.7.

Is it just bugs at the USPS end of things?

We had a customer in Switzerland who had to use "Austria" and a customer in Cyprus who had to use "Greece" to complete checkout.

Countries that do not work with USPS shipping:
Afghanistan
Albania
Algeria
American Samoa
Andorra
Angola
Anguilla
Antarctica (not so surprising that)

THESE WORK:
Antigua and Barbuda
Argentina
Armenia
Aruba
Australia
Austria

THESE DO NOT WORK:
Azerbaijan

THESE WORK:
Bahamas
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Barbados
Belarus
Belgium
Belize

THESE DO NOT WORK:
Benin
Bermuda

THESE WORK:
Bhutan
Bolivia
Bosnia and Herzegowina

THESE DO NOT WORK:
Botswana
Bouvet Island

THESE WORK:
Brazil

THESE DO NOT WORK:
British Indian Ocean Territory

THESE WORK:
Brunei Darussalam

THESE DO NOT WORK:
Bulgaria
Burkina Faso
Burundi

OK, that's enough of that, those are the A's and B's.

Cyprus and Switzerland do not work. I even have the provinces for Switzerland installed.

Your ideas are welcome.

---Diana

[dbrewster]

Update on new USPS module.

I'm still seeing the same bug in the new USPS module.

but there is one thing that strikes me as strange.

When I first installed it, WOW, I got a Switzerland address shipping quote! (I think.)

Then I was messing around, uninstalling it and getting my +% handling mod version working.

Then I saw the same problem of certain countries (Switzerland et al) not getting quotes.

I looked at the configuration database table to see if there was something funky about the settings, but didn't see any evidence of that.

I uninstalled USPS module, reinstalled it, no change.

I believe I saw, one time, a working Switzerland address, and then was unable to recreate that correct function. It is *quite* possible that I am mistaken, but that's how I remember it. So I'm sharing that tidbit with you!

I use the USPS module unedited, and have another USPS shipping module which includes the extra % handling charge function.

Dr. Byte, if you want to take a look at my sandbox store, let me know.

---Diana

[Ajeh]

You installed the USPS updates for May 14th:

http://www.zen-cart.com/forum/showthread.php?t=65732

You then hit REMOVE and INSTALL and reconfigured this for the Production server and have called USPS to ensure that your account is active?

[Ajeh]

Beware of places like American Samoa

American Samoa:
USPS requires Country: United States
UPS requires Country: American Samoa (1 choice) United States (more choices)

Guam:
USPS requires Country: United States
UPS requires Country: Guam

[dbrewster]

Ajeh,

thanks for reply!

Yes, I've done the new USPS update for my sandbox and my real store, and am seeing the same behavior. I uninstalled the old ones before overwriting and installing the new ones. I ran a lot of tests. I did a lot of install and uninstalls to try and figure out the behavior. It works fine for UK and Japan, and doesn't work for Switzerland. So I believe our account is working.

Interesting factoid: I had debug mode set on the sandbox, and I did get lots of emails telling me about Swiss customs, but no quote shows in the cart, so no checkout is possible. So it looks like it is communicating with the USPS server.

Also: our Exchange mail server isn't playing nice with these debug emails, it's giving a too-long line message, I had to find them in my server mail error log. Is there a place I can set the -- whatever it's called -- text mode for email -- to something more compatible with our own mail server. I use something called "printable and quotable" instead of UTF8 for the other ZC email.

---diana

[Ajeh]

Try the testing with 0:0 on the Tare and a product with products_weight of .10

Make sure all checkboxes are checked ...

Now see what if anything appears ...

Note: with debug on you will also get the rules on each ...

[Ajeh]

NOTE: by sandbox I hope you meant your test site and NOT USPS test server ...

That thing is often down or moofy ...

Be sure you are set to Production ...

[dbrewster]

oooooh... very interesting....


VERY INTERESTING, INDEED!

I followed your suggestions Ajeh (yes of course, I only use Production server, and the sandbox is my personal ZC sandbox... so useful! I learned that from YOU!)


Lo, I set
Shipping Zone
Shp: International

and the shipping fails to display for Switzerland. Works fine for Japan and UK.

AFAIK the USPS really does ship to Switzerland.


I really do *need* to set Shipping Zone for USPS because we only use it for international orders. We ship UPS in the US.


----Diana ::very excited to be able to reproduce this ... bug?::

[dbrewster]

ponder...

OMG.

Switzerland was not in my Admin > Locations/Taxes > Zones Definitions > Shp: International > Details.

And Cyprus wasn't there. That had been another unshippable country.

There must be others that are missing.

gawsh. After all this time.

I have no idea why some countries are missing from my international list, I thought I had added "all countries" some time ago and then just removed US.



but HEY, AT LAST, REASON PREVAILS!

--hugs

---Diana

[Ajeh]

Thanks for the update ... and the testing ...