Well. My apologies to the ZC community. I was the one that started begging for this interface - and I guess I can say I'm grateful that I didn't jump on it when first released!

I think stamps.com is a great service - but I too have had issues with them and some nasty bugs.

I was in the software quality management field for almost 30 years - and I have to say that the cavalier attitude that stamps.com is using (in general - not Chuck) is at odds with the teachings of my previous discipline.

Stamps.com may just see their service as one for homemakers to not have to go to the post office, but for most of us ZC users, this is our LIVELIHOOD and REPUTATION at stake - and their faulty implementation endangers these. I want the best experience possible for my customers - for now, I'll keep doing what I've been doing - using stamps.com manually, cutting and pasting every order - because this way, I can guarantee a good experience for my customer!

Let me know when the implementation of the stamps.com module is working as it should - or feel free to contact me if you want an engineering-eye view of the specs for this module.

mumzie,

Thank you for your feedback; I've passed your post along to our product team.

Are there any specific concerns that you have about the integration? While there are certainly issues we are looking into, the core functionality of importing orders from Zen Cart to Stamps.com can be a huge time saver relative to copy and paste.

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

roberttimmons:

I am still getting too many failed jobs error.. any idea?

well Since nobody really knew how to fix the issue nor did I get any replies. I did what any tech would do. made my shipping guy re install the stamps.com software and re create the profile. And what do you know its working again.

Now for the next issue. The email notify. This is not a issue that will be hard to fix. Its very simple actually. When you post something to the customer order you either check the box that says notify the customer. which is the default. Or you uncheck the box so the customer gets no email about the update. So somewhere in the stamps.com module files we need to create that flag where it inserts the tracking number back to the webstore. I have no idea of where the code is or what it is but Iv had just about enough of copying and pasting tracking numbers so my customers know there item shipped. So Im going to dig into the files today because what I truly believe is. Stamps.com does not want this to happen because they would much prefer to collect the email addresses of all of OUR Customers to add to there database. Maybe they are doing nothing with them now. But that huge email list could be worth big bucks down the road. That's why IMO this has not been addressed. Will report back if I figure anything out. If I cant I will hire a coder.

When you open up the php files you'll find that they've copyrighted the mod and use of it is subject to their terms and conditions under license. I suspect that if you modify the code you'll be exposing yourself to possible problems. That's why I didn't do anything to it.

Here is the code. I think I already know what to change. Under customer_notified they have it at 0.. I bet if its changed to 1. Then the customers would be notified. Althought I am not going to make this change as I do not own this file. I am simply posting this information to prove its possible.

			//update order status
			 $db->execute(" update ".DB_PREFIX."orders set orders_status='3' where orders_id='". $this->MakeSqlSafe($OrderNumber,1) ."'");
		 } 
		 else
		 {
		 	
			if($current_order_status==1)
				$change_order_status=2;
			else if($current_order_status==2)
				$change_order_status=3;
			else
				$change_order_status=$current_order_status;
			
			 $db->execute("insert into " . TABLE_ORDERS_STATUS_HISTORY . "
					  (orders_id, orders_status_id, date_added, customer_notified, comments)
					  values ('" . $this->MakeSqlSafe($OrderNumber,1) . "', '".$change_order_status."', now(), '0', '" . $this->MakeSqlSafe($comments). "')");
					  
			if($change_order_status!=$current_order_status)
			$db->execute(" update ".DB_PREFIX."orders set orders_status='$change_order_status' where orders_id='". $this->MakeSqlSafe($OrderNumber,1) ."'");

StampsCom:

If you would like, you can CC yourself on the emails that are sent. I realize this does not address all of the problems expressed, but it is something you can do immediately. To do this, go to File/Preferences/Email from within Stamps.com. There are also limited customization options and I should mention that we are working on additional customization of emails sent from Stamps.com.

Thanks for this information Chuck, but I won't use the Stamps.com e-mail. The e-mail has to come from ZenCart for a consistent customer experience, so for now I'll manually send them. Hopefully this will be fixed, or added as an option in the near future.

roberttimmons:

Here is the code. I think I already know what to change. Under customer_notified they have it at 0.. I bet if its changed to 1. Then the customers would be notified. Althought I am not going to make this change as I do not own this file. I am simply posting this information to prove its possible.

Thanks for the lead Robert. I'd try it out if my installation of stamps.com wasn't broken again.

I have a completely new problem. Without explanation stamps.com started working again for me about a week ago. It was working fine until a couple of days ago when I received a new error and I'm out of luck again. The new error is as follows:

ERROR: The webstore URL is incorrect. Please verify this is the correct URL. (10/27/2010 11:10:02 PM) 
Unable to connect to webstore. Unable to connect to the remote server The webstore URL is incorrect. Please verify this is the correct URL. 

Nothing has been changed on the installation. The URL has not been changed and is correct. I tried installing the latest rev of the plugin but there was no change.

Does the fact that

today is 10/28/2010 and Stamps.com is checking for orders on 10/29/2010 have anything to do with any problem?

Last week, a Stamps.com supervisor called me but apologized that he could not help with any problems because the Technical Supervisors declined to participate in a phone call for a technical issue.

OOPS. Don't know why a duplicate post appeared.

RixStix:

Does the fact that

today is 10/28/2010 and Stamps.com is checking for orders on 10/29/2010 have anything to do with any problem?

Hi RixStix,

Where are you finding that date? In the XML? If it's doing that, it certainly is a problem. What time of day did you see that happen?

RixStix:

Last week, a Stamps.com supervisor called me but apologized that he could not help with any problems because the Technical Supervisors declined to participate in a phone call for a technical issue.

There is no doubt Stamps.com has huge software development, QA, and support department issues. From running software development departments of all sizes for 25 years, I can only say that this is a management problem and they need to solve it.

Here's my latest problem from today that's related to the stamps.com software, not the plug-in, but it points to the poor management in both software dev, support and QA that is in place there. Sorry in advance for being so long winded but I think it's important to help illustrate the problems we're dealing with at stamps.com, and hopefully Chuck will read this and get it back to someone that can do something about these core management problems.

Last night I scheduled a pickup through the stamps.com software at 12:30 am Pacific time. Per USPS and Stamps.com doc you are supposed to be able to schedule a pickup up until 2:00 am Central time for next day pickup(I've had trouble with USPS on this for years and it's never worked correctly). When I scheduled the pickup it came back saying my pickup was scheduled for 10/29(Friday), not today like I needed it…..so here we go again with the USPS side of things not working as documented( I do not believe this part is a stamps.com problem), so I tried to cancel the pickup. On the schedule a pickup page in stamps.com software there is a link that says "Click here to modify or cancel a previously scheduled pickup". You click on it and a form comes up to enter the pickup location and the pickup confirmation #. So, where do you get the pickup confirmation #? I couldn't find it so I looked in the stamps.com help for the form and it states "Enter in the provided Confirmation number.". The problem is there was never any confirmation # provided and there's nowhere to get it in the stamps.com software…..so….I called support and the answer I got was pathetic. First, the support guy didn't have a clue what I was talking about. It took me 10 minutes to get him to understand the problem, then when he did he went offline and talked to someone higher up. His answer was that I had to call USPS and get them to give me the confirmation #, and that USPS did not provide stamps.com with that information and that's why it wasn't available in the stamps.com software. I pointed out to him the absurdity of having mature commercial software shipping with a link to a feature that can't even be implemented. He didn't get it, and when I asked to speak to a supervisor he denied me. This type of "bug" in shipping software is inexcusable.

Bill

RixStix:

Does the fact that

today is 10/28/2010 and Stamps.com is checking for orders on 10/29/2010 have anything to do with any problem?

Last week, a Stamps.com supervisor called me but apologized that he could not help with any problems because the Technical Supervisors declined to participate in a phone call for a technical issue.

hey Rix.. I have noticed when all else fails just delete the web profile on the stamps.com and re create it.. kind of a hassle but its fixed us a few times. Make sure to save that access token or you will be digging for it..

bpryor:

Hi RixStix,

Where are you finding that date? In the XML? If it's doing that, it certainly is a problem. What time of day did you see that happen?

Bill

There were quite a few individual hits for tomorrow in the string of the 6-8 dozen Stamps.com "Who's Online" listings that occurs every couple of hours and are probably in the server logs that I am too lazy to dig through.

Hello,

I wanted to reach out to everyone and let you all know that we are still working on these issues. Here are some quick updates:

Import Shipping Methods: We're working to put together more detailed instructions on how these can be imported. As soon as I have more details, I'll be sure to post.

Emails: We're investigating the feasibility of having Stamps.com initiate the emails sent through Zen Cart. With a number of our other shopping cart integrations, we do support similar features. We'd like to get this working with Zen Cart if possible. At this time, I don't have any additional details, although we're researching the issue. In the meantime, we do support a feature that allows you to use Stamps.com to send a shipping confirmation email directly to your customers.

As for the other errors/feature requests that have been mentioned, we are looking into these as well. Thanks to everyone for your patience as we work to make this integration better for the Zen Cart community.

If anyone has any additional questions/complaints/requests, please let us know; we take your comments very seriously and we are committed to improving this integration.

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

bump for updates

Hello,

Sorry for the delay on resolving these issues; we are still working to investigate/resolve these issues.

The one issue I do have an update on is the automated process for notification emails. After investigating the requested functionality, we feel that this is a feature outside of the scope of the Stamps.com integration. Stamps.com's solution is designed to allow Zen Cart merchants to import orders from Zen Cart and process USPS shipping labels for these orders. After processing shipping labels, Stamps.com posts back information to Zen Cart to confirm shipment.

As a feature for our customers, Stamps.com offers the ability to send email confirmations directly from Stamps.com. As some have mentioned, this is not an ideal solution. To improve this, we will soon be offering additional levels of customization to the emails we send.

As for the other issues, we are currently investigating these. Most notably, we are working to fix the ship method importing as fast as we can.

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

StampsCom:

Hello,

Sorry for the delay on resolving these issues; we are still working to investigate/resolve these issues.

The one issue I do have an update on is the automated process for notification emails. After investigating the requested functionality, we feel that this is a feature outside of the scope of the Stamps.com integration. Stamps.com's solution is designed to allow Zen Cart merchants to import orders from Zen Cart and process USPS shipping labels for these orders. After processing shipping labels, Stamps.com posts back information to Zen Cart to confirm shipment.

As a feature for our customers, Stamps.com offers the ability to send email confirmations directly from Stamps.com. As some have mentioned, this is not an ideal solution. To improve this, we will soon be offering additional levels of customization to the emails we send.

As for the other issues, we are currently investigating these. Most notably, we are working to fix the ship method importing as fast as we can.

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com

You are aware that this forum is full of software programmers right? The reason we choose this software for our web stores is simple. There is nothing that is outside the scope of possibility. Its fully customizable to do anything with the proper code.

I'm sure we all understand stamps.com reasoning for this update to be ignored. Its simple. You want our customers to get emails from stamps.com to increase customer awareness and branding for the stamps.com software. So basically if we want our customers automatically notified we have to allow you to spam our customers with your advertising.. Which you do with every single notification email you sent out..

This is what is in the footer of every single email you send to OUR customers..

The shipment information contained in this email is provided by Stamps.com.
For questions about this package, please contact the sender of
the package or the U.S. Postal Service.

============================================================================
Print official USPS postage from your own printer with Stamps.com,
and eliminate trips to the Post Office forever!
Sign up at http://www.stamps.com/freeoffer and receive our special
introductory offer. Try it risk free today!

This is an unacceptable practice in my opinion. Aol.com got in trouble for doing the exact same. Spamming emails with a footer to free email customers. They certaintly dont do it anymore.

And by the way. its very possible to invoke the zc notification system to email the customers.

I made it happen and here is a screen shot- please note this is not with the stamps.com module but another that auto posted to the customer order detail and notified the customer..
Simple flag under customer notify
-1 hide from customer
0 post to order but do not notify customer
1 post to order and notify customer.

Hi Robert,

I am sorry for any frustration that I may have caused. It is certainly not our intention to block merchants from emailing from within Zen Cart as opposed to Stamps.com.

I understand your frustrations with our email system and I will pass on your comments about the included email ad to management. Please note that this email notification feature is simply an option for our customers to use and is not something that is required.

Thanks,
Chuck
Stamps.com

Robert,

If you look at the almost daily updates to the Stamps.com ecommerce package, you'll see that nearly all changes are to the Magento files and very few changes to the zen-cart files which shows where the programming resources are being directed.

I don't have a problem with the Stamps.com email notices vs from within Zen-cart. I do have issue with Stamps.com was SPAMMING our customers with their adverts. I had assumed that the notices were clones of the USPS notifications.

Just beware that the communication with the application once installed on your computer with your store is horrible. Once you have an order placed it can take several hours for the order to be imported into the stamps.com application so you can print the shipping label!

There is absolutely no excuse for this and I have called several times about this and every time they give me the same answer that it may take up to 2 hours for the order to be imported into your application. I told them there is absolutely no reason why this shouldn't be real time and their basic attitude is oh well we are sorry.

I have told them that it is very important for me to give my customers timely service and they obviously could care less because this has been going on for over 6 months.

nohart,

I've passed your concerns to management regarding faster import times. Currently, this delay is due to technical limitations of how the import works. We recognize the preference to cut the delay down to allow for real time imports and hope to decrease this delay as much as possible in a future release.

Thanks!
Chuck
Stamps.com