US Post Service 1st Class International rate missing

[MServitus]

Until around May 15, our international customers were given the choice of International First Class mail, as well as priority and international express.
At about that date, the First Class option stopped being presented to our customers. Average international shipping cost went from $6 per order to $ 23 per order. And order volume dropped, and customer complaints started rolling in.
I examined my shopsite-provided USPS rate tool and found 1 st class checked. I unchecked it and priority ( leaving only Express) and that caused only "express" to be displayed to our customers.
I then re-checked Priority and 1st Class. This caused Priority to again appear along with Express. But NO 1st class.

I suspect the boys and girls at the Post Office might have exercised their right to alter their data stream at any time.
I have contacted them and been assured that the problem is not on their end.
Could this be a shopsite issue.??

MS.

[Jim]

USPS made changes to their naming conventions with the latest price increase. A ShopSite engineer is trying to verify what all changes were made so that we can fix ShopSite to use the new names. This may take a little while to get done but a fix will be released when it is ready.

[bookman]

any news on progress on this bug? the bug makes it virtually impossible to ship small orders outside the US.
tia
bob

[MServitus]

I got Shopsite to acknowledge that they needed to fix their software back on June 19.
I'm still waiting for the update on July 7.
I've stopped tracking my international sales drop. It's too depressing.

[bookman]

I am hosted at pair.com. When I contacted them, they got in touch with SS and the reply was that SS is working on a fix to be included with a 9.04 update.

Seems to me that this ought to be a high priority item, or are there only a couple of SS users that ship USPS international? Hard to believe that would be the case, but who knows?

bob

[ShopSite David]

ShopSite 9.0.4 has been released and this should resolve the USPS international issues that resulted from recent USPS changes.

[bookman]

Many thanks. I will be looking forward to the upgrade.

bob

[MServitus]

I got the new patch installed V-9.0.4.
Quickly checked out International shipping and was fairly satisfied.
International First Class was back...yeeee Hahh..

I had hoped to see an additional lower price international shipping option, but that wasn't there.
I did a few more tests. ( remembering to change the zip code or Mail code before clicking -Recalculate- ) and everything looked ok.
Next morning I downloaded orders and examined shipping choices.
I found that most U.S. customers showed PRIORITY shipping. Most usually select First Class.
I ran another test purchase and found that while the new fix gave me back International First Class, I lost FIRST CLASS within the USA. I suspect this is an intermittent failure, since I didn't see it during my first test.

I have spent the last few hours trying to coax the application into showing US First class. No luck.
I will continue looking for a cause, but in the mean time, I have switched back to manual shipping estimates.

[loren_d_c]

What are the weights of your items?

I doubt that the rules for International First Class are anything like the rules for 'domestic' First Class. In fact, going to the USPS's site at http://postcalc.usps.gov/ I can't get any First Class options unless I enter the weight of 13 ounces or less.

Perhaps the 'Parcel Post' or 'Media Mail' are the options you actually want, but you have to make sure those options are enabled in the USPS configuration menu in ShopSite if you want them to display in the cart.

-Loren

[bookman]

Well this is good news indeed. There is no longer any cheaper Intl mail unless you go to something like an M bag. The old surface mail is gone since mid May.

Please keep us posted on the domestic FCM. As loren says, this may simply be a weight question. As I recall, the max for FCM is 13 oz.

bob

[loren_d_c]

Also, for 'domestic' First Class, you may have to specify a package type that would be acceptable for First Class shipping, so if you have an item in your cart that is 13 ounces or less (.81 lbs or less, since you have to enter lbs in ShopSite) and you still don't see a First Class option for a US address, then first make sure you have the First Class option enabled in the 'USPS Domestic Services' section of the USPS configuration in ShopSite, and also check the product to make sure one of the qualifying First Class shipping container types (First Class Letter, Flat, or Parcel) are selected. Once you select the applicable container type for the product and save it, empty your cart and re-add this product to see if that does it.

-Loren

[bookman]

pair.com installed the patch for me so I could test.

I think the module is still broken.

I have a product that weighs 0.1 lb.

case 1) domestic 0.1 lb: I do not receive any FCM value. For Priority mailed to myself (same ZIP) the cost is $5.04 but on the USPS site the cost is $4.80, the correct value

case 2) ship to Canada 0.1 lb: FCM is $1.66 USPS calculates $1.42 and for Priority cost is $17.24 USPS calculates $17.00

I did not try UK as it is obvious that the SS calculated values are wrong. A further check shows that the values are always off by $0.24???

In my shipping setup I have "Use minimum order weight" checked with value of 0.1 lb and "Use minimum product weight" checked with value of 0.1 lb.

[Jim]

What Shipping Container: and/or Shipping Dimensions: do you have set for the product in ShopSite.

Note that ShopSite is not calculating the rates, they are the rates that USPS is returning based on the package type, weight configured for the product and the destination that is specified in the cart.

[bookman]

My bad. I had the handling charge checked at 2% which added $0.24 since the value of the order is $12.00.

Still no FCM however but at least the other values are correct.

bob

[Jim]

Have you selected a First class shipping container in the Edit Product area? There were new container types added in the upgrade that must be selected so that ShopSite knows what rate to request from USPS. The options are First Class Letter, First Class Flat and First Class Parcel.