USPS shipping cost using Shopsite 9.02 stopped showing rates

[MServitus]

I am using Shopsite 9.02's USPS feature to draw shipping costs from USPS. All worked fine until about March 3 (2 days ago). At that point the lowest cost shipping level ( First Class) stopped appearing for my customers. The next higher cost service ( Priority) is now the cheapest they see. This makes a significant difference for our customers placing smaller orders.

I have tried Unclicking the First class shipping choice under USPS, saving the configuration, then placing an order. (no change ). ReClick the FIRST class option, save it. Place another order, FIRST class still doesn't appear. If I unclick the Priority option, save it. Open a new browser ( Internet Explorer still has a useful function) and place an order, I again am MISSING the FIRST class option but the PRIORITY option is still there and a valid rate shows based on the weight of the item I just ordered. Even though it is currently UNchecked as an optional shipping rate to be used.
Then Reclick both the FIRST and Priority class, place a new order, and Priority is again the lowest cost that appears.

Is this a USPS problem.?
Are other shopsite users seeing it??
Is it a shop site problem.???

thanks for your educated opinions.

[loren_d_c]

Does the weight of your product (or the combined weights of products in the cart) come to more than 13 ounces? If so, it looks like First Class would not be an option for you:

http://www.usps.com/rates/first-class-mail-rates.htm

Also, if you setup any special container options for the product, these may not be applicable to First Class mail either.

Also check your Commerce Setup -> Shipping -> Configure (next to the USPS option) and make sure that your Minimum Order Weight setting isn't over 13 ounces, and if your products have no weight or a weight of 0 set, then make sure your 'Use minimum product weight' setting on this same menu isn't over 13 ounces.

Note that in ShopSite weights are entered in pounds and fraction of pounds as a decimal number, so 16 ounces would be entered as '1' in ShopSite, 24 ounces would be '1.5', 12 ounces would be '.75', etc.

-Loren

[MServitus]

Loren.. thanks for your typically thorough and detailed response.
Since you did not mention a shopsite known problem, I assume there is none.
Weight of items involved are less that cutoff out of First class ( 13 oz).
and there are no special container options used.
Minimum order weight field under USPS config is Uncheck and value field is empty.
The Minimum weight for products with no weight recorded is .03 ( we less light stuff)
It's also interesting that the display I see when placing an orders show the intended USPS rates OUT OF order.
They should say:
-------------
First class Mail 4.50
Priority Mail 8.10
Express Mail PO to PO 17.35
Express Mail 19.75
------
But it actually says:
------------------
Priority Mail 8.10
Express Mail PO to PO 17.35
First-Class Mail 16.45
Express Mail 19.75
---------------------------
Notice that First Class DOES appear, but it is too far down the line and
is shown with a price that is way to high. It is as if somebody's code is swapping some data around

Thanks again Loren for the analysis. I hope I answered all you possibilities. What's next.??? Is there any way to step around Shopsite and query USPS more directly to see if they are putting out good data.??
Or what other trick do you have up that long and experienced sleeve of yours.

Thanks.

[MServitus]

Here is what the US Post office said.

Dear USPS Customer,

There should not have been any interruption. Please contact your shopping cart provider to reset the configuration.


Todd
USPS Internet Customer Care Center
icustomercare@usps.com

As our customer, your privacy is important to us. Please see our privacy policy at www.usps.com
---------------------------------

[MServitus]

We have been using manual shipping estimates for several days now and our customers seem to be happy. When we started using USPS based rates 2 months ago we pushed our customer's shipping cost up about 25% from our older estimates. Being forced by this software failure to drop back to the cheaper shipping costs seems to have coincided with a small increase in day to day sales.
That has been interesting information in itself.
And I'm very glad I maintained and CONTINUED TO UPDATE the manual shipping cost estimates. If I had deleted ( or stopped updating) that stuff, I would be tremendously screwed now.

I would again like to pose the questions.....
Have any other Shopsite users seen similar behavior.??
With this or other shipping price modules.??
Or with shipping modules from other vendors.??

Thanks.

[MServitus]

I have been notified by Shopsite that they will be issuing a fix to this problem involving a change with Post Office output.

[MServitus]

Thanks to shopsite for taking care of this promptly. If only other companies acted this way...

M.