UPS Address Book Problems

[davidroth]

Ok, I've been messing around with this for awhile and can't seem to figure it out. I use UPS Online (I would use worldship, but I need to have access from a few locations and this seems like the best solution) and I can't figure out how to export data from Shopsite 7.1 and then import it into UPS address book.

I can figure out how to export the orders into the required CSV file, but it doesn't seem to be in the right format in order to import it back into UPS's system. Can anyone help>??

[Billg]

We were having the same problem. Started out with about 10 orders a day and wasn't much of a problem, just a lot of rekeying info into a bunch of different places. We've got to about 40-60 orders a day and it became a huge problem. At which point we talked to UPS and they sent one of their computer tech reps out and for no charge, he set us up with a download from Shopsite into Worldship. This makes everything a whole lot easier! It allows us to access the address book from all the shipping stations and pull the info up by using the order number from Shopsite as the reference number. It also helps standardize our entire ordering system so one number is followed all the way through UPS, Point of Sale and Status Board. If you'd like some more info, I'll be glad to help you as much as I can. Since I didn't set the program up, my knowledge would be limited. It is a true benefit, it takes approx 10 minutes to upload and download everything with no human error (like keying the wrong address or name in) Bill G.

[Jeff]

we talked to UPS and they sent one of their computer tech reps out and for no charge, he set us up with a download from Shopsite into Worldship. Bill G.

Wow, recently we had a sudden problem with our site's UPS order tracking. UPS made some changes that took out tracking at thousands of websites. We couldn't get thru to a tech except by email. I was told their in-house techs/programmers only work by email (and we're a fairly good sized UPS user) They did correct the problem in about two days.

I didn't know UPS had computer reps you could actually meet with.

[Billg]

I didn't know UPS had computer reps you could actually meet with.

Jeff, every UPS account has an account Rep and this is who you have to go through to get someone come out. You have to justify to them that it's in their best interest to send someone out. I was just as surprised as you are that they said they'd send someone out to evaluate our system for us. The problem started with us as I stated above as we started increasing the number of orders per day. We had to go to a warehouse which was a remote location from where we are now and requested assistance from UPS to see if they had a program to allow us to input the addresses from one location to both sites. There was some discussion about several different softwares they had available for multiple sites that would possible resolve the issue. They asked me to review them and when I came back with technical questions about it they recommended that one of their field tech reps come out and talk to us and review our system. (I was shocked like you - the only people who dealt with the UPS software were the geeks on the phone who have been limited in their knowledge). The guy came out and spent about 4 hours with us and got a feel for how our business operated and what we were looking for. He recommended some modifications to the way Worldship was set up, mapping the information that we download from Shopsite into a text file that could be accessed from all remote shipping stations (through VPN at the warehouse). He also provided one other script program which has been extremely useful in tracking packages when a customer has a question of where their package is. If you call UPS and ask them to come out a provide this modification I'd say most likely they'd refuse if this is just the total request. But if this a solution as it was in our case, and takes minimal time to implement (which it did) they see it as helping their bottom line. For your reference, their field rep that I was talking to, indicated that if you're not a multi million dollar corportation, which he normally worked on, you probably wouldn't see him. We lucked out or this is UPS Customer Service at their best - helping us out with our problem.

[Jeff]

I see that you sell guns and ammo. Maybe that's the key to getting real computer help from UPS

When we set up UPS online order tracking from our site about 4 years ago I had to do it using their online instructions which were quite deficient and in some cases, erroneous. It drove me crazy because I knew an experienced UPS tech could get the thing working in 15 minutes. I wasted 3 days! No matter how much I pleaded with their tech support phone people (who know almost nothing) they wouldn't put me thru to the next level up.

Same thing a few weeks ago when their tracking system went down for two days.

We did call our rep who said that email was the only way to reach them.

That of course is ----. The key to getting anything you want from UPS is to threaten to switch to another shipper which we probably should do anyway.

QUESTION: Did you look into Stoneedge? Would it do what you wanted? (albeit at higher cost)