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Drew Kerrigan
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UPS Shipping API not pulling Negotiated Rates

Jun 21, 2012 5:29 PM

Tags: #shipping #ups #troubleshooting_ecommerce

I'm having a problem with the shipping options on my eCommerce BC site.

 

To give you a bit of background: my company has negotiated shipping rates with UPS that are tied to our account on UPS.com.  I've created several test shipments on UPS.com to check my rates and have verified that I am pulling the negotiated values.  UPS.com also gave us a unique API Key that is tied to our account for use with BC.

 

However, even after inputting my UPS Account ID/Pass and API Key into BC, the shipping rates in BC continue to show up as approximately $5.00 higher than my negotiated rates.  For example, a one pound shipment from 33549 to 90210 with my negotiated rate is supposed to be $9.17, but Business Catalyst shows the shipping cost as $14.16.

 

The website in question is http://cleangreenwarehouse.worldsecuresystems.com/.  On the home page, add any of the products listed in the "Warehouse Manager's Daily Special Offers" to the shopping cart (I've made the four products in this section weigh 1 LBS each for testing purposes).  Then click the "Checkout" button to navigate to the shopping cart.  Once there, select UPS Ground as your shipping option (With "Address is residential" selected) and select 90210 as the ZIP Code.  You'll see that the shipping cost comes to $14.16, when it should be $9.17.

 

Why is BC not pulling the proper rates?  There has to be a way to make this work, it would be a giant downfall of the CMS otherwise.

1854 Views   12 Replies   Latest reply: VillageBCS, Oct 25, 2012 12:53 PM
 
Replies
  • Sidney Mitchell
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    1. Sidney Mitchell,
    Jun 22, 2012 11:23 AM   in reply to Drew Kerrigan
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    Hi,

     

    If you haven't done so already please log a case with BC support instead so we can review the discrepancy of the rates. 

     

    Provide your post details and we'll confirm the issue.

     

    Admin -> help&support (to log a case)

     

    Kind regards,

    -Sidney

     
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  • Drew Kerrigan
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    2. Drew Kerrigan,
    Jun 25, 2012 2:41 PM   in reply to Sidney Mitchell
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    Case Number: 0183346375

     

    Sidney, I had already submitted a ticket.  The Support team closed it out without even speaking to me.  They responded by email with:

    At this moment we don’t offer negotiated rates option for any integrated shipping option

    The only workaround will be to use user defined shipping option and set the price to be appropriated with your UPS negotiated prices

    This is not an acceptable solution for my eCommerce site.  We sell Green Cleaning products and 95% of the products on our website are liquids.  As such, every order placed by a customer will have a variable weight and will be shipped to residences across the United States.  It would literally be impossible to setup user defined shipping options to cover all the possible weight and location combinations.

     

    My website HAS TO pull the negotiated rates from UPS or my BC Partnership was a complete waste of money.  This is something companies like Magento have been doing for years, and is not hard to implement.

     
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  • Drew Kerrigan
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    3. Drew Kerrigan,
    Jun 27, 2012 10:10 AM   in reply to Drew Kerrigan
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    I really need this problem fixed ASAP.  As a Business Catalyst partner, I've been pretty upset with the level of support I've received thus far.  Please look into my ticket & reopen the issue: this needs to be resolved immediately.

     
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  • Sidney Mitchell
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    4. Sidney Mitchell,
    Jun 27, 2012 11:55 AM   in reply to Drew Kerrigan
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    Hi Drew,

     

    Sorry to hear about your frustrations. 

     

    I've also reviewed the case which was escalated to second level per the response you've posted. 

     

    It doesn't look like we can offer more to this at this stage as it was also noted in the case that this will need to be an enhancement request and added to the wishlist. 

     

    I'm afraid that is all we can do at this time.

     

    Kind regards,

    -Sidney

     
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  • Drew Kerrigan
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    5. Drew Kerrigan,
    Jun 27, 2012 12:45 PM   in reply to Sidney Mitchell
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    You've got to be kidding me.  I didn't drop $2000+ on a BC Partnership to find out that you can't pull Shipping API's properly.

     

    CMS's like Magento (read the link, it gives instructions on how to implement the API properly) have been doing this for YEARS.

    2) Goto UPS.com and obtain an account, goto Business Solutions and search for Online Tools, follow the steps to obtain an access key.

    3) Goto Magento Admin → Configuration → Shipping Methods → UPS

    4) Key Settings:

    Enabled: Yes

    UPS type: United Parcel Service XML

    Access license number: YOUR ACCESS KEY

    Password: Your UPS Account Password

    UserId: Your UPS User ID

    Gateway XML URL: https://onlinetools.ups.com/ups.app/xml/Rate

    Shipper Number: Your Shipping Number (6 Digits)

    Tracking XML URL: https://onlinetools.ups.com/ups.app/xml/Track

     

    As you can see, the piece to the puzzle you are missing in the system is the "Shipper Number".  This is a unique 6 digit key given to all UPS account holders.  Add it to the system so that we can begin pulling proper rates.  For crying out loud, manually add it to my XML file if need be (since I have no control over it).

     

    But don't tell me it's not possible, because that is a flat out lie.  If you guys fail to provide me with a valid option to solve this problem, I"m going to persue obtaining a refund for my BC Partnership.

     
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  • nancr
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    6. nancr,
    Jul 25, 2012 10:29 PM   in reply to Drew Kerrigan
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    Drew,

    Did you get resolution on this Ups issue?  I am in the same boat and am waiting for a response  from support.  They bumped it to second level.

    I need to pull in declared value, pickup charge plus fuel surcharge. 

    I would like to hear what you have learned.  Please let me know.  Thanks.

     

    Nancy

     
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  • upsers
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    7. upsers,
    Oct 11, 2012 6:38 PM   in reply to nancr
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    Okay it is now Oct.  has anyone found a work around???

     
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  • upsers
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    8. upsers,
    Oct 11, 2012 7:54 PM   in reply to nancr
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    I followed he url and he isnt using ups anymore and may have turned to a manual or flat rate...

     
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  • upsers
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    9. upsers,
    Oct 13, 2012 2:34 PM   in reply to Sidney Mitchell
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    Is anyone addressing this issue?  I have a million dollar customer that is having an issue with this...

     
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  • upsers
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    10. upsers,
    Oct 17, 2012 3:24 PM   in reply to Sidney Mitchell
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    is anyone working on this? how many times must one ask for a very simple yes or know...

     
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  • mario_gudelj
    1,579 posts
    Oct 13, 2010
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    11. mario_gudelj,
    Oct 22, 2012 10:30 PM   in reply to upsers
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    No, no one is working on the improved API for UPS. It's not on the immediate roadmap.

     

    -m

     
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  • VillageBCS
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    12. VillageBCS,
    Oct 25, 2012 12:53 PM   in reply to mario_gudelj
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    After reading the issues with the UPS negotiated shipping rates.  I wanted to let everyone know my thoughts...

     

    I recently retired from UPS after 25 years of service and have been designing small ecommerce sites since 1997.

     

    As an everyday shipper or customer of UPS... you the shipper are receiving a discount for using UPS (not your customer).

     

    UPS charges you a daily pickup charge based on your weekly volume.  The discount should be used by you to help cover the expenses of using UPS and purchasing adequate packaging supply's.

     

    If your concerned about losing orders since the rates are higher... then maybe a $5 off shipping promo would be the answer.

     

    Best of Luck and Thank you for using UPS

     
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