Not sure if this is a problem with the USPS Plugin or USPS Webtools

-- url of the page with the problem -- : www.eutopiantrader.com
-- HikaShop version -- : 3.2
-- Joomla version -- : 3.7.5

When selecting Shipping Class or Priority Mail (not express) and selecting Flat Rate Padded Envelope, the rate being returned is the rate for Priority Mail Express 2nd Day which according to the plugin there isn't even a choice for that in the US, However, I can assure you there is, and that is the rate being returned which is not good, especially since it's almost 3 times more expensive.

The rate being returned is for Priority Mail Express 2-Day™ Flat Rate Envelope, when I have it set for Priority Mail, Flat Rate Padded Envelope. This is a huge problem for me, so to head this off, I also opened an issue with USPS to see what may have changed on their side because this was working perfectly about 2 weeks ago when I last tested this.

If anyone has any thoughts please let me know. Thanks.

Hello,

The Hikashop USPS shipping plugin is only :
- Sending information about your order to the USPS shipping platform
- Receiving and displaying shipping rates returned from the USPS platform.

So the only solution will maybe be to adapt the configuration of your USPS shipping method

Hi Mohamed,

I am not entirely sure how or where to begin for this or why all of a sudden it started returning the Priority Express rates when requesting Priority Mail.

If this is a problem with webtools then someone needs to open a further issue with USPS, however, it sounds to me that the plugin needs to specify the postage class to be specifically requesting Priority Mail and NOT priority express. This needs to be fixed one way or another and someone needs to find out why this is happening. Since I dont know what call is being sent to USPS when Priority Mail Padded Flat Rate Envelope is setup in the Plugin, I am not the one to have that conversation with USPS, one way this need to be fixed as this is has now cause people to avoid my site because the shipping is always coming back way too high.

Again is was working right and now it's not. I suspect something has changed when the way USPS is returning the rates that the developer of the plugin now needs to make changes for in the plugin.

I think that someone needs to take this seriously enough to do some extra work to get this resolved. With paying for the Business License as well as the Developer License, we need someone to really work with us on this.

Thanks

Hello,

Again is was working right and now it's not. I suspect something has changed when the way USPS is returning the rates that the developer of the plugin now needs to make changes for in the plugin.

Can you tell us which changes did you made on your website before it started to work like this ?

You'll probably need more information about your issue, and the best solution will be to directly :
- Enable the "Debug" option of your USPS shipping configuration page
- Try it again and check in the comments of your Checkout workflow's HTML code ("f12") to directly see the code sent to the USPS platform
- Show it to us or the USPS platform so that we can check something is not right.

Hi Mohamed,

We had a general site issue and had to use a back up copy of some of the CSS files, other then that, no changes were made to the site which precipitated this problem. In fact, I can only attribute time to being the only change, meaning I had not tested this for about 2 weeks and now that I have, something is very wrong.

As for turning on debug in the plugin, I am unsure how exactly to do this. There is no option within the USPS Plugin to turn on debug. I can turn debug on in the Global Configuration, however, when I tried that, the site failed to load any pages, so I am not doing that again.

I would like to suggest that you provide me a way to send you guys login credentials and you can get the debug your looking for. I have no clue how else to get you what you want. I am not turning debug on again in the global config due to the problems it caused and there is nothing in the plugin about debug.so I am not sure what to turn on there, and I have just spent a couple hours looking into this, and I am sure if you login you will be able to get the information you are looking for in far less time then it will take me to sit here and keep blindly looking around.

Please advise, because I really dont know how to move forward on this with what I am capable of. I have no problems providing a login, but I need the help. Thanks.

Hello,

As for turning on debug in the plugin, I am unsure how exactly to do this. There is no option within the USPS Plugin to turn on debug. I can turn debug on in the Global Configuration, however, when I tried that, the site failed to load any pages, so I am not doing that again.

You should actually see it through the USPS shipping configuration page via "Hikashop->System->Shipping methods". If you don't, you can aso download the last Hikashop version through our website, install it and test it again.

You can eventually send us a temporary back-end access through our contact form but we won't be able to do more because the plugin is actually only

Hi Mohamed,

I definitely do not have the debug option in my version, however, you mentioned grabbing the latest hikashop version from your site, but since I am not comfortable installing an untested full package on my site and don't want to add more possible confusion to the problem, it is possible to just install the USPS Plugin that has the debug switch? I would be very cool with doing that, but installing a new version of Hikashop, I don't really want to go down that road unless I truly don't have any other choice.

Thanks

Hello,

Ok so can you send us a temporary access to your back-end so that we can directly test it on your end, and at least give you the code that is sent to the USPS shipping platform ?

You can send it through our contact form, also don't forget to specify a link to that thread in your message :
www.hikashop.com/support/contact-us

Thank you.

Mohamed,

Thank you very much. I will do my best get this out to your tonight or tomorrow. Sadly, I am down and in the hospital since Sunday evening, and likely will not get released for a few more days, but i have my laptop and will try to set this up for you.

Also please note we did install HikaShop 3.2.1 but I still do now show a debug switch and i don't know why. Perhaps you can assisted with that as well.

Ill create your account, login and details and sent it to the link provided.

Thanks

Hi Guys,

I just wanted to update you that I have not forgotten about this issue. Unfortunately I was hospitalized for 11 days and just returned home just the other day.so I was not able to followup on this with you guys. We are currently running HikaShop 3.2.1 and since the debug switch is still not there, I am going to create you a login and sending it to you via the link you provided.

I look forward to seeing and learning what you find out regarding this issue.

Cheers (PS - login credentials sent. and I look forward to your feedback)

PSS - Oddly enough I haven't tested this since before I went into the hospital and the HikaShop 3.2.1 as installed, and now for some reason, I can't get any of the Postage Classes to properly work as everything comes back with "No shipping method found" which makes no sense because the way they are configured something should show up.

To get the First Class Parcel to display you only need to add 1-2 items to your cart (use the pocket knives for your tests) and to trigger the Priority Mail add 3-5 pocket knives to your cart.

I am not sure what changed that none of the classes are working for me right now, but I suspect it's all related.

Let me know how I can help.

Thanks very much!

John

Hello John,

I hope you are doing well, I just tested it on your website and in fact I had a "No shipping method found" error message, can you also give us access to your Hikashop configuration page so that we can at least test it with different configuration ?

Thank you.

Hi Mohamed,

Thank you for the well wishes, unfortunately, I have a long road of recovery ahead of me as I have a very dangerous condition going on that they are not sure of the cause, but it is affecting 2 vertebrae and even after a very painful bone biopsy, they are not sure of the root cause. For me, that is the scariest part since they made it clear that had this gone to my brain, the survival rate is next to none! But, I am a cat and have 9 lives, and I am not ready to go anywhere anytime soon! ..... But enough about me.....

I have gone ahead and given you superuser access so that you can have a look at the config, I just pray that this is not something as simple as a messed up configuration on my part, however, when I first opened this issue, I was able to get the Postage rates to display with the exception of the wrong Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope, and Prior to that, I was able to get the Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope just fine.
rI am just baffled why with no changes from my end that I am aware of why things have started to fail.

Again, I thank you very much for the concern and I will keep fighting until I am back 100%. It is completely possible that the "no shipping method" error may have been something I introduced by mistake, but I can't see what that could be, however, the wrong postage rate for the Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope is certainly nothing I had any hand in it returning incorrectly.

Please let me know if there is anything I can do to help, or if there is a time frame you would like me to be online to help or if there is anything else you may need me to assist with as I would love to understand the problem and get this resolved.

I also noticed another issue that seems new I just saw tonight, when updating the number of products in the shopping cart which should cause a refresh of the dimensions where it should see that the weight has increased and that it should now show the appropriate shipping options for the new weight, well, that is not happening.

My test tonight managed to (and I don't know why) now show the appropriate First Class Postage instead of showing "No Shipping Method Found"
now was able to show the proper First Class Postage, but when I increased the quantity to a weight that should no longer show First Class as an available Postage, it is still showing First Class but not showing the Priority Mail.

I don't know my friend, but the USPS Shipping Plugin just seems to do what it wants when it wants. I just don't understand it. There never seems to be any rhyme or reason for when a Postage Rate displays and it's like a crap shoot if it displays the proper one. I am at a total and complete loss.

I have no doubt that you will be able to figure out what is going on, and I am thankful for your help. After everything I have been thought the last 2 weeks, I just don't have the energy to understand why it seems so erratic as to what is displayed.

Thank you Mohamed, I greatly appreciate all your help here, and again, you should have all the privileges you need, but should you need any additional help, please let me know, and as soon as I am able to get back online, I will do anything I can to help you figure this out as the site just can not service customers until this is corrected since USPS is the only way I ship my products, and sadly, all my customers have been avoiding using the site causing me to continue to manually process all sales. While this is not a problem for them since this is what they are familiar with and they know that I will go out of my way to process their orders personally, it's the personal level of Customer Service that I will always provide, but it is turning new customers away.

Many thanks again my friend! Cheers!

John

Hello John !

We are wishing you a speed recovery regarding your condition !

My test tonight managed to (and I don't know why) now show the appropriate First Class Postage instead of showing "No Shipping Method Found"
now was able to show the proper First Class Postage, but when I increased the quantity to a weight that should no longer show First Class as an available Postage, it is still showing First Class but not showing the Priority Mail.

I don't know my friend, but the USPS Shipping Plugin just seems to do what it wants when it wants. I just don't understand it. There never seems to be any rhyme or reason for when a Postage Rate displays and it's like a crap shoot if it displays the proper one. I am at a total and complete loss.

It's maybe coming from a cache issue, can you test it with your browser cache cleared and if possible without any cache enabled :
Disable the cache in Joomla configuration. Site -> global configuration -> system -> "Cache settings". If enabled, please disable the joomla cache plugin.
Check your template options for a potential cache option and disable it.
Some hosting companies use caching proxies like Varnish or CDNs which can potentially be configured to cache your pages. So please contact your hosting company to see with them if they do for your website/server and if it can be deactivated.


I just tested it through your website and it seems to be working pretty fine, also I :
- Installed the last USPS shipping version
- Enabled the "Debug" mode option that you can now see through your USPS configuration page and it's correctly displaying the information sent to the USPS shipping platform

You can check it through the code of your Checkout workflow's HTML code ("f12") for more information.

Hi Mohamed,

Everyone's well wishes mean a lot to me as this is a very difficult time. Because things are where they are, it may take me a bit to run through your suggestions, make the appropriate changes and get back to you with a detailed response. As soon as I have the energy and clear thoughts, I will get everything taken care of. For right now, since you have had a chance to look at things, I will be turning on Catalog Mode until I have the ability to make the changes and report back to you guys via this thread.

Again, I really appreciate everyone's concerns, and I also hope for that speedy recovery, sadly it seems like it's so far away, but I am following the Doctors orders, and hope I can get back to 100%!

Thank you very much!
Cheers!

John

Hey Mohamed,

I just wanted to give you a quick update. I was able to run a couple tests tonight (certainly not the final tests nor enough to say if the issue is fixed or not) and was able to see that with the new version of the plugin, the correct responses from USPS are being received. I was able to get the correct returns even without turning off the caching.

This is leading me to believe that it's possible that we had the wrong plugin version as if I recall correctly, the version of the plugin in 3.2.x was supposed to correct an issue where the wrong postage rates were being returned (based on the release notes) and when you installed the version that has the Debug switch, we actually got this corrected version. Some how we must not have gotten the correct plugin when we updated the HikaShop release which was said to correct this problem.

I want to run many more tests to ensure that this is the case, but right now, we are getting the correct rates without any changes other then you installing the latest plugin.

I will keep you updates, unfortunately I am still in too much pain to be able to continue my testing for tonight, but will try again tomorrow, and if not tomorrow, I will update you as to when you should expect another reply from me.

Again, thank you very much for your time on this, this issue is extremely important to me, and with out it, my site just can not be used, so I appreciate you taking this seriously, and giving it the priority it needed. I should have an update for you very soon!

Thank you, Cheers!

John

Hello John,

Thank you for your feedback !

Best regards,
Mohamed.

Hey Mohamed,

I forgot to ask the simplest and dumbest question about this I have asked to date... Where exactly do I find the debug when the switch is turned on? Unfortunately the help doesn't even mention the debug switch and there is no help on a mouse over of the Debug option. Being that all the debug that I know about is when you turn the global debug switch on which show you the classes when using the front end site (I may have described that a little wrong but I am sure you know what I am referring too). If you could let me know where to find this, I would be very appreciative.

And thus far, things seem to be still working correctly, so I am pretty sure my problem was that the version of plugin that had the issue with the wrong rates being returned which was fixed in the 3.2 version, but for some reason we didn't get that version when we upgraded. Since you manually installed the version containing this bug fix, I am sure that is what fixed the issue. I still want to confirm that the correct calls are being sent but not knowing where to find the debug, I am not able to prove that hunch

Much appreciated,

Cheers,
John

Hello John,

You'll have to directly :
- Enable the "Debug" option of your USPS shipping configuration page
- Proceed to checkout and check the HTML code of your Checkout workflow page HTML code ("f12") to directly see the code sent to the USPS platform
- Show it to us or the USPS platform so that we can check if something is not right.

You'll see attached a screenshots of an example of USPS request data.

Kind regards,
Mohamed Thelji.

Hey Mohamed,

Thanks for the reply and sorry for no follow up on my end. After I was home from the hospital for a few days, I was having a ton of pain again, and was admitted back to the hospital as the problem I was here for over 3 weeks ago has gotten worse, so now I am back in the hospital for an indeterminate amount of time, and likely will be 2 - 3 weeks so I have not even had a chance to have another look into this issue. Your reply was what I was looking for so you answered my questions

Once I get out of here and I am on the mend, I will be able to get things working again, get the site back operational, and get a bunch of testing done to see if this is still an issue. Though I am pretty sure that we just had an older version of the USPS plugin for some reason which did not have the fixes that were put in to the HikaShop 3.2 release since the release notes state that that version had a fix for incorrect rates being returned, and it seemed from the tests I did get in that once you manually installed the version that included the debug options, the problem seemed to have gone away, but my tests for that were very basic and no where near enough to make any claims that the problem is truly fixed right now.

I will surely get you an update once I am free from this hospital bed.

Cheers and Thank you!

John