USPS Server Meltdown

m2pc writes "The US Postal Service is experiencing major server issues for its shipping API web services. After spending about an hour debugging my own eCommerce software for a client, I found the problem was with the USPS shipping servers being unavailable. Further research showed that message boards for OS Commerce and other e-Commerce packages are filling with posts from angry users who are experiencing crashing Web store applications and frustrated customers. Developers are scrambling to find interim solutions, from hard-coding fixed price shipping, to 'rolling their own' shipping calculation APIs based on the USPS Fixed Rate Zone Tables, to disabling the USPS option altogether. One user reported yesterday that a call to USPS yielded the response 'we expect it to be down all day.' As of 9:20 AM PST the service is still unavailable."

Re:That's what you get....

[tekiegreg]

Really, you'd think someone in the apparently non-existent risk management departments would ask "what if the USPS Servers went down?" Hopefully the answer wasn't simply "we're screwed."

In any third party connection for an application I've built, I typically consider the implications of such web service/outside API going down, even if I label it "non vital, don't worry about it" to "have a backup plan". Oh well, no sympathies here

Re:What can Brown do for you?

[HeavyD14]

No kidding. UPS *is* up and running, while USPS *is not*. Therfore, Brown can provide a web service.

Re:Crashing Web store applications?

[Frosty Piss]

osCommerce is well know to be a bowl of spaghetti code and in general a P.O.S. Zen Cart forked a long time ago and did a complete code re-write. osCommerce continues to keep their heads up their asses, and only a fool doesn't look for alternatives at the earliest opertunity.

Same here

[Rorschach1]

I came in yesterday morning to find the USPS module non-functional. Worse, the only working option was DHL overnight - and in case you've missed the news, DHL is now about an order of magnitude worse than the post office for domestic delivery. Even for places they say they can do next-day delivery to, actual delivery can take more than a week.

Why? Because they hand it off to the post office rather than deliver it themselves. Why it takes the post office a week to deliver it when I can get it there in two days by sending it by priority mail myself is a mystery. In any case, DHL's out of the (US) domestic game entirely next month.

My site was up last time I checked, but if the USPS option goes down again, I think it's time for a 'free economy shipping' promotion. No messy rate tables to deal with!

Re:Healthcare?

[Capybara]

UPS and FedEx can't, because it's illegal [aei.org].

Re:That's what you get... for not using FedEx

[Yez70]

It doesn't take a brain surgeon to look at a postal rate schedule - the postal service does provide them for all shipping services with clearly marked zones to figure out how much to pay for postage.

Re:Crashing Web store applications?

[Cyrcyr]

There is almost no end to how true parent is. I was tasked by a friend to find a solid, open source webshop for him (a startup clothing business), and while (admittedly lazy) browsing around, I found that osCommerce was well used so I assumed this was a good idea, and recommended it to him. Not a day later he called me up again to help him out with adding a few plugins (very simple things as well, and also quite popular). I assumed this was because he didn't know php very well, so I said sure, but when I started going through the plugins, how to implement them, I realized how horribly they clash with eachother, and how extremely unmodular the whole software is. The original code is a mess, and any attempt to make it modular has made it an even bigger pile of spaghetti than it originally was. A good example of this is how the plugins are documented; "Add between "IF" on line x and ". I'm amazed it's popular at all. Now, I realize there are alot of good open source applications out there, and I've had the pleasure to being a part of a few really well written pieces as well, but am I the only one who thinks that alot of popular open source projects are stinking piles of crap? Another good example of this is phpBB, suffering from the exact same issues as osCommerce; very poor modularity and messy code. I'm a strong supporter of open source, but one has to realize that just because a project is open source, and has alot of users and contributors, this does in no way ensure that it is well written.

Re:That's what you get... for not using FedEx

[pauljlucas]

... [F]or FedEx, UPS, DHL, et. al. such an outage directly affects the health of the organization. If people can't calculate shipping rates, they can't ship, and if they don't ship, the company doesn't make money.

The same has been true with the USPS since 1970. Their entire budget is financed by people buying stamps and other services. They don't get a dime of taxpayer money.

Re:That's what you get... for not using FedEx

[rfunches]

The zones are clearly marked but determining which zone you are shipping to is not. They are based on distance from the originating ZIP Code so the application must use Postal Explorer to generate the zone chart ahead of time. (For now, it happens to be working.) And in the case of non-flat-rate Priority Mail, there's a huge price difference between zone 4 (zone and weight only) and zone 5 (zone and weight *OR* zone and size).

Re:Crashing Web store applications?

[seanadams.com]

Most e-commerce sites, including the ones I've built, have a multi-step process to place an order. If the step for shipping (or tax, etc.) failed, then the system would re-load the page with any appropriate messages and option changes. So, for example, if the third-party payment processing service didn't respond before a timeout the user would be asked to call customer service to complete their order. The sales rep could see the order in its incomplete state and finish it over the phone.

I would not consider that an acceptable failure mode. I think you overestimate the patience of the online shopper - you would lose a lot of sales making them jump through hoops like that. Not to mention, who are all these sales guys that you'll have on staff ready to take calls- are you going to pay them to sit there even while the web site is working?

Re:Sounds like fun.

[maxume]

You do realize that most of the routing of letters is done by computers, using OCR, right?

Re:USPS

[powerlord]

See Wikipedia.

Sure, but it would have been easier if you had provided a link at least.

The motto will also continue to be mistaken for the motto of the USPS so long as the USPS does nothing to correct that.

The motto is prominently carved over the U.S. General Post Office in NYC [wikipedia.org]

The building prominently bears the inscription: Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night stays these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds, which is frequently mistaken as an official motto of the United States Postal Service. It was actually supplied by William Mitchell Kendall of the firm of McKim, Mead & White, the architects who designed the Farley Building and the original Pennsylvania Station in the same Beaux-Arts style. The sentence is taken from Herodotus' Histories (Book 8, Ch. 98) and describes the faithful service of the Persian system of mounted postal messengers under Xerxes I of Persia. The USPS does not actually have an official motto or creed, but nonetheless the inscription on the building is often recognized as such. The inscription was carved by Ira Schnapp, who later designed the Action Comics logo and many other iconic logos for DC Comics.

and the USPS even used it in their own television spot [wikipedia.org] (albeit in an altered form):

The commercial, which ran after the September 11, 2001, attacks and the anthrax mailings, featured no voiceover, only the following text interspersed on title cards:
We are mothers and fathers. And sons and daughters. Who every day go about our lives with duty, honor and pride. And neither snow, nor rain, nor heat, nor gloom of night, nor the winds of change, nor a nation challenged, will stay us from the swift completion of our appointed rounds. Ever.[2]

Note that the [2] link in the above quoted Wikipedia article takes you to this page [usps.com] on the USPS site quoting the exact text of the tvspot.

Yes, they have no Motto, but considering how much they use the meme, they might as well have one.

Re:That's what you get....

[southlander]

Part of the issue is the USPS servers are not failing consistently. Sometimes they allow a connection and respond so slowly to requests that the ecommerce app. times out. Sometimes they allow no connections and return nothing. Sometimes they are simply returning shipping rates of 0.00. So any live "backup" would have to allow for all that, at least.

Re:That's what you get... for not using FedEx

[Jah-Wren Ryel]

The same has been true with the USPS since 1970. Their entire budget is financed by people buying stamps and other services. They don't get a dime of taxpayer money.

How did you ever get modded +5 informative with that load of bull?

The total funding for the Postal Service in the administration's 2005 budget is just over $61.7 million. [upi.com]

Appropriation, fiscal year 2004 $65,135,000 [congress.gov]
Appropriations, 1999 $100,195,000 [congress.gov]
etc, etc

USPS Server Meltdown

[USPSRateCalc]

Hey folks,

The shipping api is down, however the rate calculator is available. We provide the rate calculation engine to the folks that provide the shipping api. The shipping api offers numerous services and we are just one of them.

If you require domestic rates calculations, as received by ShippingAPI.dll, you can access our rate engine directly.

Accessing the rate calculator api is very similiar to how you access this functionality from the shipping api.

Getting started:

A simple demo site that will allow you to learn/test a subset the API:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/domSDK/SDKXMLtest.asp [usps.gov]

XML over HTTP Application access:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/SdkXml.aspx [usps.gov]

Documentation is available but I do not have a publically available site to post this on. If a site is available, just let me know and I will post the SDK documentation there.

Let me know if I can help.

Adrian Griffith
ManTech Information Systems & Technology
Project Manager, USPS Postal Explorer and Rate Calculators

[e-mail]