Ubercart

I just went to the USPS server and asked for the quotes again for the same zip codes. All shipping methods except Express mail are 2 days except for express mail where there is a link saying overnight to most areas. So I clicked on the link for and went through the commitment section and was told two day delivery if I took it to the PO tomorrow.

As I type, I am uploading beta 1 rev 748. Some work was done in these areas. I'll report back later on my testing.

Another small bug I'm noticing in IE 7 is when you fetch a shipping quote it doesn't show in the Order total preview until you left click the pane. It works fine in FireFox.

It's only a bug if Ubercart displays something other than what is in the reply from the USPS server. If the USPS says 2 days, then that's the answer.

From the perspective of customer relations, I agree it might be better to not present the transit times. For several reasons. First, if your customer gets guaranteed 1-day or 2-day, that obligates you to get the package out the door before the cutoff time. That might not be possible, especially if you've already had your pickup for the day! Second, as you've noted, different methods might have the same transit time, so the quoted time can be a little deceptive. (There are other reasons to choose Express though, like the tracking number and signature confirmation). It's easy enough to comment the transit times out and hardwire in an estimated transit time for each service. It probably would be better if the module had a checkbox which you could use to turn off the transit time quote.

I'm approaching this from the perspective of someone who had no hand in writing the uc_usps module. I've personally shipped almost 10,000 packages via USPS over the past 6 years - mostly Priority Mail but a large number of First Class, Parcel Post, and Express as well. From my point of view, seedseller's quote times of 2 days for Express, Priority, and Parcel between Monroe, WA and Milton Freewater, OR, seem perfectly reasonable. (I'm in WA too, and do a lot of business in OR, so I'm familiar with the transit times.) I often advise my customers in Oregon not to bother paying the extra for Priority or Express because it's not going to get there any faster. So from that perspective, it HELPS the customer , and they really APPRECIATE it, if they can avoid spending the money for Express and still get it in 2 days!

Perhaps the behavior of the shipping quotes is easier to understand when you read the USPS web services documentation: Express Mail is the *only* service USPS offers that has any sort of guaranteed delivery time. All other services are just *estimates*. To quote the web services docs, what they return in an XML request is:

Priority Mail®
"You get an average delivery standard for two- or three-day service."

Package Services
"Provides estimates on delivery between 3-digit ZIP Codes for Parcel Post, Bound Printed Matter, Library Mail and Media Mail."

Express Mail Service Commitments
"Receive our guaranteed commitment between any two 5-digit ZIP Code™ for Express Mail®."

<CommitmentTime> is returned empty from the USPS server - nothing Ubercart can do about that. I assume that's because USPS doesn't guarantee it by any specific hour.

Also, it appears that the USPS web site doesn't use the same quotes as the XML interface (I've known this for a while.) The only information on the USPS web site that is completely accurate is the Express Mail commitments you find by clicking through on the "overnight to most areas" link - clicking through gets you to a page where you enter more information and get the actual time which should agree with what Ubercart gets from an XML request. The times for Priority Mail and Parcel Post are average transit times, and don't take into account the hour of the day that you're getting the quote - they will return the same transit time whether you quote at 8am or 8pm. USPS only spends the extra CPU cycles to give you an accurate number for Express because they have a money back guarantee for that service.

What would you change about Ubercart, given that Ubercart is just reporting back what the USPS server says?