Is anyone successfully using Fedex as a shipping method and pulling rates from Fedex? Aside from the fact that it is a nightmare to figure out where to get your Authentication key, Meter number, etc. I just cannot seem to get Fedex to show an option at checkout. I do have UPS and USPS working in real time fine. Since we are changing to Fedex and we have started to use Smartpost we wanted to try to pull those rates directly from Fedex.
When I go in to the USPS settings I see where the following are shown…
Default destination (all countries) • Canada • USA (+)
…but I do not have an option to edit them. I am guessing they are left over from my upgrade.
On the Fedex settings I have tried Smartpost, Home and Ground but I cannot get them to show up as an option for customers.
I must admit, I know there are reasons why the shipping options were changed, but they are a pure nightmare trying to get set up or to add new settings.
It looks as if you have some existing “Manual Shipping” rate configured, or you are confusing the realtime & manual rate calculations types.
You should be setting up a “Realtime” shipping rates method for Fedex Ground.
[quote name=‘Struck’]It looks as if you have some existing “Manual Shipping” rate configured, or you are confusing the realtime & manual rate calculations types.
You should be setting up a “Realtime” shipping rates method for Fedex Ground.[/QUOTE]
Sorry, the image is from a manual setting for USPS flat rate envelopes and not from the Fedex one that I am trying to get to work. So I guess that is why it allows me to choose “destinations”. I was thinking maybe the fact that I did not see the “destinations” was why I could not see Fedex being offered on my site.
It is really strange. I finally figure out where to get all my information to allow our site to communicate with fedex in “realtime” but I just can’t seem to get the information to show up on the customer side of the website for customers to be able to choose. I have UPS realtime and USPS parcel post realtime live right now, but I cannot get Fedex realtime to work. I’ve tried on 3 different sites of 2.1.4 now. One was a virgin install from 2.1.3, another was upgraded by Snorocket from 1.3.5 sp4 and the last had to be a little more manual upgrade of the database by the alt-team. Not one of them will allow me to show real time Fedex rates to customers. So I must be doing something wrong.
I am still wondering if there is anyone that is using “real time” listings from Fedex? Most of what I could find in the forums about Fedex seems to point to people giving up on getting it live or just going with a manual setting. So I am curious if anyone has their website giving actual Fedex pricing to their customers?
Sorry Clips, can’t provide particulars for Fedex realtime setup as we switched back to UPS approx 8 months ago (we did use Fedex realtime rates thru CS-Cart prior without issue).
CS made some changes as of 2.1.3 to utilize the latest Fedex API thus now requires a bit more user account verification from Fedex as explained in the following (updated) KB article:
[url]CS-Cart Documentation — CS-Cart 4.15.x documentation
I will tell you that UPS has a superior Address Verification system in place with the capability to distinquish between Commercial vs Residential address types when returning rates, if that is important to you (it is very important to us).
Thanks for the info struck. I tried to use the kb page but still could not get it to work. I’m not for sure what I’ve screwed up. Since I couldn’t get it to work on any of our sites that is why I thought maybe the Fedex mod wasn’t working. Likewise you can’t really test the real time stuff on the demo cart from CS either.
I did see after looking through the forums now that some were making comments about how a customer was able to choose between the home and business side. That doesn’t sound like a very good idea. We may end up just using the UPS info and then shipping via Fedex. In the past 2 months we’ve been shipping quite a bit Smartpost so we were hoping to have that offered and listed on the site, but we can’t get that working either.
So here is what we (along with some help from Brandon) figured out so far. It actually ended up being 2 different issues.
- If you have “suppliers” activated then you must go to that supplier and “assign” the shipping method to each particular supplier. Since I created this method of shipping AFTER the upgrade, it would not work until I went back and assigned it to that particular “supplier” which was us.
–Many thanks to Brandon for figuring out this one.
- This error was on another site that did NOT have the suppliers active. In this case I did have the…
“Display product supplier company”
…and…
“Display shipping methods to each supplier separately”
…checked off but I did NOT have the…
“Enable suppliers functionality”
…so I figured by not having the “enable” checked that everything would work fine. Well it doesn’t. You have to uncheck all 3 fields (see image) in order to be able to add a new real time shipping method after you have upgraded. I’m not for sure if this was caused when I upgraded to 2.1.3 or 2.1.4.
In my mind I would call this a bug, but I’m not really for sure.
One thing is for sure, CS needs to add to it’s kb about how you MUST go to each supplier add the shipping method for that supplier or it will not work.
At this point I’m really not for sure I’m going to keep the “supplier” mod on. It is not at all what I thought it was. Live and learn.
Hi Jim,
There is the “Setting up the ‘Suppliers’ functionality” article of our Knowledge base ([url]CS-Cart Documentation — CS-Cart 4.15.x documentation) saying how to set up the “Suppliers” functionality with shipping methods.
[quote name=‘clips’]Sorry, the image is from a manual setting for USPS flat rate envelopes and not from the Fedex one that I am trying to get to work. So I guess that is why it allows me to choose “destinations”. I was thinking maybe the fact that I did not see the “destinations” was why I could not see Fedex being offered on my site.
It is really strange. I finally figure out where to get all my information to allow our site to communicate with fedex in “realtime” but I just can’t seem to get the information to show up on the customer side of the website for customers to be able to choose. I have UPS realtime and USPS parcel post realtime live right now, but I cannot get Fedex realtime to work. I’ve tried on 3 different sites of 2.1.4 now. One was a virgin install from 2.1.3, another was upgraded by Snorocket from 1.3.5 sp4 and the last had to be a little more manual upgrade of the database by the alt-team. Not one of them will allow me to show real time Fedex rates to customers. So I must be doing something wrong.
I am still wondering if there is anyone that is using “real time” listings from Fedex? Most of what I could find in the forums about Fedex seems to point to people giving up on getting it live or just going with a manual setting. So I am curious if anyone has their website giving actual Fedex pricing to their customers?[/QUOTE]
Clips can you give us some info on how you were able to get the Authentication Key and Authentication Password? Did you have to call FedEx
I have a new install of CS-Cart I can’t figure out and I have been holding off on an upgrade of an existing store just because of this issue.
I ended up calling Fedex to find out how to get this hooked up. Fedex pretty much makes it a nightmare trying to figure out where to go and what to put. With the help of their tech support (who also made fun of how difficult Fedex made it), I was able to get it live within a few minutes. So without a doubt, calling their tech support is a good idea and it doesn’t cost you anything more because Fedex will want you to use them.
Along the same line, we are not even using the Fedex account we set up. Because Fedex has the funky setting of “home” or “commercial” that a customer can choose, it became too easy for the customer to just say they were commercial when they were not. The UPS system is more advanced and seems to be able to recognize the commercial or residential without the customer having to choose or check something.
We are hoping that soon CS-Cart will have the “Smart Post” function fixed for Fedex and then at that point we will start using the realtime Fedex settings.
@CS-Cart Support team
I know your “supplier” mode is supposed to be more useful, but you made MAJOR changes on it from v1.3.5 and your changes just made it very confusing.
[quote name=‘clips’]
@CS-Cart Support team
I know your “supplier” mode is supposed to be more useful, but you made MAJOR changes on it from v1.3.5 and your changes just made it very confusing.[/QUOTE]
Hello clips,
Please clarify what exact changes are confusing you.
Thank you.
—
Mikhail Ponomarev
CS-Cart Support team
Sorry, since you guys wrote the program I assumed you would already know the difference. I would suggest you look back at 1.3.5 sp4 and you can easily tell the difference.
I found directions a kind soul named Jake posted on another cart software forum, but of course getting the Fedex info into our cart requires the same information. This is updated for the new Fedex API, I have used it with my cart and is working nicely.
Fedex API Instructions
[quote]I did some legwork and made a list of steps for signing up for a FedEx account and getting the FedEx Web Services Production access:
- go to FedEx | System Down and register to get a FedEx account
FedEx | System Down You need to be sure you are opening an account and not just obtaining a username
- once you have received your account number you need to login.
- Now (once logged in) go to the Business Solutions dropdown menu and click on “Access Developer Resource Center”
FedEx | System Down You may also need to register for access to the Developer Resource Center. Do this.
- After registering for the Developer Resource Center, login.
- These next couple of steps are for navigation sake (in case the links change), but you should be able to jump to step 8 and click the link.
- Now go to the FedEx Developer Resource Center
- Click on “Move to Production”
At the bottom of this page click on the “Obtain Production Key” link
- Register for the FedEx Web Services Production Access
Here you will check the following settings:
- Do you intend to resell your softwrae? NO
- You intend to use “FedEx Web Services for Shipping”
- You are a Corporate Developer
Continue…
Accept the terms and conditons;
Enter your account number and confirm the rest of your info;
You’ll then be taken to a screen which displays your Authentication Key and Meter Number
- Go to your BC Shipping options and create a new FedEx shipping option
- enter your FedEx account number in the Account Number field
- enter this Authentication Key in the Key field
- Enter the Meter Number in the Meter Number field
- Check your email for a confirmation email with the title " Your developer Production Key Registration is complete"
-Enter the Production Password provided in that email into the Security Code field. This should be the last bit of information you need to create a FedEx Shipping option in BC.
[/quote]
Is anyone specifically using a Fedex “Smartpost” realtime shipping method with success?
I have several other Fedex realtime shipping methods setup & working fine, just unable to get any rates returned for the Smartpost method.
Our Fedex business account has been activated for Smartpost services.
@Struck
Bad news. The Smartpost portion of Fedex does not work in CS-Cart, but according to CS-Cart…
[quote]It is not a bug. It is a not full functionality. It is a new functionality. It was added recently.
Unfortunately our architects did not add full functionality.[/quote]
Back in May they told me they were going to try to add the functionality in the next edition, but they were unable to and said…
[quote]Unfortunately our architects were very busy to make the new version release. Some additional problems have arisen in the implementation of the smartpost functionality. Our architects are working hardly to release this functionality.[/quote]
So while CS shows Smartpost as an option for shipping, it doesn't really quite work yet. I am hoping they get it soon as we really want to pull accurate shipping cost for this service.
Our workaround so far has been to just use Fedex “Commercial Shipping” and then do discounts depending on how much the customer spends. It is not accurate at all, but it does help lower shipping cost. We have lost funds on some orders, but if the actual order is big enough we don't mind eating some of the shipping cost. The only time it hurts is on the $5 orders but most of them usually choose USPS.
I also know that ShippingKit is working on getting their mod updated to work with Smartpost. I'm not for sure if after they get their mod done if it will fix the CS part that doesn't pull prices or not.
Thanks for the update Clips!
I couldnt imagine how you could possibly setup a Fedex Smartpost realtime shipping method considering there was no place in Cs-Cart to add the Smartpost required account information, guess that explains everything… 
It would be nice if someone from CS-Cart would let us know when Smartpost requirements will be added, 3-4 months should be ample time to finish a half completed single shipping method??
We have been working with CS-Cart on Fedex Smartpost since at least May. So I sure hope it doesn't take another 3-4 months as we dream about using this well before the holidays hit so we can tweak it. I am hoping with the amount of bugs we have found in 2.2.1 that they will come out with 2.2.2 real soon to fix them and include the “fix” to Smartpost too.
BTW, what account information did you see that needed to be added? To me I was thinking we only needed to add the “hub” that the packages are taken too. That was the only thing I saw different when we had to set up Smartpost within Quickbooks.
[quote]To me I was thinking we only needed to add the “hub” that the packages are taken too. That was the only thing I saw different when we had to set up Smartpost within Quickbooks. [/quote]
Well, that may be all that is additionally needed for the rate calls, I haven’t read the Fedex API requirements needed for Smartpost, that is a CS-Cart developers job. 
(I still say that this is unacceptable that Smartpost is still not fully implemented, nothing like a half-completed feature!) I am smart enough to know that this is not some major endeavor, just finish what was started rather than leaving it hanging in limbo for 6 months or longer until it is given up on! This is just the type of thing that seriously frustrates people attempting to use use CS-Cart for their business.
[quote name=‘Struck’ timestamp=‘1312319001’ post=‘118710’]
Well, that may be all that is additionally needed for the rate calls, I haven’t read the Fedex API requirements needed for Smartpost, that is a CS-Cart developers job. (I still say that this is unacceptable that Smartpost is still not fully implemented, nothing like a half-completed feature!) I am smart enough to know that this is not some major endeavor, just finish what was started rather than leaving it hanging in limbo for 6 months or longer until it is given up on! This is just the type of thing that seriously frustrates people attempting to use use CS-Cart for their business.
[/quote]
Overall CS-Cart seems to do well to me. I do find things like this and the fact that they still have not fixed the Quickbooks import for orders a little frustrating. I believe you are correct. When only a few people complain CS just seems to forget about it and leave it half done. Many just stop using either CS-Cart or try to rig up a workaround instead of really being able to use CS for that it claims to do. Then at that point CS-Cart probably thinks there is no need to fix it.
Any news on FedEx SmartPost support? We're running 3.0.2 and when doing rate lookup tests on the Shipping Methods page for SmartPost in Admin, we get vaild rates returned, but the end customers do not get SmartPost as an option even when they use the same address as our admin test rate lookup. It seems to be so close to working.
Just to update this thread. The SmartPost problem turned out to be an issue with how our account was set up at FedEx. Once that was fixed and we entered the correct settings under Shipping Method, SmartPost is now working for us in 3.0.2.