Live Shipping Rates - Why Can't I Get It To Work??

[5ClawsCornhole]

I'm getting a little frustrated and am hoping the community can help.

Scenario: I sell a product, but have an arrangement with another company to make my product and handle fulfillment for surge and orders that need to be shipped. They charge me wholesale + the cost to ship the product. The product is large and the white label / drop ship company's FedEx 2 Day shipping across the US ranges from $48 to just under $300. I want to collect shipping on the front end that is roughly the same as what I get charged on the back end by the drop shipping company.

What I've tried:

1. I've done the research and have territory rates by state-groupings but Square will only allow me to assign an item to 1 shipping profile. Unfortunately, I'd like to be able to ship to both Texas and Colorado, not either/or.

2. I upgraded Square to take advantage of Live Shipping Rates and went through the set up. I set up a box size and weight that gets me roughly the same rate as the drop shipping charges and set the weights of my Items the same as the box weight. I'm willing to eat a few bucks for the difference. BUT, I can't seem to get Square to recognize anything except my Fall Back Rate. I've tried USPS and DHL, and I've also created and connected a FedEx account and Square will only pick up my Fall Back Rate. I'm frustrated and hope someone in this community knows what I'm doing wrong and can provide a quick, "just do this dummy" fix. 

[_Violet]

Thank you for your post, and welcome to the Square Community, @5ClawsCornhole! Happy to have you here 🙂 My name is Violet and I'm one of the Community Moderators. I can certainly provide some info on this.

Start by double-checking the integration of your FedEx, USPS, or DHL accounts within Square. Make sure that all the necessary credentials and API keys are entered correctly and that your accounts are active. Sometimes, just a small oversight in these details can cause the system to default to a fallback rate.

Next, take a closer look at how you've set up your item weights and dimensions in Square. These need to match the carrier's requirements precisely, as discrepancies here could lead to the system using fallback rates instead.

Make sure that live rates are enabled in your Square shipping settings for each carrier you're using. Then, conduct a test transaction to see if the live rates are being calculated as expected. If the fallback rate is still showing up, consider changing it to a value that stands out more, just for testing purposes, to ensure you can spot when the live rates are correctly applied.

If these steps don’t resolve the issue, I can escalate this to our Square Online Support Team for their review.

Let me know how this goes! I'll keep an eye out for your reply 👀

[5ClawsCornhole]

Thanks so much Violet. I've tried with both my FedEx connection, and also through the partner Shipping companies USPS and DHL. I'm still not able to get anything except the Fall Back rate to show on the site. 

I've double checked the box configurations and made sure the listed weights for my items are less than the box max weights. I've even reduced the listed item weights to well below the max and that doesn't help. I don't see size settings for the items, but I'm honestly not concerned about the size dimensions. I'm drop shipping and just trying to get a variable rate based on shipping location close to my actual rate through the drop shipping company. I'll eat a few dollars per order, but the shipping charge varies wildly for FedEx 2-Day from $40s all the way up to a few hundred depending on shipping location.

I have set up live rates for FedEx, DHL, and USPS and tested my online site with several addresses across the US and the only rate that displays is my Fall Back rate. It immediately defaults to my Fall Back rate as the 'Estimated Shipping' rate before an address is entered on the Check Out page and the rate never updates once an address has been entered.

I've spent multiple hours trying to figure it out myself, and am now on my 8th person through Square.  Hate to say it, but I have not been impressed by any chat agent or phone agent that I've talked to. I know Square had an issue today, but not a single person at Square has been able to remotely tell me a) what the issue is or b) what I'm doing wrong. One of of the last agents even told me, "Square is doing what it is set up to do," and then finally agreed that was wrong. I've upgraded to the highest level option just for the live shipping rates and this has been a total failure so far.

[5ClawsCornhole]

Agent #8 said he was going to look into how he could help me. It went silent and I've spent the last 55 minutes thinking he was working on things behind the scenes. I got concerned that something happened so I've been asking for a response for the last few minutes and I'm getting no response. I've literally been on quiet for an hour now and I can't tell that anyone is even on the other end of the phone. 

[5ClawsCornhole]

Hung up.

Called back at 7:47pm CST.

On hold until 7:57 pm CT

Agent #9: Herber

- He advised Square doesn't provide rates for real time shipping, those come from the carriers. 

- I explained I fully understood this, but my dashboard shows I am connected to FexEx, DHL, and USPS and no matter how I try to set RTS up the only rate customers get on my website is the Fall Back rate. I need someone to get into my settings and confirm that a) I've done something wrong or b) identify that a bug exists preventing me from using RTS

- On hold again while he connected me with Advanced Support

Never actually talked to Advanced Support, Herber bounced back and forth between me and the Advanced Support team

- Checked items together, had weight and box associated to items

- Checked Shipment Carriers connection; Re-connected with FedEx, although I did this with my own troubleshooting earlier in the day. Did advise that I also attempted to use DHL Express and USPS given the partnership and native connections and got same website behavior (defaults to Fall Back rate)

- Advanced Support did test connections on their side and said FedEx is failing, but USPS is working. They set up a test USPS connection and it worked!

- Have NO IDEA what the underlying issue is or was, but at least I'm able to get a RTS from USPS and now I just need to optimize the box size and weight to roughly match my drop shipper's charges. Inching closer!!!

Thanks Herber for taking ownership and hanging out with me long enough to finally get me connected!!

[5ClawsCornhole]

Within minutes of making that last post I make an update to the box size and item weight to bump up the shipping price a little bit and USPS stopped working. This has been an incredibly frustrating experience.

[5ClawsCornhole]

@_Violet Should I call back again and go through the process of trying to get transferred to Advanced Support or is this something you can help facilitate? Appreciate any guidance you can offer. Thanks!

[5ClawsCornhole]

@_Violet RTS seems to be working with my small lightweight items like hats but not for weightier items. Do you know if rules are running in the background that default the rate to the Fall Back rate if the box dimensions exceed a certain size or the weight exceeds x lbs? I can't figure that part out and I haven't found any reference materials that provide box or weight parameters.

I checked USPS.com and they do have box size and weight limits, but I double checked Square and my box configuration and item weights are well within the USPS limits. So its not failing out due to USPS rules. Back on the phone with support. 

[5ClawsCornhole]

As it turns out, Advanced Support wasn't able to figure out what is happening and a bug was created and handed off to the engineering team for further research. 

[RiceandRoux]

I’m having the exact same problem right now.  Nothing is showing up except for my fallback shipping price.