UPS "Use Production API" values are way too low

[nealmckinney]

Describe the bug

Client for a new Commerce site complained today about an international shipping charge to Kuwait from NY estimated by Postie to be $68.51, but when she checked actual shipping rates at UPS the lowest cost she found was $211.06. I had previously tested shipping rates on Stage from NY to AUS and noticed similar shipping costs... with the production API toggled off shipping was around $200, but with Production API on the shipping estimate was around $60. I have toggled the Production API to OFF on live for for now, let me know if you need any more info on this. Product is 3lbs 10 x 12 x 2 in. if that helps with testing.

Steps to reproduce

Craft CMS version

4.13.6

Plugin version

dev-craft-4 as 4.0.9

Multi-site?

Yes

Additional context

No response

[engram-design]

Tricky to say without seeing your credentials and actual address (which I totally respect that you can't share here), but production rates are typically lower than testing ones. But, even with negotiated rates, that seems a pretty steep drop in price.

We barely do anything different for production requests.

Testing with my account details render the same pricing for testing and production, which isn't helpful. But I'm sure that's just due to my account with UPS being pretty standard and don't have any "deals" arranged with special rates.

If you're at all up for sharing your details, you're most welcome to get in touch at [email protected] with maybe a screenshot of the Rates Testing tool with some replicable values.

[engram-design]

Just for posterity, my findings below were correct with the specific account details. Looking at the raw request, I can see why we’re getting these rates. For example:

TransportationCharges = 234.19
ServiceOptionsCharges = 0.00
TotalCharges = 234.19
NegotiatedRateCharges = 68.13

Which is what I expected - the NegotiatedRateCharges is showing a way-cheaper cost than TotalCharges. This means that your client must have something special about their account that gets them this sort of rate. I’d recommend them getting in touch with UPS with the above details (and the addresses/parcel details we’re using) to find out why there’s a discrepancy.