I have been creating modules, addons and customizations for Interspire for about a year now. My first project was integrating Post Affiliate Pro 4 with Interspire. That's when I was introduced to Interspire and after that I quickly realized how much potential Interspire Shopping cart really has. I saw a need for some shipping integration improvements, so my first addon was the UPS Integration module that synced up the cart with UPS Online Tools. This addon has been a huge help to many clients who ship though UPS. I have since then created integrations for USPS, Fedex, DHL and a few others. I toyed around with some pre-shipping logic that automatically downgrades packages to the lowest level of shipping possible that would allow for the package to still get delivered within the desired timeframe. So while nitpicking various methods to automate and save every penny possible by automating the shipping process I ran across the idea of trying to create a tool that could automatically get shipping refunds.
Ok, so what the heck is "UPS Automatic Parcel Audit"? It is my attempt at an automatic refund requester for UPS.
How does that work? Real simple, you pay UPS a nice chunk of change to ship your packages not only safely, but in a timely fashion. To such a degree that UPS actually guarantees their ultra quick mystical shipping prowess with a money back guarantee. Catch 22 is they don't tell you if your package was delivered late. So this tool does just that, it tracks each package and if it gets delivered late it request a refund, which in turn UPS is happy to oblige. Simply as that.
Now you know what it does, so allow me to tell you a little about what I have been cooking up
I have been developing this system in a larger scope for about a year now.The goal of this program is to handle millions of a request a day in the form of an API. I feel it's fairly stable and I am trying to get it to the point so I can release it as a tool for shippers small and large alike. So what I have done is created a service / API that allows you to send XML files back and forth via PHP to exchange information so to speak.
I have also created an Addon for Interspire that allows you to automatically send a list of tracking numbers from your database to the API. The API utilizes the UPS Online Tools API to determine whether the package was delivered on time. If the package is elligable for a refund the API will then tell the Interspire Addon that it should email this to UPS. The API then tracks the status of the refund all the way to when the funds have been credited to your account, reporting back the progress each step of the way. I have built some reporting tools to show how many packages were refunded, what type were refunded, etc... It even shows common trends in "areas / dates / shipping" combination that might appear more frequent than others, thus allowing you to notify some customers that UPS has a tendency to deliver late to their area.
So I am looking for about two people who are willing to try an early build of this. Even though this is an early build I want to assure anyone interested in participating in this testing period that this addon will not effect your store in anyway. It simply reports on whether or not packages are late and does not do anything to your cart that might cause it to malfunction. I will of course go over everything in detail with the developers with instructions as to how everything is put together.
I also have a few requirements in regards to anyone volunteering.
You must ship at least 100 packages a week. (This is flexible, but I am looking for heavy shippers if at all possible)
Obviously you will need a UPS Online Tools account.
You cannot be using BigCommerce, you must have a full installation of Interspire on your server.
I am really excited about this module. I will be the first to admit that it still needs a bit of work until its perfect but during my small closed test group over the past 6 months I have seen very exciting results. You know the idea is really simple. It simply utilizes the multiple API tools provided by UPS to gather the tracking information and determine if a package has been delivered late. Run this thing once a week and it tells you how much money you are getting back. Just a couple of weeks ago I ran a week of tracking numbers for a local business and in that single week the tool found over $400 in refunds. All with the click of a button... gotta love it
Feel free to contact me at dustin@thinkgenius.com or message me if you have any questions / comments or concerns. I am really excited to get some feedback on this!
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Dustin Holdiman
"Yes, I can do that."
Got an idea for your cart? I want to hear about it!
Automation, creating new features, perfecting existing one or just hacking and slashing your cart!
