osCommerce FedEx Ground Shipping

FedEx announced earlier this year that their shipping rate API used by osCommerce was no longer supported and will be redundant as of 31 May 2012. All users would need to upgrade to their new webservices API.
May 2012 seems a long time away but unfortunately that date seems now irrelevant.  Many osCommerce FedEx customers are reporting that Ground Shipping is no longer being offered to residential customers and so quoted shipping costs are high.  What to do?
FedEx Ground is not the same as FedEx Home. And it seems to be that it is FedExHome that is being effected here. So a workaround might be to ensure customers fill out the Company Name in the Shipping Address field so FedEx will offer Ground Shipping. And if you want to do that then there are lots of ways it could be done. One easy way is to fill the Shipping Company Name with the Shipping Name if it is empty behind the scenes to trick the API. However that is just a work-around eventually you will need to upgrade. But if you want a workaround then contact us.
There is a new osCommerce FedEx Webservices API in the osCommerce Add Ons which ozEworks has tested and debugged. To use it you must be running phpV5 and have SOAP installed.  And we’ve added a SOAP test program to the Add On so you can check that out. First make sure under Server Info you are running phpV5 then run the SOAP test.
But before you upgrade to FedEx Webservices API,  you need to note that at this stage it does not have all the configuration parameters the old Add On has.  Most importantly, it uses your FedEx rates and not the public rates.  So if they are lower than published and you don’t like that all you can do is adjust using the flat rate handling fee.
We expect as it gets closer to 31May 2012, more developers will contribute like we have to the osCommerce FedEx Webservices Add On so that matter might be resolved. If you need it resolved now then contact us.