Summary: A shipment on a Stamps.com carrier fails with Authentication failed. Stamps.com turned down the username, password, or account number saved on that carrier record. An admin updates the saved values under Administration > Carriers, saves, and you process again.
Problem
You process a shipment on a Stamps.com carrier (Stamps.com sells USPS postage) and it will not go through. The message reads:
Authentication failed
Nothing rates or prints on that carrier until it is fixed. Other carriers keep working.
Cause
Shipstore sends the username, password, and account number saved on the Stamps.com carrier record every time it rates or ships. Authentication failed means Stamps.com turned those values down. Almost always one of them is out of date or was typed wrong. The most common reason is that the Stamps.com password was changed or rotated on the Stamps.com side and the saved value in Shipstore was never updated to match.
How to check: ask whoever owns the Stamps.com account whether the password or the account number changed recently. If it did, that is the cause.
Fix
- Check the message names Stamps.com and reads Authentication failed. A timeout or a different carrier's message is a different problem.
- Get the current Stamps.com username, password, and account number from whoever owns the Stamps.com account.
- In Shipstore, go to Administration > Carriers and find the Stamps.com record for the profile that is failing.
- Click the blue Edit button to open the settings window. It shows the saved username, password, and account number.
- Type in the current values and click Save. This takes admin permissions, so an admin may need to do it for you.
- Process one test shipment on Stamps.com.
What you should see
The test shipment processes with no Authentication failed message, a rate or label comes back on Stamps.com, and the orders waiting on that carrier process normally.
If something goes wrong
The values look right and it still fails. Sign in at stamps.com with the same username and password to confirm they work there. If they do, email support@shipstore.com with your company name and the exact message.
You cannot open Administration > Carriers. You do not have admin permissions. Ask an admin at your company, or email support@shipstore.com and say which profile needs the Stamps.com values updated.
Related articles
- Stamps shipment fails when the contact name has numbers in it
- UPS error: Invalid Authentication Information