The following are common errors that occur when importing shipments via CSV into Chitchats.com and how to resolve them.
1. No ship date
This is the date you are dropping your packages off at Chit Chats. It must be filled in if you want to buy postage from Chit Chats. Otherwise you may expect to see an "unable to fetch postage rate" error.
2. Incorrectly formatted columns.
The following columns must be formatted to the exact specifications provided in the sample template:
- province_code
- country_code
package_type*
postage_type*- phone number
- size_unit (in or cm only)
- value_currency (usd or cad only)
- weight_unit (g, kg, lb or oz only)
*Also keep in mind that the package and postage types indicated must be compatible. For example, if regional_rate_box_a_1 is used, usps_priority must be indicated for postage.
3. Zip code with missing 'leading zero'
Some applications automatically remove leading zeros which will prevent you from entering postal/zip codes that start with 0 (i.e. 0123 becomes 123).
If this happens, follow these steps to format your numbers as plain text which will ensure that leading zeros are displayed:
- Select the postal_code column heading
- In Excel: Change the format from 'Number' to 'Text', sort by descending order and add the '0' back in to the front of 4-digit zip codes if necessary
In Numbers: in the format sidebar on the right, click cell, in the "Data format" dropdown select 'Text'
4. Not in UTF-8 format
To ensure your file is saved as UTF-8, make a copy of the sample template in Google and save as CSV. Google saves these files as UTF-8 encoded by default.
If you already saved your file as an Excel spreadsheet, then follow these steps:
- Navigate to File menu option and click Save As
- Name your file
- Select the Save as type as .csv
- Click Tools drop-down box and click Web Options
- Under Encoding tab, see Save this document as: Unicode (UTF-8)
- Save
5. Address Contains Special Characters
Addresses that contain non-Latin characters (i.e. Arabic, Chinese, Cyrillic, Hangul, Kanji, Russian, etc.) are not supported on our platform and may cause an import to fail. Addresses should be provided in English whenever possible as even accented characters may produce an error. You should confirm with your recipient or use a translator program to ensure you have the correct address information in English.
If any special or non-Latin characters are required, create a secondary label with these characters that can attached to the package in addition to your postage label. Just be sure to not cover the postage label.
6. Invalid Headers
The headers on the CSV template (first row) should not be altered in anyway. Any changes to headers will cause an import to fail.