Successfully tracking eBay international shipment with UPAAA tracking number

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      AX005
      Keymaster

        As I have bought a lot of radios from ebay USA and recently things have not been straightforward in shipping I thought the following is good info if you are having ebay shipping problems.

        I should add that I recently received a small package of parts that was sent by AIR from an ebay seller in China when I purchased them, to arrive to me by AusPost three (3) MONTHS LATE! Meanwhile I got a refund! So support this seller for Radio connectors:-  http://www.ebay.com/itm/130954587481

        *SOLVED!* Successfully tracking eBay international shipment with UPAAA tracking number

        Moral of story: BE PATIENT – Well within reason anyway!

        I am posting this here since other forum members (and/or people not being members, but finding this post via Google) may find the below information useful.

        Recently I bought on eBay.com an item from USA. I am living in Denmark and the item was to be shipped via eBay’s International Global Shipping Program. After placing my order I received a shipping notification e-mail from eBay. This mail included a tracking number of the form UPAAA (followed by 13 digits). The UPAAA tracking-number was a link that would take me to an eBay site; “Order details” showing the tracking history for the shipment. There I was able to see that the package was first sent from the seller (in New York) to the eBay international shipment center (I guess) in Erlanger, KY. An USPS tracking number was also provided on the eBay “Order details” page so that the shipment could also be followed via the USPS site.

        From Erlanger, KY, the package would be “Shipped from Shipping Center to International Destination” but without any information about what carrier would handle the international shipment and also without any usable tracking number. I noticed my shipment bouncing forth and back, being put on hold at a certain point, and later reporting: “Delivery Attempt – Incorrect address” etc.; all in all quite frustrating. The UPAAA tracking number was completely useless in this process; I had no idea about what company was actually shipping my item (DHL? UPS? FedEx? GLS? someone else?), and I also had no usable tracking number. Aaargh!! :x

        Now to the good news! If logging into eBay, selecting the “My eBay” menu, then “Purchase history” the item will be shown there, with the UPAAA tracking number also shown (in bold blue print, on a green background). Click on this blue print UPAAA tracking number, and a very interesting window will open up, saying (in my case):

        Quote:
        Global tracking #: UPAAAxxxxxxxxxxxx
        Carrier: Multiple Carriers
        This shipment has been transferred to ARVATO for delivery to the final destination # AWSPBExxxxxx&schluessel=xxxxxxxxx

        The number starting with “AWSPBE” is a link… click on that! Now (in my case) I landed on the GLS tracking page where the full information was seen, incl. the waybill number, the delivery name and address, the contact e-mail and phone number of the recipient (= me) etc. In my case, I discovered errors in both the delivery address and the e-mail address… this information has obviously been incorrectly transferred from my eBay order to the shipping company. Since I now knew both the carrier (not DHL, not UPS, not FedEx, but GLS) and since I also now knew the GLS waybill number I could simply call GLS customer support and have things fixed.

        I hope this information may be of use to other people since I guess I am not the only one being frustrated by seeing a shipment bouncing forth and back, just to finally read: “Delivery Attempt – Incorrect address”.

        It would be a significant improvement if eBay had included (in their Shipping-notification e-mail) a link to the information found under the eBay –> My eBay –> Purchase History rather than only providing the practically useless UPAAA-information! There are tons of people out there sharing the same frustration as described above – only knowing the useless UPAAA (/UPAAB etc) number… Google and you’ll easily see!

        Tags: eBay International Global Shipping Program UPAA UPAAA UPAAB tracking track-and-trace

        Update Nov. 14: Today (= the day after the package was delivered!) I received from eBay customer-help the following e-mail:

        Quote:
        Your order of eBay Item # xxxxx is currently on hold with our shipping partner. Unfortunately the address you provided in the order is unrecognized within our shipping system. We want to send the item to you, but we will need a physical address to provide to our shipping partner.

        … but this is obviously outdated, incorrect information. In any case, eBay could no doubt save themselves from a lot of timeconsuming hassle by providing correct, usable tracking information in their shipping e-mail!

        Johan

        (if of interest, the below is the detailed tracking information retreived through the eBay shipping-notification mail, providing the cryptical UPAAA number. Notice the inconsistent eBay-information about the package being stored in and delivered from Kolding (many hundred kilometers from here!), while the GLS status correctly state that the packege was shipped to Copenhagen (= Taastrup), and delivered from there)

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