Tracking UPAA numbers from Ebay's Global Shipping Program
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Recently I made a purchase from an Ebay seller in Texas and had the item shipped via Ebay’s Global Shipping Program. This means that the seller will send the item to a location that they receive from Ebay, usually Erlanger, Kentucky. This location is where Ebay handles orders in their Global Shipping Program which will then send your order to your country where it will be handled by whatever local carrier handles shipping in your country. You will most likely receive a tracking number that has the UPAAXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX format along with perhaps another tracking number. The other number is probably a domestic US carrier like UPS and won’t really be needed unless your order gets lost before reaching the global shipping center. The UPAA tracking number is what we are really interested in here. I tried lots of sites and none seem to be able to give me any information regarding this number. This is because the number is assigned by Ebay and pretty much only used by Ebay.
How to track UPAA numbers
So to figure out where your order is once it has reached your country this is what you need to do. After you login to ebay you need to select “Purchase History” from the “My Ebay” menu in the top right corner.
Once you have clicked on that link scroll to your order and look at the shipping information, it should look similar to this.
Your UPAA tracking number should be a link that you can click on. This will open a popup that looks like this.
The “# ABC=XXXX” link here should be clickable. When you click this you will be taken to another site which shows tracking information and a new tracking ID which can’t really be found anywhere else it seems. The page looks like the below image.
The tracking number displayed above in blue should be a clickable link which takes you to your country’s shipping carrier along with their own tracking information which should make it easier for you to figure out where your package currently is and how long it will take to get there. Much easier than trying to figure out how to use the UPAA number Ebay gives you.
I hope this post was helpful and that both my own shipment and whatever shipment you are waiting for arrives soon!
I do hope that Ebay integrates this better into their own systems in the future, I work a lot with developing APIs and I think it is something that we really need in all places w here computers are already used. It is much better than the “hacks” customers create themselves when they get tired of a broken system.