Tracking Your eBay Global Shipping Programme Package

eBay offers its sellers a service to help them ship items internationally called the Global Shipping Programme (GSP). In exchange for a cut of the item cost eBay handles the import and delivery of items through a chain of international contractors and GSP hubs. To say that the GSP has been unpopular would be an understatement, it has been heavily criticized for offering a poor service, slow delivery, and causing inflated prices. Ignorant of the disadvantages I ordered a board game from the states under the promise of not having to fork out an obscene amount for custom charges and safe in the knowledge that I could easily get a refund if something went wrong.

It turned out my biggest concern during the process would be figuring out when it would arrive. During it’s stateside travels it was easy to track its journey, with regular updates from USPS all along the way from Indiana to the GSP headquarters in Kentucky. Once it departed the shores of the land of the free things got a little bit more tricky. I thought I’d share my experience to help other who are struggling to figure out where their package is.

The GSP uses multiple carriers and whilst you have a global tracking number, for instance mine was UPAAA000000204998072, it doesn’t give you any granular information once the item has left the states. At this point you should switch to your secondary wNDirect tracking number (mine was LPKEN000000233908905), who are the service that transports the item internationally. Their tracking system messages require a bit of deciphering. One of my line items was In transit AIRLINE:BA/FLIGHT:182/AWB:125-39469710 by Googling the airline and flight number I was able to determine when it had entered the UK. Another confusing tracking status was In transit SCANNED TO CONTAINER, which was the only information I had for five days. Confused by the lack of information, I reached out to wNDirect for some clarity via their [email protected] email address. They responded quickly and informed me that the package was travelling through customs.

After it has cleared customs wNDirect pass on the last mile delivery to 13ten, who again contract other couriers. The 13ten tracking site is the most terrible of them all but you can glean a bit more info than their site lets on. If you visit https://13ten-tracking.citipost.co.uk/Home/History?order=YOURORDERNUMBER (my order number was WNM0002276595) you’ll receive an XML document which contains both the courier (once pre-advice has loaded) and the tracking number. The courier is inside the <carrier> XML tag and the tracking number for that carrier is inside the <jd> XML tag. This allows you to visit the courier’s website to at least get an indication of when the item is likely to be delivered. Although Hermes only appears to update their information once a day, 13ten take a further 8-12 hours to poll Hermes to update their tracking information.