Global Postal Shipping detailed tracking found!
Global Postal Shipping Nightmare
Thank You!
More on reddit.comHow to figure out the real tracking number(Global Postal Shipping, no provide the number under the map of tracking page, only Etsy showed how its going on)
Question about Global Postal Shipping tracking info?
this year (or last?) etsy changed the way they ship internationally and now use a shipping partner, Global Postal Shipping, Asendia USA, Inc. who partners with USPS and other national postal services to ship their packages internationally. global collects packages in a hub and they don't forward them on to your customer until they have enough to make it financially viable for them which is why it takes longer then just shipping it to the customer like it used to be. when you search the forums for international shipping or global postal shipping, you’ll see thread after thread talking about weeks and weeks of delays that started long before the problems covid brought with it.
when etsy switched, i started using pirateship because they offered “simple export rates” and it was SO much less expensive then going thru etsy, even with the global discount. unfortunately pirateship just announced they too are going to this dreadful system but with PS you can at least opt out and ship the old way.
once i started using pirateship for international orders i thought i’d do some comparison on orders going here in the states and i can’t believe how much cheaper it is! yesterday i purchased a label on pirateship and checked first on etsy to see how much it would have been and it was almost $7 more on etsy (usually i save between $2-$6, this was the most i’d saved on a single label). and when you need help PS actually has customer service. it’s free to use and integrates with my etsy shop so i can see my list of open orders on PS and when i print the label it triggers the automated message to the customer that their order has shipped and marks the order as complete. it’s pretty slick... i know i sound like i’m doing a commercial for them but i’m not affiliated in any way, just thankful i finally listened to other sellers who kept telling me to try it!
p.s. when you shipped to germany, did you include 3 copies of the invoice in a clear envelope taped to the outside of the package? i had one get there and come back to me a few weeks later because i forgot this step - it was an expensive way to learn this lesson! and i had to tell my customer what i did and pay to resend it at my expense since it was my mistake. ugh.
More on reddit.comI just had an international buyer contact me about not being able to find accurate/detailed tracking information for an international package shipped through Global Postal Shipping and after so much digging, I finally found it! Woo!
Background: The buyer was located in Germany and the shipping label I purchased from Etsy was through Global Postal Shipping. The tracking for GPS is apparently only available on Etsy and the buyer was not at home when delivery was attempted, so the package was listed as “available at pick-up point”. Unfortunately there was nothing on her door to indicate where she was suppose to pick up the package and no tracking number was listed. On Etsy’s help page, it says you can use the customs ID to track the package on the shipping carrier’s website, but nowhere did it say what that carrier was. So here’s how I ultimately found the detailed tracking as a seller:
Go to the order‘s page in your Seller account and click on the ”Delivery info” tab
Scroll down to where the tracking is listed and click on the three dots to the right.
Click on ”File insurance claim”, which should lead you to the Shipsurance website claim page. There it should list the carrier as Asendia and a 30 digit tracking number can be found a bit lower on the page. Copy that number and close out of the page.
Go to https://track.asendia.com/track and paste that 30 digit number in the search bar. Expand the box and click on the ”Additional Info” tab. There it will list the Delivery Partner and a link to their website, which should bring you directly to the tracking details page. In our case, it was Deutsche Post which is just DHL. The page asked for the recipient‘s postal code which I entered and then it provided even more info, including the exact store where it was available for pick up.
What’s crazy is the tracking number was ultimately the customs ID listed on the order page, but the issue was finding the final delivery company. Simply searching the customs ID like you would as USPS or FedEx tracking number didn’t work. The Deutsche Post/DHL tracking had *so* much more information, like when it was being loaded onto delivery trucks and exactly where it went on its journey from the US to Germany.
Hopefully this helps someone in the future and eliminates the stress it caused both me and the buyer!