Shipping Package from US to Australia is currently in Canada. Why?

I'm Australian, and packages sent to me from the US sometimes take odd detours. I had a parcel bounce through LA twice before leaving the US recently.
I hope your buyer gets their doll safe and sound!

 

Did you ship the doll through a courier, or was it through USPS?

Depending on flight paths and the destination in Australia, the shipment may transit through different ports. I understand that USPS parcels travel whichever flight path is most economical, and they tend to leave from LAX (more common) and SFO when coming to Australia. I think couriers like Fedex, DHL, have their own airplanes and have fixed routes they travel, so they may stop at different cities before reaching the destination city. I can't imagine a USA parcel going to Canada first, though - I'd think it'd be the opposite. But if you shipped through a courier, they may be going on a fixed travel route that goes to Canada before Australia. (Still, it shouldn't be processed through Canadian customs either? unless it crossed the border by road/rail?)

Also - I don't know too much about this, but I heard there were port strikes recently in USA. Maybe the strikes are indirectly impacting on air mail, so things may be backed up and/or being rerouted? But I know nothing about the port strikes, so maybe there's no impact on sending parcels out of USA.

 

In Europe, parcels bouncing around countries is quite common, especially during busier times of the year when the planes/vessels that the couriers use fill up faster. Last year an international parcel got flown into my city and then sent to a neighbouring country before coming back to me which made no sense but I guess was necessary for some reason.

I think your parcel might bounce to Canada and come back to the US before going to AU - Canadian airports were so busy earlier this year that lower-priority packages were only allowed in (and I think also out) via seaways so I assume it's a lower chance that the doll will be flown out from there and it's probably just doing a strange detour. I wouldn't worry yet and I hope your doll arrives at the destination safe and sound soon enough!

 

I've shipped a much smaller package to Australia that routed to Canada before getting to one of the west coast states and eventually Canada. I can't say why it did that- I'm assuming because where I am in NY, it's easier to route things to bigger airports with more international flights from Canada than it is to aim directly for a bigger west coast airport first. But I've also had packages from the US route into my state to a post office 2 hours away then get bounced to Ohio and back before too so who knows xD
Most of my international packages either coming or going do seem to have the tracking show arrived or departed facility for a few days before it updates with more specific information. Sometimes using other tracking sites gives more details (i like 17track personally).
I think it was cancelled, but there was the strike with dock workers a couple of weeks ago. That could be a reason it might route to Canada instead of one of the US airports, in case there's still some workload issues with customs in the affected areas.

 

Same thing has happened to me when I have shipped packages from Colorado to family in Ontario, Canada. Sometimes they go to British Columbia (opposite direction) and then to Ontario. Weird, but the packages always make it to the destination.

 

That said, even it it's with USPS, they do send stuff the wrong direction accidentally. A package that was supposed to ship from California to Alaska ended up in Pennsylvania, all the way across the country. They get where they're supposed to go eventually. I absolutely empathize with the frustration!

 

USPS once shipped a package that was intended to go from Florida to me, in Canada to the London Heathrow airport, so I’m agreeing that it coulda been a mistake. When I notified the seller they just called USPS, and it was shipped back to the US and then to me. Would have probably been faster to ship it straight to Canada from London, but alas, the USPS had to get it back into the US first.

 

I may be able to shed a little light here (an aside - I have learned so much about shipping from my completely unrelated job, it's ridiculous).

First, parcel companies have "hubs" - designated centers that parcels are sent to. So Chicago, IL is a huge hub in Midwest US - most stuff shipped goes through there. It's possible that your courier has a Canada hub for international shipping, meaning that they have several items also bound for Australia that are currently sitting in Canada, and they're filling up the plane to save on costs.
Anything that goes into a country like the US, Canada, Australia, the UK, the EU, or New Zealand goes through customs. Not saying that every box gets opened up and given a hard stare, but particularly lately, everything runs through customs to ensure compliance with import/export laws.

However, having said that, I would recommend following up with your shipping company. Running a package through customs when you don't have to is an added expense, and US shipping companies are all about cutting costs. Plus, from Chicago, if your box didn't fly straight to Oz, it should have gone somewhere west coast like Los Angeles or Seattle. So I understand your concern - I would be concerned, too.

 

Oh noo!! I hope everything gets sorted in the end and that sucks that happened