USPS to Australia - Item cleared customs in Canada?????

[dave1985.026]

So I've bought something from America and it's currently being shipped to Australia.  It's only early days so far 5 days since postage but I decided to check where it was with the USPS parcel tracker.  Apparently it's been posted from New York and has just been sorted processed and cleared by customs in Canada.  I'm a little worried as I can't seem to imagine why it would not come directly to Australia and also why it would require customs clearance if it was in-transit... any ideas?

[fred_fred_2004]

It will be using that stupid GSP the parcels seem to roam all over the country

[davewil1964]

Technically Canada isn't part of the USA, so I can't see why, even from New York, it would transit Canada.

[ajarnjenny]

But Fred, Canada is not part of 'the country'. Did you mean 'the world'?

And why would it have to clear Canadian customs if it was not being imported to Canada?

And why was it in Canada at all?

[trulyspecialgoodies]

I ordered something from USA a few months ago and was given a tracking number - can't remember which carrier it was with (it wasn't sent through the GPS with Pitney Bowes). After a couple of weeks I checked the tracking number to find out the parcel was in Germany!

Worried that it had been addressed to Austria instead of Australia I contacted the seller. They told me not to worry since the carrier's logistics centre was located in Germany and all parcels had to go through there before being distributed to their final destinations worldwide.

Sure enough I received it about 10 days later but it certainly made me scratch my head wondering why a parcel had to go via Germany from the USA on its way to Australia!

[howie696]

Mine ended up in Alaska before eventually getting here

[lyndal1838]

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@trulyspecialgoodies wrote:

I ordered something from USA a few months ago and was given a tracking number - can't remember which carrier it was with (it wasn't sent through the GPS with Pitney Bowes). After a couple of weeks I checked the tracking number to find out the parcel was in Germany!

Worried that it had been addressed to Austria instead of Australia I contacted the seller. They told me not to worry since the carrier's logistics centre was located in Germany and all parcels had to go through there before being distributed to their final destinations worldwide.

Sure enough I received it about 10 days later but it certainly made me scratch my head wondering why a parcel had to go via Germany from the USA on its way to Australia!

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Was it sent by DHL?   As well as being an International courier they run the German Postal system so it could well be correct that their main distribution centre is in Germany.

[trulyspecialgoodies]

Well, well, well - you learn something new every day! Thanks for that Lyndal (you're a goldmine of information) - it could well have been DHL  - I just don't remember as it was back in October