Shipped item going the wrong way

[kerrdillma-0]

Hello!

I recently order a few yards of fabric from Portland, Oregon to Toronto Canada. Ive been tracking the package and at first it did apear to be coming west. After the weeked however, I checked the tracking to find it is in Los Angeles, CA. It has gone southeast by QUITE a lot.

Why in god's name would a parced going North West drop down and go so south east?

[momcqueen]

Parcels do not travel directly from Point A to Point B. The postal system uses a spoke-and-hub configuration and Customs processing of the mail takes place at only a few entry/exit points. For example, if I in Winnipeg, Manitoba place an order from a seller in the USA due south in Grand Forks, North Dakota by 150 miles, it will go to thousands of kilometres east to Mississauga, Ontario before incomes west again to me. 

[maggiebvintage2010]

LA, which is south-west of Toronto, is the major west coast hub for international shipments, and is directly south of Portland.  Toronto is almost due east of Portland, not west.  Postal and courier services use a hub and spoke distribution model.  Much more economical than taking your little parcel and putting on its own little truck or plane to deliver directly to you all by its lonesome.

More to the point, there is little to be gained other than worry by checking the tracking, as you have discovered - unless  you are a dedicated armchair postal traveller.  Tracking protects the seller, not the buyer.  It will arrive or not within about 20 days or sooner.  The bigger thing to hope for is that you receive it before Canada Post goes out on strike.  You are protected by both eBay and PayPal for items not received.