Why does this item reverse travel?

Question

Meandering shipping.Has anyone else watched tracking to see their purchase take a flight back across that country?This is the 2nd time an item has been in my city according to tracking and then goes back to a city on the other side of the country. Is this eBay? USPS? This isn't an item I was counting on getting right away... But interesting to note. Anyone else?

biggymoe · Answer

This does happen occasionally. I recently shipped a Priority box, from Nebraska to Wisconsin. Next stop was in Texas, before heading back the right direction. Delivered safely a couple days late. Luckily this doesn't happen often.

inceptions · Answer

Hi @juglan68

this does happen, though it's not a common occurrence. I once had a package that was going to a buyer in Alaska go from CA to Guam to CA to TX to CA to Alaska.

eBay has nothing to do with this - packages are delivered by USPS, not eBay. With 27.2 million packages shipped every day, misroutings are bound to occur occasionally. Mistakes happen.

Packages can be misrouted when sorted incorrectly and it takes time to get it back on track. When things go right, a typical package is handled first at the seller's post office, then at the regional sorting center, then the sorting center near the buyer, then at the buyer's post office. When flights are cancelled or there are weather delays, that can cause a whole lot of other problems. There are plenty of opportunities for a package to become misrouted. What is surprising is that it happens so rarely.

eburtonlab · Answer

That can sometimes happen when a package is scanned going into a shipping container but not scanned properly when taken out. The tracking will follow the container back and forth until the package gets another scan.