Parcel arrived in NZ - all good now thanks

[pony_magick]

Not sure if this is where I should put this question or not but here goes. I recently bought a pony lot off ebay, the seller is based in Florida, US but it seems that instead of going the usual way direct from the US to New Zealand it seems my package is going through Istanbul and Tel Aviv.  Should I be worried about this? It's never happened before to me so I don't know what to expect, should I do anything about it or just wait until the package shows up? I'm just a little worried as to why it's going a illogical way.

EDIT: I talked to my Post office and they said talk to USPS but how do you do that? I just want to make a general enquiry but none of the drop down boxes fit with what I want to ask. Why is it so complicated to contact them?

[emery]

As long as it's making progress on the tracking I would not worry yet. Even within the US some people have had their packages go all the way across the country and back when they were only mailing a few states away in the opposite direction. Plus I think more countries are scanning now so that more locations show up on the tracking as your package moves around the globe.

I would just keep an eye on the tracking to ensure that it's still moving. How long ago did the seller ship?

[pony_magick]

I sort of figured it should be ok if it still tracks but it's a bit scary when it's going completely the wrong way!! Plus I'm afraid that because it's been through those countries customs might open the parcel and things might get lost (I've had that happen but not with ponies). The parcel was shipped 20/11/2014 so not that long ago.

Thanks for the reassurance, I really needed it. I've been worried about it all day and have been trying to find out the usual route post takes from the US to NZ but haven't been able to find out any info. Plus when I tried to make a basic email to USPS the drop downs of what type of problems would let me make such an basic enquiry.

[sparkleInTheRain]

What are the alpha prefixes on your tracking number?    There should be 2 alpha at the start, and US at the end.     ( The  2 Alpha at the end of the number denotes the country of origin of the PO of posting.
   
It is possible that the seller has given you the wrong number.

 Another scenario could be that the parcel has been missorted.    I once had a parcel sent to Austria instead of Australia ..... 

Another scenario is that the seller is in the US but the package isn't.  Ie. the package is being posted from a different country.   ( That we can easily confirm by the tracking number)   I have ordered from a seller here in Australia and the parcel has end up coming in from China.... UGHH.

Parcels from USA to NZ, shouldn't fly via the middle East ( Tel Aviv) /Europe ( Istanbul Turkey).  The usual route for AU/NZ is from an International Gateway in the USA straight across to NZ directly.     Unless of course the carrier is say UPS or FedEx or DHL , sometimes they do route through some pretty odd places.

I would certainly contact the seller to see if he has mistakenly given you the wrong number.

[pony_magick]

That's what I thought, that it should be direct. I've contacted the seller asking for them to contact their post sevice as to why it's going through the countries it is. The first letters of the tracking number are CF, and the tracking says it started out in Florida, then on to Germany, Turkey and Israel.

[sparkleInTheRain]

CF is signature required on arrival, so least its not just airmail that could be just left on the doorstep.

Hopefully he can shed some light on that for you. 

It could possibly have been missorted or incorrectly addressed.  Least Having Israel as last point is coming in the right direction now.     

[pony_magick]

The tracking now says Maiami. Where is this parcel going? I think the ponies in it want to see the world before coming to the end of it. :p

[sparkleInTheRain]

Do you mean Miami?  If so, thats back in Florida. 
There is an International Gateway there, its very possible they have realised that it has gone to the wrong place , bear in mind that it could also be on the way back to the sender.   

If you post the events ( just leave out the number) I can take a look for you.   
   
I would contact your seller to confirm the exact address they put on the parcel. 

You will also find that once the parcel hits NZ it will start tracking on the NZ Post site, so keep an eye on that too.   

[pony_magick]

Yeah Miami. Sorry it was at the end of a long day and I just couldn't for the life of me work out how to spell it...

21/11 - Acceptance - Naples, FL
21/11 (10:11am) - Departed Post office  - Naples, FL
23/11 (9:51am) - Arrived at USPS Facility - Miami, FL
24/11 (4:24am) - Departed USPS Facility - Miami, FL
24/11 (11:48pm) - Arrived at sort facility - ISC Miami FL (USPS)
24/11 (11:49pm) - Processed through sort facility - ISC Miami FL (USPS)
25/11 (2:35pm) - Arrived - Miami, United States
26/11 (12:54am) - Departed - Louisville, United States
28/11 (7:56am) - Departed - Philadelphia, UNITED STATES
28/11 (8:39pm) - Departed - Cologne, GERMANY
01/12 (12:30am) - Departed - Cologne, GERMANY
01/12 (6:55am) - Departed - Istanbul, Turkey
01/12 (10:00am) - Departed - Tel Aviv Yafo, ISRAEL
01/12 (10:65pm) - Departed - Miami, United States

Weird tracking right?

[squishy turdl]

Very weird path your parcel is on..

Hope it arrives ok.

Good news is that its all there in the tracking so I'm sure you're parcel will turn up!

[June]

My international orders usually go to some larger European country before they get to me, but since you said that orders from US to NZ usually ship directly they might have made a mistake (hence Miami again - it's probably going to be returned to sender). Good luck

[cassstorm]

at the beginning of November I sent a package from US to Spain.. and it promptly went to Canada, stayed there in the customs office for a couple weeks, was marked return to me... and arrived in Spain?? but it arrived undamaged- just took the scenic route. They said the person who originally scanned the package must have misdirected it- although I fail to see how that many people along the way could not read it and say oops! If you go online to USPS.com, you can get the number for international inquiries. The first time they said wait, the second time a nice lady attached a note to the number explaining. Good Luck!

[pony_magick]

Thanks everyone. I agree that it's a good thing that it's tracking - even if it's going the scenic route. I am amazed that as cassstorm said how many times people might have failed to see it was going in the wrong direction. The seller is looking into it so if it does get returned then he knows to pass it back.

[Chi]

It's possible your address was missing something or its just a mistake and is being rerouted back to the U.S. for proper sorting.
Four countries, though?! That package took a nice vacation.

[CupidStrikes]

I had a friend who mailed a letter from within the UK, to another friend in the UK. When the letter finally arrived, it had somehow gone via China (who knows how, as domestic and international postage labels are incredibly different, though I've also had international post returned to me before it left the country because some twit read the return address as the mailing one and missed the giant "international postage" sticker and customs form that said it was destined for the US ).

I'm sure it's fine