Originally posted by fwcetus EDIT: Oh, I know what was happening during the "Arrived USA -> Departed USA" part -- the package had to be manually turned upside-down to be ready to ship to Australia.
Makes perfect sense! I wouldn't want the package falling to the roof of the airplane when it crosses the equator
More seriously, I once ordered an item from Russia and was warned that Russian post can take a while to depart the country. Moved between Russian customs and the Russian Post facility 5 times over 3 weeks before it finally left. Apparently this is normal (and some extra rubles can speed it up), but I suspect in this case it is just down to USPS building in some incompetence to its tracking system. It all happened in one day so I guess the system doesn't properly show it going to USPS to customs, back to USPS, into the airport, then onto a plane.