It goes both ways. It would be very easy to fabricate an unboxing with a rock inside instead of a video card and go to small claims court.
I ordered a GPU on ebay earlier this year, and followed this process to the letter to make sure I'd have proof if the product arrived broken.
I have been working from home, my wife also working from home--so driveway full of cars--and on several occasions heard their truck door slam, only to find that sticker on the door.
FedEx, UPS, DHL, and all the random, local, "last mile" shippers here seem to all have a policy to not actually even try for signature-required delivery until at least the second attempt.
When I said this, he very sheepishly came over with my package.
otoh I'm guessing the poor guy probably didn't have time to piss while delivering > 1.5x the maximum possible number of deliverable packages in a normal working day.
And this was at least an improvement on getting the "we couldn't deliver your package because you were not home" email the day after you've waited in all day to receive it.
He should take that up with his employer or switch jobs. Not gaslight customers. The amount of fedex deliveries where they claimed I wasn't home has been absurd lately. I have a doorbell camera, and checked. No fedex truck ever appeared all day.
> your delivery guy doesn't just dump everything on the doorstep as quietly as they can?
Never had that, no.
> Or for anything requiring a signature (actually, can't remember the last time I had that through Amazon)
They email & show in 'my orders' numeric codes to give the driver who then enters and verifies them. (This verifies they actually delivered it too, since they don't know the code, just enter what you tell them.)
> run up and stick the "customer wasn't home" sticker on the door without even trying the doorbell or knocking?
You get stickers on your doors? Here in the UK (with any courier) it's a piece of paper through the letterbox that says missed/with a neighbour/in your safe place/whatever.
I suppose that's because you have mailboxes outside with little flags rather than letterboxes in doors, so they don't want to try to deliver to your door and then look for that as well when it doesn't work, easier just to stick something on the door where they already are?
That's mostly only rural areas. Where I am, the houses either have letter slots in the door as you described, or a letter box attached to the house next to the front door.
Our previous place had a letter slot. But the place we just moved into has put the letter box next to the side door, at the end of the driveway. It's hit-or-miss where deliveries will get left, but most of the time it's at the front door, the one we don't check on a regular basis because we're usually going out the side door to get to our cars.
The problem today is nobody is guarding the henhouse. The fox is having a field day. (Or in this case, it's Fox Books from "You've Got Mail".)
After such a loss, I think it's normal to go to such measures. Having my partner use my videography kit to film the entire handover takes only a few minutes but if it can save me so much money, it'd be stupid not to.
And yes, I believe that if we as a society have reached a point where even with evidence and a police report no one in the chain feels responsible to act, we're fucked.
And honestly, every other online retailer is more trustworthy than Amazon, because they're not marketplaces, and you can actually reach humans who are allowed to make decisions. Something that Amazon is sorely lacking.
That said, it's not an "Amazon" issue, it's an issue with all marketplaces.
> because they're not marketplaces
Most online retailers are turning into marketplaces. That's the doubly unfortunate thing about Amazon's shitty business practices - everyone else sees them and feels compelled to adopt them.
Trying to name retailers that sell electronics that aren't marketplaces - B&H, Adorama, Bestbuy. Maybe Monoprice? Although they've expanded their selection so much, it feels like something dodgy is going on.
I'm actually a big fan of eBay because despite being a marketplace, they don't handle inventory themselves so the incentives line up better - they understand sellers will sometimes ship broken items, try to stonewall returns, etc. I understand the fees are a bit high for sellers. But as a buyer, being buyer-friendly is my #1 concern, and eBay understands buyers are the ones with the money.
Then again I could be one ML classification or policy change away from eBay's dispute process not being so favorable to me, too. Although I haven't had to do one in a while - most sellers have made peace with buyers' power and just offer free shipping for returns.
You probably don’t need to be concerned: they’re unlikely to show, so you’ll just get summary judgement.