When you buy something online in the USA, the responsibility of the shipper ends once they hand it to the shipping company. At that moment it is your (the customer's) responsibility.
Which is weird, as you, the customer, don't have any leverage in enforcing any behavior of the shipping company (like make sure package is signed for). You can't even select them.
Apple for example charges you $9 for expedited shipping, which is essentially Uber delivery. But when the delivery person takes off with your $1,200 phone they don't have to replace it. It is on you: https://law.stackexchange.com/a/73842
When this whole thing is flipped around, where the sender is responsible until the buyer actually has it in their hands the whole system all of the sudden becomes incentivized to minimize losses.
(sidenote: it is a disgrace that Stackoverflow doesn't allow you to turn off auto-sharing of your ID when you share a link).
> Consequently, you only ever really see this kind of blase delivery from Amazon
Sweet innocent child, so lucky never to have suffered (edit: the low cost UK courier) Hermes. Their definition of delivered to you regularly includes left in a bush 3 streets over at a random address
Your first paragraph is totally correct and I wish more people stopped wasting so much energy chasing couriers when it's not their job. However, there is a certain reality when people expect free or <£3 delivery costs
I lost my CashApp account because I ordered something with my debit card and it was delivered somewhere else who eventually handed it back and redelivered to the merchant who kept it.
I asked CashApp to step in and refund me and they said "Look chum, the FedEx ticket says DELIVERED".. and I'm like "Yes, but not to me" and they said "Yeah we get that, but our policy states if its DELIVERED it's over with. How about we just terminate your CashApp account for complaining?"
CashApp did nothing wrong in the original story, you have a complaint against the seller, and the seller has a complaint against their agent, who failed to deliver correctly.
With a debit card, chargebacks are not a legal right, but often platforms will do them for you. Not sure exactly why CashApp weren't happy with you for asking, but maybe they felt like you hadn't tried hard enough with the seller, or that you were trying it on.
That said, my understanding from general opinions about CashApp is that them terminating your account is probably a net benefit for you in the long term, rather than something to rue.
Legal liability might not apply in the US. But card network rules still apply, and as far as I know even in the US those still very much require the merchant to ensure the goods are delivered as a condition of keeping their money.
Disputes/chargebacks is the very last remnant of "consumer protection" in the US that actually works - which is why nobody with money is actually incentivized to spread good words about it, and as a result it's not common knowledge even on HN.
Weird? That's WILD that it's not even the courier's responsibility. Like the law just pretends the courier is the customer's agent or something (isn't it the seller with the contract with the courier?)
Really it goes back on to the seller. Because if I don't get my item, I'm going to dispute the charge on my credit card. Eventually, someone pays, but not me.
Which is weird, as you, the customer, don't have any leverage in enforcing any behavior of the shipping company (like make sure package is signed for). You can't even select them.
Apple for example charges you $9 for expedited shipping, which is essentially Uber delivery. But when the delivery person takes off with your $1,200 phone they don't have to replace it. It is on you: https://law.stackexchange.com/a/73842
When this whole thing is flipped around, where the sender is responsible until the buyer actually has it in their hands the whole system all of the sudden becomes incentivized to minimize losses.
(sidenote: it is a disgrace that Stackoverflow doesn't allow you to turn off auto-sharing of your ID when you share a link).