Customer claiming food or packages weren't delivered despite proof
Delivery services often misdeliver packages or food to the wrong address while logging GPS coordinates and photo proof, leaving merchants stuck when customers report missing items. This creates a cycle where repeat claims force businesses into difficult decisions about issuing replacements or dealing with potential fraud.
What the numbers show
Counted from the threads quoted below. How we count
- The most recent one is from October 2026.
- This comes up 110.8× more often in r/ecommerce than across the site as a whole.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Filing claims with the shipping company2 people mentionedDid this help you?
- 2Sending a replacement itemDid this help you?
- 3Requiring a police report for postal fraudDid this help you?
- 4Blacklisting the customer and refusing to send further itemsDid this help you?
- 5Asking the delivery platform for a refund or dispute resolutionDid this help you?
- 6Using shipping insuranceDid this help you?
- 7Taking pictures of items before shippingDid this help you?
- 8Having pre-written responses ready for customersDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I have a customer who had food delivered to their business, which is in a strip center.”source ↗
“Have ya'll found an effective way around this? It happens ALL THE TIME - wrong apartment, wrong house, and in this case, wrong business.”source ↗
“SO DD can, on a rainy day, deliver the food 99m from your door, log their GPS - and then leave, and there's no refund?”source ↗
“7 days after delivery she emailed me saying she hadn’t received it.”source ↗
“That replacement was delivered at midday today. A couple of hours later she emails saying “the same thing has happened again” and that she can’t find the parcel.”source ↗
“What do I even do now?”source ↗
“I feel like it’s becoming more common for someone to email and say this was missing from my package, or my package shows delivered, but didn’t see it when I arrived home.”source ↗
“I know things happen, and I have the verbiage on what to do, but still hurts small business.”source ↗
“Are you seeing more "I never got my order" claims stacking up with carriers like UPS or FedEx, or has it mostly stayed the same?”source ↗
“i deal with it most often with yetis and fishing rods for some reason lol”source ↗
“File carrier claims are so time consuming and not a guarantee”source ↗
“A delivery app refused our evidence and refunded full order on a 1-item claim. How have others prevented this revenue loss?”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 2Order marked shipped but tracking doesn't update
- 16Why hasn't my online order shipped yet?
- 2Getting bounced between support reps after a delayed delivery
- 5Why do local drivers refuse or fake pickup for wholesale packages?
- 4Why are so many customer shipments getting lost with UPS and FedEx?
- 8Why are wedding invitations taking weeks or months to arrive in the mail?