What workarounds did people try for "Package marked delivered but customer didn't receive it"?

Community members documented 7 workarounds: 1. Switching to alternative shipping carriers that provide delivery photos 2. Integrating third-party package protection apps for customers to opt-in 3. Setting up a self-funded package protection system 4. Eating the cost and fulfilling 1% reships for missing orders 5. Opening an investigation with the shipping carrier and deciding based on their ruling. 6. Using the wait time during carrier investigations as a filter, since scammers usually demand immediate refunds while honest customers wait. 7. Updating terms and conditions to clearly state the business is not liable for packages stolen from porches.

Package marked delivered but customer didn't receive it

Carriers treat the final delivery scan as proof, making insurance claims basically impossible when a package goes missing. Without a system to track serial claimers across different stores, merchants are forced to either automatically refund or absorb the cost of increasing reships.

Overview

Last updated Nov 8, 2026

People affected2 accounts across 2 forums

Workarounds found7 items attempted

Community agreement10 total upvotes

What people tried

Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.

7 items+ Contribute

Found another way around this?

Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.

1
Switching to alternative shipping carriers that provide delivery photos
Did this help you?
2
Integrating third-party package protection apps for customers to opt-in
Did this help you?
3
Setting up a self-funded package protection system
Did this help you?
4
Eating the cost and fulfilling 1% reships for missing orders
Did this help you?
5
Opening an investigation with the shipping carrier and deciding based on their ruling.
Did this help you?
6
Using the wait time during carrier investigations as a filter, since scammers usually demand immediate refunds while honest customers wait.
Did this help you?
7
Updating terms and conditions to clearly state the business is not liable for packages stolen from porches.
Did this help you?

Tried another approach not listed above?+ Share your workaround ↑

In their words

Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.

r/ecommerce1 person · November 2026

“What are we doing to stop people from claiming their packages are missing but it shows delivered? Do you just automatically reship or refund?”source ↗

“What about serial claimers? Why isn’t there something to track customers across stores”source ↗

Royal-Market-4177 · r/ecommerce · 6 upvotes

r/shopify1 person · October 2026

“Lately we’ve been seeing a lot of packages marked “delivered” that customers never got, plus some that never got a pickup scan at all.”source ↗

“DHL hands off to USPS for the final delivery, and USPS’s delivery scan counts as proof, so claims are basically impossible.”source ↗

“We’re running about 1% reships right now. I know that’s roughly average, but it’s been trending up heading into Q4.”source ↗

glewy42 · r/shopify · 4 upvotes

Where this came up

r/ecommerce r/shopify customer service e-commerce ecommerce fraud prevention fulfillment shipping

Package marked delivered but customer didn't receive it

What people tried

Found another way around this?

Package marked delivered but customer didn't receive it

In their words

Where this came up

People with this problem also raised