It's a constant and recurring pet peeve of mine when sellers ship an item to me with signature required when the price is well below the threshold for where Ebay requires it. As someone who works a regular job, it's virtually impossible for me to physically be present for delivery, and consequently for USPS delivers it means a Saturday morning trip to the PO that often takes an hour(15 minutes each way, 30 minutes usually at the PO).
Not too long ago, I bought something that was $230 including shipping-it's below the "old" signature threshold, which was $250, but the last I checked that had been raised to $750.
In any case, delivery was attempted on Friday, and apparently they're going to re-attempt tomorrow(I'm currently out of town and won't return until tomorrow evening). Past experience with Fed-Ex tells me that they attempt delivery 3 times then return to the sender.
Often, I can get around signature required issues with Fed-Ex by re-directing shipments to a Fed-Ex office store-I use one that's about a half mile from my work, and can either run over there on my lunch break or go after work. Alternatively, if I know ahead of time(again, didn't expect it on this shipment, and it wasn't stated as such in the shipping information) I will just send items directly to work(I have to be careful with this since UPS and Fed-Ex come to the room next to my office and I'm often the one who signs for them, but USPS goes through the campus mail room and they get funny about personal packages).
Sometimes, though-and this is the case with this particular shipper-the shipment is specified such that only the sender can make the request to deliver to a Fed-Ex office location. When I realized that the tracking info showed "direct signature required" last Tuesday(well ahead of the scheduled delivery on Friday) I contacted the seller and asked if they would request hold for pick-up at the specified Fed-Ex Office store. They never responded to my request.
I know that I can sign the slip and request delivery to my neighbors, but the only neighbors I actually know work about the same schedule I do so there's no guarantee that they would be able to sign for it either.
So, in a round-a-bout way I'm asking if anyone has any suggestions as to how I can actually get this package delivered. Also, I do WANT the item, but in the even that it gets returned to the sender, how is that treated? I know you forfeit buyer protection if you refuse delivery, but how does that work if the package simply is "undeliverable?"
Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions.
