@toytrekker
I'm a bit late to this party, and I'm sorry to hear about the issues you're having with FedEx allowing your buyer to pick up a package requiring Signature Confirmation (SC) that was initially undeliverable. (Full disclosure, I'm one of the few sellers here for whom FedEx is my preferred shipper, particularly here in the Northeast Corridor and for the fragile items that I sell. I find them very easy to work with.)
If it makes you feel any better, even if you had not required SC when you initially purchased your FedEx label from eBay, FedEx would have added an SC requirement on your shipment after the fact due to the dollar amount. Earlier this year, FedEx lowered its automatic SC requirement, applying it to any shipment with a Declared Value over $499.
I know this because I recently had a sale for two items valued at about $630, and the buyer and I had a conversation about how SC would not be required here because the value of the parcel's contents was below eBay's stated $750 SC threshold. Since she was not planning on being home during weekdays, she was particularly pleased to hear this. It wasn't until I dropped the parcel off at FedEx and went online to check the tracking details, that I saw that the SC requirement was indeed applied to this shipment. I knew that I hadn't paid for SC, so I called eBay and then the FedEx depot in my town and asked FedEx to hold the parcel so that I could race back down there with a new label from my own FedEx account that I knew would not have the SC requirement. (I was assuming that this was some sort of eBay glitch.) It was then that the FedEx regional manager told me that swapping labels in this case wouldn't matter: He told me that FedEx's SC threshold had recently been lowered -- which neither I nor the eBay rep that I spoke to prior to this call knew -- and that FedEx's requirement superseded eBay's SC requirement, $750). So I contacted the buyer, who was thankfully very understanding, and we decided to let this delivery play out. Fortunately, FedEx delivered the parcel very early in the morning while my buyer was still at home, so she was able to sign for the parcel. She loved the items, and my sale had a happy ending. But there was considerable hand-wringing prior to delivery for both of us, because my buyer absolutely did not want SC, and I was worried that having that requirement slapped on by an entity other than me might make me look less than trustworthy and amateurish in front of this very important customer.
So, if FedEx is your preferred shipper and SC is something you wish to side-step, just make sure the value of your sale is less than $499. Otherwise, you'll need to use another carrier for shipments between $500-749.
Kevin
