Not the carrier, in most cases. USPS and UPS each publish their own rule that a theft discovered after their tracking shows the parcel delivered sits outside what they will pay a claim for, and we read both pages on 2026-08-25 to check the current wording. Once the carrier is out of the picture, who actually eats the loss depends on how the item changed hands in the first place.
Before it, the carrier owns the outcome. After it, somebody else does.
| Carrier | What its own page says | Source |
|---|---|---|
| USPS | Loss or missing contents occurring after USPS delivery is the second entry on the Nonpayable Claims list in Domestic Mail Manual 609.4.3, alongside sentimental-value claims and consequential loss. Quoted in full below. | pe.usps.com, read 2026-08-25 |
| UPS | “Packages that you've chosen for our driver to release… are not eligible to be submitted for lost claims,” covering a signature-required address released at the door or a My Choice authorization. | ups.com, File a Claim, read 2026-08-25 |
| FedEx | Runs its own separate claims process with its own filing deadlines. Its claims and terms pages both returned a system error on 2026-08-25, so nothing is restated here as current FedEx wording; our FedEx signature guide covers the service side. | fedex.com unreachable 2026-08-25 |
Loss, damage, or have missing contents, that occurred after delivery by the USPS.USPS Domestic Mail Manual, 609.4.3b, pe.usps.com, read 2026-08-25
The two carriers we could check today draw the line in almost the same place: once their own scan says delivered, a theft that follows is not something their claims process was built to pay. That is a narrower promise than most people assume a tracking number carries.
On eBay, Etsy or a similar platform, the seller answers to the buyer first under that platform's own protection policy, regardless of the delivered scan. eBay requires the seller to have bought signature confirmation once an order's total reaches $750, including shipping and tax, to keep that protection on a theft or item-not-received report; below that line the seller is protected without it.
Most storefront checkout terms carry no carve-out for a porch theft. Sellers commonly replace or refund anyway, less out of obligation than to avoid a chargeback, but nothing in the carrier's rule forces that outcome once tracking shows delivered.
A shipped item sold through a private listing has no platform protection layer behind it. The loss generally stays with whoever paid, unless the seller offered signature confirmation before the sale closed and the buyer was home to use it.
Reading these three side by side, the pattern is the same one that shows up on our page about who pays for shipping damage: the carrier is rarely the payer of first resort, and the platform or the sale terms decide who is.
Every rule above assumes the parcel could be left unattended in the first place. A signature requirement removes that assumption: the driver cannot complete delivery without handing the box to a person, so there is no delivered-but-stolen gap for any of these rules to apply to. Our eBay signature confirmation guide covers the $750 threshold in more detail, and UPS and FedEx both sell the same kind of coverage on a normal parcel label.
Every platform and carrier revises its own policy without notice. Treat the figures above as what these pages published on the date shown, and check the current wording before relying on it for a specific dispute.
Not the carrier once a delivery scan exists. USPS lists loss or missing contents after delivery among the exclusions from its own coverage, and UPS says a package released to a signature-required address or through My Choice is not eligible for a lost-package claim, both per the pages cited below, read 2026-08-25. Responsibility then follows how the item was sold: a marketplace seller answers to the buyer under that platform's protection policy, and a private sale usually leaves the buyer holding the loss.
Not for the underlying rule. USPS and UPS each state in their own published pages that a theft discovered after their tracking shows delivery falls outside what they will pay a claim for. FedEx runs a parallel claims process with its own deadlines, covered on our FedEx signature guide; its claims pages were not reachable when we checked on 2026-08-25.
Nothing pays out automatically. The carrier's job ended at the delivery scan, so the next move is toward whoever sold the item: message the seller, open a marketplace dispute, or file a shipping protection claim if one was bought. A police or Postal Inspection Service report documents the crime for the record, on a separate track described on our mail theft reporting page.
On marketplaces, yes. eBay requires signature confirmation for seller protection once an order's total, including shipping and tax, reaches $750, per eBay's signature confirmation policy read 2026-08-25. It also changes what can happen physically: a parcel that has to be handed to a person cannot be left on a porch at all.
No. A police or Postal Inspection Service report opens an investigation into the theft; it does not move money. Money comes only from the seller, a marketplace resolution, or a shipping protection claim, and filing the crime report does not start any of those on its own.