# What's my responsibility if UPS delivers my package to a neighbor who keeps it? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 1, 2004, 5:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-my-responsibility-if-ups-delivers-my-package-to-a-neighbor-who-keeps-it/262597 "2004-09-01T17:04:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 9:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-my-responsibility-if-ups-delivers-my-package-to-a-neighbor-who-keeps-it/262597/21 "2004-09-01T21:55:59Z")
When I’ve signed for a neighbor’s package, I’ve kept it until they asked for it OR I waited to see that they were home. ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-my-responsibility-if-ups-delivers-my-package-to-a-neighbor-who-keeps-it/262597/22 "2004-09-01T22:13:46Z")
What are the legal ramifications of signing for a package delivered by UPS or FedEx and intended for a neighbor that (unknowningly to you or the carrier, or maybe even the neighbor) contains something illegal (drugs, child porn, WMD, etc)? Are you liable? Is the carrier? Is the neighbor? Or is only the sender liable? ---
**Author:** ![Otto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/bbe5ce/32.png) [@Otto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Otto)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-my-responsibility-if-ups-delivers-my-package-to-a-neighbor-who-keeps-it/262597/23 "2004-09-01T23:22:09Z")
> [@drhess](#): > > I guess there’s the issue of how negligent it was. If the person only wanted to be signed by them, they could have specificed and signing for you is not greater than the USPS just leaving packages my doors, etc. Still, I don’t know what I’m really “signing”. Let me run this through the translator… Nope, still not getting it. I’m going to need a little more subject-verb agreement and tense consistency. > [@Pleonast](#): > > What are the legal ramifications of signing for a package delivered by UPS or FedEx and intended for a neighbor that (unknowningly to you or the carrier, or maybe even the neighbor) contains something illegal (drugs, child porn, WMD, etc)? Are you liable? Is the carrier? Is the neighbor? Or is only the sender liable? Reasonably the carrier would have no way of knowing what was in the package. Reasonably the neighbor would have no way of knowing what was in the package. So it’s unlikely that either the carrier or the neighbor would be held legally liable or responsible for possessing the contents of the package. The sender and the recipient would bear the consequences. ---
**Author:** ![rockle](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/73ab20/32.png) [@rockle](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rockle)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-my-responsibility-if-ups-delivers-my-package-to-a-neighbor-who-keeps-it/262597/24 "2004-09-01T23:41:11Z")
> [@Voyager](#): > > Did they have some sort of relationship with the sender? \ I can’t imagine anyone sending a clock radio, though, and it certainly would not apply to merchandise addessed to someone else. I think what happened was, they signed up for something but didn’t know it – kind of like when you fill out a card at the deli to be entered to win a free vacation to East Gybip and they change your phone company. Not sure what they signed up for, though, or how it got fixed. They were told they had to pay for the clock radio because they opened and used it, but everything else was just sent back unopened. (Which actually caused another problem, because my Dad ended up sending back a Christmas gift a few months later when he didn’t recognize the address it was coming from.) ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 1, 2004, 11:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-my-responsibility-if-ups-delivers-my-package-to-a-neighbor-who-keeps-it/262597/25 "2004-09-01T23:49:08Z")
Shouldn’t you be talking to Amazon? Your contract was with them and in the end, you didn’t get your item; the job of chasing UPS for reparation should be theirs, shouldn’t it? Or do things work differently over there? ---
**Author:** ![BobT](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/8e8cbc/32.png) [@BobT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobT)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2004, 6:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-my-responsibility-if-ups-delivers-my-package-to-a-neighbor-who-keeps-it/262597/26 "2004-09-02T06:40:24Z")
Today when I got home from work one of my neighbors gave me the package saying that they had “forgotten” about it for a week. I have a feeling that UPS called them. ---
**Author:** ![Meurglys](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/258eb7/32.png) [@Meurglys](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Meurglys)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2004, 11:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-my-responsibility-if-ups-delivers-my-package-to-a-neighbor-who-keeps-it/262597/27 "2004-09-02T11:50:35Z")
Glad to hear it! re the illegible signature thing, here in the UK at least one of the carriers (TNT, I think) gets the driver/deliveryman to ask how you spell your name, he then keys it into his little keyboard and asks you sign the electronic screen bit. I guess knowing what the signature is meant to be helps cut down on fraud a bit. Curiously, DHL seem to have reverted to clipboards and a ‘sign & print your name’ paper system here instead of handheld electronic devices - possibly while they wrestle with compatability problems having bought Omega Securicor, a large UK courier… ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2004, 5:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-my-responsibility-if-ups-delivers-my-package-to-a-neighbor-who-keeps-it/262597/28 "2004-09-02T17:56:17Z")
The OP has been taken care of, so I’ll digress a little. > [@BobT](#): > > The vendor is looking into it and they seem to be a small operation since all my emails come from one guy and he’s already asked me to change my rating of the company on Amazon. (I gave them a 1-star rating.) If the vendor was helping you resolve the problem, why did you give them a one star rating? It sounds like it was UPS’s problem. A mistake is usually a chance to see exactly how good a company really is. > [@Mercury](#): > > I ordered a present for my mom and got a bit suspicious after about a week had gone by. UPS’s tracking site said that it had been delivered, and when I called them I discovered that it had been delivered to a neighbour. They gave me the person’s name and address. This person had signed for it, and UPS told me that if I wanted it, I could go ask them for it. > > I decided to cancel the charge on my credit card instead. Same deal here. UPS makes a mistake and you give a black mark to the merchant? A chargeback **absolutely** hurts the merchant, especially if it’s a small business. A chargeback for failure to deliver goods is about as bad to a merchant account as a bank cancelling one of your credit cards for non payment. It doesn’t take many chargebacks for a small business to have their merchant account cancelled, which can be catastrophic for a web based business. I understand that both of you want the product that you ordered, however it sounds like you are punishing the wrong people. ---
**Author:** ![RogueRacer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/7ab992/32.png) [@RogueRacer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RogueRacer)\ **Post date:** [September 2, 2004, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-my-responsibility-if-ups-delivers-my-package-to-a-neighbor-who-keeps-it/262597/29 "2004-09-02T18:01:35Z")
> [@](#): > > A chargeback for failure to deliver goods is about as bad to a merchant account as a bank cancelling one of your credit cards for non payment. Hmmm… incomplete thought there. It should read like this. _A chargeback for failure to deliver goods is about as bad to a merchant account as a bank cancelling one of your credit cards for non payment **is to your credit record.** _ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/whats-my-responsibility-if-ups-delivers-my-package-to-a-neighbor-who-keeps-it/262597.md?page=1)