@mjwl2006 wrote:
Please clarify:
"... but only signature confirmation will protect a seller against an INR that could obligate the seller to refund."
I'm looking for you to cite the policy where this is explicitly stated.
It's not a matter of policy, but of levels of seller risk. Aside from Paypal's policy of signature confirmation on items over $750, there is no policy obligating sellers to protect themselves if they prefer not to.
However, the fact is that INRs by buyers due to items which don't actually get into the seller's hands (e.g. doorstep theft or parcels otherwise going astray after delivery) can't be countered by the seller through ordinary tracking or delivery confirmation. Despite Paypal's required level for SC of $750, I generally use SC for items over about $250, particularly if I see that the address is an apartment building or might be vulnerable to doorstep theft.
When I lived in Victoria, B.C. I had the experience of my parcels being put in a neighbour's box in a community mailbox setting on more than one occasion. Fortunately I had honest neighbours. Signature confirmation would have prevented this, because only a pick-up card would be left at the community box. The same thing applies to at-door deliveries if no one is home to personally receive and sign for the parcel.
For similar reasons, SC will also prevent final destination damage of a tracked parcel successfully delivered to an address but left unattended, either on a doorstep or in a community box. This could be a critical issue for valuable items that are sensitive to heat, freezing, or humidity. I'm thinking I would not want to ship, for example, a valuable electronic gadget without SC in summer.
Many of us have had the experience of a parcel showing "delivered" on the tracking information that never actually reached the intended recipient. In the one case I had to deal with, it turned out a neighbour had picked up the item to get it out of the rain, and it luckily did get back to my buyer before I had to refund.
A related risk of course is a fraudulent INR claim, i.e. buyers who hope to get their item for free by claiming they didn't actually receive it. We've seen this sort of thing reported on the boards. Unfortunately, without SC the seller has no positive proof the parcel got into the buyer's hands.
Granted, most buyers won't be aware of these subtleties of seller risk, and may be deterred, certainly from bogus claims, by seeing tracking. But a buyer who really hasn't receive his or her item due to mishap or theft is entitled to turn to the seller and/or eBay for reimbursement, tracking or not. If the seller can't show a receipt (signature), the only way to avoid a defect (i.e. to resolve an INR claim) would be to provide a full refund.
In the end, the choice of using SC or not is a matter of personal risk tolerance (as long as the value is under $750). I would think the risk probably rises the more destinations a seller ships to.
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