If the buyer paid you in CASH or cash-like instrument (money order, wire transfer), then you have the upper hand. if they paid by Paypal (with or without a credit card) or credit card directly, then the buyer holds ALL the cards - and there's no two ways about it.

As a buyer, if you've paid for something with your credit card and had it shipped via UPS or FedEx or some such courier, whether you get the packge or not, if it wasn't signed for, you can say anything you want. There's no way to PROVE you received it. FedEx or UPS employee's word is simply not good enough.

Heck, the credit card company will reverse charges on Paypal even if the package was signed for at the door (if the buyer pushes). Because there's no signature for the sale and/or no physical card-swipe, the buyer can pretty much have any such transaction reversed (watch out for scamming buyers).

The goal here is to push this on to FedEx. It should be their liability if they left the package unattended and the package was subsequently not received (or no proof of reception can be provided). As a seller you have to make sure you didn't authorize FedEx to leave the package unattended. As a buyer, one would only need to make sure they haven't signed anything (and as I said, if it was a credit card transaction, and was signed for by anyone else in the house, even you, you can still get charges reversed).

Bruno