Idk, if the tracking doesn't say "picked up by recipient", a refund should be given no questions asked. It's then up to the seller and shipping company to figure out who screwed up amongst themselves.

You can purchase package insurance if you’re willing to go that far.

How do I purchase package insurance on something Amazon ships to me?

In theory, Amazon's T&C's attempt to pass on the risk of loss to me after delivery of the item to a carrier. In practice, this is far less clear, because of merchant agreements / cardholder agreements and overall FTC regulation of goods sold directly to consumers.

But it may be moot, anyways: if Amazon decides to screw me, they have a bunch of digital assets that they hold hostage and will remove my access to if I initiate a legal dispute or chargeback, even if I'm in the right.

Is there anything preventing you from having separate amazon account for digital assets and physical orders? That seems like almost a requirement give what I've heard about them in many comments throughout this thread.

Amazon routinely disables 'related accounts' when suspending an account. In practice, they know who you are on each, because of payment verification, etc. So I'm not sure how surefire of a solution this is.

oof, that's some distopic shit right there! How haven't they gotten sued over that?? (rhetorical question, the answer is obviously money)

I can't get package insurance as the recipient - only the sender can do that. And I wouldn't want to - the sender is the one picking the packaging, delivery provider and all of that, so it is their responsibility to get insurance. If they don't, it is their responsibility to cover for a lost package out-of-pocket.

And I'm not just using the term "responsibility" im a moral sense here - consumer protection laws in many places agree with this. The seller is an "informed market actor, taking on the risks of the transaction". The consumer is not an "equal market actor" and is therefore afforded protections from the risk.

So you are saying all deliveries need to require signatures?

No, signatures are a stupid relic of the past that needs to die out as soon as possible. But anything delivered in-person should be authorised with a one-time code that you get with your order confirmation and everything else (if small enough value) should be placed in a secure area (like a mailbox).