In the brick scenario, lets assume I am the brick sender and you are the recipient.
You would get a bill, and if you received the package, you could prove that it was a brick, and you didn’t order it, and thus the customs declaration form signed by me was fraudulent and you would not be liable to pay the duties.
If the duties were particularly high (enough to bankrupt you) it would be held at the nearest port agreed upon, and you be notified to come pay the duties before it’s delivered. Again thats where you would be able to show it wasn’t an item you wanted. Or you could refuse it all together and it would be up to be me to pay to get it back.
If this were a bigger problem the freight carrier would work to identify me and bring charges of committing various fraud.
As an aside shipping goods DAP (vs DDP) is risky for this reason—if buyers aren’t made aware if additional shipping costs at time of delivery they may refuse to pay in which case the seller is responsible for paying to get their item back, including additional storage fees.
You don't really need to (although as another sibling commenter wrote, you might need a sworn statement or affidavit just establishing that you are claiming not to have ordered the thing). You just need the other party not to be able to prove the contrary. The burden of proof is on them. (IANAL)
Something like that actually happened to me: FedEx will not listen to you, not care, not even give you a way to raise such a request. If you persist in not paying, this will be sent to debt collection. If you persist in not paying, your credit score will be affected.
There is simply no part of FedEx customer service that would deal with it, or if there is, it's well hidden. Yes you could probably go to court over this, but this is almost certainly not worth the time and money.
Source: spent countless hours dealing with this problem in 2023.
False dichotomy. Don’t use customer service; nor “go to court.” Just send them a legal Cease and Desist letter re: their making of fraudulent charges against you.
The real “customer service” department of any corporation is their legal department. Someone will personally look into your case in response to a legal notice, I promise you. And, in the process of determining whether your claim has standing, they’ll ask the people who can actually address it — and boom, your problem will go away.
You would get a bill, and if you received the package, you could prove that it was a brick, and you didn’t order it, and thus the customs declaration form signed by me was fraudulent and you would not be liable to pay the duties.
If the duties were particularly high (enough to bankrupt you) it would be held at the nearest port agreed upon, and you be notified to come pay the duties before it’s delivered. Again thats where you would be able to show it wasn’t an item you wanted. Or you could refuse it all together and it would be up to be me to pay to get it back.
If this were a bigger problem the freight carrier would work to identify me and bring charges of committing various fraud.
As an aside shipping goods DAP (vs DDP) is risky for this reason—if buyers aren’t made aware if additional shipping costs at time of delivery they may refuse to pay in which case the seller is responsible for paying to get their item back, including additional storage fees.