enigma1 - 2:47 pm on Nov 1, 2010 (gmt 0)

shouldn't the merchant be expected to intervene on my behalf and make things right?

Ideally yes.

After all, it was the merchant's choice not to take reasonable efforts to ensure safe delivery.

That's a gray area. I'm sure the merchant would say he did take all necessary steps and as I mentioned requiring a signature doesn't make the delivery immune to theft.

Check with Amazon see if there is a requirement for merchants to ship with delivery confirmation. With items I ordered in the past from them, it was always the case but it maybe because I used the standard amazon shipping method during the checkout.

But for a regular online store I do not agree. And even I display with my shipping options "Registered Delivery" people pick up standard shipping always (cheaper) and if something ever goes wrong I am sure they're going to say the exact things you said. Because after all I did not specify that standard delivery doesn't include signature confirmation.

Since ecommerce changes so fast and with so many theft incidents, you need as a consumer to verify everything in advance, in case there is no FAQ that specifies something about it. If I'm on the checkout page and there is no mention of a registered delivery then I assume no signature confirmation.

Because popular private carriers typically require signature confirmation, you would think that would be always the case. But at least with Fedex that isn't true. The default is no signature confirmation (with the latest spec I checked). And of course you have cases like yours where now there is trouble.