Caveat Emptor
I'd pin a little blame on UPS, too. Their COD tags are non-obvious, and
everyone gets burned once by them. The casual user would think that "COD" means
"cash on delivery" and that the tag's somehow guaranteed. Unless you write
"cash only" in a little unmarked line on the form, the consignee can give the
UPS driver a personal or company check. Of course, there's many ways to stop
payment on many forms of checks, even ones that people think are unstoppable.
And you never know what's in the box until you open it, so as someone pointed
out, it could be full of rocks for all you know. I've heard of software
companies using this "box of rocks" method for collecting cash from
unscrupulous distributors who think they're getting new product when in fact a
software company is using a novel method of collecting on overdue invoices.
🙂