Porch profile: the proof you could hand over, mapped before shipping
Tell us where parcels land and the panel shows, card by card, which kind of proof is within your reach and which official page produces it.
Fill in your delivery spot
Five answers, no dates, no amounts, no tracking status. Nothing is sent anywhere; the panel is worked out in your browser.
How to use the porch profile, answer by answer
Here is how to use the tool, one answer at a time. Pick the place where your deliveries actually end up, not where you wish they would. If the courier usually leaves things in the building’s mailroom, choose the shared lobby even if you live in a house-sized flat.
For the camera question, “my own camera” means one whose recordings you can open yourself. A camera run by a building manager, a locker operator or a shop counts as someone else’s, because getting a clip means asking them.
The number of boxes is about how CNshopper packs the order, which you see on the parcel screen. The country decides which police and post office links appear. The last question is whether you are adding Package Protection at parcel checkout; if the option did not appear for your parcel, pick “not offered, or not sure”.
Reading one strip of the panel
Each of the four strips has three parts. On the left is the card name with a one-line summary of when it applies. In the middle is the proof the card asks for, sorted into what your answers put within reach and what depends on someone else. On the right are the official pages in your country that produce that proof.
When you select no protection, the strips are greyed to show that they are reference material rather than confirmation of cover. Every card still explains its conditions. Tracking status and elapsed time are not entered here, so you must check those before deciding which case describes your parcel.
At the bottom sits the one line that never changes with your answers: the policy says protection covers product value only, never international shipping fees, customs duties and taxes, or the protection fee itself.
What the profile leaves out on purpose
This profile helps you prepare evidence; it cannot establish a claim deadline or eligibility for your parcel. It does not collect dates, values or tracking status. Compare the actual tracking record and purchased terms yourself, and contact support promptly rather than waiting for the end of a stated claim period.
It also never tells you to change where parcels are left. That is your arrangement with your household and the carrier; the profile only describes what proof the arrangement you have makes realistic.
Same five questions, different households
Four common setups show how far the answers move the proof. The grid below lights the Porch Theft slots for each one; the profile does the same for all four cards.
- Police reportwithin reach
- Camera footageunlikely
- Carrier confirmationdepends
- Other evidencedepends
Flat with a shared lobby and no camera you control: a police report is the slot most within reach.
A parcel locker or a pickup counter changes the picture most. Delivery there leaves the handover in someone else’s system, so the carrier or the counter is the natural source of a record, and a police report becomes a back-up rather than the obvious first proof.
