The driver leaves without delivering, and a signature requirement is one of the few things no instruction from you can waive — the sender sets it, so only they can change it. You should get a door tag and an entry recording the attempt, along with what happens next: usually another attempt on the following business day, up to a limited number of tries. Adult signature adds a further constraint, requiring identification from someone over eighteen, so a teenager at home won’t resolve it. The practical options are arranging a redirect to a staffed location, or ensuring someone suitable is present for the next attempt.

FedEx holds packages for 7 business days at FedEx Office locations and authorized retail partner sites (such as Walgreens or Dollar General). For pickup directly from a FedEx Express hub or freight station, the hold window is 5 business days. The notification or door tag you receive contains the exact deadline that applies to your shipment, which is the date to trust. Once that period expires, the package is returned to the sender. Bring a valid government-issued photo ID matching the name on the delivery label, along with your tracking number or door tag. Be sure to check operating hours before traveling, as retail partner locations follow their host store's business hours rather than standard courier facility hours.

Read the delivery detail before anything else — it records the time, often the specific location, and whether a signature was taken or a photo captured. That detail resolves most of these: packages go to side doors, back porches, reception desks, mailrooms and neighbours far more often than they go missing. Ask everyone at your address, check the spots a driver might consider sheltered, and give it until evening, since scans occasionally precede the drop. Still nothing tomorrow? Report it to FedEx with the exact time and what the record shows, and tell the retailer simultaneously — they carry responsibility for the order reaching you and can refund or replace.

Possibly — it depends on how far into the day you are. Once a package is loaded and out for delivery, the window narrows sharply, though requests made early in the morning can still catch it. The carrier’s own delivery management service is where to try, using your tracking number — and a redirect to a staffed location or retail partner is generally easier to arrange than a change of address, which may not be permitted at all. Where a shipper has restricted changes, only they can authorise one. If the attempt has already failed, redirecting the next one is straightforward and worth doing immediately.

The entries name the stage but rarely the specific obstacle, so treat them as a signal to look elsewhere. Clearance delays come down to three things: a payment owed, a document needed, or simply a queue. If it’s money or paperwork, you’ll be contacted directly — check email, text and spam, because those requests are missed constantly and the package waits indefinitely until answered. If nothing has arrived and the entry hasn’t changed in several days, the carrier’s clearance team can tell you which of the three applies. Where a document is needed, the sender usually has to supply it rather than you.

A single day either way is ordinary and doesn’t indicate a problem — estimates recalculate as packages move through the network, and a late flight or a busy hub shifts them routinely. Express services carry firmer commitments than ground ones, and where a guaranteed service misses its date, a refund of the shipping cost is often available to whoever paid. What matters more than the estimate is whether entries keep appearing: a package generating location updates is coming, whatever the date says. An estimate that moves while the record stays frozen is the combination worth questioning.

Two days there is normal, and it’s often the last pause before delivery. A package at a local facility is waiting to be sorted onto a route, and a couple of days there can reflect nothing more than volume, a weekend, or its arrival after the day’s loading finished. The pattern to watch is whether a subsequent entry appears: once it shows as out for delivery, you’re within hours. Where three or four days pass with no movement at a facility that’s genuinely close to you, that’s unusual enough to ask about, since it suggests a routing or address issue someone needs to resolve manually.

You may also want to explore tracking for these other destinations:

• See deliveries to and from United States

• Where's your Canada parcel?

• Follow your shipment in Great Britain

• Got a parcel from Germany? Track it here

• Track parcels going to or from China

• Check on your Mexico delivery

These carrier pages are worth a look too:

• Got a USPS number? Start here

• Check your UPS shipment

• OnTrac updates in one place

• Waiting on LaserShip? Track it here

• Track your Asendia USA parcels

• Following a ABF Freight delivery?