My ups guy and FedEx will not let you open a box before it is paid for i know this for a fact i have asked numerous times and no way will they do it they will put it right back on the truck at least in my area anyway.
And i ship all over the country and out of the us also and let me tell ya when you eat the shipping both ways and you sell on a small profit margin like i do it dont take long until these cod's will eat you alive I'm just about done with cod if i lose a sell over that then i will just have to lose the sell because i have to ad the shipping charges right back into the cost and why should i or my customers have to en cure the cost of someone Else's negligence and not taking there order in the first place.
i do except all types of payments and still i get a lot of people wanting to ship cod but it just is getting to hard to do when you get back as many as i do .
I think you should check on whom ever you are buying from and get all there info also PH# address and person you talked to .
i got burned a couple of years ago for 1800.00 dollars myself so i can understand where you dont want to send your money to a stranger just do a check on them and it may help.