[mothered]

I had downloaded the dpd app a long time ago and had set a "safe place" to "rear porch".

^ That makes you responsible for loss of goods.

I didn't specifically designate a safe place for this individual order

As per your comment below, the app defaulted the safe place.

whatever settings you have on the app become default for every delivery you then receive.

it wasn't even left in the safe place I had supposedly requested

Where was It left?