You’re still a little all over the place, but I think I get what you're digging at.
There’s various ways of saying “don’t assume malicious intent when laziness, coincidence, or generalized incompetence will do”. And in your case, I think theft by an unknown third party is a real possibility and not something to be dismissed too quickly.
I think being calm and honest is the best way to go. These days, you don’t have to put the thumb screws to most businesses to get your legitimate situation taken care of. In fact, if you come on aggressively, the business is more likely to think you’re just angling for freebies for your inconvenience.
I’d like to highlight an interaction I had with a company recently. They provide a product which is heavily-marketed and premium-priced, but small and made of fairly simple materials, design being the crucial element. In short, their profit margin has to be fairly high. Imagine something like those Forever Spin fidget tops, simply as an example. Well, the product didn’t work for my purposes, so I sought a refund with return. They said here’s the refund and keep the product. But they added the caveat that if I were to exercise the same pattern again, they would request the return. This is what I consider a fair customer service interaction, but not everyone can write off product like that. It takes an understanding of how their business model works to know what they can do about it.
And then there are the aggressive companies that make you prove every step along the way, treat you as guilty until proven innocent, and begrudgingly “pay” out a 10% discount code when they’re in the wrong. Just don’t do business companies if you, acting in good faith, get treated as a scam artist.
