No Refund for Undelivered MacBooks
Six0Four (via Hacker News):
Ordered 2 Macbooks for $2500 from Apple (Canada). Paid for their same day delivery service which they use Uber for and it says delivered but it wasn’t. Driver stole them or he delivered to the wrong person that stole them. If he actually delivered to the wrong address, I live in a high rise that does have cameras but only in the lobby which means once the Uber driver got on the elevator who’s to say he didn’t get the wrong unit and it’s his word against mine.
I contacted Apple and they said they would reach out to Uber and get back to me. 12 hours later I got an email from Apple saying:
“We have completed our review with the carrier regarding your shipment and have determined that we are unable to provide a replacement or process a refund.”
I couldn’t believe my eyes. Picked up the phone and called them and what they didnt tell me in the email was that I should file a police report (which ive done). They said do the police report and the police will reach out to Apple. Problem is I talked to the police and they said they dont reach out to anyone, Apple reaches out to them once I give Apple the police report number. Apple also said they came to that decision because Uber says the item shows as delivered.
[…]
Spoke with Apple Retail Executive Relations. They’re not changing their decision. I get nothing back. Case closed.
I’ve never used the courier service, but I assume that Apple probably makes you opt out of requiring a signature on delivery, thereby waiving some of your rights. I make it a point not to opt out when ordering a Mac via normal shipping, but in practice I don’t know how much that helps. Sometimes the driver “helpfully” leaves the package without getting a signature. And when I do sign, these days it’s with one of those horrible styluses so it doesn’t really look like my actual signature, anyway.
Trillion dollar company uses exploitative company’s (Uber) labor, leaves customer with the bill when poorly vetted and paid labor steals the goods. Customer is afraid to issue chargeback because they might get kicked out of the digital feudal state…
It’s wild to me that the credit card companies (and the law in general) actually allow this. The chargeback procedure was created exactly for situations like this, and designed to be maximally friendly to customers at the expense of vendors. One would think that “you cannot exact revenge on customers when a transaction goes wrong” would be credit card rules 101.
Previously:
- Qbix Calendar Apps and the Mac App Store
- Apple Sales Support and UPS
- Newegg Refund Scandal
- Amazon Ships $7,000 Empty Camera Box
- Apple Support Tells Customers to Ask Developer for Refund
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Shouldn't Apple have the serial # as well as any other info from the Mac that they can trace on the "net". Seems that Apple should be able to trace it with all their high high tech equipment.
It’s a stolen item. Apple should be able to track it. If they’re really going to be a jerk to the customer they should chargeback.
I *NEVER* use couriers, if I have to use UPS then I ship to the nearest UPS store. And go pick it up. I’ve NEVER had a problem as if you use the local UPS store you know the locals.
Fedex has problems, “private couriers” I would not even touch.
Moral of the story is if at all possible make sure you know the last pair of hands handling your mult-THOUSAND dollar shipment.
And: Don’t think of Apple as anything special. They can also get a bad case of “bad vendor” and require a chargeback.
First of all, it's insane that Apple thinks this is OK
Second of all, Geriatricguy is right. There's absolutely no reason Apple couldn't easily solve this problem if they wanted to.
This is not new - every time a new iPhone comes out there’s always reports of uber drivers doing exactly that.
Same with FedEx - don’t trust them to deliver your used phone to Apple for Trade-Ins.
In the city where I’m from, the local PD suspects there are accomplices in FedEx and UPS that’s feeding tracking numbers of high value packages to porch pirates, who scoop in an hour or so later to steal it, no matter how well hidden the package was.
All that to say, if you can, do in person pickup if at all possible.
I'm inclined the believe that all of that expensive, cumbersome security and tracking they've shoveled into macs and macOS over the last several years -- in spite of all of the onerous complexity and bugs that comes with it -- is not in fact for helping everyday people in situations like this, but rather for Apple expanding their control. The fact that they outright refuse to use these mechanisms in an actual situation that warrants it gives credence to this.
> In the city where I’m from, the local PD suspects there are accomplices in FedEx and UPS that’s feeding tracking numbers of high value packages to porch pirates, who scoop in an hour or so later to steal it, no matter how well hidden the package was.
I've had Apple packages redirected to a Fedex store on the other side of the city from me twice. I managed to get there and pick it up before anyone else did both times, but talk about an infuriating process.
This is awful.
I have used the courier delivery service a few times now, but am extremely skeptical and won't use it for any high ticket items.
The last time I used it, I ordered a magsafe charger and a homekit security camera, $250~ for everything in the order. The courier driver took over 24 hours to deliver my stuff, and drove over 35+ miles away from my home and the Apple Store. I reported it to Apple and Uber and essentially, I was just told to wait. The courier dropped it off the next night on my porch without ringing the doorbell or getting a signature.
