The outside of the box was relatively generic. That said, it clearly stated B&H as the shipper and given its size and weight and the shipper I think it would be easy to deduce that it was something expensive for someone who sees a lot of packages go by.
And once you’ve poked a hole in it the white MacBook Pro box would be obvious.
I wonder if Fedex weighs packages routinely while they are on their way through the system. If they did so, it might be possible to narrow down when the item was stolen.
Yeah. I understand that some level of “shrinkage” probably needs to be tolerated in service of keeping the gears turning efficiently enough… but still. My instinct is if the culture is such that there is a great chance of getting away with it then you end up with most of the laptops, etc. you ship being stolen. But I don’t have any special insight into how these companies work. Would the loss of ~$3299 to FedEx or the insurance company justify a deep investigation?
This reminds me of an experience I’ve had. My wife ordered something from a company in Calgary. Some days later she got a notice that it had been delivered. We live in a condo and most deliveries are to the mail room. So I went to look for it. No package. I called the merchant and it turned out that the address was wrong. Whether my wife said it wrong or they heard it wrong is not clear, but it was sent to 805, not our 865. There is no 805. The numbers go 785, then 815, then 865, then 845 (huh?, but they do), then 875, then 905. We are still waiting for a refund from FedEx. Bastards!
I’ve discussed this with local postmaster. Apparently they can scan the item when they take it from the PO. Hard to believe that’s ok with the PO but apparently it is. Drives me nuts.
We’ve definitely been seeing, the last few years, some rather spectacular failures on the part of both FedEx and UPS to do their jobs in a reasonable way.
There was this particular example, in which a package was unreasonably delayed from being delivered to us, after it had already reached the local distribution center, and then when it was finally delivered, it was badly damaged.
Today’s update: my replacement is “out for delivery”. This time it still says the package is 10 pounds, so either I’m getting my machine or the thief got a little more savvy and I’ll have purchased an extremely expensive paving slab.
I’ve heard of getting a brick or box of bolts yet that’s usually in private/used sales yet even through eBay that company is going to make it really hard if the seller denies it and you don’t really have any proof.
When I worked at Wal-mart there were two kinds of TV scams. In one you sell a Sony and the customer comes back with an old Toshiba inside and says that’s what was there when it was opened. Or buy a Sony and a few days later comes back with a smashed screen like someone threw a remote or game controller at it. I think the latter was common in the Wii remote days.
Generally Wal-mart issued the refund or exchange. Yet after that every TV had to be opened, the screen displayed, serial number recorded. A PITA for us and customers didn’t appreciate their new TV being unboxed on the floor and taped back up.
As a follow-up to that, when my wife and I took delivery of a 66" OLED the delivery guys got it in the door and were off. I got my phone out, set it on the tripod recorded the entire unboxing all the way to getting to the setup/welcome screen.
Yeah, I’ve heard the brick horror stories too. The machine was delivered on Tuesday, and it is exactly what I want. The idea that I might accept delivery and have them think that I’m pulling a scam is really stressful for me.
Luckily not an issue, although the driver insisted I sign before I could open it up to check. He did stick around for that. Not sure what would have happened if it was an issue.
Only outstanding issue is that the Apple Care+ that I purchased is still attached to the old computer. B&H seem to be sorting that out.
Good to hear.
B&H is a very good and reliable company. Let’s just say far and above Apple so they’ll get it sorted.
Not sure what they’d have done if you accepted the first one and got bricked so glad it had obviously been tampered with. Apple packs their laptops so tightly there’s hardly any space inside.
Eh, if I’m buying something that expensive, I’m happy to see that the real thing is in the box before i take possession of it. (Although i had my new TV delivered. But actually, the guys who delivered it took photos to prove they’d delivered the real thing. I was happy to help them do that.)
Many of these things now have the serial number printed on the outside of the box, so the “damaged in shipping” TV had better match.
Yes, the driver should have digitally marked the package as “damaged” and returned it to station.
It happens pretty often. Things get chewed up or mangled or whatever during the staging procedure during last mile dispatch. No, nobody really knows what happens, but it does. Pretty often. Of, say, 1000 parcels returned to station, there may be five or six parcels received in such a state. The percentage I leave as an exercise for the reader. And an error could have occurred further upstream, even, although I think that people handling actual product, and adding dunnage, &c., are subject to more intense scrutiny. I have never worked for FedEx, but that is my experience in logistics.
In some ways, this is something that the last-mile delivery station manager should be concerned about, and yet “Parcel Not On Vehicle” (PNOV) doesn’t exactly cover this situation.
You just got a driver who had a case of the Mondays or a Blue Monday or whatever, and didn’t mark the parcel correctly or, who knows what. It happens.
The “Toshibas in the Sony Box” were 99% FOS - perhaps 100% now as I’m sure once it comes into Wal-mart’s possession from the ship to the truck to the store they have complete video coverage. Those people were clearly taking advantage of Wal-mart’s rather generous no/few questions asked return/refund policy, at least as it was circa 2010.
Same with the smashed Sony’s - they probably were the same model and maybe exact TV yet someone was playing Wii tennis and let go of the “racquet”. I don’t know if the unbox-and-show the customer was just our store or became policy but you can’t just sell everything “as-is” so they probably still open the boxes if it becomes a common thing.
With the OP’s original - had it not been tampered with and empty B&H being a good company might have some video to back things up and fairly soonish taken the word of a good customer and replaced it.
With eBay a seller won’t be a seller for long if they keep selling boxes of washers and bolts as Apple Mac Pro’s yet it’s going to take eBay a month or so to make a ruling if it’s only the first time.
FOS???
full of shit
Not the boxes - the customers. They’d make their case that when they got their new Sony at home and opened it there was old Toshiba (not picking on Toshiba - a Panasonic) inside.
I would nod, “I see. Wow” and call a manager and at the time the customer would usually take a refund. Why would they need a new Sony when they just got one the other day?
The smashed screen Sony’s - it was like that when I got it - would typically just get a new Sony.
I loved the P-P-P-Powerbook… wow, that was over a dozen years ago! DO scroll down for pics.
Back in the days of white Powerbooks, a clever Mac Guy sent a scammer a shiny white 3-ring binder, which opened to reveal glued-on keys and a Sharpied desktop image (with a hand-drawn dock, and menu items like “Kiddie Porn” and “Yams”).
FedEx insisted that it delivered a package to our address of 123 Fake Street. They said they pulled the GPS of the driver to verify They interviewed the driver and he put it by the milk box. I said I didn’t have a milk box and they said that I was a fucking (yes they used the F word) liar.
After 3 days I decided to be smarter than FedEx and went to 213 Fake St. You know, the house with a milk box.
They had the package.
I might have called the Milk Company and asked who the Heck (yep, H word) has milk boxes around my Fake Street?