OP, have you followed up with the police to find out how the investigation is going? Does the drop off point have security cameras?. The reason i asked about a police follow up because they would be able to find out if similar situations have occured recently at that drop off point, customers dropping off boxes only for FedEx to claim that the drop box was empty because the police would be able to ask customer services how many customer complaints have been made against that particular drop off point as it would be able to establish if yours was a one off situation or if there a pattern of events occuring.
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iPhone 12 Pro Max FedEx lost / stole my trade in iPhone 12 Pro Max - How screwed am I?
- Thread starter frostrambler
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I don't think the police are investigating - I doubt this is high priority to them - they told me if they arrest anyone, they will run the phone against their database and can return it to me. Just gotta get the person at Fedex (or whoever else that got access to the package) to get arrested with the phone now!
As for the blacklist - I spoke with my carrier and if the phone turns up, I can ask them to remove the phone from the blacklist - not sure how long it will take to propagate to all other carriers.
For the person who recommended keeping Find my iphone on as the phone travels and disabling it remotely - thats a genius move, and I wish I had thought of that - I could have filed with Apple Care Theft protection then.
My last bet is pretty much to beg the AppleCare supervisor to help me out - it's very disappointing that I can't even use the insurance I paid for.
As for the blacklist - I spoke with my carrier and if the phone turns up, I can ask them to remove the phone from the blacklist - not sure how long it will take to propagate to all other carriers.
For the person who recommended keeping Find my iphone on as the phone travels and disabling it remotely - thats a genius move, and I wish I had thought of that - I could have filed with Apple Care Theft protection then.
My last bet is pretty much to beg the AppleCare supervisor to help me out - it's very disappointing that I can't even use the insurance I paid for.
The police aren’t going to do anything. Especially the nypd. That report will only be good if he/she has to go to court over anything, which he/she won’t.
Lesson learned . . . I hope you had some type of insurance to replace the unit. If it is replaced quickly enough and sent it, I don't see why you wouldn't be able to get the credit. If not, that is an expensive lesson to learn . . .
LOL??? This is not funny Rowdy07. Also I don't think the OP needs to hear this advise in almost every reply above.
Lol it’s ok, that’s what I get for being lazy and using a Dropbox. At least I got it on the blacklist so they can’t use it in the us.
That's a great attitude. There's more to life than worrying over an iPhone that's gone.
I commend you.
Thanks
Thanks - I already went through most of the stages of grief - I'm now just apathetic lol.That's a great attitude. There's more to life than worrying over an iPhone that's gone.
I commend you.
As other have said always drop off at a FedEx/UPS location and get a receipt. One of my local UPS locations, refuses to give receipts when you drop off. They even have signs all over saying "NO RECEIPTS PROVIDED FOR PRE-PAID DROP OFFS/RETURNS". Guess who will never get my business? They are pretty much saying they want to steal peoples packages. This is a 3rd party shipping type store that is listed as FedEx/UPS authorized but I would never drop off if they won't provide a receipt.
I had a similar situation when I returned an unopened iPad to Amazon a few months back via UPS. I got a drop-off receipt, it showed delivered, but the refund never came. So I called Amazon and they claimed the box was empty! I was pretty livid of course, but after escalation they went ahead and refunded, thankfully.
Yeah, I would never use that place. That is odd. I have never run across a UPS location that wouldn't give you a receipt.
OP, sorry to hear.
I‘ve got a trade-in that I have to mail back in the next few days, too, and I’ve been worried about the exact same situation.
I‘ve got a trade-in that I have to mail back in the next few days, too, and I’ve been worried about the exact same situation.
Wow I just posted a new thread and saw this one. Long story short - I dropped two iPhones 12 last Saturday with Fedex. I did take a picture of the receipt and boxes. Delivery to Apple was scheduled for Tuesday. As of today both packages are missing and showing "potentially delayed" with no delivery estimate! Called Fedex and they said we will try to trace it. Yeah right. Just got off the phone with Apple. The rep said she noted it in the system and took the tracking #s from me. She said I will get an email by next week. Not sure what will it say...
I was silly and didn't ask for a receipt before leaving Fedex. I dropped it off last weekend, haven't received any confirmation email of it being received, and when I try to "reprint" the label to see the tracking number, it won't let me.
I want to try tracking by reference, but don't have a photo of it. Two questions for you:
1. Was it order number or phone number listed as reference on your return label?
2. What's the destination zip code?
Getting a receipt from a FedEx location is NOT good enough guys.
I got an email from Apple this morning saying there was a problem with my order and to call them. Long story short, I got the trade-in kits for my iPhone 12 and my wife's iPhone 12, packed each box with an iPhone, dropped off at the manned FedEx location across the street, and got a receipt for the two boxes with tracking numbers.
When Apple received the boxes, one was empty, and according to Apple, "showed no signs of tampering." I told them that both boxes had phones in them, and Apple is doing an investigation. The receipt I have is worthless if Apple receives empty boxes from FedEx.
I did my own investigation after my phone call with Apple. Turns out that even though I dropped off both phones at exactly the same day/time (they're both on my FedEx receipt), one was delivered to Apple (near Sacramento) on Monday, October 4th, and the other (I'm guessing the empty box) was delivered to Apple two days later -- on Wednesday, October 6th.
Not sure yet how this is going to turn out, but I do know that in the future I will ALWAYS take my iPhones to my local Apple store and have them do the inspection/trade in.
I got an email from Apple this morning saying there was a problem with my order and to call them. Long story short, I got the trade-in kits for my iPhone 12 and my wife's iPhone 12, packed each box with an iPhone, dropped off at the manned FedEx location across the street, and got a receipt for the two boxes with tracking numbers.
When Apple received the boxes, one was empty, and according to Apple, "showed no signs of tampering." I told them that both boxes had phones in them, and Apple is doing an investigation. The receipt I have is worthless if Apple receives empty boxes from FedEx.
I did my own investigation after my phone call with Apple. Turns out that even though I dropped off both phones at exactly the same day/time (they're both on my FedEx receipt), one was delivered to Apple (near Sacramento) on Monday, October 4th, and the other (I'm guessing the empty box) was delivered to Apple two days later -- on Wednesday, October 6th.
Not sure yet how this is going to turn out, but I do know that in the future I will ALWAYS take my iPhones to my local Apple store and have them do the inspection/trade in.
Update: I ended up calling Apple again after they didn’t call me back after 48 hours. They were nice, took my info down about my NYPD police report and told me they’d call back after 48 hours. That was Wednesday. In my desperation I sent an email to Tim Cook, detailing the situation and explaining that I couldn’t even use my AppleCare theft and loss as I turned off find my iPhone per their instructions and the genius not letting me easily return my phone at the Apple store when I was there.
I got no response
Then this morning I got an email that my trade in was closed and I was being given my full credit. I got a second email a minute later from AppleCare telling me that their investigation was finished and they were giving me my credit.
I don’t know if writing Tim is what helped or was it filing a police report and showing Apple that I wasn’t lying about this, maybe both, but Apple really came through. Thank you Apple.
Next year when I buy iPhone 14 pro Mac because I do every year, I’m going to the Apple Store for a physical trade in. Apples website says I can do it, I’ll still preorder the phone to be shipped to me, but I’ll go to the store to give them my old one. FedEx is a piece of **** company which has thieves working for them and all the other threads here with stolen trade ins proves it.
Thank you Apple and **** you FedEx.
I got no response
Then this morning I got an email that my trade in was closed and I was being given my full credit. I got a second email a minute later from AppleCare telling me that their investigation was finished and they were giving me my credit.
I don’t know if writing Tim is what helped or was it filing a police report and showing Apple that I wasn’t lying about this, maybe both, but Apple really came through. Thank you Apple.
Next year when I buy iPhone 14 pro Mac because I do every year, I’m going to the Apple Store for a physical trade in. Apples website says I can do it, I’ll still preorder the phone to be shipped to me, but I’ll go to the store to give them my old one. FedEx is a piece of **** company which has thieves working for them and all the other threads here with stolen trade ins proves it.
Thank you Apple and **** you FedEx.
I dropped mine off with FedEx with a person, and have a receipt, but it made it from Phoenix to somewhere in California (destination is Elk Grove, CA), then for some reason it left CA and went to someplace called Siebert, Colorado, where it's been "in transit" for 4 days now. I'm hoping it isn't hopelessly lost, and finally makes it back to CA.
Order number was referenced on the return label. Package going to 95758
Even if you go in store and get a receipt, someone from FEDEX/UPS can still steal it. I was trading in my iPhone 12 Red to another phone company and they told me that it arrived empty. Weird because I double wrapped it and whatnot. Anyway because I had the receipt I was able to get $100 credit back even though it was initially supposed to be around $400. So lost out on $300 but still got something out of it.
Why not just sell your previous phone. I'm guessing you'll get more than you would on a trade-in. I've been getting $500-$600 by selling last year's phone.
Wondering if a trade-in for a phone works the same way as most states handle car trade-in's. No sales tax due on the trade-in amount. Not talking about a lot of money here, but in my State, sales tax isn 10%. If the trade-in was valued at $400, that might reduce the price by $40. Not enough to buy a new band for an Apple watch ($49), but close...
The reason -not- to sell it yourself is that you run a reasonable chance of being scammed by an eBay buyer and a lesser chance but not non-zero chance of being scammed by a Swappa buyer. Craigslist/cash is safe but you will get a lot less in most cases. With Apple trade-in, you hand them the phone and...wait for it!...you are done.
I wouldn't ship something to Apple even if I knew there was no chance it would not be received - I don't want to worry about whether the person checking trade-ins that morning had a big fight with their spouse or kids last night or whatever. And apparently the risk of it never showing up - either never being scanned in or being cleverly opened in transit - is well above non-zero.
In person - receipt - done.
Update: After chatting with customer service, they escalated it to an investigation. This morning they called me asking if I had any clue what the tracking number in the trade-in kit was, and of course I couldn’t answer. She said it was deleted from their system too.
Luckily, she said they’re going to take care of me because “of course I returned the phone.” Waiting for confirmation email now.
Could there be some widespread fraud happening? Or just the Mercury Retrograde wreaking havoc on their systems?
Update: I ended up calling Apple again after they didn’t call me back after 48 hours. They were nice, took my info down about my NYPD police report and told me they’d call back after 48 hours. That was Wednesday. In my desperation I sent an email to Tim Cook, detailing the situation and explaining that I couldn’t even use my AppleCare theft and loss as I turned off find my iPhone per their instructions and the genius not letting me easily return my phone at the Apple store when I was there.
I got no response
Then this morning I got an email that my trade in was closed and I was being given my full credit. I got a second email a minute later from AppleCare telling me that their investigation was finished and they were giving me my credit.
I don’t know if writing Tim is what helped or was it filing a police report and showing Apple that I wasn’t lying about this, maybe both, but Apple really came through. Thank you Apple.
Next year when I buy iPhone 14 pro Mac because I do every year, I’m going to the Apple Store for a physical trade in. Apples website says I can do it, I’ll still preorder the phone to be shipped to me, but I’ll go to the store to give them my old one. FedEx is a piece of **** company which has thieves working for them and all the other threads here with stolen trade ins proves it.
Thank you Apple and **** you FedEx.
Important (at least in my opinion) - I'm glad this worked out this way, but not surprised. What do you think Apple is more concerned about:
- making sure that they physically receive themselves not less than 100.00% of phones sent for trade-in, or
- retaining customer good will, with all the good things that go with that (like future purchases, word of mouth spreading of great customer service stories, etc.?
It's a no-brainer. And it works. They take away your headache and you are happy (which is great!). You tell other people that Apple went above and beyond to treat you well (which has been my experience, too). There is no way they could *purchase* enough advertising to equal the impact of that kind of customer service experience.
Minor example here. Went to an authorized Apple repair center. This was for a recall replacement of an iPhone XS Apple charger case. The new one, sent by Apple to the repair center was lost in shipment. Not the end of the world, but shipping woes continue to rise in these crazy times!