Lucky there. UK here. A couple of years back I had a macbook pro delivered to me. It was delivered to the correct number on a different road. The POD had a photo of the front door and the person. I recognised the front door as it was on a local estate. Phoned delivery company up (DPD) and they said that they delivered it to the correct location and wouldn't do anything about it. Went round there and the guy said "um, it's mine now. Finders keepers. What are you going to do about it?".
So I phoned the police. They never turned up.
I opened up a credit card chargeback. But I was complaining about this to someone in the school playground and someone else overheard it. Turns out she was his next door neighbour. Said "I'll get it back for you". Sure enough that afternoon she turned up with it! Turns out the guy was a convicted paedophile and she knew that and said if he didn't give it back she'd tell everyone on the estate.
You need leverage or a good police force against criminals. The latter is rare so I suspect that taking matters in to your own hands is sometimes required.
That's shocking and also lucky. Had that neighbour not overheard or intervened, you would have had a known paedophile using a computer that could be tracked to you via sales used for a crime that the police would have acted upon and caused you more pain and suffering.
I've also learned the hard way, there again I have had police make so many mistakes for crimes in the past and ignore hard evidence that I lost faith in them years ago sadly. But this is the UK.
Though in your case, at stage it was at, once you had asked the recipient for it back and they said no, the police should have intervened due to the law of https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theft_by_finding and acted.
Equally, the onus to prove delivery is upon the courier and again, you had a case there with them, so shouldn't of had to go thru that.
I agree, taking the law into your own hands alas seems to be the best solution in so many matters in the UK from my experience, sad and wrong but heck, we all want a simple life.
Also note from experience, the police (from a UK perspective) are not as aware of the laws as you would expect and had them tell me a matter was a civil matter and not criminal and raised complaint and had that upheld (lots of those) as they were wrong and the common laypersons expectations of the police is far short from reality, so always stand your ground and don't let anything slide as I used to do as it only erodes you away and enables incompetence to prevail.
That all said there are some good police (those that care and do their job properly) but sadly not as common as one would expect.
Try that with most retailers and the conversation ends at delivered. Your only option is to hit them with a summons and that's not a guarantee.
So with due respect that reality doesn't exist.
One reason I buy stuff from Amazon mostly is they are big enough to eat the issues and I put enough business through one service to be a customer worth keeping. Everyone else, not so much. I won't go into how shit Apple are on this front.
With due respect, I had exactly that issue with a pair of Airpods supplied by Apple that were apparently delivered to the wrong address. I had the carrier's photo of not my door. Apple sent a replacement the next day
That charge back might ask for tracking number, which will also says delivered. So they will ask you to call your insurance instead if your stuff got stolen on your porch.
I'm in the middle of a problem with an item either mid-delivered or not delivered, with unresponsive retailer.
I started a dispute with my credit card company, but yesterday they emailed to tell me that they had "concluded their investigation" and that the item had indeed been delivered.
No further information. Just "it was delivered, you owe the retailer".
Apple Card uses Goldman Sachs for the bank and the customer service. While Apple may be an experienced provider of retail services, this sort of thing is relatively new to Goldman Sachs.
I contacted customer service and they believe that a report regarding the investigation will be sent to me. They might even have a delivery address. The order was placed four months ago...
Good luck getting through a situation like this with good outcome. It depends on all the players involved.
You could try telling them you will cancel the credit card and not pay the last bill unless they reverse the charge.
When it goes to collections, at least in the US, you can tell the collection agency that the charge is in dispute, and they have to leave you alone.
If the bank then puts a ding on your credit report, you can dispute it with the credit reporting agency.
At some point, someone decides this is too much of a waste of time and pays up.
If you go this route, read up on your rights and the exact process.
One early step is sending them a letter via registered mail saying the charge is invalid because you never received the item. That carries more weight than a phone call, and usually routes to a different department. It might solve the problem on your own.
Make sure the letter makes it clear you understand your rights and know what the CFPB is.
Not worth the risk to your credit rating and stress from having to dispute it.
Best solution is to file a small claim at your local court. Near certainty it won’t be disputed due to cost-benefit of the retailer having to hire a lawyer to defend it.
What do you expect the police to do in this situation? They can't just walk into people's homes over your word. OP at least had a noise which in the states I assume is probable cause or something. And even then they'd have to come back with a warrant but got the headphones because the suspect felt defeated.
Your situation is bizarre, the helpless feeling of knowing where your stolen item is and not be able to do anything about it. But it's not solvable by the police unless you have more evidence. For example you could have recorded your neighbor saying those things to you.
Here in Sweden petty theft is 99% an insurance issue. I even heard one case where their boat was stolen with an airtag on it and it was traced to a particular driveway.
The police here won't even pick up the case, it goes into a pile of other theft cases and the owner can use the ID to file an insurance claim.
It's very sad on the surface. But maybe they have their reasons.
>What do you expect the police to do in this situation? They can't just walk into people's homes over your word.
He had ordered it, so had the order, he had the delivery picture, and so on.
And even if people can't just "walk into people's homes over your word" they could still knock on them, question the person, and investigate the theft complaint.
Right. The point is that it would require a full police investigation, interviews, etc...
In my view at fault in these cases is the delivery company, they are in a hurry and don't bother doing a proper job. If they would be forced to eat the cost, this wouldn't happen anymore. Basically they are outsourcing their job to the police force.
Ok I just read on a delivery company website that they have in fact started taking photos of the moment of delivery. Wow. That is incredible.
Here I always opt for delivery at a pick up location and use my electronic ID to pick it up so I had never expected delivery drivers to take, and store, photos of people.
I had this happen with FedEx a couple weeks ago for the first time. We get a lot of packages so I was surprised.
The delivery person gave me the box then ran back to me as I was walking away. "I have to take a photo to prove I delivered it." He puts it down on the ground and photographs it. Not sure what a picture of a box on a nondescript driveway would prove, but I guess he had to do it.
Photos are useless unless they are photos of the person and goods together. A DHL courier claimed that I had signed for a package and claimed that a picture of my postbox with an envelope in it was proof of delivery.
Had a delivery yesterday where the driver (Evri) had to wave his handheld around for a bit, as it wouldnt let him confim delivery as it thought he was 100m down the road!
Like what reasons? It's somewhat understandable that police might not want to investigate theft of relatively cheap item because they have to prioritize. But a stolen boat? At the very least it warrants some further investigation. Them dismissing it outright just seems bizarre since they do have some evidence they at least should come and talk to the owner.
> OP at least had a noise which in the states I assume is probable cause or something.
Isn’t a signal that is within a few feet of the door you want to enter good enough? It’s more authenticate than some random noise - you know it’s your device and not some random device emitting find my data.
Sounds like policing or judicial approach is outdated. If a police officer sees the stolen goods inside via a window, they can enter right? How are RF waves that they can see coming inside the property, and uniquely identify the property, any different?
It's not a random noise if you can trigger it. Better to have the signal and the controlled noise if possible. You can't see the RF waves in the same way as sight. It is possible that the RF is ducting or has some other propagation phenomenon. And that's assuming you are even able to connect to the device and not just viewing it's location through the network, which could have precise location issues. Two sources are better than one.
Sad? Non-violent crime such as parking tickets, littering, playing the music too loud and petty theft should not involve armed officers showing up. This presents needless chances for escalation.
The “defund the police” movement was onto something - but it has to be spelled out. - offload many of their jobs to metermaids and other ticket-issuers and keep armed POLICE for things like robberies, no-knock raids, breaking up fights and arresting violent criminals etc.
Most civil disputes can be - and are - handled by banks and insurance companies. This includes auto accidents and credit card chargebacks. Not even the justice system (public courts) need to get involved, they handle thousands of cases a day.
> The “defund the police” movement was onto something - but it has to be spelled out. - offload many of their jobs to metermaids and other ticket-issuers and keep armed POLICE for things like robberies, no-knock raids, breaking up fights and arresting violent criminals etc.
This is hugely different to what I understood from anyone in favour of defunding the police to mean.
> They can't just walk into people's homes over your word
Officer I was kidnapped, taken to this address and violently raped. "Sorry we just walk in to people's homes over your word" ? Half a dozen other scenarios come to mind.
Sure, there are emergency circumstances exceptions (not the case in this scenario). In general you would need a warrant with probable cause. That probable cause to get the warrant could be your sworn statement.
So they can't just walk in over your word. I has to be your word plus either a warrant or exigent circumstance.
Hey just so you’re aware for the future, it’s the seller’s responsibility to get your item delivered to you, so if you hadn’t recovered it, it would be on Apple to resolve it. They would then take it up with the shipping company.
So I phoned the police. They never turned up.
I opened up a credit card chargeback. But I was complaining about this to someone in the school playground and someone else overheard it. Turns out she was his next door neighbour. Said "I'll get it back for you". Sure enough that afternoon she turned up with it! Turns out the guy was a convicted paedophile and she knew that and said if he didn't give it back she'd tell everyone on the estate.
You need leverage or a good police force against criminals. The latter is rare so I suspect that taking matters in to your own hands is sometimes required.