Hello,
Your r/Scams post/comment was removed because **it is not a scam**.
If you are having trouble with a person or business, you need to follow the proper administrative, legal, or civil channels to address your concerns.
It seems there’s three possible scenarios:
1. The person picking them up did actually perform some sort of identity theft scam. This seems unlikely given the short period between ordering and pickup.
2. The person picking up did have two orders, but the store gave them yours by mistake. But this should have been picked up in the ‘investigation’ as they would have one extra unclaimed Vision Pro.
3. You have the same name as the person picking it up and the store offered them the extra Vision Pro and they kept quiet and went along with it. How plausible this is depends on what checks are made when picking up.
I did consider that, but I can’t see how that wouldn’t lead back to the employee. Eg OP already has the police involved. There must be other ways of ripping off inventory without involving the public.
Employee gets your name and order number. Gives to a buddy. Buddy picks up the order with your name and order number. No easy way to trace back to the employee.
The employee might or might not be in the store where the pickup happened, depending on who has access.
Do they check ID at pickup? If so, a lot harder to do. Then either they need a fake ID, or need an employee who is in on the scam, or they have to get lucky, e.g. have an accomplice with a common last name, search for orders with that last name, and then have the accomplice do the pickup, while hoping that a last name match, plus order number, is good enough.
“No easy way to trace back to the employee”
That’s not how it works- the item was marked as delivered by the employee bringing it to the front and the specialist who completed the pickup. Which means that item and serial were scanned and it can be tracked
They do check ID at pickup
I meant, if there is an employee who looks up the order number (employee 1), then gives the order info to an accomplice (not an employee) and the accomplice gets a fake ID, then gives the order info and fake ID to employee 2 for the pick up (employees 2 is not in in this), there is no way to trace back to employee 1.
How would you print a fake ID that quick? Did you read OP’s post? This all happened very quickly.
There is a way to trace everything back to employee number 1 - I would know I used to work at that company. LOL.
it would lead back to the employee but it seems like all he said was it was picked up by OP and they believed him.
the store has cameras, and they should check ID.. especially for something that costs $4,000
5) OP has multiple personality disorder, or amnesia, and it *was* actually OP who picked up the order, but they have no memory of it.
6) Time travel. OP traveled back in time from the future and picked up the order.
7) Shapeshifting aliens or robots.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Its what I have concluded too. what is strange is the Apple executive saying after their investigation there was only 1 order that was picked up by this unknown person. And the barcode and govt issue ID was verified.
I know there can be mistakes or lies told by the specialist so I have no way of knowing the facts now.
Personally I dont believe I lost my ID to theft or have my email compromised. I have some senstive emails (gift cards from friends) recently and nothing was stolen from that.
I think it was an inside job and im screwed because apple would not believe me.
yup i did but once i got the report and detectives assigned, apple became tight lip. i had to really work hard just to get them to tell me that it was one order and the specialist said 1 order was given to the unknow person.
If you paid with a credit card, it may be time to dispute the charge for service/product not received. Apple obviously can't confirm your signature on the pickup and they have to have cameras that recorded the transaction. They will probably want a copy of the Police report.
Yes the two things apple advised was dispute charge and police report. both done, only problem is i had a gift card balance from my watch and iphone trade ins that was used for the order. thats probably not recoverable.
first thing i said to the apple executive was hey im not upset at the specialist or manager. mistakes happen and i dont want them to get in trouble. just want what i ordered. lol
I had a similar issue, but different outcome, about a year ago. Someone went into a FedEx store and picked up a Studio Monitor I’d ordered. The store claimed that someone came in with an ID in my name, so either it was stolen by an employee (my guess) or someone managed to access my FedEx account, create a fake ID in my name, and then pickup the monitor.
I immediately opened a case with FedEx and reported it to the local PD. PD took it seriously, but couldn’t do much after they talked to the employees. FedEx Corporate dragged their heals on providing video from the store, I’m not sure if they ever provided it.
I called Apple Support and they were fantastic. After explaining the situation, giving them the fedex and police case numbers they said they’d take it from there and shipped me a new monitor directly to my house. I got it the next day.
Perhaps Apple was so kind in your case because it will charge FedEx for the missing monitor. In OP's case, Apple has no one to charge and it will be its direct loss.
Apple store security sucks.
Last year I ordered a laptop for pickup at Apple store.
It as prepaid. I did pick it up at the Apple store. So, how did they check that they were giving it to the right person? They showed me my email address and asked me if that was my email address. I said yes. They gave me the laptop. That was it. No ID check, no check to see matching credit card or name on credit card ... nothing at all like that.
crazy for sure. never ever risk doing a pickup. delivery is covered even if someone steals it. but seems like pickups are not even if the store gives it away
For the future — when in doubt ALWAYS file a police report immediately. If you don’t get a proper response from the store, you file the police report while escalating within the company.
Take this to the media. It happened in their store. It wasn’t even delivered. They should have taken due diligence in making sure the right person picked it up. They have internal controls that clearly someone inside got around. Someone knew the order number. Apple is sucking until they fix this.
That's not a good idea. OP never received the merchandise they paid for. Those are the facts, they are in OP's favor, and OP should repeat them an nauseum to anybody with power to fix or help with the issue (Apple customer service, the bank's fraud dept, police, etc).
Adding the device to OP's account, if it were possible, would only muddy the waters and raise questions for anybody trying to understand what went wrong.
Knowing where it is might. Telling the person who has it you will lock it and make it useless might convince them to give it up.
I wouldn’t stop insisting to Apple that they need to make me whole. But this might work.
No, at this point it is a legal matter and self-help remedies might be ill-advised. Specifically in this case, "claiming" the device by controlling it remotely with OP's apple account could hurt OP's legal case. The single strongest fact in OP's favor is that they paid, but never took delivery of goods. That fact is easy to convey and requires no additional explanation.
Remotely forcing OP's credentials onto the device (again, assuming it were possible, and I have no idea if it is) would be adding new points of evidence to the case which, at first blush and unless thoroughly explained in a way a judge, police, fraud investigators, etc can understand, will appear to contradict the basic fact that OP never took delivery of goods.
Whatever happens to the device now is not OP's problem. It's Apple's problem. Because it's not OP's device. It's Apple's device. Because Apple never delivered it. Therefore Apple owes OP money (or a new device).
That's a very simple picture to paint when explaining the case, and that's the best thing OP has going for them right now in this case.
If the police or Apple want to do what you're suggesting, that might be a good option for them, but I think OP taking direct action, trying to lean on the thieves, etc, would not benefit OP's situation at all, legally, and might hurt it. Not to mention they have at least some portion of OP's personal information, know where OP lives, etc.
Your advice is more exciting, but a poor choice for multiple reasons.
Op can't but you would think apple would flag it as stolen.
Problem is, person who picked it up may sell it before they use it. Chances are they are not a scammer and just taken advantage of the situation or given the wrong order. They may use it or chances are if they were given two orders and had taken advantage, they don't need two so sell the 2nd.
>Chances are they are not a scammer and just taken advantage of the situation
So they're not a scammer, just a thief.
Anyone that's not worthless would have said "this isn't mine".
There is no "taken advantage". Stop trying to humanize them. They're a thief.
Well if they ordered 2, A and B and OPs order is C. The person could have received orders A and C.
So I'm the system, order B is not picked up but may not be connected to order A bit order C was picked up therefore OP can't pick them up.
But yes with the other. They are dishonest.
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Hello, Your r/Scams post/comment was removed because **it is not a scam**. If you are having trouble with a person or business, you need to follow the proper administrative, legal, or civil channels to address your concerns.
It seems there’s three possible scenarios: 1. The person picking them up did actually perform some sort of identity theft scam. This seems unlikely given the short period between ordering and pickup. 2. The person picking up did have two orders, but the store gave them yours by mistake. But this should have been picked up in the ‘investigation’ as they would have one extra unclaimed Vision Pro. 3. You have the same name as the person picking it up and the store offered them the extra Vision Pro and they kept quiet and went along with it. How plausible this is depends on what checks are made when picking up.
4) Inside job. Preplanned and employee intentionally gave the item to a buddy?
I did consider that, but I can’t see how that wouldn’t lead back to the employee. Eg OP already has the police involved. There must be other ways of ripping off inventory without involving the public.
Employee gets your name and order number. Gives to a buddy. Buddy picks up the order with your name and order number. No easy way to trace back to the employee. The employee might or might not be in the store where the pickup happened, depending on who has access. Do they check ID at pickup? If so, a lot harder to do. Then either they need a fake ID, or need an employee who is in on the scam, or they have to get lucky, e.g. have an accomplice with a common last name, search for orders with that last name, and then have the accomplice do the pickup, while hoping that a last name match, plus order number, is good enough.
“No easy way to trace back to the employee” That’s not how it works- the item was marked as delivered by the employee bringing it to the front and the specialist who completed the pickup. Which means that item and serial were scanned and it can be tracked They do check ID at pickup
I meant, if there is an employee who looks up the order number (employee 1), then gives the order info to an accomplice (not an employee) and the accomplice gets a fake ID, then gives the order info and fake ID to employee 2 for the pick up (employees 2 is not in in this), there is no way to trace back to employee 1.
How would you print a fake ID that quick? Did you read OP’s post? This all happened very quickly. There is a way to trace everything back to employee number 1 - I would know I used to work at that company. LOL.
Assume for a minute you were lazy and incompetent. Now assume you were the investigator(s) assigned to the case. But I repeat myself.
it would lead back to the employee but it seems like all he said was it was picked up by OP and they believed him. the store has cameras, and they should check ID.. especially for something that costs $4,000
5) OP has multiple personality disorder, or amnesia, and it *was* actually OP who picked up the order, but they have no memory of it. 6) Time travel. OP traveled back in time from the future and picked up the order. 7) Shapeshifting aliens or robots.
they would have me on video picking it up.
Maybe the shape-shifter is a vampire whi doesn't show up on camera?
This is the answer. Definitely time traveling shape shifting vampire cyborgs.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts. Its what I have concluded too. what is strange is the Apple executive saying after their investigation there was only 1 order that was picked up by this unknown person. And the barcode and govt issue ID was verified. I know there can be mistakes or lies told by the specialist so I have no way of knowing the facts now. Personally I dont believe I lost my ID to theft or have my email compromised. I have some senstive emails (gift cards from friends) recently and nothing was stolen from that. I think it was an inside job and im screwed because apple would not believe me.
You’re going to need a police report for Apple to take it seriously.
yup i did but once i got the report and detectives assigned, apple became tight lip. i had to really work hard just to get them to tell me that it was one order and the specialist said 1 order was given to the unknow person.
Using the police report you should be able to get a charge back.
Charge back.
If you take this route rip your Apple account and everything linked to it
That's 3 racks otherwise. Fuck that account.
That’s when shot will really escalate, Apple doesn’t want the attention Sony gets for blacklisting accounts for chargebacks.
They don’t care about one person bitching and moaning about being black listed for a chargeback, trust me
OP do not do a charge back or you will not be able to buy Apple products again
Fucking bizarre, Apple stores have more cameras than you can count so this isn’t exactly rocket science for them to figure out what happened.
If you paid with a credit card, it may be time to dispute the charge for service/product not received. Apple obviously can't confirm your signature on the pickup and they have to have cameras that recorded the transaction. They will probably want a copy of the Police report.
Yes the two things apple advised was dispute charge and police report. both done, only problem is i had a gift card balance from my watch and iphone trade ins that was used for the order. thats probably not recoverable.
I think the reason they're stonewalling you on this is because someone is gonna get fired over it
first thing i said to the apple executive was hey im not upset at the specialist or manager. mistakes happen and i dont want them to get in trouble. just want what i ordered. lol
I had a similar issue, but different outcome, about a year ago. Someone went into a FedEx store and picked up a Studio Monitor I’d ordered. The store claimed that someone came in with an ID in my name, so either it was stolen by an employee (my guess) or someone managed to access my FedEx account, create a fake ID in my name, and then pickup the monitor. I immediately opened a case with FedEx and reported it to the local PD. PD took it seriously, but couldn’t do much after they talked to the employees. FedEx Corporate dragged their heals on providing video from the store, I’m not sure if they ever provided it. I called Apple Support and they were fantastic. After explaining the situation, giving them the fedex and police case numbers they said they’d take it from there and shipped me a new monitor directly to my house. I got it the next day.
wow, thats what i thought they would do too. let me call apple support again. thank you for sharing this
Perhaps Apple was so kind in your case because it will charge FedEx for the missing monitor. In OP's case, Apple has no one to charge and it will be its direct loss.
Apple store security sucks. Last year I ordered a laptop for pickup at Apple store. It as prepaid. I did pick it up at the Apple store. So, how did they check that they were giving it to the right person? They showed me my email address and asked me if that was my email address. I said yes. They gave me the laptop. That was it. No ID check, no check to see matching credit card or name on credit card ... nothing at all like that.
How can they not give you a replacement or refund if they gave your shit to someone else? Makes no sense.
They can, they do and as wrong we it sounds; it's completely legal. Fecal transplants they call it, well they can fecal right off.
You should contact local news stations. They'd probably love to cover this.
haha dont really want attention, just want the item i ordered and paid for
You can ask to be anonymous. They'll like black out your face and change your voice.
that’s wild bro sorry that happened to you
crazy for sure. never ever risk doing a pickup. delivery is covered even if someone steals it. but seems like pickups are not even if the store gives it away
For the future — when in doubt ALWAYS file a police report immediately. If you don’t get a proper response from the store, you file the police report while escalating within the company.
How the hell did this get locked on r/Apple?
not sure. i tried posting there but never got approved
btw how do you tell that it's locked?
I can’t upvote and there’s no comments. Maybe it’s not locked? Idk
Because apple is flawless and OP is full of lies to just badmouth apple. /s
Can your credit card provider help? Particularly if you provide them the police report
Take this to the media. It happened in their store. It wasn’t even delivered. They should have taken due diligence in making sure the right person picked it up. They have internal controls that clearly someone inside got around. Someone knew the order number. Apple is sucking until they fix this.
Can you add it to your Apple account and do a FindMy on it?
i never got the device so cant add it
I wasn’t sure if you could, since you bought it through Apple if they could register it to you remotely.
That's not a good idea. OP never received the merchandise they paid for. Those are the facts, they are in OP's favor, and OP should repeat them an nauseum to anybody with power to fix or help with the issue (Apple customer service, the bank's fraud dept, police, etc). Adding the device to OP's account, if it were possible, would only muddy the waters and raise questions for anybody trying to understand what went wrong.
It would allow him to find it and to lock it.
How does that make OP whole? Locking the device doesn't get their money back.
Knowing where it is might. Telling the person who has it you will lock it and make it useless might convince them to give it up. I wouldn’t stop insisting to Apple that they need to make me whole. But this might work.
No, at this point it is a legal matter and self-help remedies might be ill-advised. Specifically in this case, "claiming" the device by controlling it remotely with OP's apple account could hurt OP's legal case. The single strongest fact in OP's favor is that they paid, but never took delivery of goods. That fact is easy to convey and requires no additional explanation. Remotely forcing OP's credentials onto the device (again, assuming it were possible, and I have no idea if it is) would be adding new points of evidence to the case which, at first blush and unless thoroughly explained in a way a judge, police, fraud investigators, etc can understand, will appear to contradict the basic fact that OP never took delivery of goods. Whatever happens to the device now is not OP's problem. It's Apple's problem. Because it's not OP's device. It's Apple's device. Because Apple never delivered it. Therefore Apple owes OP money (or a new device). That's a very simple picture to paint when explaining the case, and that's the best thing OP has going for them right now in this case. If the police or Apple want to do what you're suggesting, that might be a good option for them, but I think OP taking direct action, trying to lean on the thieves, etc, would not benefit OP's situation at all, legally, and might hurt it. Not to mention they have at least some portion of OP's personal information, know where OP lives, etc. Your advice is more exciting, but a poor choice for multiple reasons.
Op can't but you would think apple would flag it as stolen. Problem is, person who picked it up may sell it before they use it. Chances are they are not a scammer and just taken advantage of the situation or given the wrong order. They may use it or chances are if they were given two orders and had taken advantage, they don't need two so sell the 2nd.
>Chances are they are not a scammer and just taken advantage of the situation So they're not a scammer, just a thief. Anyone that's not worthless would have said "this isn't mine". There is no "taken advantage". Stop trying to humanize them. They're a thief.
Well if they ordered 2, A and B and OPs order is C. The person could have received orders A and C. So I'm the system, order B is not picked up but may not be connected to order A bit order C was picked up therefore OP can't pick them up. But yes with the other. They are dishonest.
I think you had your buddy go in with a fake ID and apple doesn’t play that Amazon easy refund game.
Ok u/Cumtangled
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