Laptops stolen in transit

Pawnless Endgame

Pawnless Endgame

Pawnless Endgame

Soldato
Joined
10 May 2004
Posts
13,073
Location
Sunny Stafford
Scenario: My old IT company used to send laptops to Acer for repair, Acer being our main supplier. What happens is that a depot worker will pick a random consignment, slit the underbelly of the box, pull out the laptop then reseal the box. Because they used the bottom of the box, the top remains legitimately sealed and they don't care if the box now weighs lighter. This happened to about 1 in every 50 of our machines. Yes, Acer use DHL as their assigned courier now but their previous courier Citylink also did this.

Has this happened to any of you? I don't work there any more but it was a right pain to us, especially when having to explain it to the customer. Sure, we offer them a new laptop, but then they go down the data loss route (our customers were disabled students).
 
I can imagine they would me miffed. But your customers should have backed up their data before giving the laptop to you. Might be worth providing that service, for a charge of course?
 
You should be backing up the data before it gets sent off anyway, it's a given. I never trust manufacturers with any of my data, the amount of times I've seen the blindly reinstall windows.
 
Tough titty on them then. You really have to be a complete numpty to send a PC away without backing up your data, especially after having been warned.

Many years ago a formal school friend used to work for Parcel force. He seemed to acquire a lot of items that mysteriously fell off the back of a lorry. This kind of theft is nothing new. But I am surprised that it happens so regulary with DHL.
 
We had this happen to a customers laptop. The box arrived at the repair shop but not the laptop 0_o. Rang DHL and after some form filling and investigation they refunded us what wwas the declaired value. The customer wasnt happy but apreciated it wasnt are fault and purchased a brand new laptop off us which we also gave a little discount on.

As for data we would charge £30 to remove the HD and back it all up. So customers had a image. Luckily this particular customer took this option.

Always take the insurance option if its a valuable item!!!
 
but what if the issue is the laptop won't boot so you can't back it up BEFORE its sent out.

Tbh, as a company, if you know that this could happen, then perhaps offering a free backup service would improve customer satisfaction.

Either that, or speak to the police and have them investigate. It's theft at the end of the day.
 
Or change supplier to say Dell and get them to send the repair people to the customers, that way no more lost in transit.
 
you would think that there would be a more secure way of sending laptops through the post these days
 
i Thought laptops had security seals on both sides of the box?

the shipments of stock (not laptops) we get in at work do.

security seals are kind of pointless if they're not on both sides of the box :rolleyes:
 
peter_hutson said:
But your customers should have backed up their data before giving the laptop to you.
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Agreed.

Might be worth providing that service, for a charge of course?
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I doubt people will warm to the idea that their data is being copied. It'll also raise questions as to why you use untrustworthy couriers.


It doesn't surprise me that this happens. The temptation is just too great for a lot of people.

What amazes me is the amount of people that send their phones and unwanted gold to those 'cash for gold/phones' companies. You're just asking to get robbed, if not by the postal service then by the companies themselves.
 
Is there not a more secure way to send them? Maybe so they don't look like Laptops? For example, get 3-4 together and wrap them up in some sort of blackwrap, or in a big box?
 
Hmm, I have just got myself an Acer Laptop......

I'm not a DHL employee so I think I'm in the clear....

Sad but not surprising story OP.
 
jp_bl_68 said:
What amazes me is the amount of people that send their phones and unwanted gold to those 'cash for gold/phones' companies. You're just asking to get robbed, if not by the postal service then by the companies themselves.
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Well most of the phones being sent to said companies are phones that have been stolen in the first place, as it is an easy way to offload for some money ;)
It's why the new phone security regs are coming in, to try and minimse this.
 
edscdk said:
well I hope you did the right thing, and LAUGHED AT THEM
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You're just utterly full of empathy, aren't you.
Hope you don't smoke or drink or eat fatty foods, or the doctor might laugh at you when you are dying of heart disease or cancer.

Anyway, from the customers point of view, they might (not necessarily accurately) see it, as they left their PC to a place to be repaired. That place then posted it somewhere and lost it...

Neither side is in an idea situation when you reply on a third party to trasnport your goods around.

Question for the OP, did the laptops go missing on the way to acer or on the way back from acer? As surely on the way, they're nicking loads of broken laptops?
 
Hikari Kisugi said:
As surely on the way, they're nicking loads of broken laptops?
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"broken" can mean almost anything on a laptop though, from a damaged optical drive tray, to a dead pixel, to a corrupt OS install etc. Could still be of value to someone stealing it either as a flawed but functional laptop, or if stripped for parts.
 
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