(who's evidently not paranoid enough) over on Reddit says that they ordered an iPhone 14 Pro Max and an Apple Watch Ultra from Apple's website. According to the story, they paid extra for the items to be picked up and hand-delivered to their address. Although the story doesn't specify, this is quite likely to be Apple's "scheduled courier delivery" option which can get your new products to you in a little over 2 hours.
Having ordered $2,094 worth of products, the user then reports that "the Uber driver assigned to the delivery falsely marked it as delivered and never showed up, despite my clear instructions and follow-up text messages."
According to the story, the victim contacted Apple support who "initially agreed to replace one of the items," the Apple Watch. However, they have since canceled this order and denied a replacement for the phone, apparently leaving them $2,100 out of pocket. Apple reportedly told the user "our carrier has completed the requested investigation, and no further action will be taken by Apple."
The story notes that the police department "is unable to file a report for civil matters," despite them having "evidence of the conversations with the driver and video footage of me waiting for the delivery outside my building."
The stricken customer said they hoped "my experience will serve as a cautionary tale and that both companies will take steps to prevent similar incidents from happening in the future." The original poster also noted that they'd found "a few threads" of similar instances. Whilst it's unclear what Apple's relationship is with Uber in using drivers for deliveries like this, however, plenty of commenters noted they had also received items from similar outlets. "I once paid $8 to get same-day delivery for a macbook and got a text saying "your dasher will arrive soon", said one user. Another stated, "when I ordered something similar last year, I was shocked to see it was an Uber Eats driver myself."
iMore has reached out to Apple for comment on the incident.
