(For people who don’t know, BestBuy is an electronics store that is common in the USA)
This would be in c/ActuallyInfuriating if the consumer protections weren’t as good, but for now, its just a chargeback away from fixing the problem. (I hope the bank doesn’t fucks me over. If they fuck with me, then this is gonna end up in Actually Infuriating). Anyways:
Two days ago, I bought a laptop on BestBuy, but they didn’t use UPS like they had in the past, instead they used Doordash 🤦♂️. When I saw that, I wanted to cancel because I didn’t trust fucking Doordash, but it didn’t let me cancel, so I just hoped nothing bad happens.
Oh wow, my gut feeling about Doordash actually predicted the future.
So, today it was supppsed to be delivered, I saw the guy park in front of my house for a few minutes (I know that’s him because I saw him on the map on the Doordash tracking link), dude walked out, looked my house, went back into his car, drove to the back alleyway (its a neighborhood of single family row-houses), I saw him on my CCTV cameras, he place down the package at a neighbor’s back door, take a pickture, then grabbed it place it back in his car, then quickly drove away.
Bruh.
Now I have to make some phonecalls. Thanks, corporate, great fucking job. I hope the CEO of bestbuy can choke on his pay increase.
And if you are wonder why I didn’t just go to BestBuy, I live in a car-centric city and I don’t have easy access to a car, and carrying big electronics in public transit is just asking for someone to mug you.
At this point, corporations are just in a race to see who gets to be crowned the worst corporation. I mean I hate Amazon and Bezos too, but at least they have a PIN verification system now, so drivers can’t just steal stuff, wtf is BestBuy doing? Fuck these shitty corporation.
I wish I could show you the camera footage, but don’t wanna get doxed.
Probably not using ~~best~WorstBuy again, not with this bullshit “Doordash” delivery. What an actual disaster.
Btw I tried calling bestbuy, they had a fucking voice-bot thing that refused to let me talk to a human until 48 hours has passed. So I just go straight for the dispute, right? I don’t wanna wait 48 hours.
Update: So I got through the bot thing by spamming 0 (or perhaps some other key, I can’t be sure), I got to a rep and explained the situation, they said they send a request to BestBuy and BestBuy will do an “investigation” with Doordash, whatever that means, and then refund. They said it’s supposed to take 3 bussiness days. Well, today is Thursday, Tomorrow is Friday, so I’m guessing by Tuesday end of the day it’s supposed to be resolved?
I mean, I’m giving them 1 week. I’m definitely filing that dispute the Friday next week. Technically I have 60 days to dispute, but I’m gonna stay on the safe side and 1 week is all I’m giving. I’m really wanting to just file right now, but I’m don’t want to get banned from BestBuy for life just yet, but if they don’t refund within a week, I’m just gonna have to be banned from bestbuy, I guess… 🤷♂️
Gonna update later if y’all are still curious in a few days.
And if you are wonder why I didn’t just go to BestBuy, I live in a car-centric city and I don’t have easy access to a car, and carrying big electronics in public transit is just asking for someone to mug you.
Is that actually an issue in the US?
Depends on where you live. I grew up taking Oklahoma City public transit, and you could get mugged for pocket change at some of the bus stops. Now I’m in Washington and my area is pretty safe.
Is that NOT actually an issue where you’re from?
Not in my experience, no. That’s why I am surprised.
Given that this is a laptop we’re talking about, OP is definitely over selling it. Bring a backpack, unpack the laptop box into your backpack (assuming the box is too big to fit in the backpack itself). Something bigger like a TV would be more problematic.
The main worry is that being seen with new-in-box fancy electronics makes you look like “guy with money”. It’s not so much that someone’s gonna steal your TV on the subway, but if you can afford a new TV your wallet probably has good stuff in it. Then it’s just a question of “how bad is the crime actually on this commute?”. Most places it’d be fine but some rough parts of some cities I’d be worried.
Then it’s just a question of “how bad is the crime actually on this commute?”
Yes this is what I afraid of. Some creepy guy hanging around the mall parking lot, seeing me, a not-so-tough looking young man with a backpack of stuff walking out of an electronic store, then waiting at a bus stop. I’m likely gonna get mugged. (Maybe I’m just being paranoid?)
A few year ago, my mom was about to deposit some money (like few hundreds, its after a holiday season where money/gift exchanges are common) to a nearby bank like 10-15 minute walk away, and someone just strong-armed grabbed her purse that also had her phone in it. The cops were all like “we’re gonna do an investigation”, I never heard about the perp getting caught.
At least if a package is stolen, you have some consumer protections, especially when the thief is the driver themselves. Getting mugged could end up with you being in the hospital + PTSD from the whole ordeal.
I remember like 6 years ago chatting on Reddit to some American about how the system of just leaving packages at the door is unsafe as fuck and I would never trust it with anything more expensive than a pizza.
Here there’s delivery points and automats in pretty much every grocery store. So you can have shit delivered, but unless it’s something massive (or delivered food), people rarely do. You just get a notification on your phone and pick up your package from the point you chose to prioritise. Sometimes it can be full and you have to pickup a package from the next point over, but they’re all over the place so.
The American went on a huge rant about how porch pirates are rare as can be and how it would be beyond frustrating and a waste of time to pick up packages from your nearest grocery store.
Would it matter in this case though? If the person delivering it was going to steal it, they would just tell you it was in the locker anyways right?
The lockers usually have surveillance around them.
So you’d go there, open up an empty box and it would be incredibly easy to show who stole it. Plus even if there wasn’t surveillance, you could film yourself opening the slot, which would then show an empty slot.
So yeah, it does make a difference. The package is never left unattended, it’s never “up for grabs” by anyone.
That being said thieving and whatnot is comparatively rare in Finland anyway. We’re #1 in the wallet drop test. https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/least-honest-cities
I agree with you to an extent, but the other American was right, they’re really not as common as you might think based on internet posts. I’ve never once had a package stolen, and I get deliveries multiple times a week. For me, going out to pickup a delivery would be inconvenient because I work from home and don’t want to have to make a 10 min trip by car just for that.
This situation is a whole other story though. That’s the delivery driver straight up stealing the package. Absolutely bonkers.
other American was right, they’re really not as common a
He most certainly wasn’t.
He was practically denying that it ever happened, when it’s common as pickpocketing. Meaning more common in some places, less so in others, but definitely a known and existing issue.
There is an entire industry of companies that make “drop off boxes” that allow the deliverer to put a package in it, but doesn’t allow anyone without the pin number to open it. We live in the dumbest timeline.
Oh yeah, they’re exceedingly common here.
Usually placed inside commercial buildings like stores etc, there are a few just outside as well. They’re quite thin metal so I assume in some places in the US someone would just take a crowbar to a whole station, but if it’s inside a building that’s gonna be much harder.
out of all packages I would trust a pizza the least
I mean I only need it to be there.
I genuinely don’t even know which part of a pizza you wouldn’t trust. Is it like the restaurant or the driver or your neighbours? What are they gonna do aside from swiping your pizza?
You used to be able to require a signature which would force a direct hand-off, but people got annoyed with it. Then drivers started skipping those deliveries to get through their shift faster. So now only expensive courier services and the postal service still really do it.
Here you’ll need to have an ID or at least a driving licence (which isn’t technically an official ID, but is accepted as such in most places outside banks and whatnot) to go and pick up your shit.
Well, not anymore, as lots of them go to the automats and then you just require the PIN.
And depending on what sort of package you’re getting in the mail, you can sometimes give your package id to a friend who can pick it up, but they’ll need an ID of their own as well so it’ll get registered who picked up the parcel.
The US is a lot vaster but one still imagines people wouldn’t mind picking up packages from the nearest grocery store they use, if it meant that their shit can’t be stolen?
This will be super regional. A lot of the US a trip the the grocery store is a 30 minute drive one way. They make that trip once a month and load up their SUV with all their groceries.
Some people work 3 Jobs and their schedule is super tight, so even a 10 minute trip is a burden they would rather risk porch pirates than deal with.
I believe there are lots of places that porch pirates make delivery to door or mailbox just unrealistic. Personally I have never been a victim of theft to my knowledge. My knee jerk response to mitigation strategies is “why? It’s not a problem for me” and I suspect most of my neighborhood this would be true.
So I suspect Americans reaction will vary dramatically by region. I see the Amazon dropoff locations and the boxes in stores near me and I don’t see anyone use them.
I sometimes wonder if I am ever broke and hungry if I could just grab some food off the pickup shelf in a restraint near me. I won’t, because I am not broke and have never needed to skip meals, because I am fortunate to have friends and family support even when I was broke. But it must not be a huge problem where I am or those shelves would not have food on them.
There is a scale I think, for a laptop? Yeah I would go to a locker, for 90% of my packages? Nah, drop it at my door and we will deal with it if someone steals it on the super rare occasion.
super rare occasion
The problem is so ubiquitous , they’re commonly known as “porch pirates”.
“~Two million packages go missing every day, 90 000 in New York alone”
And the video is five years old.
It’s low as a percentage of total packages, but some areas are worse than others. For instance, in San Francisco it’s necessary to leave the trunk of your car open overnight so professional thieves don’t break your window to check it.
Compared to other systems, seems like it’s pretty high.
Universal basic income would discourage crimes like that.
If I had to get a car in SF, I think I’d go for a small hatchback so you can see into the trunk, if it’s that bad.
This is why I pick up from the store instead.
Don’t worry about getting banned. They’ll just backlist the card you used and close your account. Easy enough to get around. Send them your video and demand they refund you while you’re on the phone with them. Use the word chargeback liberally. You’ll either get refunded quickly or fuck them, make them get dinged with a chargeback.
Ya, do this! Dont wait a week. Call or March in and demand a refund or you’ll be placing a chrageback. Speak to a manger
Thanks for the heads up. I have ordered things online from best buy in the past but not again if they’re going to do this shit. I know they’re not reading Lemmy for customer experiences but this is ridiculous and nobody should have to go through that. I think a week of “investigation” is more than generous especially if you have video of the guy stealing your shit. I would also file a police report to really add to the evidence but that’s even more time out of your day and then you have to talk to the cops and explain why the felony theft (at least in my state) that you were the victim of is worth the time it takes for them to get off their asses and stop eating doughnuts for 5 minutes to collect the report. A lot of companies won’t do shit without a police report. The driver is also probably going to be pissed if he gets fired over this and also knows exactly where you live, so having a police report is a good idea if he tries some shit. Not that the police will actually do anything about it, again it just adds to the paper trail.
I live in Sacramento, but I drive to San Jose for Central Computers or now MicroCenter to buy gear… I buy nothing mail order, porch pirates are bad enough, but when the driver himself is the thief, that is just it.
Ironically, I never had a “porch pirate”, my neighborhood is pretty chill with that, its not even a rich neighborhood, everyone here is working class. The driver, however, picked up the order from a warehouse like 2 hours away, so I’m assuming he’s not from my city. I had more drivers themselves stealing shit than just random people walking. My neighbor leaves like 5 packages on their doorsteps and didn’t come home til like 2 days later (idk where they went tbh, I don’t really talk to them), the packages were still there. They have packages on their doorsteps like few hours at a time every week, never seen anyone steal it. Maybe because its within sight of my cameras? But like, that didn’t deter that guy that stole my stuff earlier, and judging from the news, thiefs don’t seem to care if there’s a camera, they steal it anyways I guess my neighbood is just that good with not touching other people’s stuff?
I didn’t even know this was a thing. I’ll definitely watch out for it.
I used to do Postmates, and I used to get these kinds of deliveries. I’m not trying to defend BestBuy or DoorDash. This is entirely on the driver. I never even thought about stealing people’s expensive electronics, and I would text or call the customer to ask where they wanted me to leave the package.
I would send the evidence to the police & file criminal charges against the driver.
Still, you should hassle the corpos, but don’t forget that the driver is the real criminal here.
No, it is on Best Buy. They could’ve shipped it via a known carrier but elected to go a cheaper route to save money. One bad egg doesn’t work when you’re a large company. Raise the price five dollars or eat the shipping costs and use UPS.
Best Buy is not setup like Newegg. This is in store pick up with an extra step.
I’m not sure if that’s even “in-store”, the Doordash map shows the package originally from a warehouse like in a different state 3 hours away (on June 18, one day after ordering), then they moved it overnight (late night of June 18 / early morning of June 19) to a different warehouse 2 hours away, then June 19 they sent a driver to pick it up, bring it to my house, and promptly stole it.
They could’ve just used UPS!
They still have stock in warehouses/distribution centers that they can move with real logistics companies like UPS.
If they want to offer shipping to their customers, they need to use a method that ensures it makes it there safely. DoorDash, instacart, etc are not such methods.
Kinda missed my point. It’s the driver’s choice to steal.
So if Bestbuy asked Slick Rick and his boys from da hood to deliver the item and it got stolen by the boys, Bestbuy would be 100% off the hook?
Well BestBuy would be like 95% off the hook. You’re gonna just let Rick & the boys off the hook? Unless BestBuy is running an op with Rick & the boys, it’s Rick & the boys that stole your shit.
If it keeps happening, and BestBuy keeps using Rick & the boys, then they’d be 100% liable because of negligence.
Still, you should hassle the corpos, but don’t forget that the driver is the real criminal here.
Honestly, I put 50% blame on the thief, 50% blame on Bestbuy. Theft from your fellow working class people is fucked up, but BestBuy using shady delivery services is also unacceptable.
fault isn’t zero sum.
both the driver and best buy can be 100% at fault.
I can definitely agree that BestBuy & DoorDash are on the chopping block for negligence, but they aren’t the ones who stole your laptop.
In a better, and perhaps idealistic, world DoorDash would be a perfectly acceptable & respectable option for BestBuy to contract for deliveries. And even in that better world, the driver is still the real criminal; fellow working class or not.
Justice should fuck everyone that needs to get fucked; whether they are a big fish or a small fish.
In a better world the driver wouldn’t be exploited in a gig economy and have little incentive to risk criminal charges for a fucking laptop.
You are completely running past socioeconomic factors to be the main driver of small scale crime.
Some people are thieves no matter the socioeconomic factors.
And instead of getting them help with their kleptomania, we built an economy where the richest thieves control the world.
Some people are gonna be thieves even if you give them that help. Still others will take advantage of you for having the heart to help.
I’m deliberately vague about the form of this help because I think that trying to keep track of who owns what is actively harmful to human society and we should abolish private property entirely.
It won’t help the kleptos so much as it will limit the impact of their offenses to the personal scale rather than industrial or national scales.
I’d put blame on doordash as well. What’s the point of a 3p delivery system if the system literally accepts anyone that applies, especially in this case
Yeah, I definitely agree that they should be required to do the due diligence when it comes to hiring their delivery personnel.
Call the
bobbiespolice and file a report, using your footage as evidence. If it’s like here, they won’t actually do anything, but you’ll need that report to file a dispute with your bank. Best buy will likely try to write you off, but they can’t really do that with a proper report backed by evidence.Edit: sorry. Police.
Sooooooooo…did doordash prompt you to tip your driver?
There was no option at all. Besides, this isn’t a food delivery (where the pay is shit). You can check on youtube, the payout for package delivery averages from $20-$25 per hour (well other than the fact that they don’t get health benefits like with traditional employment), total payout is shown before they accept, they could’ve just declined.
I did door dash for a couple months. One of my deliveries was from a parts store to a service center, lmao. At least they left me a tip?
Napa auto parts wanted a parts deal with our company but mentioned they will deliver with doordash, so our supervisor just ignored them.
I ordered a laptop from BB for an executive at work, they tried delivering it on a Saturday and texted me about it, offered to deliver elsewhere instead, so I’m like, sure bring it to my house. Then when they get there, it’s a third party delivery service (not Doordash but like it) - woman and her boyfriend - hat out looking for a tip. Umm I didn’t ASK for some weird tip-based delivery service, I thought they were UPSing that shit. I can’t put tips on my corporate card, for laptop delivery fees?! So I looked like the asshole after they booked it across town. Haven’t ordered from Best Buy again, what a terrible customer experience.
Its not a food delivery, you shouldn’t need to tip, they had too high of an expectation. I searched up some youtube videos, they get an average of $20-$25 an hour if completed within the estimated time. Its similar to Amazon Flex, they get paid real money (the only dowside is, they are considered “independent contractors” therefore no healthcare and other benefits, but otherwise, it pays pretty much like a normal job). In contrast, for food delivery, base pay is $2.5 and you should tip like $5 minimum + $1 per mile distance because otherwise they wouldn’t have even minimum wage (or just don’t use the service). When they accept an offer, they can already see the estimated total payout, if they don’t like the amount (eg: if someone didn’t tip for food deliver), they should have just declined it, there is no penalty for rejecting an offer (there is a penalty for accepting, then not completing the order). They saw the whole payout for X number of packages, they shouldn’t have accepted if they didn’t like it. (Not blaming the drivers btw, just saying they should stand up for themselves and not let Doordash bully them)
there is no penalty for rejecting an offer
acceptance rate will get lowered and lower acceptance rate leads to less offers meaning less pay
What I mean is, declining a lot of offers will not (if they obey their own rules, that is) lead to a deactivation. Getting less offers is the equialent of your boss (at a traditional employment) randomly say “hey btw, your pay for tomorrow will be halved”, would you still go to work tomorrow? If you are desparate, maybe, but my point is, at some point, you have to stand up for your self. If you get paid $10/hour, for example, and your just barely have enough to survive, are you gonna work your usual 9-5 shit when you get paid $5/hour for a day?
I’m not blaming drivers, not blaming customers either. Doordash should just outright charge a delivery fee that goes to the driver, instead of this “tipping” BS that confuses both the customer and the drivers, because the vast majority of customers just assumes the drivers get paid like in traditional employment, therefore, believes they don’t need to (customarily) tip. The result is, drivers lashing out at customers, when its really Doordash’s fault for misleading everyone.
meanwhile if my US friends come to australia and try to tip i will angrily tell them where to shove it
tipping is a fucking scourge
Tipping used to be discouraged in the US since it promoted class divisions. Then the civil war happened and there weren’t any slaves anymore and all of a sudden tipping is the greatest thing ever.
Thanks for the warning. I’ve crossed Best Buy of my list of places to shop.
ok but isn’t the problem clearly with doordash? why would this be bestbuys fault?
Because they’re using an inherently insecure delivery service for expensive electronics. Extremely clear case of negligence.
if doordash is inscure, why does it exist? how are they still in buisiness if they can’t be trusted?
Most of what they deliver isn’t worth stealing. If they continue trying to take over the high end courier business, though, I doubt they’ll last long.
I stopped shopping at Best Buy in the 1990s when one store asked me to leave. I was writing down some prices so I could do some comparison shopping.
Tbf, in-store is probably fine, just don’t do Online buying and delivery unless you have confirmation that they switched back to normal UPS or Fedex or something.
I mean, what else is shady if they can’t even get proper deliveries. I would avoid them out of principle.
Hmm yea I get it. Btw what electronics stores are you gonna use? I don’t know where to look now.
If you don’t have a Micro Center nearby there’s really not a good choice. Just do Newegg or Amazon and hope for the best.
We have plenty to choose from here in Sweden, so not really an issue for us, but also not really helpful to you either. Sorry! 😬
Newegg served me well
Microcenter, perhaps.
Yea, I go out of my way to Microcenter, passing several Best Buys.
I miss radio shack and circuit city so bad
cries
And Fry’s waaa. The service was usually bad but if you know what you need they had it. One time thought we got help from a sales lady who was all about "oh that is just right over here… The wife and I bought his-n-hers laptops in the days of windows 98.
Yeah because you’re totally a 65 year old that buys electronics at Best Buy
The f—?
Get off my lawn, boy
