The story (hopefully not common) comes from Reddit r/iPhone. A customer (who calls himself Ucsdsig on the site) tells how his iPhone 14 Pro Max pre-order turned into a real ordeal. The unlucky one explains that he pre-ordered his smartphone on the day of its release – delivery was initially scheduled for September 23.
The date arrives, but no sign of the delivery person. He then contacts Apple, which notices a problem with the package and decides to schedule the delivery of another device on October 5. But it’s disappointment again: the unit disappears, once again, along the way.
This customer suffered three iPhone 14 Pro Max thefts during delivery
A UPS manager confirms to the customer – after several hours on the phone – that it is probably a theft problem at the depot. A UPS delivery man will later confirm to him “a theft problem” in this center: the iPhone 14 Pro Max that he was to deliver to the customer have never, according to him, been loaded into the delivery truck.
And the delivery person advises the customer to ask Apple to collect the package himself directly from the UPS depot the next time, so as not to risk having the 3rd copy of iPhone 14 Pro Max stolen. The customer therefore calls Apple customer service; he first tries unsuccessfully to have his order delivered to an Apple Store – a manager nevertheless offers to ship a new iPhone 14 Pro Max faster.
He asks that the package be picked up directly from the UPS warehouse as advised by the delivery person. But when D-day arrives, new disappointment: the package is not found. Quite annoyed by these cascading delivery problems, he then decided to cancel his purchase from Apple.
He explains that the brand’s customer service department was quite satisfied with its handling of the problem, except for one point that could have changed everything and saved him all these mishaps. Apple should, he says, transfer his order to an Apple Store – so he could pick up his unit himself without a hitch.
He subsequently acquired an iPhone 14 Pro Max, but by going directly to a Best Buy store (a bit like Darty or Boulanger in the United States). Having an in-shipment iPhone stolen three times in a row necessarily points to a problem that needs to be addressed by the carrier.
But there are also some thefts of iPhone packages during delivery in France. However, to our knowledge, it is extremely rare to be the victim of this type of theft twice in a row, and even more improbable for it to happen three times.
