(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.
Just a little PSA for anyone who’s wondering, any retailer that offers you same day delivery of goods is using DoorDash or one of its clones. Apple does same day delivery and I think they use UberEats.
Wtf
I have things delivered all the time from Best Buy for my home business. Doordash sometimes does the delivery, but I have never had an issue in all of these years. Nothing missing, nothing stolen, never a problem.
I don’t look both ways before crossing the street, and I’ve never been hit! It must be safe!
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?
They stole it explicitly because they thought they could get away with pretending someone else stole it from the door by photographing it by the door… Nobody can steal it from inside a locker. It follows that they wouldn’t have done it in that scenario. Also doordash basically hires everyone on planet earth. It hires some folks it doesn’t even know its hired because they are obviously working on someone else’s account.
Except there are cameras on porches too, so it isn’t like they got away with it, but it doesn’t seem to matter right? In a locker situation who is going to review thefootage, how would you go about that? Couldn’t they put an empty package in there and claim someone else did it anyways?
Never heard of this happening to anyone whereas porch pirates are literally everywhere doesn’t seem reasonable
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.
You should ask Best Buy why a signature was not required
Even if there was a signature required, the driver could just forge it.
then you gain the extra potential illegal action due to forgery. so its a game of risk management for the drivers.
then you gain the extra potential illegal action due to forgery. so its a game of risk management for the drivers.
I think you are overestimating how much cops actually care. Most likely, one of these companies just files an insurance claim and that’s it. Maybe if the delivery person does it often they’ll get fired, but I haven’t seen anyone actually going to prison.
Cops and city government are more interested in giving people tickets than they are of solving crime. Implement a new theft enforcement team that takes complaints online with porch video attachments and goes after porch pirates? No … they dont have the resources.
Put in more traffic cameras to catch speeders and red light runners? Oh yeah, get those criminals.
They like to tax people, but only to the working class. If you are Rich? Well here’s a tax cut for you! 🤦♂️
Some services now send a one-time code to the customers that they have to give to the delivery guy to confirm the item as received instead of a signature.
Amazon does that, but then I’m not sure if I can trust if amazon doesn’t just sell something returned after getting used as “new”.
Manufacturer’s websites also doesn’t have a lot of discounts like Bestbuy or Amazon has.
Not sure what place to get stuff from now. Or do I have to bother asking a relative to drive me to a local BestBuy.
I have used B&H for stuff whenever possible for the past few years. Less selection of general tech, but I have been flawlessly happy with the service, returns, shipping, etc.
See if you have a microcenter near you. Not sure about delivery though, but I love that place.
wait, there are microcenters? when did they expand? i only have to drive 3 hours instead of 12 to get to one now and i was just by there last week what am i doing with my life
i only have to drive 3 hours
Americans are so weird 🤔
Maybe that means there used to be one in a city 6 hours away, now there’s one only 1.5 hours away? That’s a pretty huge difference
There’s 29 Microcenters in the USA! One just opened near me.
Theres at least 3 in Ohio, two of them less than 2 hours from me 😁
I’m sorry, but that’s a dumb argument. The presence of a signature doesn’t imply you accepted a shipment. Even if you know my name, you have no idea how I sign it. It’s trivial to prove a forged signature doesn’t match the one on my license, credit card, lease, etc…
Plenty of companies don’t actually check signatures these days.
What does this even mean? Who would “check”, and why? It makes no sense. If someone says I signed for a delivery or agreed to a contract, I guess they’d confirm the existence of a signature before filing it away, if that’s what you mean… But again, if it wasn’t me, I could easily prove that signature doesn’t match my past signatures and dispute it with my bank or in court. To reiterate: a random delivery person won’t know what my signature looks like.
When you sign for something, they’re supposed to verify your signature against the signature on your ID, credit/debit card, etc. Companies have gotten lazy about this, though. For example, the last time a store asked to see the signature on the back of my credit card was maybe 10 years ago?
I thought best buy was out of business.
So did the short sellers
Far from it, Circuit City, Fry’s Electronics, all shuttered physical stores, RadioShack shuttered 99% of them, but BestBuy marches onwards- they did remove all of their physical media in 2023 though.
Napa auto parts wanted a parts deal with our company but mentioned they will deliver with doordash, so our supervisor just ignored them.
I’m pretty sure something similar happened to me three weeks ago, because I saw it was delivered and went down to the floor of my building to grab my items literally five minutes after and they were nowhere to be seen.
Then, inexplicably, they showed up (open but re-taped) two weeks later.
I’m sure these big companies are well aware these scams are happening.
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)
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.
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.
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.
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?
Yeah, dispute the charge and do it quickly. They like to pretend the window to dispute is short
The standard window for a chargeback with both Visa and MasterCard is 120 days. Don’t let the retailers bully you into thinking otherwise.
Usually just threatening to do a chargeback, without actually doing it, is sufficient to get them to comply. Every chargeback costs the company money (anywhere from $15 to $40 depending on the bank) so they try to resolve issues without the customer involving the bank.
They can also entirely lose the ability to process cards if they have too many chargebacks. It’s largely an issue for smaller businesses, (there’s no way Visa is going to cut off a giant retailer like BestBuy), but it’s something to keep in mind.
When I worked for a bank call center the first question before initiating the dispute/chargeback process is “did you attempt to resolve this with the merchant first?” It is a requirement for doing the dispute. OP needs to clearly say yes, and they prevent it by not letting me speak to a human.
OP should also file a police report immediately. They won’t care, but at least the store can’t accuse OP of not following properof procedures.
What if my USPS packages keep disappearing, asupposedly reputable sender. I don’t know if they are making it to my mailbox, or if they’re stolen after making it to my mailbox.
First I’d ask if they’re requiring a signature, and go from there.
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.
If you used a credit card you can just chargeback. I’m sure the video is more than enough evidence. Best buy will be out a laptop and the money for it so it’s their problem from there.
Still an ugly pain in the ass for the person who wanted to exchange currency for goods and/or services.
I do find it amusing that Doordash itself seems so blaise about this misuse of their services. Like, what an amazing racket. Get paid by one of the biggest retailers in the country to not-pay drivers so they can not-deliver expensive hardware.
All of the formerly food delivery apps are like that. I hate it. And if you don’t get your stuff often enough or if the restaurant gets your order wrong too often they’ll tell you that you’re not allowed to get your money back anymore. And if you do a chargeback they won’t let you order until you pay them.
And that’s fine with me because I stopped using them a few years ago except once in a very great while. But I feel sorry for the people who rely on food delivery because they’re disabled or have time constraints due to working half a dozen jobs to make ends meet. I’ve got a buddy who can’t use Uber eats anymore because of this. He’s taking care of two kids and holding down a job that has him working far more than he should and he has no executive function and very little time left over.
This seems like a very American thing. I’ve never not received my food. No, the drivers aren’t well paid here either.
The one time food did not arrive, it was driver error (similar buildings on one lot) and we contacted the service, got a new order for free (the old one would’ve been cold already)
Thing is, if it only happens a few times or once in a while that’s exactly how they treat it. But if the restaurants or drivers in your area are shitty and you’re constantly missing one item then your choices are to suck it up and pay for it or you can’t get delivery after a short while.
Also file a police report and let the police identify the thief from video. Then they will get to deal with doordash.
Also file a police report and let the police identify the thief from video.
Not clear enough to identify. Also, cops are highly unlikely to do anything especially if the refund happens and theb I techically wouldn’t be out of pocket for anything (besides the time wasted and mental energy drained on this issue).
The cops definitely won’t do anything, but the paperwork can be useful if Best Buy decides to be worse than usual about it.
Door dash knows who it is though and I garuntee they work with cops.
