Customer trapped in Apple & FedEx blame game over lost Apple Watch

An Apple Watch owner who wanted his device repaired had trouble, after Apple and FedEx both refused to take the blame for a missing parcel.

Dedham, Massachusetts resident Vic Son was stuck in a battle between FedEx and Apple over who should take responsibility for a lost-in-transit Apple Watch. A problem that could've been fixed earlier by Apple's customer care.

In February, Son had a new Apple Watch sent to his home as an AppleCare replacement, since it had stopped charging after four months. Under the arrangement, Son would have two weeks to return his old Apple Watch to Apple, or face being charged for the replacement.

The man followed Apple's instructions, using the provided materials and label, and dropping it off at his local FedEx facility. However, the Boston Globe reports he was charged $328 by Apple on his credit card.

Son called Apple, and after two hours and four transfers, got hold of a representative identified as Jeremy. The rep told him that the Apple Watch didn't arrive with Apple, and so a charge was applied.

Jeremy offered Son a FedEx tracking number to try and fix the problem, insisting that it was something the customer had to fix. A second call then followed to FedEx, with a 90-minute hold time and more dissatisfaction.

FedEx said it would investigate, but only after Son filed a claim. Days later, FedEx said "we must respectfully decline your claim," as an addendum was on the contract for the delivery "stating you agreed to not file claims resulting from transportation services provided by FedEx," the delivery firm said, with little other detail.

After hitting a brick wall, Son got hold of Apple again, with Jeremy insisting he had to deal with FedEx directly. Son did so, and eventually discovered the addendum was an agreement by Apple to hold FedEx unaccountable for lost packages heading to Apple.

Son then tried to get hold of Apple, but wasn't called back. "Apple and FedEx kept pointing the finger at each other, and I was caught in the middle," said Son. "I felt like the ball in a ping-pong match."

Son contacted the Boston Globe about the stalemate, who contacted FedEx about the problem. FedEx then gave Son an explanation that was more understandable, as well as advising that Apple had to file the claim since it was all organized on Apple's account.

The reporter emailed Apple, only for a manager from the Corporate Executive Relations team to contact Son directly. The manager said Jeremy was wrong in directing Son to contact FedEx, and credited the $328 charge back to the customer.

Following apologies, Son pressed to see if Apple could do something to make up for the issue. When asked what he wanted, Son said "An iPad Pro Plus," before agreeing to a pair of AirPods as compensation.

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41 Comments

Beats 4 Years · 3073 comments

About 2 years ago

Companies do this all the time but in this situation it’s obviously FedEx’s fault. Looks like an employee stole the package.

maltz 13 Years · 507 comments

This happened to me with Amazon, a third party seller, and a lost return by UPS. Though it was obvious to me that there was no reason for me to talk to UPS - I was not their customer, the third-party seller was. But the third-party seller, after stringing me along for a month or so, finally sent me off to file an Amazon A-Z claim. That eventually worked, after some back and forth explaining the situation, and that I had already tried to resolve with the seller, but it seemed weird to me that the third-party seller would WANT me to do that. Isn't that a black mark on them?

I'm actually concerned it's about to happen again. I dropped off an item for return with UPS recently and Amazon already issued the refund, but the tracking number still says "label created" almost a week later. The instructions said that UPS would "pack and ship" the item, so I didn't box it back up. It sounded like it worked like their Kohl's drop offs. Sigh...

jamnap 5 Years · 102 comments

Years ago I sold an Apple Thunderbolt display to Buy Back World. They sent me a FedEx ship label. The tracking showed the shipment vanished at FedEx New Jersey. After several months and fighting with FedEx and BBW, I did received full trade/in price from BBW. Thieves abound within FedEx, especially in NJ

chadbag 13 Years · 2029 comments

Thieves abound everywhere. I ran an online store and took an order for an expensive package deal (over 1600$). I normally shipped Fedex Ground but this customer wanted UPS COD. I sometimes had customer for whom Fedex service in their area was non existent or sucked so was used to the occasional request for UPS. I shipped the package fully insured by UPS. The package disappeared after being scanned at the end station package sorting facility.

It was obviously an inside job. I couldn’t get ahold of the customer once it disappeared and I never heard from him again. He had the tracking number and either he or his accomplice watched for it and stole it. UPS paid the insurance and I tried to get them interested in the details since it was obviously an inside job but they weren’t interested.

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in this case in this article, if I were Mr Son, I would have counted up all the hours spent on hold or otherwise spent trying to jump through hoops and explained to the Apple Corp relationship guy how many hours had been wasted and what my normal pay rate was… Let them make an offer against that.

Madbum 2 Years · 536 comments

Ummmm

isnt this what happens with every lost package ? Some back and forth and resolution?