I just wanted to share my story of attempting to order a refurbished iMac from Apple. It has been a bit of a gong show to say the least and is apparently still not over.
My mother was in need of a new iMac as her (2009 iMac) was giving her issues. There isn't an Apple Store anywhere near her and she wasn't sure what to order so I offered to order one for her and bring it down when we came down to visit for (Canadian) Thanksgiving. I was just going to pick one up at the local Best Buy when a refurbished iMac (with a SSD) popped up on the Apple website. It was $200 cheaper than a new one so I ordered it and paid an extra $27 for express shipping to make sure it would make it in plenty of time.
On the quoted delivery date (Oct. 6th) I received a text that it should be delivered today. I'm working at home at the moment so that was fine. I later received a text stating that items in the order were delivered, which of course surprised me since no UPS truck had pulled up and nothing had been delivered. I called Apple for clarification and the first person told me straight up that it had been delivered and verified by ID and there was nothing they could do. When I asked whose ID they had verified I was told I would have to speak to UPS.
Upon looking up the tracking information it appeared that the order was turned around at the border and returned to Apple. I spoke to a UPS rep and they verified that this was the case and the iMac had already been delivered back to Apple.
I spoke to Apple again sharing the info I had received from UPS and she agreed that something had gone wrong with the shipment and I clearly had never received the order. She also said that she wouldn't be able to do anything for me for 3 business days as they had to give UPS a chance to "sort it out". That seemed weird to me as UPS had already delivered it back to them so I'm pretty sure they considered their job done.
After 3 days with no updates from Apple or UPS I contacted Apple again at which point they agreed to open a ticket to investigate what happened, which could take up to 9 business days. I expressed that I would just like to cancel the order at that point as I was headed down to visit my Mom for the weekend the next day and decided to just go pick up a new one at Best Buy. A few days later I received an email from Apple that said "your refund is being processed" and the refund was posted to my credit card the next day, so I thought case was closed. Apparently not...
If I open Apple Store app on my iPhone under "For You" there is the iMac with "Your return request has been initiated". If I open it up it says the following:
Please send this item back to Apple
Your replacement will be shipped once we've received your returned item.
Print a free return label and send by November 3, 2020
What the hell Apple? I've ignored it for a few days thinking it was just a glitch (they didn't send an email about it) and it would self correct once they realize that they already have it and have already refunded me, but now I'm starting to get nervous about what will happen on Nov. 3rd if I do nothing (i.e. will the charge me again for the iMac I never received?). Looks like I'm going to have to call Apple again and explain what they should already know about this particular issue. Sigh... I don't think I'll be ordering from Apple online again - what a gong show.
My mother was in need of a new iMac as her (2009 iMac) was giving her issues. There isn't an Apple Store anywhere near her and she wasn't sure what to order so I offered to order one for her and bring it down when we came down to visit for (Canadian) Thanksgiving. I was just going to pick one up at the local Best Buy when a refurbished iMac (with a SSD) popped up on the Apple website. It was $200 cheaper than a new one so I ordered it and paid an extra $27 for express shipping to make sure it would make it in plenty of time.
On the quoted delivery date (Oct. 6th) I received a text that it should be delivered today. I'm working at home at the moment so that was fine. I later received a text stating that items in the order were delivered, which of course surprised me since no UPS truck had pulled up and nothing had been delivered. I called Apple for clarification and the first person told me straight up that it had been delivered and verified by ID and there was nothing they could do. When I asked whose ID they had verified I was told I would have to speak to UPS.
Upon looking up the tracking information it appeared that the order was turned around at the border and returned to Apple. I spoke to a UPS rep and they verified that this was the case and the iMac had already been delivered back to Apple.
I spoke to Apple again sharing the info I had received from UPS and she agreed that something had gone wrong with the shipment and I clearly had never received the order. She also said that she wouldn't be able to do anything for me for 3 business days as they had to give UPS a chance to "sort it out". That seemed weird to me as UPS had already delivered it back to them so I'm pretty sure they considered their job done.
After 3 days with no updates from Apple or UPS I contacted Apple again at which point they agreed to open a ticket to investigate what happened, which could take up to 9 business days. I expressed that I would just like to cancel the order at that point as I was headed down to visit my Mom for the weekend the next day and decided to just go pick up a new one at Best Buy. A few days later I received an email from Apple that said "your refund is being processed" and the refund was posted to my credit card the next day, so I thought case was closed. Apparently not...
If I open Apple Store app on my iPhone under "For You" there is the iMac with "Your return request has been initiated". If I open it up it says the following:
Please send this item back to Apple
Your replacement will be shipped once we've received your returned item.
Print a free return label and send by November 3, 2020
What the hell Apple? I've ignored it for a few days thinking it was just a glitch (they didn't send an email about it) and it would self correct once they realize that they already have it and have already refunded me, but now I'm starting to get nervous about what will happen on Nov. 3rd if I do nothing (i.e. will the charge me again for the iMac I never received?). Looks like I'm going to have to call Apple again and explain what they should already know about this particular issue. Sigh... I don't think I'll be ordering from Apple online again - what a gong show.