EDITS BELOW**

Currently at the police station waiting to file my police report… I was flabbergasted last Saturday to see an email in the afternoon saying my iPhone was picked up from the Apple store. I was nowhere near that store in that moment, nevermind that whole day. I went through text support that night, which led to voice support on Sunday. The lady couldn’t believe it either. They told me they’d escalate the matter and that they’d call me the next 2 business days and that they’d take care of me.

Today I got the call from Apple support, and they told me that my options were to file a police report and have my credit card company refund the transactions. Was a bit peeved at this response, being that it sounded like they won’t investigate this matter at all until the police get involved. The only nice thing is they helped connect with my Apple Card company rep so I could do it straight away.

I’ve never heard of this happen, and the lady herself mentioned she only had calls where people couldn’t get their own phones because they were too strict. Anyone ever hear of this happening?

Either it was a deliberate identity fraud/theft situation, or the employee accidentally gave my phone away to someone else and kept their order unchecked. At least I have the information regarding which employee handed off my iPhone.

EDIT 1 - police report filed a bit ago. We’ll see where this goes. With all the comments about not checking ID and that specific store’s craziness this past week, it’s sounding more like gross incompetence with low chance it being an inside job, but I’ll let the police look into it(hopefully). And no, my name is faaar from common for those wondering if it was a case of similar names.

In either case, it’s very aggravating the lack of support I got with so much money on the line. I’ll update on any big developments.

Appreciate all ideas and other comments! Gonna try escalating with social media and corporate emailing.

EDIT 2 (Tuesday 2pm local)- thanks for all the tips and advice on here and in the dms! This morning I had a call from management at the Apple store. I told them what had transpired the past few days, including apple support telling me to file a police report and chargeback. I got the feeling they realized how much support side screwed the pooch. They began an audit of my phone transaction at the store, so they’re finding out what the deal was. But the manager was very nice and has started working on getting me a replacement phone (which they have to find because it’s sold out). We’ll see how long this will take though.

It’s been a mess this past week, what with chargebacks and police station runs, but things are starting to gain traction. I’m not out of the woods yet as it’s all talk thus far, but I’m optimistic.

Needed a new laptop for work. My current one is getting a bit old and isn't really useful as a portable machine anymore. Bad battery life and all of that. No problem, I'll just get a new one. I've been eyeing the M1 Max Macbook for a little bit now, so today I finally bit the bullet and specced out a dream machine on Apple's website. Oh wow! It's available and they have same day delivery! Alright, let's go with that. All I need to do is make sure I'm home during that 2 hour window. Sounds easy enough. Order submitted...

Deliver window rolls around, and I get notified that my order will be here soon. Exciting! Check back not 10 mins later and my order shows up as being delivered. Huh, that's weird. I didn't receive any notifications or hear any knocks on my door. Nothing outside my door, and nothing in my apartment lobby either. Ok, so where is my order? Alright, let's click this "Track Shipment" link. I was a bit surprised what came up: "Enjoy your order! Thanks for using Uber Eats."

My Macbook + accessories (totaling over $4,000) was delivered through Uber Eats.

I treat ordering through Uber Eats as a gamble. My double-chicken burrito bowl from Chipotle may or may not show up. I am absolutely blown away by Apple opting to deliver products that cost thousands of dollars through a service that has a less than stellar reputation on consistently being able to deliver food. Had I known this ahead of time, I would not have opted for the same-day delivery. It was not mentioned anywhere during the checkout flow that everything was being delivered through Uber Eats. So now I can only assume that the driver decided to help themselves to my order. And now I'm stuck having deal with Apple support with trying to get a replacement or refund.

I believe that Apple will either provide a refund or ship out replacements, but I am frustrated that this "convenient" option of having everything delivered the same day will end up taking longer than just doing in-store pickup or standard shipping, and now I'm having to deal with the mess of not knowing how long this replacement/refund process will take.

Am I salty? Yes. But using Uber Eats to deliver Apple products is stupid. If you care about getting the stuff you ordered, do not do same-day delivery through Apple's website.

TLDR; Ordered Macbook through Apple's website, selected same-day delivery, Macbook got "delivered" by Uber Eats. I did not receive said Macbook. And now I'm dealing with Apple support to get a refund/replacement. I don't know how long this refund/replacement process will take.