I don’t, lol. I’ve decided I will be using the phone for my trip, so I have a working device for safety, then returning it and getting the 512.

Thank you! This is exactly what I will be doing. I really appreciate it!

Yea, the Verizon associate tells me this happens very often. I wish they gave me the option to ship it to the store, or that I knew that was an option.

Thank you for your comment! I would like to say, I don’t think I worded my original post well about which box was which.

It was the white iPhone container box (you know how they come in new white boxes with a picture of the phone on the front) was empty. It was still inside a brown shipping box. So someone opened my shipping box, grabbed the white iPhone box out, opened it and removed the phone, then put the iPhone box back in the shipping box.

I had grabbed the iPhone box, from the top of the brown shipping package, and ran to the phone store with it, and opened it there in front of the associate, where we found it was empty, so clearly deliberately stolen.

This is actually super interesting, thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge! I guess it makes sense though. I have heard of people who worked retail who had to get searched before going home.

Thank you for your sympathy, I appreciate it. I can’t help but feel like this is somehow my fault, it’s my first phone buying experience and my first time having my own line (I was on a family plan previously).

I think it was definitely stolen in a warehouse at some point in processing and shipping. I don’t think it was stolen at the original Verizon warehouse, because they use brown tape, and the store associate told me that clear tape on the box indicates it was tampered with. The shipping box had clear tape, so I’m thinking maybe at some point in some UPS processing center, it was opened and stolen, then sealed back up.

I actually just saw a comment above, someone shared Verizon lets you return within 14 days. I actually might do that, the store associates might hate me but I’m trying to learn to be less of a people pleaser anyways. Especially since I’m going to be on a payment for 36 months, and if I don’t stick with that phone for 36 months I won’t get my $800 trade in value I guess, which is the only reason I was really adamant about getting my 512.

This is interesting additional information, thank you for contributing this! I didn’t know that. They made it sound like the phone would be completely unable to turn on.

Thank you for this! Verizon says the phone will be blocked and locked. Unfortunately, it seems like whoever stole it is likely to turn around and sell it to an unsuspecting person, which is sad. But, still not my issue. At least I have been refunded :)

Wow thanks for letting me know. I actually might consider this. I’m just trying to figure out if 256 GB is genuinely not enough for me, or if I’m just being upset and difficult because I didn’t get what I want.

Yea, I got the 2 TB of storage on iCloud. On my 64 GB X max, it wouldn’t upload any of my stuff to iCloud until I upgraded, because if it can’t upload all of it, it won’t upload any. I should be fine with iCloud for photos. If anything, it motivates me to clean up my camera roll.

I see. I was reading a post from 8 years ago about a stolen phone and I wonder if it was yours, lol. Sorry that happened to you, it’s a really disappointing situation

That’s what I’m thinking, especially since it was re-taped. I ordered via Verizon and in store today I was told they use that brown masking tape for packages, and clear tape means it was opened and re-sealed outside of the Verizon warehouse. My shipping box had clear tape on it. So maybe at some processing center or something like that, it was stolen. I guess I’ll never know.

Thanks, I appreciate this. It helps calm my self doubt about how I handled the situation.

Yea, I am getting it refunded. She (the associate) told me that 256 GB should be more than enough, though, and most of her sales are actually the lower option (168 GB or whatever it is, I don’t recall). I hope it will be enough and that she wasn’t just trying to satiate me since she couldn’t get me the 512 GB phone next day before my trip.

Haha! I considered it, but I don’t need another phone. Additionally, it sounds like it won’t really turn on or even work, like it needs to be activated with a phone company. Especially if it was someone else’s order that got mixed in with mine perhaps.

And if I were to sell it, someone else might not be able to turn it on if it was meant to go to someone else and is disabled, and I wouldn’t sleep well if I knew I may have screwed someone out of money for a deadweight iPhone.

So, I think I didn’t word this properly, my apologies.

When I say I opened the box and the iPhone wasn’t in there, I mean the actual iPhone box, not the shipping box. You know how they come in a white box container with a picture of the iPhone on the front and what not? I mean I opened that box and it was empty. Like the literal container.

I did get an empty trade in box as well, it was sent when I received the internet equipment.

Sorry for the confusion, so many boxes and I’m not sure how to word it. Lol

Edit to add: I grabbed the iPhone’s box, out of the top of the shipping box. I didn’t open the white iPhone box itself bc I wanted the store associate to put my screen protector on and I wear so much sunscreen that I would have gotten the beautiful new screen covered in zinc oxide residue and what not. So I opened the iPhone container for the first time, in store, in front of the associates. They thought I was playing a prank on them at first when I asked where the phone was.

it was in the same box. It was beneath tissue paper and a bunch of papers from Verizon. It’s totally wrapped in plastic so I’m assuming there’s a phone in there still lol. I’m just super confused as to how it ended up in there, I just feel like I have so many questions I won’t get answers to.

Thank you. I will file a complaint tomorrow. I really hope they’re able to do something because if this person stole my phone, I think it’s likely they’ve stolen others.

Yea, they also sent me an iPhone 12 which I had noticed in the very bottom of the delivery box once I came back from the phone store. I didn’t get charged for it and it’s wrapped in plastic so I’m assuming it hasn’t been tampered with.

They said they’d be giving me a call tomorrow to complete the number transfer (I have a temporary phone number since apparently they had to like, cancel or close a service ticket for the stolen phone or whatever, I don’t know) so when they call me tomorrow I’m gonna let them know I was given a free phone by accident.

Did you order through a phone carrier or through Apple directly?

In my defense, they didn’t give me store shipping as an option. This is my first time on my own phone plan (I just got off of the family plan) so I just sort of assumed it was standard. They just asked me for my home address to get it shipped there. They probably didn’t want to deal with all the deliveries, especially over holidays.

Edit: I did pick it up at the station. They came for delivery once, I missed them bc I was walking my dog, and I had to call customer service to tell them to not take it out for delivery again the next day, and to just hold it at the station. So I guess it was likely stolen before it was even shipped, or while being processed at some point, according to some of these comments.

I should have asked for store delivery, I wish I did. They didn’t really give it as an option. Hindsight is 20/20. Thankfully it got resolved and I got a phone in my hands by the end of the day, at least. Lesson learned.

Yea, I tried really hard to advocate for myself and I think I did a decent job, the lady at the Verizon store called and she really did try to get me a new phone overnight shipped. However, I really think that the 256 GB should be enough storage for me. I just can’t stand feeling taken advantage of. As long as I’m getting refunded for the phone I never received, it is what it is. Just very frustrating overall.

I didn’t want to and was sketched out by it, to me it doesn’t seem rational, but they didn’t have any in stock and I didn’t have a choice. I wouldn’t get a trade in if I had gone to the apple store and bought one. They did mention as I was ordering one that they saw lots of theft but I didn’t think it would be from the couriers themselves, or that it would happen to me.

I have learned and will definitely not be ordering an iPhone ever again, especially not over the holidays. Sadly I was unable to choose when my X Max kicked the bucket 🥲

Either way, I’m getting refunded for it but the whole situation has been a mess and ridiculous.