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This is a slightly unusual situation I'd appreciate your views on. I recently changed jobs; I had two offers on the table, accepted one and worked through my three month notice period. In that time I received a brand new (boxed and sealed) Apple Macbook Pro, i.e. it appears to be entirely clean from the manufacturer rather than the firtm's IT department.
In the days before I started there were huge changes in the company that signalled to me joining them would be a mistake. I got back in touch with the second offer and agreed I would take the role with them. I informed the original company of my decision (actually I did this two hours into my first day on the job! Slightly akward but impossible to avoid because of the timing with paper work), and we agreed to part company as if I'd never commenced the role.
I asked them how I should return their laptop and they said someone would be in touch. That person duly contacted me (from the US; there is no UK based IT team) and asked when I would be in for a courier to collect. I gave them dates and since then have never heard from them. That was two months ago. I tried once more to get a response but have heard nothing back.
What would you do with the laptop; sit on it indefinitely, use it, sell it?
Use it (but not for work), don’t sell it. The reasoning should be obvious.
I would send emails at a regular intervals (every week or so) for a good couple of months and one final email that says something along the lines of
"I've sent you x number of emails related to this issue, if this one goes unresolved I will take that as agreeing to me keeping this item"
Make some attempts to return it, and give them a final chance to resolve it.
EDIT: i also wouldn't sell it on
I'd write to them (recorded) saying they have 3 months to arrange collection after which you will consider it unwanted and dispose of it.
It's probably just slipped through the net, and if there's any future audit of IT equipment, it'll be picked up again.
Does it have a 'property of ...' sticker on it somewhere? If so it's been logged in a CMDB or similar.
Edit: sealed, so no sticker I'm guessing.
That's a terrible way of doing things, just handing out £2k laptops like jelly babies. You'd hope they have the serial number etc recorded somewhere...
As above, it’s not yours. Contact them several times to organise collection. Then a final chance. Then keep it. Seems a well paid 2 hours of work to me, should you end up keeping it!
I'd just give it to a local Charity if they don't collect it.....
Politely inform them if they do not collect it by a certain date that you will donate it to a local charity or recycle it.
Take photos of the items and be very firm about it.
Email them saying you'll be invoicing them for secure storage of their property.
All sound advice - I've emailed the company again with a note to say that if I don't hear back from them I will assume they don't want it.
Sealed means nothing with Apple stuff. My work iPad was sealed in its box on arrival but when I turned it on it knew exactly who it belonged to.
Can you not just drop it off at their offices?
Apple stuff can be added to MDM (mobile device manager) without being opened. You just register the SN and it does it's stuff in the background when it connects to the web first time.
It can't be used to 'monitor' it though, Apple won't allow that, but they can block it remotely, which will wipe any data from it.
TBH, I'd just use it for personal stuff, if they ever ask for it back, just reset it and send it back.
Can you not just drop it off at their offices?
Not without making a special trip into London no.
Apple stuff can be added to MDM (mobile device manager) without being opened. You just register the SN and it does it’s stuff in the background when it connects to the web first time.
I did wonder if this was possible so thanks for confirming.
Apple stuff can be added to MDM (mobile device manager) without being opened. You just register the SN and it does it’s stuff in the background when it connects to the web first time.
Good point, so can windows stuff if the supplier does the hash upload to Intune via the serial number. I forgot that my company doesn't do it this way and every single laptop/MacBook has to be added manually.
Yeah, our phones at work (iPhone) are all pre registered and sealed from the factory.
Just means an extra 20 minutes on set up while it downloads the corporate software stuff and integrates it.
A tenner recorded delivery and return it via courier to their UK office. No longer your problem. Its the least that I'd do if I'd bailed 2 hours into a new job, what ever the reasons for so doing.
Its miminal effort and cost on your part or is there something else to this story that makes you feel aggrieved about the way you have been treated...and perhaps deserve a little "compo"?
Its miminal effort and cost on your part or is there something else to this story that makes you feel aggrieved about the way you have been treated…and perhaps deserve a little “compo”?
Not at all but their office is still closed and there is no IT team in the UK to send it to and neither do I know anyone even based here in the UK that might be a good person to recieve it (my boss and the person who interviewed and recruited me resigned and left before I started). Plus it'd be more like £30 via a courier though; recorded delivery isn't secure and would simply be signed for by the security guy on the desk of the building, at which point it could easily disappear into a black hole that I end up being accountable for and I'm not spending £30 of my own money!
TBH, I’d just use it for personal stuff, if they ever ask for it back, just reset it and send it back.
This.
Sealed means nothing with Apple stuff. My work iPad was sealed in its box on arrival but when I turned it on it knew exactly who it belonged to.
Yep - an Apple product purchased through Apple Business can be set up, ready to run and all software will be auto installed (we do this and use Kandji to manage software installation and upgrades). We can also lock a user out in minutes. So it *may* be that you have a laptop that might actually be bricked.
I'd keep it but I'm a mac fanboi.
When I left Japan I walked out of the office with a huge 42" cinema display in my (very large) rucksack. Had to dismantle the stand off the back of it to get it home in two trips.
Mind you, I had been there well over a decade, not 2 hours! And I knew for sure that a large and slightly aged screen would not be used by anyone else. I'd seen others leave, and their kit just lie around to rot. It was a slightly crazy world, not at all like the UK where vultures usually circle round the desks of departing staff and try to steal the seat from under them before they've even stood up.
The screen still gets regular use almost a decade later.
I'd have assumed that this sort of thing, coupled to my creative use of tax residency while abroad, would have excluded me from a career in politics, but now I've just sent my CV off to Conservative Central Office.