Apple ban on P.O. box delivery snarls orders in Boxted, Essex
A technical glitch in Apple's online storefront won't allow residents of Boxted, Essex to get new iPhones and other hardware.
-xl.jpg)
Credit: Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider
More specifically, residents of Boxted, Essex are finding themselves unable to order iPhones and other devices from Apple's website because the ordering system thinks their addresses are P.O. boxes.
The online storefront is telling customers that deliveries cannot be completed, frustrating some residents, The Daily Mail has reported. Apple doesn't deliver orders to P.O. boxes.
One resident, 43-year-old Celine Driscoll, said she was able to complete her order by having the iPhone delivered to a local store instead of her home.
"I spent more than an hour going around in circles on the Apple website. It was so annoying and such a massive waste of time," Driscoll said.
Another resident said he actually decided against buying an Apple product after being unable to order from Apple's website.
"I was pulling my hair out as I could not get the process to complete even though the finance for the phone had been arranged on the same website," said the resident. "I ended up going to Tesco and buying a Samsung instead -- I was that annoyed."
Boxted is a village near Colchester in Essex, England. As of writing, the population of the village was 1,400.
Keep up with everything Apple in the weekly AppleInsider Podcast -- and get a fast news update from AppleInsider Daily. Just say, "Hey, Siri," to your HomePod mini and ask for these podcasts, and our latest HomeKit Insider episode too.If you want an ad-free main AppleInsider Podcast experience, you can support the AppleInsider podcast by subscribing for $5 per month through Apple's Podcasts app, or via Patreon if you prefer any other podcast player.
Credit: Andrew O'Hara, AppleInsider
More specifically, residents of Boxted, Essex are finding themselves unable to order iPhones and other devices from Apple's website because the ordering system thinks their addresses are P.O. boxes.
The online storefront is telling customers that deliveries cannot be completed, frustrating some residents, The Daily Mail has reported. Apple doesn't deliver orders to P.O. boxes.
One resident, 43-year-old Celine Driscoll, said she was able to complete her order by having the iPhone delivered to a local store instead of her home.
"I spent more than an hour going around in circles on the Apple website. It was so annoying and such a massive waste of time," Driscoll said.
Another resident said he actually decided against buying an Apple product after being unable to order from Apple's website.
"I was pulling my hair out as I could not get the process to complete even though the finance for the phone had been arranged on the same website," said the resident. "I ended up going to Tesco and buying a Samsung instead -- I was that annoyed."
Boxted is a village near Colchester in Essex, England. As of writing, the population of the village was 1,400.
Keep up with everything Apple in the weekly AppleInsider Podcast -- and get a fast news update from AppleInsider Daily. Just say, "Hey, Siri," to your HomePod mini and ask for these podcasts, and our latest HomeKit Insider episode too.If you want an ad-free main AppleInsider Podcast experience, you can support the AppleInsider podcast by subscribing for $5 per month through Apple's Podcasts app, or via Patreon if you prefer any other podcast player.
Comments
This guy from another government I used to work with on occasion had the surname “Cock”.
the email software would let it go through once or twice, but as the email thread got longer and his surname cropped up more and more in the body of the email, and so the software would eventually send the email to the naughty corner, and I would have to make a few calls to get it back. An interesting conversation with IT support each time.
As far as prohibitions on deliveries to P.O. boxes is concerned, there are other options to consider. Some package delivery services like FedEx and UPS can be instructed by you to hold your deliveries at their facility so you can pick it up in person. FedEx will hold your package for up to 10 days and UPS will hold your package for up to 5 days. It used to be, at least since the the 1980s, that whenever a package requiring a signature showed up when I was not home they left a "missed delivery" tag and I would pick it up at the shipper facility. Nowadays it seems like they totally ignore the "signature required" stipulation and leave stuff at your door regardless. Not sure why.
Another option, which I utilize quite often, is Amazon Key. Amazon Key delivers my orders into my garage. They provide a pre-delivery notification on the day before delivery, the morning of delivery, and immediately prior to delivery. The entire drop-off sequence is captured on camera with motion detection, door open and close notifications, and a notification of delivery completed after the drop off. Access to the door opener is controlled via swipe actions on the delivery person's device, i.e., the delivery person is never given the code to your garage door. (I walked through the sequence with the delivery person to satisfy my curiosity.) This requires a WiFi connected door opener and optionally, a camera.
I'd love to see Apple come up with a competitive offering to Amazon Key that works within the HomeKit infrastructure for Apple purchases.
In any case, it's usually a good idea to install the shipping service's app on your smartphone and allow notifications because they will often give you an estimate or time window for when the package should be delivered. Whether they adhere to the estimate is another story. I have an Amazon Key delivery coming today and the "Before 10 PM" estimate is not very helpful, although with Key, it doesn't really matter.