BUYING big-ticket items online can be a risky move, considering that anything could happen to the item on its way to your home.
An Indonesian woman recently discovered that an iPhone she had purchased online was not
delivered to her address, but was instead replaced with a packet of sugar.
According to a TikTok post, the woman, who was in Jogja (Yogyakarta) on a trip, had been searching for the pink iPhone 16 Plus. As the model was very difficult to find in stores—especially back in her home region of Kalimantan—she decided to buy it online from an official retailer in early May and opted to have it delivered via a courier company.
The following day, the retailer dispatched the iPhone, and it was delivered to a drop-off point at around 8pm with her friend listed as the recipient.
However, her friend was having a meal with her at the time and did not collect the parcel.
As the woman and her friend made their way to the drop-off point to collect the package, they discovered that it had allegedly been left with the security guard.
“How could the courier dare to leave an expensive item with someone other than the recipient? As far as I know, the courier should definitely contact the relevant party first,” she said.
At the homestay where she was staying, she eagerly anticipated seeing the long-awaited pink iPhone 16 Plus, but to her horror, she discovered only a packet of sugar beneath the layers of bubble wrap.
“We weren’t suspicious because the packaging was really neat—the box wasn’t damaged, and neither was the receipt,” she added.
Distraught, the woman and her friend immediately went to the courier company’s office where the item was last sorted before delivery, only to receive an unhelpful response after making their complaint.
“Their answer was, ‘It was like that before it was shipped; we don’t know,’” she alleged.
She then threatened to contact the police, prompting an employee at the sorting centre to fetch the manager, who assured her that an investigation would be conducted.
She contacted both the iPhone seller’s customer service and the courier company over the following days, but was allegedly met with the same response: that the matter was still under investigation.
Hitting a dead end with these responses, the woman finally reported the incident to the authorities and informed both the iPhone seller and the courier company of her action.
“Only after that did the manager inform us that they had received a response from headquarters: the item would be covered under warranty and the process would move forward,” she added.
It was later discovered that the pink iPhone 16 Plus had allegedly been stolen by a member of staff at the courier company.
“I personally thanked the courier company’s manager because he consistently assisted me and escalated the matter to headquarters. Even though it wasn’t his fault—it was allegedly the wrongdoing of a rogue staff member—he still helped.
“Apparently, the package was en route to Jogja and had to go through several pick-up warehouses,” she explained.
Finally, the woman was refunded the IDR 19,499,000 (RM5,069) she had spent on the iPhone later in May.
