The holidays are here and of course, it is often difficult to fit all the luggage into the trunk of the car, so a good option is to send part of the luggage directly to our holiday destination through parcel companies such as Correos Express.
An Apple user decided to send his baby's stroller to a vacation destination and had to retrieve it using the location of the AirTag he placed on it.
The story of a shipment
It was August 15th, the second "exit operation" of the summer in Spain. Since his vehicle did not have room for two weeks' worth of luggage, along with his baby's stroller, the protagonist of our story decided to use the services of packlink, a courier intermediary that, in theory, seeks the fastest and cheapest service to send your packages.
In this sense, the user contracted a service "Paq24" with Correos Express, the parcel subsidiary of the Spanish Correos Group, and assured him that, by collecting the cart on August 16, it would be available on Saturday, August 17. so that he could enjoy the two weeks of vacation he had left at his destination, Roquetas de Mar (Almería).
The truth is that, despite the previous commitment, Correos Express did not appear to collect the package at origin until Saturday, August 24, more than a week late. However, according to the instructions of the courier company, on August 24 the baby's stroller was already at its destination (Almería). However, the truth is that, As a cautious man is worth two, the protagonist of our story decided to place an Apple AirTag in his baby's stroller, properly packaged, to be able to control the entire journey of such a precious object.
This is how he was able to find out that, in reality, the car never left the Correos Express headquarters in Madrid, even though, in the meantime, Correos Express constantly indicated that the package was in the process of being delivered to the destination city, something that, as we will see below, never actually happened.
AirTag, an element that is constantly being located
At this point, it is important to understand how an AirTag works. This device, eSends secure signals via Bluetooth Low Energy (UWB) protocol to any compatible Apple device. This Apple product would connect with all devices with Apple's U1 processor onwards, that is, any Apple product launched from 2019 onwards, since this technology debuted with the iPhone 11.
Think about it, any iPad, any Apple Watch, Any iPhone that comes within 15 meters of the AirTag would create a network of Bluetooth connections that would allow you to accurately locate the AirTag, since all these devices would connect to each other to report that the locator is located in a specific area.
The chances of an iPhone passing near an AirTag are very high if we take into account that the iPhone is precisely the best-selling smartphone on the market, a fact that is multiplied ad-infinitum If we take into account the rest of Apple's accessories, the Apple Watch, which is also compatible with certain Android products, becomes the most accurate tracker on the market.
In addition, the AirTag is a waterproof product, its battery life is more than a year and it has various location features such as "lost mode" and the emission of sounds, we put together the ingredients for the perfect potion. All of this for just 29€ per unit (or €100 for a pack of four).
It's time to get the car back
It was already August 30th and the package was not delivered. When the user tried to contact Correos Express through the telephone number Customer Service, The customer was never received, as the call was constantly hung up after the robot spoke. The same happened with PackLink, the intermediary simply stated that Correos Express had broken or lost the package, and that he should wait 30 days for the company to offer compensation for the contents of the package.
Despite that The user sent PackLink and Correos Express screenshots from the Search application that located the car at the company's headquarters, They never provided any opportunity to recover it, so he decided to take matters into his own hands.
Thus, the protagonist of our story went to the headquarters of Correos Express in Coslada (Madrid), where he was received in a hostile manner by private security, who told him that he could not be there and invited him to leave. It was not until he threatened to request the presence of the police that he was attended to by a manager of the warehouse.
At this time, It wasn't until he pointed out that he had a tracking number in his package that they wanted to offer him help. This is how, by activating the “lost mode” that sends notifications to all iPhone users within a 15-meter radius, and emitting the search sound, the person in charge slowly made his way to the package, which was inevitably located.
Contacted by this medium, the official explanation from Correos Express is that: The label fell off the package, and only the label arrived in Almería, but not the package.
The story is implausible The package was of a considerable size. Furthermore, as can be seen in the photographs, it was opened without the user's permission, for no apparent reason, as they insisted, despite the numerous indications provided, that it was broken or lost.
And this is how thanks still AirTags, The user was able to recover a stroller worth several hundred euros that both PackLink and Correos Express had supposedly given up as lost. Obviously, the fact that he spent the entire holiday without his six-month-old daughter's stroller is just an anecdote.
La moral This is where, if you care a little about the merchandise you want to send, you should use an AirTag to ensure that it doesn't get lost or misplaced in the courier company's warehouse.