Miffed about how they want me to give back lap top

[baddirk]

I recently left a nightmare company and job. Based in continental Europe. I was the only hire outside of their country.

When I left, they told me that shipping back the lap top is too expensive and that whenever one of them comes to London, they'd meet with me and I could return it.

I was not impressed but said ok let's see if the date and time and location lines up and we'll see if it's possible.

Assuming they'd check if I was available and maybe meet me half way or something ( london is massive of course ).

Anyway it's transpired that one of them will be in town in a couple of weeks and wants to meet to pick up lap top. I thought they'd say, where do you want to meet ? But I'm expected to go somewhere almost 1.5 hours away from my house and it's really pissed me off.

Aibu ? It's brought back a lot of negative feelings and it pisses me off that I have to go on a 1.5 hour mission to give this lap top back. At the same time, I do just want to put this all behind me.

I may ask the colleague to meet me half way, but even that pisses me off. I don't think colleague will be able to meet me anyway, as they're at a conference.

Equipment has been couriered or posted before but at the employees expense. As I said though, the nhs isn’t really the best example and private sector is quite different.

Yes this is on them to sort op, the idea of them collecting it by courier and sending it to the conference is the best in my opinion! Don’t take any nonsense!

Just tell them that your colleague can meet you at the train station nearest you and you'll hand it over. Or else they can arrange for a courier to take it from your home to their hotel/venue.

That's it !

This has reminded me of www.rollonfriday.com/news-content/exclusive-paralegal-threatened-prison-after-refusing-return-firms-laptop - read comments.

Get the laptop back to them!

Email saying
"Oh good, they are only 1.5 hrs from my home so it won't be a trouble to come and collect it from my house. I'll be available between x and y on that date. Please confirm the time you will be collecting the lap top".

Not remotely relevant. In this case there was a courier involved.

So get them to pay for it to be collected from your home or office to the former colleague’s hotel. Do not inconvenience yourself with a 3-hour round trip.

I agree - tell them to arrange a courier to your house at a particular time and you'll be in for them to collect it.

Repeat that.

Keep all correspondence stating that arrangement, as evidence you are being perfectly reasonable.

If you're feeling rally helpful, send them a link to this site - I use it often when I need to send laptops.
https://www.parcelhero.com/

The company should organise a courier to pick it up from you!

Yes this. Their complaint was previously the expense of getting it sent back to them abroad. But the cost to send it into the city in the UK must be much less.

And if they quibble about the employee taking time to collect it, they are paying the employee for their time. They are no longer paying you.

You don't work for them anymore. Tell them it's available for collection from your home. It's on them to make arrangements to accommodate.

Don’t ship it, you will be nailed with post Brexit customs and tax duty. I had to return my work laptop to my EU based head office literally days after the rules kicked in (2021) and got a call from the UK customs to pay.
Was told that it doesn’t matter that the item was used, they would still charge me between £100-200. Luckily I got away with it because I was one of the very first people who they were calling and the lady on the phone took pity on me.

This reminds me of a situation I found myself in about 18 years ago which might be useful to you, OP. I was living in the UK and had a two-year wfh contract for a major German media outlet with a base in London. They supplied a computer, the software I needed to work compatibly with their systems and a high-definition laser printer that was expensive cutting-edge technology at the time. A few months in, they bought another company, reorganised and reneged on my contract. They demanded I return the computer and printer to the London office at my own expense. I lived 200 miles away and said no, they needed to collect it. They didn't. I took them to court to get a settlement and as part of their defence they claimed that I had 'stolen' several thousand pounds worth of equipment — by which they meant the printer and computer. The judge ruled in my favour. He made a point of mentioning that I had kept the equipment safe and it wasn't my fault if the company couldn't be arsed to collect it.

I got a decent payout and contacted them four times at monthly intervals to ask them to arrange to collect their stuff. I heard nothing, so I wrote to the company and the company's lawyers to say that if they didn't collect within 14 I would be disposing of their equipment. They ignored it and I sold the laser printer for £1000, which was a nice little extra bonus...

UK law applies on UK soil. Perhaps in their jurisdiction it's an employee's duty to return equipment, but here in the UK it isn't.

That's wonderful! I wonder if she got slapped with the full £80k costs?

You would hope that training to work in the legal profession would have taught her something — but apparently not...

Eh? Royal Mail special delivery will send it securely for £30 at most depending on the level of insurance and speed of service required. Just tell them to do that, they'll collect from your house. If there's no national secrets on the laptop it doesn't need any more thought.

As others have said, they should be organising the courier and paying for it, including any customs charges. The only thing you should really be doing is boxing it up and being available for its collection.

State that the location is 90 minutes from your house so you cannot drop it off due to prior commitments however if they arrange a courier pick to the conference venue/hotel you can print off the label and drop it at a collection point.

I would reply, " Sorry I wasn't expecting to travel 1.5 hours and have to pay for transport. You are welcome to collect from my home at an agreed time, or use a courier? Let me know."

Stop advising the OP to send it by courier or Royal Mail, she will have to pay tax and export duty on it which will cost her £££.

Not if she sends it to a UK address for the collegue to return in person she won't.

Presumably that was to their usual workplace.

It's a bit different when you work overseas.

Not relevant in this case. In that case the ex-employee wanted to keep the laptop.

In this case the OP just doesn't want the hassle of returning it and wants her toxic ex-employer to get off their bottoms and collect it from her.

Why are you even consider pandering to them. Stuff em. Tell them they can come to you, when it's convenient for you, and pick it up. Otherwise, it's tough.

You don't work for them anymore...

Utterly bizarre. They can afford to send staff to London regularly for meetings but not sending one laptop through a courier? It's clearly not urgent so could be put on a bloody cargo ship!
Tell the person you're unable to meet them anywhere other than X location at X time. (Choose a cafe right near your house or work)
Then if they can't get it then they need a courier if they're so desperate for it back. Ludicrous.
I'd say if this carries on just block them all. It's their property and their responsibility.