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.

In what way would sending a parcel from one side of London to the other incur any kind of export duty?
As PPs have said, the company should be arranging and paying for the courier, so OP wouldn't even be paying so much as the VAT on the service.

Hang on to it unless they send someone to collect it. Presuming you've been paid your final wage? I had a similar, albeit marginally less hassling, situation with a work laptop and told them to come and collect it from me. Surprise surprise, two years later I still have the bloody laptop...

I was thinking the exact same 😂

No no, they arrange the courier - if it goes missing it’s on them. Bloody cheek expecting you to do a 3 hour unpaid round trip!

I work for a big charity that has people working across the UK and we send laptops by courier all the time, and it really isn't that expensive! Tell your company that you are not available to travel but will package the laptop ready to be collected by their courier to be shipped to your colleague's hotel/conference venue.

They can courier it from yours to that persons hotel or from yours to the conference.

Tell them to email you a pre-paid label. I did this when a fab friend offered to pick up an entire set of textbooks that were going free at her dc’s school a 5 hour drive away!

OP, let them come get it back from you.

@ZoeyBartlett thank, that link is everything weird. I wonder if Maria has sent the laptop back yet.

Colleague can pick it up, or company can arrange a courier.

Or they can pay you a freelance consultancy rate for 4 hours work plus travel expenses- suspect a courier will be cheaper.

My DH got given an old laptop recently - a really decent one. It's because they realised the resale value of the laptop was about £10. A used laptop probably isn't even worth the cost of a courier.

I'm curious....is this a magical gold plated laptop or something?
Why on earth are they that fussed to get it back?

I had something similar when I worked briefly for a horribly disorganised charity.

They sent me by courier a laptop and a desktop computer with a massive screen without first letting me know that it would be delivered that day or asking me if I wanted the desktop as well and had space for it (I didn't as I was in a small flat at the time, the laptop would have been all I needed).

I told them after a month that I was leaving as the company and job were just a complete mess.

They then said they would send a courier to pick up the equipment.

Two weeks after I had finished with them, nothing had been organised and I had to email them several times to remind them that I wanted the equipment gone.

Then they said it would just be easier for me to deliver the equipment in one of their charity shops. The nearest one would have been an hour away and I had no car so could not easily bring the laptop and desktop computer either.

That made me so angry.

I sent them an email stating that this was unacceptable and that I expected them to arrange a courier to pick up the equipment at my house within a week at a time convenient for me.

And that's exactly what they did.

With time-wasters like that, you just need to make it clear what you expect them to do and not back down.

Work laptops are generally configured to facilitate access to the work's remote data systems. People have passwords and all sorts saved on them. It's generally good practice to get laptops back and wipe them before disposing of them.

We used pedal me to collect a laptop and bits from a staff member who had left. It's a London bike courier. Give them the details and tell them to book it.