Which company is best for remote employee laptop returns?

Posted by 13-months@reddit | sysadmin | View on Reddit | 21 comments

I’m exploring services that help companies retrieve laptops and IT equipment from remote employees ( layoffs, or terminations).

These are the ones I've seen so far:

ReturnCenter
Firstbase
Allwhere
Retriever

Feedback from anyone with experience using these (or similar services):

Pro and cons of each?
Prices?
Better alternatives I should consider?
Anything else i did not consider

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Adam_Kearn@reddit

Ask them to keep the box that the laptop originally arrived in.

If the don’t have a box then use something like DPD/Fedex to send one out with a prepaid label.

But I would first offer them to buy the laptop off you for a discounted price… then it saves the headache of trying to get it back at all.

Just send a remote wipe command out to the device to just an RMM tool to logon remotely and do the windows reset option

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Tounage@reddit

I use ReReady to send laptop retrieval kits. USPS to deliver the empty box and UPS, signature required with $1000 declared value for the return. $115 per laptop. The convenience is worth the cost.

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Turbulent_Advance832@reddit

Yeah ReReady has been really convenient for me too. I use them without any add-ons and it's only $85 per laptop.

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Such an odd service. Send an empty laptop box with a prepaid return label. Hope they send it back. If they dont, inform HR so they can decide what to do next. It's a legal/HR issue not an IT one. Make use of Absolute or some sort of laptop freeze software so you can freeze out any laptops as soon as a remote user is terminated. Then it's a hunk of junk to anyone, so they have no reason to not return it.

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13-months@reddit (OP)

This seem like a good software I've never heard of them, what do you like about absolute? prices good? i'm a small shop like just me and 40 workers

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jj1917@reddit

Not too sure about pricing since it's not my area, but it comes pre-installed inside Dell BIOS firmware. It's a firmware level software that cannot be disabled unless someone gets in to the BIOS (why it's good to have it PW protected) and you include some small software in your windows image. It will report in to Absolute whenever it's online. Let's say someone steals a laptop and you send out the freeze command and the laptop has internet. The computer will suddenly say it needs to restart, and then when it restarts, a custom screen will come up saying "This is the property of yada yada Inc, contact us at # , this device is frozen." or similar.

Makes it useless, and combined with encrypted storage, nobody getting any data out of that.

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WorkyMcWorkPants@reddit

Our shipping department just FedExs out a box with a return label. I can't imagine any of these services being cheaper than using your companies shipping department or sending the box yourself.

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gacimba@reddit

I know, I can’t even believe that this service would even exist much less more than one company

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jazzdrums1979@reddit

Some companies don’t have shipping departments. Let’s say you work for or own a small MSP and time is critical. Procurement of shipping supplies and the act of shipping itself is time consuming. If you can offload and this aspect your business and charge the client for it to save time you’ll absolutely do it.

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Ssakaa@reddit

If time is critical on a device return, you're doing it wrong (if you're depending on that return happening at all, you're going to be screwed when the user just... doesn't). If time is just critical in general... you presumably have someone that can put together a label and send it to the user. Or, if you're an MSP, you put it on your customer's HR person to handle as part of their non-IT offboarding work.

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jazzdrums1979@reddit

I stand by my original statement, time is critical when you run a business. If you run an MSP you can offload tasks that take away from your finite supply of time and charge back and automate as a service to the client. Device return would be one of them and in most cases is not critical unless it’s a legal matter. We don’t get involved with HR tasks during offboarding, our service just sends a box. We do manage a hardware depot for clients to help manage and deploy hardware which we charge per device for.

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TBone1985@reddit

We got FedEx to set us up where we can just send a QR code/label to them and they go a FedEx store. They box it up and ship it back for them and charge us.

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ssieradzki@reddit

Ok I say this as an all where customer, none of the services you listed are going to be worth it just for retrievals. A shipping label and a box from FedEx or UPS will be easier. Cheaper is debatable.

It's worth it for me because our whole company is remote across the US and I use all where for procurement, deployment, retrievals, remote storage, repairs and disposition. And is extremely integrated on our workflows listed and the assets I purchase ends up in our abm account for easy deployment.

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laptopreturn@reddit

Full disclosure, I run LaptopReturn.com, so I'm a competitor in this space. Take my perspective accordingly.

The biggest decision isn't which vendor, it's what you actually need. The all-in-one platforms (GroWrk, Firstbase, Workwize, etc.) bundle provisioning, retrieval, storage, and sometimes refresh into one contract. That makes sense if you need the full lifecycle managed. But if your main pain point is just getting devices back, you're paying for a lot of stuff you don't use, and retrieval is often an afterthought bolted onto their provisioning product.

Dedicated retrieval services (us) tend to be faster and cheaper for pure device recovery because that's the only thing we do. We ship a padded box with a prepaid label, handle all the follow-up nudges, and track everything. ~95% recovery rate, usually within a week.

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alan14225@reddit

We just use FedEx. Give employee a link to fill form, it gives them a qr code to FedEx where they package and send back to us

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ConsciousEquipment@reddit

lmao what??? I send them a shipping label and tell them to give our laptop back ahahah why do I need a service or someone else here like what are they gonna do

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Smith6612@reddit

Honestly, FedEx and the like have return services they provide where by providing the departing employee with a QR code or label which they print, they can bring the hardware to any store and get the machine packaged up and sent out, charged to the company's account. If you already use FedEx or a similar Logistics company for mailing equipment to a user, check with them.

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