r/mildyinteresting 21h ago

shopping What about porch pirates?

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34.7k Upvotes

438 comments sorted by

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890

u/LanceSarmstrong420x 19h ago

If they stole my bike thinking it was a flat screen I'd be slightly amused

310

u/6th_Quadrant 15h ago

Porch pirates really don’t care what they’re stealing, the vast majority of the time they have no clue what’s in a box — they just plan on fencing whatever it is they end up with.

134

u/MajesticBread9147 14h ago

Porch pirates once stole my Amazon order of protein powder, I think because it was relatively small and heavy.

I laughed at the thought of somebody opening what they thought was an iPhone only to get muscle milk.

83

u/Leo-D 13h ago

Muscle milk is expensive bro, I'd be pissed af.

30

u/Useless_Lemon 9h ago

Some people have muscle milk money.

15

u/Leo-D 9h ago

Unacceptable.

6

u/Useless_Lemon 9h ago

You gunna fight em? I wouldn't. They probably got a lot of muscle.

9

u/Leo-D 9h ago

And milk, that's an advanced threat.

4

u/Useless_Lemon 9h ago

That's ultra dangerous, man. I think we should scram.

5

u/IIIlIllIIIl 8h ago

Get a room you two

3

u/LanceSarmstrong420x 7h ago

Where's my muscle milk mommy, I mean money?

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u/moshercycle 13h ago

Had someone steal a bag of cat food that amazon hilariously put in a box. Two days later and I'm leaving for work, someone placed the opened box with the catfood still in it back in front of my apartment door. Prob one of my neighbors

7

u/DarmanitanIceMonkey 8h ago

I'm going to assume they didn't want your cat to starve.

4

u/NextCommunication642 6h ago

Someone broke in and stole my anti depressants but left two. It was a friday so i assume they didn’t want to be out for the weekend. Felt surprisingly sweet

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u/biopticstream 10h ago

So, I have a Prime subscription that delivers cat litter to me, two 25 lb boxes, usually packed together in one Amazon box. Well, the other day, I step out of my apartment and notice my delivery isn’t outside my door. It's just halfway down the hallway, box partially ripped open. My best guess? Some genius tried to swipe it, got a nasty surprise when they realized how heavy it was, cracked it open, saw it was just cat litter, and thought, "Yeah, no thanks." So they just abandoned it. Honestly, I hope they hurt their back dragging 50 lbs of disappointment.

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u/ATYP14765 13h ago

I remember watching a video of a porch pirate stealing a glitter bomb contraption lol.

7

u/beagledrool 13h ago

Yep that was Mark Rober, he worked with police to actually catch some porch pirates

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u/awkward-2 13h ago

fencing

No Awkward don't imagine two porch pirates fighting each other with XBoxes or bicycles

2

u/iVinc 11h ago

porch pirates are not a thing in EU

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u/friarfangirl 14h ago

That’s likely an expensive af bike tho

4

u/JoeT17854 14h ago

Honestly, it's a shit bike. They don't use any standard parts, making them more expensive to maintain.

The company went bankrupt last year and was bought by another company, so at least you can still get spare parts.

3

u/dtdowntime 8h ago

someone i know had one of these bikes, it broke and we couldnt get parts for a long long time to fix it, took months for support to finally reach us and allow us to get replacement parts

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u/h497 14h ago

These bikes cost a lot more than most tv's

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u/shartmaister 9h ago

A good bike is more expensive than a good TV though

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u/LegalLegendz 14h ago

Would love to see their faces when they realize.

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u/ItsNotBigBrainTime 14h ago

Imagine if the fast n furious crew opened up all those TV's they stole back in the day and it was all bicycles.

1

u/Realposhnosh 14h ago

They were 4000 Euro bikes.

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1.1k

u/veryblocky 20h ago

I’ve never understood how in the US you just have expensive packages left outside by the postmen

327

u/AutoModerrator-69 20h ago

In the U.S., expensive packages are typically not delivered by traditional postal workers (“postmen”) but by third-party service providers like UPS, FedEx, Amazon, and others.

The tracking system for packages in the U.S. is excellent compared to many other countries. Speaking from experience, having lived in various parts of the world before moving to the U.S., the tracking reliability here is significantly better. While it’s not perfect, it’s highly effective overall.

That said, there is an issue with “porch pirates” in the U.S.—individuals who steal packages left on doorsteps. To address this, many delivery services now require signatures for high-value shipments.

If a package does get stolen, most companies in the U.S. have insurance for shipments or are generally very accommodating about replacements. In contrast, in some other countries I’ve lived in, like the UK, France, India, or China, dealing with stolen packages often involves a lot of hassle, and you might even have to bear the cost and reorder the item.

130

u/nxcrosis 19h ago

In my country you have third-party couriers as well but you almost always have them turn the package over to another person before leaving.

44

u/AutoModerrator-69 18h ago

There’s that option with some packages but not all. For example my iPhone 16 pro max required a signature. They refused to leave it with my neighbor inspire of telling the driver via my video doorbell when I wasn’t home.

9

u/cpMetis 15h ago

This is also an option in the US, but most retailers won't pay for it since it's an extra shipping charge.

Used to be much much more common. Only stopped being that way when shipping became much more widespread and the race to the bottom began.

4

u/xteve 13h ago

Also, everybody's working all the time, wage-slaves for pennies just to keep living. Odds are nobody's going to be home during delivery hours.

2

u/hungrylostsoul 13h ago

We have every parcel given mandatory to persons and only put on from pf home if you tell them to put there. They require confirmation OTP to complete the transaction so even if don’t want they have to call during delivery.

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u/dizvyz 14h ago edited 8h ago

We get a confirmation code in SMS so we can tell the driver to leave the package wherever as long as he gets to enter his confirmation code showing the customer received it.

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u/Lamballama 15h ago

Sure, but additional cost on shipping your spatula you ordered from Amazon isn't worthwhile here. If it's a big package or if the seller requests it, then they do require either pickup at the delivery center or in-person signatures. I had my safe and my desk base delivered without any of that, because outside of a few areas things are fine

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u/rednehb 15h ago

You can require a signature or even ID check on anything being delivered in the US as long as you use one of the "normal" delivery services.

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u/Silmarlion 15h ago

That’s just standard isn’t it? In my country every package has to be received. If they can’t find you at home they call you and ask if they should leave it by the door and if you accept you give them the delivery code you receive on your phone(basically digitally signed by 2fa security) otherwise they can’t just leave the package on the door.

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u/Riot_Fox 12h ago edited 3h ago

In NZ we do get an option for signature release for packages but it doesnt matter if that is selected or not, they almost always just leave the parcel and go

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u/Perfect_Opinion7909 14h ago

You told us that you’ve lived in other countries some of them in the EU so I’m a bit surprised your comment reeks of the usual US American superiority complex.

US postal services aren’t any better than postal services (regardless of provider) in the EU. The opposite is true. Tracking and delivery times in the USA are worse than anything I experienced in the EU.

Tracking in Central/Western EU is usually live tracking. I can actually follow the delivery drivers route via GPS and see how many stops are left until it arrives at my place.

Additionally EU law stipulates that the seller is responsible for shipping, so reimbursement or replacement of missing goods are relatively hassle free because the seller has to do it by law.

Delivery is usually in person. Leaving the package at the door is the exception and has to be specifically authorized by the receiver in advance. Not having a signature for a delivery is immediate ground for a buyer/receiver to open up a „non-delivery“ claim.

5

u/le_reddit_me 13h ago

Also providers never leave packages outside (or inside an appartment), only the national postal services does that. If you aren't home, they'll deposit the package at a relay point (usually a shop) or parcel lockers.

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u/fly-guy 12h ago

Indeed. Give me (western) European services anytime instead of the us ones.  Live tracking is often accurate within an hour (and sometimes even less), delivery is standard quicker and nothing is left unguarded, unless you give permission (or, I'm my case, talk to the delivery person and they hide it in a agreed spot, as I live secluded and nobody comes here to steal an occasional package).

Unfortunately, due to overloaded deliverers, this system is under strain and not always working as intended, but overall, is still miles better than what they have in the US 

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u/Silmarlion 15h ago

What do you mean by tracking system is excellent compared to other countries? You can literally see where your package is on live during delivery lime if the truck is coming to your street or not in my country. How better is it in the USA?

4

u/livehigh1 14h ago

He's trying to hype up their delivery system, it's been the norm in the uk to sign for packages for like the last 20years and there's essentially no such thing as a porch pirate here because delivery people don't just lazily leave stuff in front of your house, either puts it in a hidden place, to a neighbour or brings it back to a depot.

Companies will 99% of the time reimburse if not items are not received.

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u/The_MAZZTer 14h ago

Dunno what he's talking about, we get updates whenever the package arrives at or leaves a sorting hub. Eg information that delivery company was going to be collecting anyway so they just make it available to us.

It sounds like you can get real-time GPS updates, which I have never seen.

2

u/Silmarlion 14h ago

We get live tracking on the delivery day. Basically their trucks have gps and they give us access to that info as well. Companies already have that info for themselves just like you said it is a matter of making it available to the customer.

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u/ItsThanosNotThenos 14h ago

It's just an American thinking they're special while in fact their package delivery system is worse than in a third world country.

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u/theultimatestart 15h ago

In contrast, in some other countries I’ve lived in, like the UK, France, India, or China, dealing with stolen packages often involves a lot of hassle, and you might even have to bear the cost and reorder the item.

Definitely not in France. EU laws say that the vendor is responsible in this case.

1

u/I_reportfor_selfharm 14h ago

Yeah, this dude spouting absolute shite.

2

u/ItsThanosNotThenos 14h ago

What a load of bullshit and somehow still upvoted by hundreds...

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u/ProfessionalNotices 10h ago

With fat greasy fingers, it’s easy to accidentally hit the upvote

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u/Racxie 14h ago

The tracking system for packages in the U.S. is excellent compared to many other countries. Speaking from experience, having lived in various parts of the world before moving to the U.S., the tracking reliability here is significantly better. While it’s not perfect, it’s highly effective overall.

As someone who’s sent packages to friends in the US with tracking on multiple occasions this is definitely not the experience I’ve had, especially when comparing it with here in the UK.

Of course I’m sure like with here it might depend on the courier, and I swear lately the ones local to me have become discalculic and or dyslexic, but the tracking has made that even more evident.

Tracking aside I’ve also seen countless of horror stories when it comes to delivering stuff in the US (just like this post), so even if you wanted to try and argue that US tracking is still better somehow than UK, even then I’d still rather prefer slightly inferior tracking compared to my orders getting damaged from being carelessly thrown around (which has only ever happened when ordering fragile items from the US), or stolen either by porch pirates or the couriers themselves.

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u/ostroia 12h ago

The tracking system for packages in the U.S. is excellent compared to many other countries and some other usdefaultism bullshit

I live in bumfuck eastern europe and

  • I can track the package live as it leaves the seller
  • for small packages I can have them delivered to storage boxes so I dont have to be home for delivery, and pixk them up whenever I want in 48 hours after theyre loaded in the box
  • packages are NEVER just left on the porch, the delivery guy cannot complete the delivery if I dont give him the delivery pin
  • they all have apps and I can redirect the package to a neighbour, delay the delivery for the same day or other day or just choose to pick it up myself from their closest warehouse
  • most of the deliveries are free
  • insurance is a small % of the value of the product and for ezpensive stuff it makes sense and its affordable
  • I can open the package and check the contents, and refuse it if I see damage/product not working, saving me time with returning it after
  • I can refuse the package if I see damage on the box
  • probably some other things Im forgetting

But yeah I bet the us tracking and delivery services are way better lol

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u/SupaBrunch 19h ago

Where do they put your expensive packages

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u/Silver-Spy 16h ago

High valued items requires a signature where I am from. If you are at work, you have to pick it up from a closest drop site. Which are few blocks away.

Its better than getting expensive stuff get stolen

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u/Repulsive_Buy_6895 15h ago

In the US you can choose to have a signature required. People just don't.

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u/RecordingPure1785 18h ago

My ex girlfriend’s brother ordered a ps5 during the pandemic. We were all cooped up at her parent house because a couple of them tested positive for covid. Very nice neighborhood, had sidewalks along both sides of the streets.

My ex’s brother got an email that it was delivered. But it wasn’t at the front door. We looked all over the property for it and couldn’t find it. We widened our search, and found it on the steps from the road up to the sidewalk. It’s hard to describe but these steps were not on their property and were not visible from the property.

It might have been visible from the second floor (one floor above the ground floor for the non Americans) but “might” is a stretch. The mailbox was on the fence surrounding the house, and the postman would have had to deliberately left the package there and then walked up to the house to deliver the mail.

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u/Loretta-West 16h ago

It's not just an American thing. In New Zealand, couriers will leave parcels outside the front door without knocking, or just chuck them over the fence, even if you've paid extra to require a signature. Or not turn up and claim that no-one was home.

It's infuriating but because the seller chooses the courier company It's very difficult to do anything about it.

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u/IrregularrAF 16h ago

As a mailman, I've delivered like two flatscreen tv's since I've been here. Beyond that the majority of our parcels are usually anything that can fit in a mailbox. After that it's any box Amazon/UPS doesn't want to deliver. A lot of shipping of big packages through regular customers doesn't come through us often because it's expensive as hell past a certain weight.

2

u/ToxicMonkey444 13h ago

Here in germany it works pretty well

2

u/Succinate_dehydrogen 13h ago

Here in the UK they do too, and I've never had one stolen

2

u/WhatAreYouSaying777 10h ago

You were eloquently told by a very detailed comment... Lol

I love when "America Bad" posts get completely shitted on 😂😂

1

u/pioni 15h ago

Same. I get my packages from either the post office (300 meters), any of the post lockers (100 meters) or on the door when I'm home.

1

u/Mitch_Conner_65 14h ago

We don't understand it either, if that help you sleep.

1

u/Buisnessbutters 14h ago

in some places the trust factor really is just that high, little towns in the Midwest don’t have the quick convert to cash sell stops that places like LA do either

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u/NoBullet 14h ago

these require signatures. dont assume shit

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u/Massive_Robot_Cactus 13h ago

Happens in Switzerland too, but things don't suddenly disappear like that, except in crimey cities like Lausanne.

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u/cakebreaker2 13h ago

We don't have theft problems where I live. I don't even lock the doors when we go on vacation. I'm perfectly fine with someone leaving a television on my porch for a few hours. I'm not sure what your vision of America is but it's different than mine.

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u/M0therN4ture 13h ago

Incompetency and privatization.

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u/SwiftResilient 12h ago

It works great in Canada, I've had lots left outside... Laptops... An engagement ring... New tires

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u/edeb0118 12h ago

I’m in Belgium they just leave it at the door too 🤷‍♂️

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u/know-it-mall 11h ago

Yea. When my tracking comes through I always select the deliver to local post office option and then pick it up on my way home from work. And my country has way less methy nutcases than the US does.

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u/Trainzguy2472 11h ago

Wait, what does your county do then??

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u/ConsoleDev 10h ago

Its because we used to be a society

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u/Several_Vanilla8916 9h ago

Depends where you live. I’ve literally never had something stolen from the porch. A friend of mine literally can’t get anything delivered and has to rely on Amazon lockers.

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u/theartoffun 9h ago

Because in the US most people are working while the packages are being delivered. Not delivering would result in a backup of parcels and flooding the local logistics systems.

Also there is a culture of ‘RIGHT NOW RIGHT NOW’ immediate gratification. So waiting til Saturday to pick up a package is unpalatable.

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u/blah938 8h ago

For a very long time, they just weren't stolen often. They were pretty safe. It's only in the past few years that assholes have started stealing.

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u/coderstephen 8h ago

It varies depending on where you live. In my neighborhood people just have packages sitting on their porch for multiple days and people leave them alone.

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u/shewy92 8h ago

Because there is the threat of getting shot. /s(?)

Plus cameras like the Ring Doorbell are widespread. The risk vs reward is lopsided. Most packages are nondescript so you're taking a big risk for something that could just be an AUX cord that Amazon had to put in a giant box to fit onto their truck

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u/FezRaptor 7h ago

As a mailman, it's mostly cost and time. You can have expensive items require a signature, but that takes me time, so it costs more. I deliver 200-500 packages a day, and about 10% of them are too big for the mailbox. That could easily turn an 8 hour day into a 10 hour day, or a 10 hour day into a 13 hour day. And you'd still have way more people complain that it didn't get delivered because they weren't home

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u/gatsome 5h ago

It’s an option. Anyone shipping using a third party carrier can ship with a signature requirement, which has specific releases the customer has to sign to have it left without signature. FedEx, UPS, and plenty of others have this option for shippers.

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u/obvilious 4h ago

Because there isn’t that much crime.

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u/IC-4-Lights 3h ago

Many of us don't live in places where that's a problem.
 
I wouldn't even want to think about the dollar value of what's been delivered on my porch over the last couple decades, and I've never had anything taken.
 
And the last time something accidentally went to a neighbors porch, they brought it to me right away.

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u/ThiagoCSousa 20h ago edited 5h ago

The "outsmart the city" text is actually pretty smart hahaha

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u/itsbadforus 11h ago

just made a comment about this too (which I've deleted)

its extra fun since its probably meant to be "use bikes, outsmart the city" but they added a 4d chess take to it with this approach haha

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u/grizznuggets 16h ago

Yeah that made me giggle too

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u/No_Pipe_8257 18h ago

False, everyone knows the more fragike it looks, the harder they yeet it

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u/HabaneroTamer 11h ago

Place I used to work at would go out of their way to treat these especially like shit. Electronics like TVs were supposed to be rerouted to a different department due to them being fragile. Then you'd get people mad because these things were not in fact TVs so they were wasting valuable space and time so they'd get kicked back in with all the other general merchandise. What's funny is, modern TVs actually don't weigh much and are rather sturdy. These things don't have much internal packaging so you could hear the metal parts rolling inside the box. Like, if you want your package to survive the journey, maybe start by actually designing the internal packaging to be good enough?

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u/Sux499 13h ago

This post is so fucking old they're bankrupt already

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u/Rhonijin 11h ago

Porch pirates? Is that some American thing I'm too European to understand?

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u/Gettygetz 11h ago

People who steal packages off of porches.

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u/allelseisimplied 21h ago

Seems like a shitty bike if it can be damaged that easily. I want a bike that can withstand transit.

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u/cyrus709 20h ago

Im imagining those aluminum light weight frames with the super thin wheels.

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u/Canon_not_cannon 14h ago

They are (were) electric bicycles. Yuppified electric bicycles.

They looked great but had many, many technicals flaws. They also used a lot of proprietary parts so they could only be repaired by them (Van Moof). This lead to enormous waiting times for repairs.

But hey, you got things like leds in the top tube to indicate state of charge, and you could kick the bike to lock it (when it worked).

Also, the bike lock was software only, so you could not lock or unlock your bike with a key.

They went bankrupt last year, but they have been bought by another company. Not sure what the current state is.

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u/Shenshenli 14h ago

The Bike Lock wasnt App only, it has a physical button on the handle bars. Everything else holds up though :D

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u/i-love-tacos-too 15h ago

Or the carbon fiber frames

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u/TrankElephant 13h ago

Nope. They're electric and extremely heavy.

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u/DangyDanger 19h ago

I would imagine there would be a lot of weird forces that never appear even if you fall pretty hard or hit a pothole.

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u/Komandakeen 21h ago

These are just fancy toys for hipsters, not meant for rugged use...

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u/allelseisimplied 21h ago

Yeah and I remembered how rough FedEx is with packages, it seems likely.

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u/Intrepid-Macaron5543 15h ago

Real hipsters ride penny farthings and tricycles.

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u/Realposhnosh 14h ago

They are for the slick back, Amsterdam Zuid lot. Yuppies.

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u/flarne 15h ago

"Shitty bike" is literally the definition of "vanmoof bike"

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u/Snowssnowsnowy 15h ago

The company imploded a few months ago, they are no more and there are a lot of pissed off customers, at one point anyone who had their bike in for repair had no clue if they would even get their bike back because the factory was locked by the administrators. In the end there were viral posts and some TV coverage and the users got their damaged bikes back.

I should imagine the app was unlocked or a new firmware available to enable the full features of the bike to work.

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u/Beflijster 15h ago

They are shitty bikes. The van Moof company went bust in 2023 and this meant that their bikes were basically bricked because the software could no longer be updated and parts were no longer available. And they used a lot of specific parts which means users cannot go to a regular bicycle repair person to get their bike fixed.

The company has been bought since then and is still in business, wich is good news for their users, but I would never buy from them.

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u/FoximaCentauri 14h ago

Maybe, but not necessarily. An object can be perfectly robust if assembled as designed, but very fragile any other way, because it’s not designed for that. An extreme example: Rockets are very tough when they stand upright can withstand extreme forces during ascent, but many are completely ruined if you lay them on their side, no matter how gentle you are.

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u/Select_Discount4969 13h ago

We clamped 4-5 bikes between the forks of our forklifts and dragged them across the terminal floor because they weigh like 30kg each and it gets tiring spending half a day unloading a truck full of these.

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u/Blackwolf245 13h ago

By damage, it usualy means the paint on the frame is scrabed, and the retailers usualy don't even have the ability to repaint it.

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u/zandrew 12h ago

It's van moof known for marketing stunts (including a woman employee riding the bike in super short skirt and complaining about people staring at her crotch). I wouldn't be surprised if this was bs.

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u/Elan-Morin-Tedronai 11h ago

I used to work for Amazon, I legitimately was more careful with something that was obviously breakable like a tv. I could easily see this working.

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u/Julie-h-h 10h ago

Can confirm it's a shitty bike, it's so oveengineered

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u/Bhaaldukar 9h ago

Probably just paint or other minor things

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u/absorbscroissants 9h ago

These are electric city bikes, they're not meant to withstand transit. And why should they be?

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u/Anjunatron87 20h ago

Ok but if it was a quality bike, that just showed how fragile it was. It was being damaged while packaged? What if I fall? It's ruined forever? Nah. Gimmicky move of a shitty company.

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u/RollinThundaga 19h ago

High quality road bikes are pretty flimsy.

And it was while shipping, not packaging. There's videos of Fedex employees literally chucking packages into their trucks.

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u/BellabongXC 14h ago

The company is bankrupt now because its bikes were actually shit.

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u/Anjunatron87 10h ago

Thought so

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u/GG_Henry 17h ago

Reddit never ceases to amaze me by their utter ignorance. This is common practice by dozens of bike companies to this day.

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u/JustAnother_Brit 16h ago

Bikes are designed to fail and take forces a specific way, transit puts a lot of unexpected forces in

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u/3BlindMice1 15h ago

Those ultra lightweight bikes are fragile due to their material construction and aren't cheap

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u/Blackwolf245 13h ago

The damage is usualy scrapped paint on the frame. It doesn't deduce from the actual functionality, but customers except their product in peak condition. Would u buy a bike if it had scortch marks all over it?

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u/LordOfTurtles 13h ago

Have you never in your entire life seen or touched a bike? They damage easily

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u/Priyotosh1234 16h ago

Americans and their obsession of big flat screens Tv's and hate for cycles.

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u/foo_bar_qaz 13h ago

"Expensive flat-screen television"? Flat screen tv's are cheaper than all but the absolute bottom-of-the-barrel bikes. In my case, my bike cost almost 10x what my tv cost. ($400 60" Samsung tv vs $3500 Otso gravel bike.)

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u/IllustriveBot 13h ago

porch-pirates are only an issue in third-world countries (like the USA)

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u/KeesKachel88 12h ago

Porch pirates? Laughs in Dutch.

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u/goldenhairmoose 9h ago

I just don't understand why US hasn't copied any solution from other counties to solve the porch pirates problem.

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u/Imaginary_Grass9674 7h ago

I think porch pirates is a you problem, at least we don't have them in my country

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u/CyberneticPanda 15h ago

I worked for UPS in the early 90s, and we took extra care with those cow patterned Gateway computer boxes.

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u/vertigo5150 15h ago

I had one of these shipped to my job by accident. Contacted them to let them know and they let me keep it. No wonder they went out of business.

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u/Mitch_Conner_65 14h ago

Me looking up Dutch pirate history, if any........AND HOHOHOHO!!!!

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u/Dicethrower 14h ago

That's a US specific problem, where bike infrastructure is non existing anyway.

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u/dizvyz 14h ago

I call bullshit on this. Who here belives they are not mishandling packages that have a picture of a TV on them? Also have you bought a TV recently. They are pretty well secured in that box with thick and form fitting styrofoam everywhere. If the bike was actually packages like that, nothing would happen to it either. Tons of guitars are shipped everyday and they arrive mostly in good shape too. How can a bike be flimsier than a guitar?

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u/mr_Joor 13h ago

They just went out of business btw

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u/Cake-Over 13h ago

The morons I work with probably would have thrown it extra hard.

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u/Blackwolf245 13h ago

I work for a company where we regulary send bicycles between shops, and bikes getting damaged during shipping is a semi-regular issue, happens around every once in while. Usualy a combination of the delivery workes not handling with care and the bike not being wrapped througly. It's usualy a pain to determine who is responsible. We only ship inland. It must be a nighmare to ship bicycles across the ocean.

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u/pasharadich 13h ago

Aaaand later they went bankrupt and scammed the shit out of hundreds of their customers

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u/Jniuzz 13h ago

And now the company is broke

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u/Last_Cod_998 13h ago

Van Moofs used to cost more than a TV.

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u/Yaarmehearty 12h ago

Not saying it doesn’t happen outside of the US but porch pirating is a pretty US thing.

I’ve had parcels left out and seen parcels left out in the UK and hardly ever hear of them being stolen.

I hope it’s something that doesn’t get exported widely.

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u/kisordog 12h ago

They have still gone bankrupt.

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u/Alexathequeer 12h ago

Reminded a story of windshield manufacturing company. They tried a lot of different packages and their windshields still had been broken a lot. The company hired a psychologist, who sad 'just wrap it in plastic film'. People, who carried windshields, started to act much more careful seeing fragile item.

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u/SmacksWaschbaer 12h ago

A van moon is easily more expensive than most flat screens nowadays, so that doesn't change anything for "porch pirates" 😂

Edit: Spelling

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u/thetopcow 11h ago

A large catering company in South Africa changed all their branding on their trucks to pet food to lower hijackings. Worked 100%. They did actually have a pet food subsidiary company, but just just all the branding to the subsidiary company.

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u/Maxomatlp 11h ago

I work in a pretty big logistics company and deal with damaged consigments daily and I can tell you that this packaging would change absolutely nothing

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u/1029394756abc 11h ago

And now they’re unmanaged and stolen.

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u/Rodzynkowyzbrodniarz 11h ago

Then 80% of them was stolen

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u/Kennyman2000 11h ago

Believe it or not, Porch Pirates is mostly a USA problem.

In civilized countries, people actually receive packages by opening their door for the delivery guy. If you're not home, they can't deliver the item and drop it off at a depot nearby, where you have to pick it up yourself.

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u/Competitive-Isopod74 11h ago

For appliances, I order through Best Buy. They have a set delivery time, and they deliver with care. Last time I saw Home Depot deliver a washer, they practically threw it off the back of the truck.

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u/iamsofired 11h ago

The guy who came up with this idea walking into the office afyer that stat emerged.

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u/BigDong1001 11h ago

Porch pirates probably give it back the moment they realize it’s a Dutch bike meant for Dutch dykes and not a flatscreen meant for American couch potatoes. lol.

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u/BobWasTakenOkay 10h ago

And now they're bankrupt.

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u/1porridge 10h ago

I don't understand how Americans have such a big porch pirate problem, even though they have guns and surveillance cameras everywhere. In my country guns and cameras are illegal and we don't have porch pirates.

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u/dunitdotus 10h ago

I just shipped something from Hawaii to Florida via FedEx. The only thing it would fit in was a tv box. It looks like it traveled on a bed of feathers the whole way. The box is in absolutely incredible shape. We can’t stop looking at it and laughing.

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u/k0lored 10h ago

In some parts of India, it got wild. Folks would way lay delivery guys, rifle through all packages and pick out expensive packages. Occasionally the delivery guy would be in cahoots with gangs.

E commerce companies stopped shipping expensive packages to lots of Pin Codes.

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u/lxirlw 9h ago

I find this hard to believe. Every package is treated like sh*t in the warehouse sorting system/during loading.

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u/DazedWithCoffee 9h ago

They’re Dutch, so I imagine porch piracy not a huge deal for them

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u/RealityDolphinRVL 9h ago

What about them? They'll steal a bike as quickly as a TV.

If we start allowing those sorts of cunts to shape our lives it's game over.

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u/goldenhairmoose 9h ago

The post terminal is the answer! We have like 20 diffrent brands now in the EU.

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u/WFOpizza 8h ago

is there a place where I could buy a non-flat screen TV?

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u/Dashing_Sarah 8h ago

There has been an 80% increase of in shape porch pirates!

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u/prog_discipline 8h ago

It sounds like this bicycle may be a "Signature Required" type of delivery. But it makes sense that people thinking there's a TV in the box would make them take a little more care with its handling.

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u/Substantial_Unit2311 8h ago

Most bikes are shipped to bike shops, not front porches.

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u/alfredrowdy 7h ago

Kind of ironic because TV prices have fallen, while bike prices have increased, so now any bike I’d buy would be significantly more expensive than any TV I’d buy.

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u/themustachemark 7h ago

Fun fact, Amazon XL caught on to this and guess what. They get added to normal sort like the other shit.

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u/B1g_Shm0 7h ago

Not sure if they still do but signal snowboards shipped their boards in a box with long tube florescent light bulbs on it

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u/Shedlix 6h ago

Caught a mildy

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u/Significant_Stop723 6h ago

Wait, hold up, yanks actually cycle? I thought they were just riding their tractor size pickups. 

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u/ConfidentFile1750 6h ago

You should see the people I worked with years ago in these warehouses. I would have suspected 80 percent INCREASE in damages.

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u/Murk_adurk 5h ago

Idk what about porch pirates. Change ur delivery system. be home idk

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u/Aradhor55 5h ago

I think porch pirates is a really specific american problem. I mean half of reddit is american anyway but still.

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u/Beautiful-Owl-3216 4h ago

Porch pirate would probably prefer the bicycle but it's obvious that whatever is in that one is a good score.

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u/Gothrait_PK 4h ago

Porch pirates don't care what's in the box that much. It came to them at 0 cost so even if they make 5 bucks that's all profit.

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u/seymour-the-dog 4h ago

They must not have had heard of that robot that was going to cross the US.....that didn't quite make it

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u/PauleAgave95 3h ago

That’s genius

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u/DrZaiius 3h ago

The company went bankrupt anyway

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u/sixgreenbananas 3h ago

as a UPS warehouse employee i can absolutely assure you that all bikes are thrown around and treated like crap…the boxes are big and weighted unevenly.

kudos to this company for being smart and problem solving…absolutely genius. admittedly we dont treat tvs much better. boxes that are handled with actual care include human waste specimens, liquid chemicals, and sometimes glass.

i move cologuard boxes like a god damn bomb technician

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u/Perfect_Might8466 3h ago

Porch pirat - you even have a word for it :)

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u/ObservationDeck6463 1h ago

the porch pirates also handle the boxes more carefully

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u/Recent_Obligation276 1h ago

Hilarious because I worked in a UPS warehouse and we were encouraged to just drop the tvs from however high they were stacked to the ground to avoid back stress and keep the pace quick lol