AT&T iPhones keep disappearing on delivery: users left with empty boxes and disappointment

POV: you're an AT&T customer, you're fond of the new ultra-thin iPhone Air or the mighty iPhone 17 Pro Max, so you order one through your carrier.

A few moments later: you're getting an empty box. No iPhone, no nothing. Just a pretty sus (suspicious) delivery driver…

iPhones are irresistible, as it seems

It's the year 2025 and almost everything we do, and everywhere we go, is being recorded and tracked. iPhones, however, keep on disappearing.

It's especially frustrating when one orders a new and fancy handset like the iPhone Air and receives nothing but an empty package that has been tampered with. This happened recently to Reddit user Teach8870. They stepped outside to sign when the driver arrived; the driver said the scanner was still in the truck and handed over a box that had clearly been tampered with.

The customer refused to sign, saying the box looked empty, and the phone had likely been stolen. The driver photographed the box and tracking label, called a supervisor, and said the terminal would investigate. When the customer called FedEx, they were told they should have accepted the package; the delivery was recorded as refused and FedEx scheduled a pickup for the empty box.

The customer then contacted AT&T, where a representative canceled the original order, marked it as lost or stolen in transit, and placed a replacement order. The new order appeared to be processed, but the old device still shows as pending delivery in the customer's account, leaving them unsure if anything else needs to be done.

"Most likely the driver stole it and she tried to play it off", suggests a fellow Redditor. The OP (original poster) said: "This is what I was thinking. She seemed really suspicious."

Not an isolated case, not just with AT&T

This isn't a one-time event, not even close. In the unofficial AT&T subreddit forum, numerous people report the same phenomenon.

A Reddit user recounted being targeted twice for iPhone thefts by FedEx some time ago, losing a total of four phones. In the first instance, two phones were left in empty boxes that were falsely marked as delivered and signed for. Resolving it took months of calls with Verizon and FedEx to get refunds and cancel the phone lines properly.

Despite being hesitant, the user ordered two more iPhones to a different address. When the delivery supposedly arrived, the user never saw the driver, and the package was falsely marked as delivered. Calls to FedEx and the driver's dispatch went nowhere, with the dispatcher seeming evasive.

Four days later, the user found the missing phones quietly left on the doorstep late at night, likely because the driver feared getting caught. The experience highlights the risks of package theft even with signature-required deliveries and the difficulty of resolving such cases with carriers.

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