Why DIY Laptop Returns Fail — And What to Do Instead

Retrieving a laptop from a departing employee sounds like one of the simpler parts of offboarding. You know where the device is. You know who has it. You just need it back.

In practice, it's one of the steps that gets quietly mishandled more than almost anything else in the offboarding process. Not because anyone is being careless, but because the most common approaches put the work on exactly the wrong person.

The Two Ways Most Companies Handle This

Scenario one: send a label, ask the employee to find a box.

The employer tells the departing employee they'll send a shipping label once they have a box. So the employee sources a box, measures it, weighs it, and sends those dimensions back to the employer. The employer uses that information to generate the right label, then emails it back to the employee to print. The employee needs a printer, which is not a given for someone who has been working from home, and then needs to get to a drop-off location with the packed box.

That's four or five back-and-forth steps before anything actually ships. Each one requires the employee to stay engaged, respond promptly, and follow through. Each one is a place the process can stall.

Scenario two: the Canada Post flat rate box.

Some employers tell departing employees to pick up a flat rate box from Canada Post, pack the laptop, and ship it back. The employer will reimburse the cost.

On the surface this seems reasonable. In reality there are two problems.

The first is the process itself. The employee has to physically go to a Canada Post location, pay out of pocket, and then follow up with a former employer, someone they're no longer in regular contact with, to get that money back. That's a friction-filled chain of steps that requires the employee to stay engaged well after they've mentally moved on.

The second problem is the box. Canada Post flat rate boxes are cardboard shipping boxes. They are not designed for electronics. They have no padding, no protection, no insert to hold a laptop in place during transit. Whether the device arrives safely depends entirely on whether the employee thought to wrap it in something before sealing it.

Often, they don't. A $1,500 laptop ends up in an unpadded cardboard box, shipped through the mail, and whether it arrives in working condition is largely a matter of luck.

The Underlying Problem

Both of these approaches share the same flaw: they outsource the logistics to the employee.

This isn't a criticism of the employees themselves. It's a structural problem. A departing employee is the least motivated person to prioritise this task. They're managing a job transition, they may be dealing with a difficult situation, and returning a laptop to a former employer is unlikely to be at the top of their list. The more steps involved, the more friction, the longer it takes, and the greater the chance the device never comes back at all.

What works is removing the dependency on the employee to figure anything out.

What the Process Should Look Like

When you use LapDrop, here's what happens from the employee's perspective.

A fully padded return kit arrives at their door. Inside is a box purpose-built for electronics, not a flat rate cardboard box, but a padded, protected enclosure designed specifically to keep a laptop safe in transit. Also inside: clear instructions on how to package the device, a pre-applied return label, and everything needed to seal and ship it. There's nothing to source, nothing to measure, nothing to print, nothing to figure out.

For employees who can't easily get to a Canada Post location, employers can add scheduled pickup at the time of ordering. Canada Post comes to the employee's door.

From your side, the communication is handled automatically. The employee receives emails at each stage of the process. There's a portal where they can check the current status or find instructions again if they need them, and it updates based on where their return actually is. If they go quiet, reminders go out on your behalf. You don't have to chase anyone.

There's no cost to the employee at any point. No out-of-pocket expense, no reimbursement to follow up on. The only thing the employee has to do is pack the device using the instructions provided and send it back.

That's it. Everything else is handled.

Why This Matters Beyond Convenience

A laptop that comes back safely and on time has real value, both the hardware itself and the data security implications of a device that's no longer in active use. A laptop that doesn't come back, or comes back damaged, has real costs.

The difference between those two outcomes often comes down to how much work you're asking a departing employee to do on your behalf. The less you ask of them, the better your chances.

LapDrop is designed around that principle. The employee's job is to pack a device in a box that arrived at their door with everything they need. That's a reasonable ask. Everything else is taken care of before they're even involved.