8 Best Services For Laptop Retrievals

The Problems With Traditional Laptop Return Solutions 

Traditional methods of returning laptops, like using FedEx or UPS, are a game of chance. Sure, they’ll get the job done, but not without a few headaches along the way. 

First off, the packaging. How often have you received a box that looks like it went 12 rounds with a heavyweight boxer? While your regular laptop return solutions offer some standard packing materials, they’re made for sensitive tech like laptops. Traditional services don’t often offer dedicated padded boxes specifically designed for electronics, putting your device at risk during transit. 

The return process itself is complex. With traditional shipping methods, you’re often stuck wondering where exactly the laptop is in the return journey. Is it in transit? Has it been delivered? Did someone sign for it? 

Then, if you’d like your equipment to be redeployed to new hires or disposed of with compliance, you’ll again need to look for new vendor partners. Traditional services just won’t be enough.

Just head over to r/ITManagers and you’ll find people deciding to switch to a dedicated service with IT disposal baked in.

Then, there are communication issues. When employees need to send their company devices back, there’s often a lack of clear instructions or ongoing support. Miscommunication or confusion around deadlines and return details means unnecessary delays, frustration, or even lost devices.

The issue is so widespread that you’d find IT managers at their wits end, scrambling for solutions on Reddit. Fortunately, there’s a way.

This is where dedicated laptop return service providers shine. They provide custom padded laptop boxes for safe transit, streamline the process with clear tracking and transparent updates, and often even handle employee communication so no one’s left guessing. 

With these solutions, you’re entrusting the process to a system built to protect your investment and make the whole experience smoother.

What To Look For In A Laptop Return Service

Keep an eye on these factors when you are picking a laptop return solution for your organization:

Ease of use

You want a solution that's easy for the company and the employees. Returning a laptop shouldn’t feel like jumping through hoops. Look for services that offer straightforward instructions, pre-labeled shipping kits, and multiple return options like courier pick-up or drop-off at a designated location.

Data security

Laptops often hold sensitive data, so you need a secure data-wiping solution or encrypted storage until the computer is returned to IT. The better of the bunch even offers remote locking or wiping if a device is delayed or goes missing.

Tracking and accountability

You want full visibility into where that laptop is at every stage. Can the service provide real-time tracking updates? Are you notified when devices are picked up, in transit, and received? Your service provider should prioritize accountability, especially when managing returns on a larger scale.

Timelessness

Employees leaving or switching roles? You’ll want the laptops back quickly and without hassle. The best services have fast turnaround times, sometimes within a day or two. Time is money, and delays in getting devices back could mean delays in redeploying them to other employees.

Flexibility in volume

Whether dealing with one laptop or 100, your return solution should scale with your needs. If your company grows or shrinks, you need a system to handle those fluctuations without compromising service.

Cost

Budget always matters, right? Look for a solution that offers transparent pricing without surprise fees. Some companies charge by the device, while others have bulk pricing plans that can save you money for a more extensive fleet of laptops.

Environmental responsibility

If your company cares about its carbon footprint (which it should!), you should check whether the return service has eco-friendly practices. Also, ensure a responsive and helpful support team is ready to jump in when things go wrong. 

The Best Laptop Return Services For Hassle-Free Laptop Returns 

Workwize

Workwize is a zero-touch complete hardware lifecycle management solution. It lets you procure, deploy, manage, and dispose of assets, as well as retrieve them hassle-free. Workwize is a single platform that combines several IT functions to make it incredibly easy to stay on top of your assets.

Workwize features: 

Zero-touch IT Equipment Retrieval

Experience hassle-free asset retrieval from over 100 countries across the world. 

Workwize offers:

• Employ multi-channel communication to coordinate pickups, manage global logistics, and ensure 100% secure transportation of assets

• Ensure guaranteed data removal during device disposal to enhance data security

• Maintain real-time visibility of your assets throughout shipment and transit

• Redeploy used assets for new hires efficiently

What’s great is that you can retrieve equipment with just one click when employees depart or assets reach the end of their lifecycle.

Good to Know: Workwize boasts a 100% asset retrieval rate, guaranteeing your equipment will be returned on time.

Other features:

IT Asset Procurement:

• Purchase or lease a wide variety of hardware products from our international suppliers directly through the Workwize platform, or collaborate with your local suppliers if preferred

• Receive IT equipment and accessories worldwide within 5-7 business days, whether for remote workers, your headquarters, satellite offices, or any of our global warehouses

• Choose from pre-designed starter kits or welcome packages featuring your company logo, or let employees pick their own IT equipment, furniture, or company swag

• Track and manage your assets with real-time location updates via a track-and-trace link, giving you full visibility of your inventory

• Customize your hardware by selecting CTO models with additional storage or RAM, or opt for local keyboard layouts when placing orders

IT Equipment Deployment:

With Workwize, you can deploy hardware tailored to your specific needs and deliver fully configured, MDM-enrolled devices to your employees. Additionally, you can keep a centralized overview of equipment assignments, making it easy to manage replacements for any faulty or damaged items efficiently.

IT Equipment Management

Workwize makes managing your equipment simple and friction-free. With Workwize, you can:

• Keep detailed records for each asset, including the current user, value, depreciation status, and whether the asset is new or refurbished

• Provide a self-service portal where employees can request items, repairs, and maintenance, with a chatbot available for quick support

• Easily integrate with your HR or directory system to streamline the management of employee transitions

• Automatically lock accounts when employees leave, coordinate equipment retrieval, and securely wipe data from devices

IT Equipment Disposal

Workwize ensures environmentally responsible disposal or donation of end-of-life assets in compliance with local regulations. Obtain a certificate of data destruction for full compliance.

Workwize pricing

• Basic Plan: $8 per seat (+$540 platform fee)

• Professional: $11 per seat (+$540 platform fee)

• Enterprise: Custom pricing

ReReady

ReReady is a laptop return service provider, handling both small-scale and individual orders and laptop returns on an enterprise level. The platform is geared towards HR and IT teams facing a complicated laptop return process from remote employees. It promises to reduce the time return to initiate a laptop return from 2 hours to just 2 minutes. 

ReReady, by default, provides detailed tracking, as well as padded and prepaid shipping boxes. Need to get your company laptops returned in bulk? The Enterprise tier unlocks a host of customizations and automations, including integrations with BambooHR, Jamf, Zenefits, etc. You also benefit from a proprietary REST API to build your automated ordering processes.

Key features:

• Customize messages sent to employees and use your organization’s unique instructions in notifications and reminders.

• Associate a ReReady laptop return with a service ticket from FreshService, Jira Service Management, etc.

• Send a safe and padded universal laptop box with no additional packing materials, with FedEx, UPS, and USPS-certified passes.

Pros

• It is comparatively more value for money against its immediate competitors.

• You get free carbon offsets with every return.

Cons

• It is limited to laptops and cannot handle returns of other IT equipment.

• The pickup scheduling process adds an extra $20 to the total cost.

Pricing

• Laptop returns start at $85

Allwhere

Allwhere is a complete cloud-based IT asset management solution that also happens to manage the retrieval and storage of IT assets globally. Laptop returns are a part of its employee offboarding services, with options for both individual returns and bulk retrievals for business. 

Allwhere facilitates laptop returns globally, in addition to procurement, with an average retrieval time of just under a week in the States. All return orders get real-time tracking and updates, ensuring complete transparency throughout the return and delivery process. The cherry on top is that you can request custom quotes if you need faster returns.

Key features:

• Deploy recovered devices globally at a moment’s notice with a network of global storage facilities.

• Connect your employee offboarding flow with popular HRIS applications like BambooHR, Okta, and Justworks.

• Get priority customer service and support for ongoing services and bulk orders.

Pros

• It has a handy customer portal that details all return-related information for clarity.

• It ships laptop returns within just one or two days.

Cons

• Many customers are unhappy with the recent price increases.

• Sometimes, you cannot be sure you’ll find the needed resources.

Pricing

• Custom pricing

Retriever

Retriever is a platform built to streamline the setup of laptop returns. It offers options for individual and bulk returns without the hassle of setup fees, recurring subscriptions, or contracts. 

Retriever sends your employee a safe, padded laptop shipping box, a prepaid return label, and detailed instructions. In case your employee delays the shipment, it even reminds the employee to promptly send the laptop back. The rest–delivery, logistics, employee and employer communication–is all handled by Retriever.

There’s even an Enterprise version with extra perks like access to the Retriever portal, a proprietary API, and more.

Key features:

• Set up the laptop and monitor returns with full tracking throughout the dispatch and recovery process.

• Save your default device return settings like your company return addresses to make returns quicker.

• Utilize the Retriever API to build integrations with employee management tools like Workday, Okta, Jira, and Zapier.

Pros 

• It is easy to integrate into the offboarding workflows of most organizations,

• The enterprise portal lets you see everything related to asset and equipment returns.

Cons

• There is no option to upgrade a shipment to priority or overnight return if needed.

• It could benefit from additional APIs to leverage recovery from the UK and also for device recycling and disposal.

Pricing

• Laptop returns start at $95 (optional insurance coverage available).

• Monitor returns begin at $195 (optional insurance coverage available).

GroWrk

Growrk simplifies device lifecycle management by automating everything from procurement and configuration to deployment and retrievals, all through a single platform. With coverage in over 150 countries, it also manages secure storage or recycling of your hardware. Need to collect devices from a remote team? Growrk’s global logistics system makes it happen with just a few clicks. 

The platform performs maintenance checks and ensures hard drives are wiped clean after retrieval. Growrk also offers certified disposal services when your assets reach the end of their usable life, such as recycling, donating, or refurbishing the equipment.

Key features:

• Delegate logistics to a global asset recovery team that prioritizes device collection, no matter the location.

• Protect your privacy and sensitive data with secure, transparent maintenance checks and hard drive sanitization.

• Ship device-specific, padded, and secure laptop return boxes with space for chargers and other accessories.

Pros

• The globally available, dedicated device collection team is a huge plus.

• You can retrieve devices from the same platform used to manage all organizational assets in their lifecycle.

Cons

• There are some potential bugs with Windows Autopilot device importing.

• Some users have reported instances where the platform refused to collect equipment from specific locations.

Pricing

• Custom pricing

Device Rescue 

Device Rescue relieves the stress of device retrieval for HR and IT teams. But beyond recovering company equipment, it also acts as a secure storage solution and holds unassigned devices in its warehouses. 

Their services cover:

• Complete device lifecycle management, from deployment to end-of-life.

• Collecting devices from remote employees for departures, upgrades, or repairs

• Providing detailed reports on device condition to make data-backed decisions.

• Managing all employee communications during the process

Device Rescue is a scalable platform that can serve small businesses and organizations. It currently serves the lower 48 states and plans to expand into Mexico and Canada soon.

Key features:

• Get detailed reports on device condition and monitor device status with condition reporting. 

• Configure all devices to be ready to use right out of the box before leaving the warehouses.

• Handover all communication with employees for a smooth equipment retrieval process for both parties.

Pros

• It recovers all IT equipment–laptops, cell phones, desktops, etc–from your employees.

• Integrated storage facilities remove the hassle of finding storage for recovered assets till their eventual redeployment/recycling.

Cons

• The geographic availability is still limited compared to its peers

• Once you send a shipment request, it cannot be paused or canceled

Pricing

Pay per retrieval plan available

• Laptop returns start at $89 per retrieval

• Tablet returns start at $69 per retrieval

• Phone returns start at $49 per retrieval

• Monitor returns start at $199 per retrieval

Essentials plan starts at $79/month

Ultimate plan starts at $499/month

Revivn

Revivn offers a fully integrated, global solution to manage the end-of-life stage of IT assets, including device retrievals.   Security is central to Revivn’s experience and is backed by ISO 9001, 45001, and 14001 certifications.

The platform’s device retrieval, data destruction, and repurposing processes are tightly integrated, resulting in a faster, more efficient, and more transparent offboarding flow. With Revivn, your employees don't even need to pack up the devices—the recovery team will collect them as is. Revivn will securely destroy data following NIST 800-88 and DoD standards if needed.

With Revivn, you won’t have to deal with multiple vendors or worry about handling the hardware yourself—their on-site team management. You’ll also have 24/7 access to a concierge team. You can easily use the Revivn app.

Key features:

• Track your devices, automate end-of-life tasks, and download certificates of destruction with the Revivn mobile app. 

• Gain access to a dedicated concierge team that manages everything, from packing devices to offering dedicated account.

• Access and download asset lists and certificates of destruction, view environmental reports, etc, within the application.

Pros

• From the dashboard, you can give away your earnings to support non-profit initiatives. 

• It eliminates the hassle of packing devices to be returned. 

Cons

• The serviced items don't include any sort of office furniture. 

• Pricing can be a hit or a miss, depending on your needs.

Pricing

• Custom pricing

Remote Retrieval

Remote Retrieval is a laptop return platform that simplifies the return of computers and laptops from employees while minimizing risks. Its standout feature is its very easy signup process. All you need to do is enter your company information, the employee’s address, and the details of the asset, and you're good to initiate a return order.

Every return order includes a secure box for laptops or computers, the necessary padding, tape, instructions, and a prepaid shipping label. The platform also handles all employee communication through email until the device is shipped. The entire process is kept transparent so you can see the exact status of your return order. Plus, there's a dedicated support team that is always ready to help you out anytime.

Key features:

• Keep track of your laptop return with real-time shipment tracking throughout the process. 

• Choose from a variety of padded and secure boxes to recover laptops, computers, and monitors.

• Avail help from a dedicated support team that will guide you or your employee at any stage of the process.

Pros

• It also offers a proper enterprise version with a dedicated portal, proprietary API, and more.

• Handles the shipment of even delicate and valuable IT assets. 

Cons

• It is only operational for US and Canada-based companies.

• Remote employees outside of the operational zone still need to drop off the device return box at designated points manually.

Pricing

• Device returns start at $67

Choose Workwize: The Best Laptop Return Solution

Workwize makes laptop retrieval as easy as clicking a button. You can use it to retrieve all of your assets within days—from anywhere in the world. Leave the stress of coordinating pickups, scheduling delivery, or reminders, all upon us. Book a Workwize Demo now.