A Castlery customer was left stunned after discovering that his delivery drivers pretended to deliver his couch—and captured the whole thing on his Ring doorbell. In the video, which has amassed 14.1 million views, both delivery drivers can be seen hovering their fingers near the doorbell, stopping short of pressing it. Then, one of them takes a picture of the empty doorstep as if to give the impression that nobody answered the door.
In the video description, TikToker Ryan Houchin (@ryhouchin) described the turn of events as "unbelievable," and commenters were similarly shocked.
"All that effort to NOT make a delivery?" one viewer wrote. "What the actual..." Another expressed, "I don’t understand how they benefit not delivering the couch? They just get in trouble by company for not fulfilling order and have to come back."
A third admitted, "I’ll never understand being employed and just half-*ssing it."
Meanwhile, other commenters saw it as an opportunity to share their own delivery horror stories. "I was sitting on the porch with the kids," one recalled. "Amazon drove by myself and 3 min later said my package was not delivered due to a locked gate. I don't have a gate."
"I took Ring footage just like this to the USPS and the manager was able to identify the mail man and called him right there on the spot," another recounted. "Got my package delivered an hour later with an apology."
A further viewer shared, "Home Depot's delivery people came halfway up my driveway and then walked back to their truck."
@ryhouchin Caught on Ring: Castlery delivery guys faking an attempt to deliver my couch. They pretended to ring my doorbell and took a photo as 'proof' I wasn't home. Unbelievable. @Castlery @Castlery US #deliveryfail #castlery ♬ Monkeyshine-JP - Lt FitzGibbons Men
In a follow-up video, Houchin shared how Castlery got in touch after his initial clip went viral. In the video's description, he wrote, "After the video of Castlery’s delivery drivers went viral, the company texted me the next day saying they'd deliver it in 1 hour. Thankfully, I happened to be home. Despite the super short notice, they did a smooth install and the couch looks great."
He then went on to explain how Castlery "immediately commented" on his Instagram that it was taking "preventative steps."
"But seriously, what does that mean?" he asked. "So many of you have shared stories about being victims of delivery scams, and thankfully, I had video evidence to hold this company accountable. But we all want to know what steps Castlery and other companies are taking to stop this from happening to others."
Houchin didn't immediately respond to the Daily Dot's request for comment via TikTok comment and Instagram direct message. Castlery didn't immediately respond to the Daily Dot's request for comment via email.
This isn't the first time delivery drivers have been caught out by Ring. The footage, which was posted by @whatokwhynot, depicted an Amazon driver delivering three boxes and saying: "F*ck, f*ck this. I hate this so much.” He then looks directly at the Ring doorbell camera and says, “Please don’t make this go viral online.”
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The post ‘They pretended to ring my doorbell’: Customer catches Castlery delivery drivers pretending to deliver her couch on Ring camera appeared first on The Daily Dot.
