Has anybody tried Stuff Bak?

[skorpien]

I ordered something from RadTech for my MB and when it came, there was a free trial for Stuff Bak included with the documentation. It has a sticker that I'm supposed to place on my MB (or any device I want protected), register at their website for free (www.stuffbak.com), and when my MB goes missing the sticker will provide whoever finds it a way to return it to me (plus $20 reward and any additional reward I might offer).

Two questions: Has anybody tried this and does this service actually work? I'm kind of curious, but I'm also thinking that the reward might not be enough to deter them from just scraping the sticker off and keeping the MB...

TIA,
skorpien

 

[Rafiullah]

no i've never actually used it but thanks for letting me know about it, will research and provide feedback if I get anything.

Rafiullah Ahmadi

 

[drichards]

My Blackberry had a promo flyer for stuffbak in the shipping box, but I never really thought anything of it. I've never been much into putting a sticker on my equipment. If somebody finds my wallet, my computer, my bag, my Blackberry, and so on, there is plenty of contact info in there readily accessible. If its gone tho, I assume its gone forever, regardless.

 

[skorpien]

My Blackberry had a promo flyer for stuffbak in the shipping box, but I never really thought anything of it. I've never been much into putting a sticker on my equipment. If somebody finds my wallet, my computer, my bag, my Blackberry, and so on, there is plenty of contact info in there readily accessible. If its gone tho, I assume its gone forever, regardless.

That's an excellent point, although my MB is password protected and won't grant anybody access unless they input the password. AFAIK, there's no (easy) way for them to access my personal info, and I'm not comfortable leaving it unprotected.

That being said, I'm also not one for placing stickers on my devices. The only place I'd REALLY feel okay with placing the sticker is in the battery compartment underneath the battery, but that defeats the whole purpose. Not to mention I'm meticulous about having it with me so I can't see me losing it (I know, never say never). And if somebody's bent on stealing it, they're not going to return it no matter how many stickers it has.

I guess I just want to know if there have been a lot of success stories with this or if it's just nothing but a false security blanket...

 

[Bupkus]

Hmmm....Free Macbook or $20.....

 

[drichards]

For what its worth, insuring your laptop doesn't cost any more than Applecare does typically, and is much more reliable than something like stuffbak. I find it hard to believe that 75% of goods with stuffbak stickers on them which are lost, are returned solely based on that sticker.

Again, if somebody wants to return your things they can get your address pretty easily off your stuff if you keep it around. If you want to put passwords on everything (I do not, though I retain all passwords and documents off the computer, no info to find but an address book) - you can change the background of your login lock screen on your Mac or iPhone to have your name and address on it, a nice "please return to" tag there, and so on. Same thing with your Blackberry, the lock screen will display pretty much whatever you want, just fill in the owner's info in the setup wizard. Other phones... lose them to have an excuse to get an iPhone or a Blackberry.

 

[skorpien]

Thank you drichards! That's extremely useful information. I'll be sure to do that as soon as I get home. I wasn't even aware of this feature in Mac OS X. It seems the further I delve into it, the more I'm glad I made the switch from PC.

The information on the machine is the most important thing to me, and I already have that backed up in case anything were to happen. I'll look into getting insurance on my devices in the future (gotta love student loans), but for the time being I can at least take comfort in knowing my data is backed up.

 

[drichards]

Lifehacker did a little how-to on changing your login screen a little while ago for Leopard. Basically, its a simple command in Terminal:

sudo defaults write /Library/Preferences/com.apple.loginwindow DesktopPicture (drag photo here from finder, don't move it)

 

[BlackLight]

yea i got it to but i never tried it...

 

[minkman85]

Rewarding Return

Rewarding Return (www.RewardingReturn.com) is the recovery service I use. They don't have hidden shipping and recovery fees like stuffbak and trackitback. It's a one time purchase and all other costs and expenses down the road are paid for by Rewarding Return

Take a look for yourself. PLUS, i've lost my phone and laptop already and gotten then both back within days. It was worth every penny

 

[JamesGorman]

use lojack. Its a program you install and whenever your laptop, or desktop for that matter, connects to the internet, it send s a signal to the lojack server and tells you exactly where your computer is being used. This way instead of waiting for a phone call that may never come, just go to the culprits house or wherever there using it and give them a nice little surprise.

 

[aznguyen316]

is lojack free?

anyway I got a free stuffbak tag with purchase of my macbook a year ago from CompUSA and registered it. It's a super small sticker I don't pay attention to on the bottom rear of my macbook. Does no harm and hell it's ONE thing that can help if my macbook gets jacked.