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How to get a company laptop back from a remote employee.

A good remote laptop return process means confirming the equipment and employee address, deciding where the laptop should go, providing appropriate packaging and prepaid shipping, giving the employee clear instructions, following up when necessary, and tracking the shipment through delivery.

Most stalled returns come from a missing piece: an old address, no box, no label or no one checking tracking. The steps below close those gaps.

Updated October 8, 2026

The seven-step remote laptop return.

  1. Confirm the laptop and employee.
  2. Confirm the employee's current return address.
  3. Decide where the laptop needs to go.
  4. Arrange appropriate return packaging.
  5. Provide prepaid shipping.
  6. Give the employee clear return instructions.
  7. Track the shipment until delivery.

Want ShiplyTech to handle the return? Start a laptop return →

1. Confirm the laptop and employee.

Start with one record: employee name, a reachable email, the laptop make and model, a serial number or asset tag if you have one, and anything else expected back, such as a charger. Add an internal ticket reference so the return is easy to find later.

2. Confirm the current return address.

Remote employees move. Confirm the address where they can receive a package now, not the one in an old HR record. Sending packaging to the wrong place costs days before anyone notices.

3. Decide where the laptop needs to go.

Decide before anything ships: your office, a specific IT contact or another location your team uses. The destination determines the return label, so it should not be left to the employee.

4. Don't make the employee improvise packaging.

Many people do not have a box that fits a laptop, padding or tape. Asking them to find their own turns a five-minute task into an errand. Improvised packaging can create unnecessary risk in transit. Send appropriate padded packaging with everything needed to seal it.

5. Provide prepaid shipping.

The employee should not have to buy a label, choose a carrier or wait for reimbursement. A prepaid return label, ready in the box or by email, removes one of the most common reasons a return is put off. Weighing doing it yourself? See what a laptop return actually costs.

6. Give clear return instructions.

Say what to return, how to pack it, how to drop it off and who to contact with questions. Send instructions by email so they can be found again, and include printed instructions inside the packaging for the moment the employee is actually packing.

7. Track the shipment, not the promise.

“I'll drop it off this week” is not a status. Track the packaging going out and the laptop coming back with carrier tracking, and record concrete statuses: kit delivered, return label scanned, in transit, delivered. See how outstanding devices are shown.

Follow up on a schedule.

If the return label has not been scanned, follow up on a documented schedule and record each contact. When ShiplyTech runs the return, follow-ups are sent every four days after the kit is delivered, up to seven over 28 days. They stop when the return label is scanned. If the laptop is still outstanding after the final reminder, the admin who placed the order is notified. That is ShiplyTech's current process, not an industry standard.

Handle device access separately from shipping.

Account access, device management and lock settings are handled by your IT or security team, not by a shipping process. Address them on their own timeline. If the laptop must be released from your systems before reuse, see Release a device before return.

Give the return one owner.

Returns stall when HR assumes IT has it and IT assumes HR does. Name one person or team who owns the return from start to delivery. More on this in employee offboarding.

Common failure modes.

  • Packaging sent to an old address.
  • The employee is asked to find their own box.
  • No prepaid label, or a label for the wrong destination.
  • Instructions sent once to a work inbox that has since closed.
  • Nobody checks whether the return label was scanned.
  • Follow-ups depend on someone remembering.
  • No single owner, so the return falls between teams.

Example return timeline

Fictional example showing the order of events.

Remote employee · LaptopExample
  1. RecordLaptop and address confirmed
  2. Return kitShipped to employee
  3. Return kitDelivered
  4. InstructionsEmailed with personal link
  5. Return labelNot scanned yet
  6. Follow-upReminder sent
  7. Return labelScanned
  8. LaptopDelivered to destination

Illustrative steps; no transit times implied.

If the laptop still doesn't come back.

If the employee still has the laptop after packaging, instructions and follow-ups have been provided, the return has become a different kind of problem. Read what to do when an employee doesn't return a company laptop.

Or let ShiplyTech run the return.

ShiplyTech handles the operational work around remote laptop returns, so IT does not have to run packaging, labels, reminders and tracking by hand.

US laptop return

$95

No subscription. No setup fee.

  • Padded laptop return packaging
  • Printed instruction sheet and tape
  • Emailed return instructions with a personal return link
  • Prepaid shipping
  • Employee follow-ups
  • Tracking

Canada is $145 and the UK is $250, laptops only. See pricing, coverage, how it works or other devices.

Start a laptop return See laptop returns

Frequently asked questions