UPS won't deliver using pre-sign form

The official, published policy of the Apple Store is that you can pre-sign for shipments. See:

http://store.apple.com/us/help/shipping_delivery

Your delivery driver is either mistaken or is getting contrary information from his/her manager at the distribution center. Again, I'd suggest calling the carrier's customer service department and discussing the issue with them.

Regards.

The Help pages for the Apple Store say that pre-signing is available, though they also say that for safety and security reasons, all deliveries are subject to the driver's discretion, so your driver may be correct about the carrier policies. Call the carrier's customer service department and ask about their policies.

Personally I consider pre-signing for any shipment that's worth more than a small amount to be a foollsh risk. It's not at all uncommon for packages to go missing when just dropped at the front door - there have been more than a few posts in these forums complaining about missing deliveries - and if you pre-sign, neither the carrier nor Apple will take any responsibility for a missing package. If you can't be present at home to accept a shipment, I'd suggest either having it delivered to your place of business, to the home of a friend or relative who would be available to accept the shipment for you, or arrange to pick up the parcel from the carrier which you can usually do by calling the carrier after the first delivery attempt.

Regards.

One thing you can also do is communicate with the shipper, in this case UPS, and tell them 'hey, can you hold it at your warehouse and I'll come and get it'?

I've not had an issue with both UPS or Fedex being willing to do that. You do have to go out and pick it up, but they usually have hours that run into the evening.

It'd be worth calling UPS and asking them. (in fact, last shipment I got, if I had to reschedule there was an option to hold it for you and for you to come and get it rather than trying to catch up with the driver)

The UPS Pre-Sign form should be customized for Apple products. I was told by an Apple associate to NOT use the form because the carrier would have the discretion on "where" to leave the package. I was also told that UPS could leave the package with a leasing office or management office without the signed Pre-Sign form. That's not true - it's "UPS DISCRETION". In my case, the phone was shipped from CHINA, and was supposed to arrive on 10/12/2013 but the plane never left. So the tracking status just said "Scheduled for Delivery by End of Business Day". It was not updated until 10/13/2013. I was told it would be delivered on 10/15/2013 and was assured that it could be left with my leasing office without the Pre-Sign form. WRONG. Now I have 2 options, sign the pre-sign and hope it gets delivered to the leasing office or take a day off from work and sit around waiting on the UPS driver. Neither option works for me. SO ... APPLE - this policy is seriously broken. Why couldn't the phone just be delivered to a store for pick-up is beyond me. BUT if I do not get this phone tomorrow then I am going to start looking at other brands. TOO MUCH HASSLE.

Call Apple 1-800-MY-APPLE

I have no real problem when FedEx Delivers my Apple products except when they can't find the printed and signed form I tape to my front door.

When I was still working (retired now), I frequently had expensive items delivered to me at my job location. If OK with your employer, you might wish to try that.