Lost Item

[faitaccompli]

I am in a bit of a quandary. Been having a torrid time recently, sold a lot of stuff on ebay and had £300 to spend on myself (having spent all my money recently on ex p and DS).

I bought myself an Apple Watch.

It was due to be delivered in a few weeks time so I used my office address. I work from the office 4 days a week.

Of course, Thursday last week, I got an email to say it was being delivered early (hooray) - the following day (boo) - the day when no one works in the office. I could not change the delivery address as it had already been despatched.

As luck would have it, the admin lady was in the office supervising the removal of office furniture. We are moving offices, selling lots of stuff and the daughter of her friend was sending over some removal men to store some of the furniture for her new company.

I could not call the office as the phones were diverted and mobiles do not work, so I could not warn the admin lady that this package was coming and would need to be signed for.

On Saturday, I looked at the tracking notice and it said the Admin Lady had signed for it. So I drove the 20 minute drive to the office, but the package was nowhere to be seen. I called the admin lady, and she said that she signed for it but could not remember where she had put it. I had another search, a colleague then turned up and they had a search for it but still could not find it. I looked for an hour!

Today the admin lady came into the office and also could not find it. I asked her to find out from the friend's daughter who had taken the furniture whether she had it. To be honest, it must have been picked up by the removal men as it is a remote office, locked and no one else had been there, not even the cleaner. It is in private grounds, so people do not "wander" by.

Admin lady told me that the container was not going to be opened until June! I was pretty cross and said that this was not acceptable - someone had taken a £300 watch and I was not waiting until June to get it back! Plus, we don't know whether it will be in the container. If it is not in the container, then the removal men have stolen it. No other way of putting it. The admin lady is 200% reliable.

So she has emailed the friend's daughter and we are now waiting to find out.

I am pissed off because it was a treat for me after a pretty shitty four weeks and I had been looking forward to playing with it over the weekend. And also because if it HAS gone missing, who the hell is responsible for replacing it. Not the Admin Lady (although she has said she feels responsible and will replace it, I absolutely would not allow that to happen), the lady who bought the furniture? The removal men? Me?

If it is found, then of course there is no problem. But right now, I am short £300, have no watch and no one seems to give a damn about getting it back to me apart from me!

AIBU to expect the friend's daughter to be responsible for replacing it, bearing in mind that it can ONLY have been her removals people who took it from the office?

I know the first user registers the device.

The point is, it will have a unique serial number already known to Apple. They can simply flag it as stolen, leaving any thief (or purchaser of knocked-off goods) with a nice bracelet that doesn't tell the time.

Sorry that this happened to you. I am afraid you delegated responsibility for a valuable item to the admin lady who was doing you a personal favour. She did not take adequate care to keep it in safe place .you will have to suck it up. Her daughter had no part to play in this incident.

I doubt the removal men have nicked it. In their line of work they must be dealing with other people's valuables all day every day. I'm sure the temptation to tea-leaf would soon get boring.

I so wish this was the case :( We have moved house several times (military) and the same company have been reported many times by many people for theft :(

OP I hope you get your watch back

YAB totally U.

There's only 2 people at fault here, you and the admin lady.

If you could drive to the office to collect it on Saturday, why couldn't you drive to the office on Friday to let the admin lady know she'd be expected to sign for a very important £300 personal item for you?

How can the company be liable for this, that's ridiculous. I wouldn't be trying to get them to claim for you. If someone had an expensive piece of Jewelry delivered to the office worth a fortune would the company be liable if it got lost ?
It's horrible that this happened, the only thing is to ask the friend to check through all the items she purchased.

Whonickedmyname.

1. I had conf calls all day Friday. I was so excited about the watch I would have far rather waited for it in the office - I needed something good to happen in my life - believe me!
2. NO ONE is meant to be in the office on Friday - it is closed. So it should have gone back to the depot and I could have collected or rearranged the delivery. However, because Admin Ladys friend's daughter wanted to buy a load of cheap furniture, Admin Lady went into the office and opened it up. I did NOT ask her to sign for it. She is not even MEANT to work on Friday. Absolutely no one (including the cleaner) comes in on a Friday. Ever.

I doubt it would be covered by the company insurance, if you lost any other item in work they are unlikely to be liable - even if the item is new, as it is in this case.

It may be difficult for them to arrange to look inside the container. Not impossible, but it may take a while and they would need to look inside every item as they'd have no idea where it is!

Can you arrange one more fingertip search in the office in the meantime? Everyone having a look for the parcel?

You do sound very angry, I appreciate that you are disappointed especially after having a tough time in the weeks beforehand but I would try and sound a little less accusatory about it. Especially as you are relying on someone else's goodwill to have the container checked.

Hope it turns up in a drawer today somewhere and you get to play with it soon!

I don't understand why you are so reluctant to blame the admin lady. She signed for your parcel so she took responsibility for it. If she had put it in a safe place and then it had gone missing then fair enough, you would have to consider theft but she can't even remember where she put it so she was careless.

You say that the removal men wouldn't have been there if it weren't for the admin lady's friend's daughter but actually, the admin lady's friend's daughter's removal men wouldn't have even had access to the place if it weren't for the admin lady.

It is her fault. At the very least, she should be the one ensuring that you gain access to the container. Whether you would actually accept her offer to replace is your call but in signing for your parcel, she took responsibility for it.

I agree with dafspunk; admin lady might be the nicest person in the world, but she screwed this up.

Ahhh I feel a bit sorry for the admin lady.

She was in work on a day she wasn't supposed to be in, supervising furniture removal.

She wasn't given the courtesy of being asked or warned, so didn't know that she was signing for an expensive personal item - and therefore wasn't given the option to refuse to sign for it (which no doubt she will do in future!) or take any more care of the item than she would have taken when signing for a box of stationary - i.e. putting it down somewhere and thinking she'll deal with it when she's finishing supervising the chaos of a removal company milling about in the office.

OP I hope you get the watch back, I really do but I'm completely baffled as to how you came to the conclusion that it is somehow the daughter's responsibility to replace it.

If you're now saying (in your last post) it should have gone back to the depot and I could have collected then perhaps it's best that you get things delivered to your home address in future and do just that when you're not home to sign for them.

The furniture was being sold cheaply as a favour to the admin lady;s daughter. The daughter did not even come to supervise - it was left to our Admin Lady to deal with it.

I always have my items delivered to the office. Otherwise I would not be able to purchase anything!

We are several miles from a town, and approx 25 miles from main delivery offices. I don't get lunch breaks - I deal with our Asian office from 7am in the morning and our US offices from 3pm in the afternoon. I don't have the time to run to pick items up apart from one day at the weekend. I did not actually KNOW that the Admin Lady would be in the office when the watch was being delivered until that morning (a chance comment by another member of staff)- the office is MEANT to be empty on Friday.. However, the Admin Lady was doing her friend a favour by opening up the office on a day when it was meant to be closed, hence my delivery was signed for by her. I could not contact her by mobile as there is no signal at the office, and the main phoneline was diverted to another number as we always do on a Friday.

I fail to see what I could have done. If I had called the Admin Lady she would have signed for it, and it would still be lost right now!

I have asked her several times to let me know what the friend's daughter has said about accessing the container, but nothing has been forthcoming. Admin Lady is going on holiday tomorrow (she deserves this as she is also having a horrid time right now, one of the reasons why I don't want to let her feel it is her fault, but equally, I want to be able to find out what has happened to my watch!)

Get the friend's daughters number from the admin lady and call her directly. Leave the poor admin lady out of it, although it is very careless of her to not remember where she put the parcel. I'm not sure why removal men would have stolen the watch though, it would have been quite a small box and, from having Apple products devilled previously, they came in a plain box, it doesn't advertise the fact that it's Apple over it.

Any update? Did you get your watch?

I had a response from the daughter. She had been on holiday so had been too busy enjoying herself to respond. So - one week after I started chasing, she asked the removal company to check. They said they looked but found nothing.

I spoke to them directly, and they had another look today.

Nothing.

Clearly someone from the removal company has taken the watch - either accidentally or on purpose.

Have now spoken to the police but they are obviously not going to do anything.

My insurance is £250 excess - the office insurance is £250 excess - the watch is valued at £300.

So. I have purchased a watch, it was delivered, it was taken from my office before I even set eyes on it, and no one is to blame.

But I am down £300 and don't have a watch. Very upset about the whole thing and feel that no one gives a shit - it's not their money and not their watch.

Oh god, that's an incredibly frustrating situation! You can see how it may have got lost in all the back and forth at the office but it's horrible for you!!

Thanks VR - it is a horrible time right now generally, and this was my "reward" for trying to get through life without making a fuss. One that I should not have done as I don't really have excess cash to do it, but for once in my 52 years I thought "what the hell" ...

If the Admin lady signed for it on your behalf, then lost it, I'm afraid it's up to her to replace it for you.

I'm not sure how you know you can trust her 200%, though of course you may have good reason to, but nevertheless you shouldn't sign for someone's item and then lose it.

The other option is to pursue the removals company.

My camera went missing on the day we moved last year and I still wonder if one of the blokes doing the removal took it. I don't want to sound like I'm accusing them though as it could easily be lost. So I haven't rung to ask.

I hope you do get somewhere.

I don't suppose there is a serial number with the watch - or some sort of tracking facility? Anything that identifies it, contact Apple and ask - then if one turns up anywhere the police will be able to prove it is yours. Check ebay too.

I spoke to Apple - the watch has not been set up according to their records, however, if it falls into the wrong (intelligent) hands, then this can be bypassed when it is synced with the iphone. So no joy there.

I agree with Pispcina, admin lady signed for it, she's respomsible.

*responsible obviously.

There are 511 new apple watches on ebay. Try a search by distance. Just in case someone has bunged it on there.

I think if someone at your office has signed for it and it has thence disappeared, there must be a way round this...it isn't your problem, as such. You didn't authorise them to sign for it. It should have been returned to the depot. Therefore the courier is perhaps liable.

Of course the courier isn't liable. Their job is to deliver to an address, have the item signed for and then leave. If every parcel delivery had to be delivered only to the named recipient, the courier service would grind to a halt.

Alright, it was only a suggestion.

I wouldn't be taking their word for it and would want to look in the container myself, if I were you.