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?

And to respond - the jiffy bag/watch was NOT put into a drawer of a desk about to be taken by the removal men. It was put ON a desk, at the opposite end of the office; a desk that was NOT taken by the removal men.

And your continued refrain that it is only a watch, and not a cure for cancer.

No. I know that. I am fully aware (hence the difficult time I am currently going through) that £300 will not buy me a cure for cancer. But thank you for continuously reminding me of this. I will make certain that I don't forget in the future.

I still cannot understand how you think it is not important that an item has been stolen. If you go to the shops, buy something and it is then stolen from you on your way home, would you not feel a little aggrieved?

Expat - I don't understand why you are getting so excited about this. Do you know where the watch is?

'If you go to the shops, buy something and it is then stolen from you on your way home, would you not feel a little aggrieved?'

Unless it was my soul or something essential to living, probably not two weeks.

But again, that's just me.

Sue 'em all.

I'm out.

This is, hands down, the best first world problem of 2015.

You're to blame.

For spending £300 on a GIMMICK.

But seriously though, if what you're saying is true - get onto Apple. Tell them their delivery being 2 weeks early has caused your life to turn upside down.

It's not been stolen, it's been lost by the person who signed for it.

You haven't been mugged for it, it wasn't stolen on your way home. You're being ridiculous

Aside from you, the admin lady is next in line for the blame.

She's misplaced it. For all you know she could be a thief, a raging thief with a 'little old lady' alter ego. Ohhh the drama!

Anyway, if you like her too much to put her at fault then it comes back to you - you'll have to suck it up.

Well, if you are confident it's been stolen, you need to call the police.

Did I miss the bit that you had? My mouth just hit the floor at certain posters rudeness. But I will add RTFT to my vocabulary, even if I'm never rude enough to use it.

I can't help but think nobody needs an Apple Watch. It's nice to have one I'm sure, after 4 torrid weeks and spending your money on other people (one of whom is your child).

I would love to be corrected, and be told an Apple Watch is an essential item, so I can justify purchasing one myself.

expatinscotland
TBH, if it was that big a deal, you should have gone and waited for it yourself. Of course no one is going to be losing sleep as much as you are

The above is so true. Who has precious/valuable items delivered to a work location..... it is no good whining about 'oh but nobody should have been there...' etc. If you wanted to be 100% safe and in control the only way is to either buy in physically in person or have it delivered to a home address with specific instructions not to offer a neighbour to sign for it if you are out.

And 8exapt* is not the one getting excited here......

Person signs for it, thereby accepting responsibility. Puts it down, forgets where and it can't be found.

How the hell can it be any body else's fault? "Admin lady" is at blame.

Your company and you sound very unprofessional, I'm afraid.

Love expat's comment that it's a watch not a defibrillator!

OK. Hands up.

I am ridiculous.

I have spent £300 on a watch to make up for the unpleasant time I have having right now and it is missing.

It is my fault.

I should not have spent money on something to cheer myself up.

If I do spent money on something, then I must not complain when the item goes missing before I have even seen it

I should not work such unsocial hours in a remote office.

I should be understanding that someone signed for the watch and then lost it (actually, I have not blamed the admin lady at all in this)

btw - the office is now empty, the package did not turn up, the removal men do not have it, the admin lady does not have it, the police are making enquiries and tell me it has been stolen.

But of course - PinkS - you know better than everyone :)

My money is on the admin lady taking it.

Well, that's good .....if the police don't find it you can claim on insurance...but whose insurance? There's the dilemma! And if there's no insurance to cover it, it's just one on of those things.

I think there are a few posters on this thread who would like an Apple Watch to be The Answer. .

Christ on a bike.

"Admin lady" is at fault.

You're quite hard work, OP.

Of course it's normal to feel upset and aggrieved when an expensive new item goes missing. I'm truly sorry this has happened to you, especially at difficult time. BUT... I don't think it's helpful (to you or anyone else) to make accusations of theft or harass the daughter for contact details of the removal company. It's still possible someone picked up the jiffy bag and either moved it, put it in the container or thought it was empty and disposed of it.

Do try and get things in perspective. You say you cannot afford to lose £300, yet you could afford to spend this amount on a gift for yourself, an item that is lovely to have but not essential or necessary. Your life will not be affected through the loss of an Apple watch, unless you allow the anger and disappointment to take over. It was a luxury item, not an item that was essential for work, health, or something with irreplaceable sentimental value.
It's a bit like going on a long-awaited holiday that you saved for, then getting food poisoning the first day and not being able to enjoy holiday at all. Disappointing and a waste of money yes. Of course you could blame the holiday company, hotel, the chef in the restaurant, the waiters etc... but you can't prove who (if anyone) was to blame. Better to accept it and move on.

Maybe you will find the watch or get some compensation from Apple. I hope so.

Thank you Lilac.

My partner and I split up in March. He left owing me several thousand pounds. My fault. I should not have funded him but I did - so nothing more to be said on that. I did very nicely with just my son and I - and now am in some degree of debt to repay the exp debt. He is penniless - living with relatives and has no money to his name.

He told me he was paying back a large chunk of this cash a few weeks ago (I knew he was due a payout from two of his employers). I believed him.

So being very upset about the split, AND a recent health diagnosis, I used the money I had got from selling items on ebay to buy the watch. It was an impulse purchase. BUT I knew that I had 2 weeks from the delivery date to return it for a full refund if I changed my mind.

The final date to return it was 22nd May.

Needless to say, ex partner did not pay me back the money - and I am still negotiating with his family (without success) to get at least some of it back. The watch was not received by me, and therefore the return date has been and gone.

So the time I was waiting for the daughter to get around to checking whether the removal men had it or not, was actually quite relevant. I also could not put in a police report until she had done that.

It makes me sad to think that some people actually seem to be enjoying the fact that I have had this happen. An excuse to poke fun and tell me to get a grip.

btw - the police asked me to get the details of the delivery people - I had given up by then and they are going to get them from the daughter directly. They were very surprised at the lack of assistance she had offered.

Nobody's enjoying it ffs drama queen again.
People have just pointed out the situation has been made far more complicated than it needed to be due to you getting a very expensive personal item delivered to your place of work.
But you don't like that so chuck a tanty and start getting arsey at everyone.
Anyone would think you'd started a thread on a discussion board...

Nobody is poking fun or telling you to get a grip, it's just that you've painted yourself as an extremely angry and hostile person - all over something that is extremely expendable and absolutely not a necessity.

Yes, it's shit you're quids down, but you set yourself up for it by forming a personal vendetta against a woman who simply wanted some furniture - and she's probably not volunteering up information because she doesn't care about a missing watch, especially if it's nothing to do with her.

I also agree with people saying you should have taken more responsibility by not getting it delivered to your work. I trust my work & all my workmates explicitly (we're also a very small company) but I still wouldn't get anything of that value delivered to work! It would be to my house, where I can control who delivers what and who signs for it - ie, me!

It is known that people LOVE to get involved in threads like this - there has been clear enjoyment from some people on here - if there was no enjoyment, then why would they bother to make comments guaranteed to upset or irritate? They are not doing it to be a constructive help to me (and, after all, it is my thread) they are doing it for their own gratification. Which is fine - it is a discussion board after all ...

But please don't refer to me as a drama queen - there are four or five posters who have misunderstood the situation (or simply not bothered to read the posts properly) and have actually been pretty offensive towards me.

I don't think I have been "arsey" with anyone. If you can point me to where I have been rude I would happily apologise. My intention is not to be rude to people. I needed to vent about this as I have no other place that I can do so.

There is not a personal vendetta against the purchaser of the furniture. I would be happy to post on here the email I sent, which politely explained the situation and asked if she could let me have the information about the removal company.

I would have gone out of my way to help someone in my situation. I don't understand people who just ignore things. I could not do anything until she had asked them to check.

We have two full time people working in my office in the UK. Not exactly a huge organisation.

Oh and BTW no-one has said you were ridiculous buying an expensive watch to cheer yourself up, or that you shouldn't be upset when it goes missing. Of course you should try to recover it and you were right to notify the police.

What is unreasonable is trying to blame other people and denying it was irresponsible to have the watch delivered to your office, when you are not the only key-holder. Not agreeing a delivery date or specific delivery instructions (e.g. item to be signed for by yourself only) was careless.

Expecting the daughter or removal company to take responsibility is unreasonable... there is no proof the removal men took it, they just had the misfortune to be there the morning it was delivered. You can't be sure it's even been stolen, it could have been lost or accidentally disposed of.

As others have said, I think your best bet is to contact Apple re why it was delivered early, and argue that this led to the watch being lost.

I still don't understand why you thought that the Admin Lady's daughter would be responsible to pay you back even though you think it was stolen by the removal men.

Admin lady signed for it, and by doing so was taking responsibility for it.

It is admin lady who is mainly at fault and should replace it.