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?

Just read your last post OP, sorry you're been having such a rough time. I can understand why the loss of the watch feels like the last straw and yes of course it's fine to vent. I do hope things improve for you soon.

I don't think anyone is poking fun or enjoying your misfortune, I get the sense they're just trying to help you see the situation in perspective, from different angles, and steer you away from blaming people who may be entirely innocent.

I wish I had some good advice about how to get the watch back, but other than contacting Apple re delivery times mix-up I don't think there's much more you can do until police look into it. Best of luck

I'm really surprised at the way this thread has gone - mnet can be weird sometimes .

I feel sorry for you OP, I really don't see that you've done anything wrong here and you are perfectly entitled to be upset that you are out of pocket through no fault of your own. Admin lady should have put your parcel somewhere safe after signing for it, the same way she would presumably had done if it had been a company package. IMO there is nothing unreasonable about having packages delivered to work either, especially if you work f/t so aren't able to take deliveries at home.

I don't know what the answer is for you but in your position I'd be contacting my credit card co (assuming that's how you paid) and the retailer and letting them know I'd never received the parcel and asking them what they suggest.

Actually, I'd blame the courier company.

On a crazy neighbour thread, a courier left a parcel with the crazy neighbour who then refused to give it up. The company sent out a new item/refunded (can't remember) and took it up with the courier, as OP had never given permission for someone else to sign for it.

Is that an avenue you could pursue?

OP, it shouldn't matter how much the item cost, why you bought it, why you decided to have it delivered to work, etc, etc. To me, that is all irrelevant. At the end of the day, something that belongs to you has gone missing, and more annoyingly, before you even managed to lay eyes on it yourself. You have every right to feel angry and frustrated! It sounds like you have no other options left to try tracking it down other than leaving it in the hands of the police, and I have a feeling that even with their involvement it won't turn up. I'm sorry I can't offer any advice, just wanted to say I honestly feel so frustrated on your behalf.

My watch came in a box, no Jiffy bag. It's about 3x the length of an iPhone box not easy to slip in a pocket or carry away without being noticed.

Hope it turns up.

I reckon the daughter did it, in the container

OP I think the only mistake you've made is posting in AIBU.
I am very sorry you've been having a hard time and tbh even without that you'd be well within your rights to be upset about this. Even more so since you're seemingly going to be out of pocket as the blame can't really definitively be pointed at any of the other parties involved.
So bloody what if it wasn't a defibrillator or a cure for cancer or a solid gold unicorn that shits £50 notes that went missing? It was important to you and you have every right to be upset. I will add that I say this as Admin Lady (not yours of course) that is thoroughly sick to the back teeth of people getting personal items delivered to work and pestering me every 2 minutes about whether it's been delivered/ can I check if it's been delivered to the main mail room/ can I lock away their massive, heavy personal deliveries overnight?

What an awful thread. Some of you have been downright nasty.

Sometimes I just can't believe some of the people on MN, especially some of those who inhabit AIBU. There have been some pretty vile responses on here and the posters who made them should be ashamed of themselves. I hope they get similar responses if they ever post with a problem .

It's a complicated situation, OP, but I can't see how you have done anything wrong at all, and it has just all backfired on you with a very sad outcome, given the hard time you have had lately.

I hope that the Police can help you, or perhaps you can get some sort of refund from the credit card company, and get yourself that little treat that you wanted. Best of luck

Did you pay on credit card? If so claim through them.

Otherwise take the admin lady up on her offer to pay.

I think Admin Lady isn't as '200% trustworthy' as you think. Why would the delivery men take a white Jiffy bag from an office, unless they'd been left alone long enough to open it and check the contents (the only white Jiffy bag in our office is full of old elastic bands!), and you said it was on a desk with Admin Lady's handbag? Surely she wouldn't have just left that with them? Plus they would have had a look through her purse if they were that dishonest.

I really hope you get your watch back OP, I know what it's like to just be keeping afloat financially, so you must be feeling so low with disappointment abut this treat

Did you pay on credit card? If so claim through them.

YY! Of course! IT's called Purchase Protection, look here:
www.moneysavingexpert.com/credit-cards/credit-card-tips

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?

Ignoring everything else on the thread, YABU for two reasons:

• it cannot ONLY have been her removals people who took it from the office. It could have been the admin lady, it could have been the daughter, it could have been neither and it just fell somewhere and was thrown away ... there are any number of things that could have happened to it.
• Even if it was taken by one of the removals people I fail to see why the daughter should take responsibility.

I'd personally:-

1. Police
2. Credit card insurance (if bought on credit card)

1. Nothing else. You have no proof.

For all you know it could be the trustworthy admin lady but you shouldn't really be distrusting and demanding things of others involved as they simply may not know anything about it and be affronted you are jumping to conclusions (even if you're not directly accusing them).

It's a pity you haven't got the watch but the police should be called ASAP just to file a report which I'm sure the CC company would want first and foremost if the item has been stolen.

I can understand your frustration OP but in future like I said before, don't use the office as your delivery office, unless of course you want other items to possibly go missing.

It looks like from the OP that if she'd sold items on Ebay then if she uses her bank account for the profits then she won't have used a credit card to pay for the watch.

I can't see anything from OP to say about payment for the watch.

OP you probably know but if you paid by debit card Chargeback should cover you:-

www.money.co.uk/current-accounts/is-debit-card-protection-the-same-as-for-credit-cards.htm

Poor OP. Have been watching this thread with interest, and requested a password reset especially so I could log in and comment.

Sure, an Apple watch is not something everyone would get - but each person has their own definition of luxury, and they would be equally devastated if their item of choice went missing, even though it doesn't equate with cancer (FFS) or any of the other things people have listed in this thread.

I think that on this thread there has been a bit of a herd mentality, which is nasty, unsupportive and disappointing as its untypical of what I expect from MNetters generally.

I hope you find your item, and sorry you've had such a rough ride.

OP. I feel for you - it must be horrible to buy an expensive item then not even get to enjoy it! Hopefully the police come through for you . Apple products are good in the way they are easily tracked . Fingers crossed .
Ignore the horrible lot that have been attacking you they did the same to me when I got mugged on my doorstep - instead focused on the fact that I had being trying to protect my daughter who was in her nightie - cause apparently my young daughter should parade herself for any man if he wants to see her

So sorry you are having such a tough time at the moment. This sounds like a really frustrating situation and you have my sympathies, even if it is just a watch.

It sounds like the admin lady did do something wrong though, in that she wan't even supposed to be in the building that day, then she let a load of random delivery men into the building as well. Fair enough (and very nice of you) if you don't want burden her with the responsibility for it, but if other avenues don't bear any fruit you may just have to take a deep breath and decide to let it go. It's not worth losing any more peace over and inevitably it's you having to do all the scrabbling around trying to find the thing.

Having said that, if you were supposed to get two days warning before delivery, surely whoever said this (delivery company or Apple?) is liable for not giving the notice promised when you purchased the watch? That could influence someones decision to purchase from them as it allows time to rearrange plans and ensure you are in to receive the delivery. Are there any laws about breaching delivery contract if delivery is done differently to the way agreed with the customer?

I am also wondering why your excess is £250?

Ours is £50.

THanks for the support - it is much appreciated.

Quick responses to questions ...

I paid using Paypal.

My insurance excess is £250 because that is the amount I chose to reduce the premiums. Due to increasing premiums when you claim, I had decided that I would probably never claim for anything under £500. My choice, but that is the way it is.

Btw - I understand that the credit card insurance only comes into play if you are not insured any other way, and I am insured on the house insurance. The cc one always used to be a fall back insurance.

The daughter was not present - just the delivery men.

Nothing was thrown away until we had taken every bin into the centre of the room and emptied it - the cleaner came the night before the dleivery and then not until the following Monday

I have informed the police and they are now to be taking statements from the daughter, delivery men and admin lady.

The admin lady said it came in a jiffy bag - here's hoping that she did not make a mistake and it came in a box (although my original assumption when I first came in to the office to collect it was that it was a box - so I searched assuming it was a box before it became a jiffy bag!

Nothing shown up so far - the office now has very little left in it. Couple of cupboards and a few desks.

You could still be covered by Paypal though, if you pay PayPal by your credit card (according to Martin Lewis Moneysaving expert). PayPal have very recently clarified their position on this issue, and AFAIK it's gone in the direction of more protection, not less.

What you said about credit card insurance only coming into play if you are not insured any other way...I just don't think this is right.

Definitely worth chasing it up?