Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Just, you know, gah

Edited to update: Drama over... thanks all for your good wishes.

I got an e-mail from the lost property office at Cambridge station mid-morning to say they had my bag; went down there and picked it up just now...

Everything intact. Phew. And a good reminder of the fact that there are a large number of decent, honest people in the world; I think I've just had too much exposure to one of the few who isn't recently!

(Small moment of additional drama earlier when my one remaining card wouldn't let me have any cash, but it turns out it was the crappy machine at the village shop rather than the card...)

I just need sympathy here, frankly.

Complete train snafu this evening; lots of misinformation on whether the train was 4 or 8 carriages (as it was advertised from platform 9B, which means 4 carriages, and that platform has a kink in it which means that unless you go way up to the top of the train, you don't realise there's another, unadvertised, attached, train there. Which, apparently, there was.) Somewhere in this mess, while being bossed around and hurriedly made to change trains from Cambridge, I left my handbag behind. [I had two work carrier bags with me as well as the usual load, so the fourth bag passed unnoticed].

That would be the handbag with my purse, my travel card, my season ticket, cash, my credit and debit cards, house keys, work security pass, etc. [life?] in it...

[I also quite like the actual handbag].

I realised it about 100 yards away from home...

Thankfully, my lovely neighbour Edd helped me break into the back of the house with the aid of a sledgehammer and a towel (turns out the glass in the bathroom window is security glass!); I have cancelled all my cards... thankfully I'm working at home tomorrow but I have no idea how I'm going to get to work on Friday. (I have one credit card in a drawer at home and am hoping it will still remember me...)

Needless to say the First Capital Connect lost property office is managed "centrally" - from Plymouth; although the actual lost property office is at City Thameslink. I have no idea how that works. It gives me no confidence that I'll see my belongings again though.

Just to say, if you have to report cards missing, and you have a Smile/Co-Op card, I'd recommend you report that one last, as I did this evening, because it's so much nicer than the robotic script-stuff. I had the impression I'd stumbled into a party (they were all disputing where Manchester actually was, geographically, which was something I'd had occasion to wonder about during thel day, professionally), but you get professional, not-at-all-impersonal, service (both the previous lots were working from a script; this one was a guy saying 'so, you're pretty sure about the time'; 'yes, that was the time the whole handbag went missing'; 'oh, sorry; bummer... are you phoning from home? were you able to get there OK? Nightmare...')

I knew there was a reason I banked with Smile. Just-professional-enough will do me, in the circumstances. And although they kept me on hold, I liked the Madchester hold music.

I'll be interested to see which cards are replaced first.

10 comments:

Annie said...

OMG what a nightmare! Hope you get it all sorted quickly

Mary deB said...

Yikes!
I've had my wallet taken (stupid mistake on my part, leaving it in the wagon with the groceries) but just as I cancelled the last of the cards, someone knocked on my door with it -- the thief took my $10, then lucky for me tossed it on the ground across the street from my house!
I hope there was some kind soul on the train who handed it in, at least more or less intact.
Gah, indeed!

Anne said...

Gah! Indeed! - Good to hear about Smile (we're with them already).

Hope you're reunited soon.

Heather said...

:-( What a nightmare. Hope your bag does turn up.

Unknown said...

Oh that is hideous! You might be lucky with the bag and possessions. I have been. Not before cancelling my life though. Hope tomorrow's travel into work goes OK!

Spinningfishwife said...

Oh, that's awful! I hope you do get it back...it's a PITB to cancel all the cards of course but at least if someone hands it in you'll know what happened to them. There are honest folk in the world, lets hope one of them found your bag.

((((hugs))))

Unknown said...

How horrible. :( So glad you got your stuff back safe and sound.

Daisy said...

Thank God it all got sorted relatively painlessly! Totally agree about Smile - they rang when they deducted fraud on my account and were fantastic, dealt with it all very professionally.

Wibbo said...

So glad you got your bag and all the contents back! x

Heather said...

So glad to hear that you got your bag back, complete with contents. The world somehow seems a nicer place :-)