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Lost phone

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bunty
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Lost phone

Post by bunty » Mon, 27 Mar 2006 10:11 am

Hi All

moved to singapore all of 2 months back and already had a bad experience on the weekend.

i misplaced my handphone in a taxi on sat afternoon. i realised the same within 15 minutes of alighting from the taxi. i called up my number.
a passenger picked up and said the driver is driving and has asked to call back in 20 minutes.

after 20 minutes, i kept on regularly calling till 11 pm in the night but was getting the message, "the customer is unavailable".

I called up singtel then to disconnect the service.

After about 1 hour of loss of phone, i called Comfort cabs to report the loss and told them about from where to where i had travelled etc and details of the phone.

Unfortunately, they tell me they cannot help as i do not have the foll information:

1) Cab number and name of driver
2) since it was not a booked cab, they do not have details.

They say they have flashed all the information.

I was hoping that i would get the phone back.

Can anyone advise if i need to pursue this further.

my entire weekend was spoilt because of this.

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tiki
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Re: Lost phone

Post by tiki » Mon, 27 Mar 2006 10:25 am

bunty wrote:Hi All

moved to singapore all of 2 months back and already had a bad experience on the weekend.

i misplaced my handphone in a taxi on sat afternoon. i realised the same within 15 minutes of alighting from the taxi. i called up my number.
a passenger picked up and said the driver is driving and has asked to call back in 20 minutes.

after 20 minutes, i kept on regularly calling till 11 pm in the night but was getting the message, "the customer is unavailable".

I called up singtel then to disconnect the service.

After about 1 hour of loss of phone, i called Comfort cabs to report the loss and told them about from where to where i had travelled etc and details of the phone.

Unfortunately, they tell me they cannot help as i do not have the foll information:

1) Cab number and name of driver
2) since it was not a booked cab, they do not have details.

They say they have flashed all the information.

I was hoping that i would get the phone back.

Can anyone advise if i need to pursue this further.

my entire weekend was spoilt because of this.

Hard luck there.

It's quite a common occurence, the predicament you went through...

would have definitely helped if you had noticed the cab's plate, time ( estimate ) etc.

I really don't know what else can be done as the most important or rather the party that could have been of the most help, the cab company themselves are not able to as well.

One avenue if you really want to pursue this-

Since you said you called and apparently someone else other than the driver answered, you could write in to the newspaper. Hope they publish your letter and that someone who answered your call, reads it and replies. If he/she does, then maybe they can recall the cab's plate number etc.

On one hand though, that person who picked up your call could be the one who has your phone. If that's the case, then take it as a lost.

I believe every cellphone has a code that can be de-activated or otherwise. This will prevent almost anyone from being able to use it. Then again, everyone's a hacker these days.

Chin up eh....

just take it as a lost and if it's any consolation,

I've been in your shoes and I'm sure some others as well.
'If you feel alive
in a darkened room
Do you know the name
of your solitude..'

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Post by bunty » Mon, 27 Mar 2006 10:42 am

Thanks Tiki.

The cab company is asking me to file a police report with these details (whatever i have). I guess that will be of no use, so might as well take this in my stride, right!!!

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Post by T2K » Mon, 27 Mar 2006 4:32 pm

Your phone is gone. Forget it and get another one. Without the taxi number, it's useless. This happens about 500 times a day here.

You will now get the full pleasure out of reading the weekly stories in the ST about the taxi driver who found a lost mobile in their cab, tracked the owner down using DNA and forensic evidence, crawled 5km through broken glass to return it, and of course refused any payment for this.

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sapphire
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Post by sapphire » Mon, 27 Mar 2006 5:12 pm

Well T2K, if this happens 500 times a day, maybe 10% do get their mobiles back. I don't work for the ST nor am I a Singaporean, but my hubby did get his phone back.

He had left it in a cab, didn't even remember dropping it in the cab, until my phone rang. It was the cabbie calling me at midnight asking for our address so he could return the phone. We asked him to come in the morning and yes, he didn't accept any money. So, let's try not to be too cynical eh?
It's not getting any smarter out there. You have to come to terms with stupidity, and make it work for you.

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Post by renter » Mon, 27 Mar 2006 5:18 pm

Telcos have certain functions to totally disable some phones when it is on. it makes the phone completely junk. I'm not sure whether every phone has this function.

bunty
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phone

Post by bunty » Mon, 27 Mar 2006 7:19 pm

sapphire wrote:Well T2K, if this happens 500 times a day, maybe 10% do get their mobiles back. I don't work for the ST nor am I a Singaporean, but my hubby did get his phone back.

He had left it in a cab, didn't even remember dropping it in the cab, until my phone rang. It was the cabbie calling me at midnight asking for our address so he could return the phone. We asked him to come in the morning and yes, he didn't accept any money. So, let's try not to be too cynical eh?
I just hoped i would be among the lucky ones, but guess am not...
it is just that did not expect this to happen in Singapore, from whatever i have heard about this place and i thought the cabby service could track him down given automation.

one thing learnt is that always ask for a receipt. it helps a lot.....

cheers

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Post by Matney » Mon, 27 Mar 2006 8:47 pm

My daughter left her phone on the bus. Good bye phone. We did all the right stuff, but it was gone. She also left a bag on the bus and luckily it was returned the following day. Althought it wasn't as important as the phone, at least all was not lost.

Yesterday, I left my wallet in a taxi. I didn't realise I had left it behind until I received a phone telling me about it from the driver. I went and met him and he returned it. Before leaving, I offered a reward, he insisted I check to be sure everything was there. It was. I considered myself very lucky yesterday!!!

bunty
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Post by bunty » Tue, 28 Mar 2006 9:26 am

atleast i am figuring out thru this thread that i was not the only unlucky one.....

it is just that i felt that in singapore, i would not be in such a bad shape and some kind hearted soul would return the phone back......since i understand there are lot of kind hearted people here...but i guess such numbers are few....


cheers

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Post by Dunk » Thu, 30 Mar 2006 12:04 pm

I lost 2 expensive phones in 3 weeks. So annoying and now I'm using a very simple phone that I probably wont lose! I've realised though that I only used text and phone calls anyway. Does anyone use the camera or any other functions on theirs regularly?!

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Baron Greenback
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Post by Baron Greenback » Thu, 30 Mar 2006 12:13 pm

I use quite a lot of the functions on my phone, the calandar, the calculator, the camera etc - But I have to admit I do err on the geeky side.

I have even uploaded little mp3s of Little Britainism so that when I get a text my phone does Vicky's "yeah but no but yeah but no" & if my girlfriend sends me a text I get Lou saying "I wanna chocolate!" and so on.

Well it makes me happy anyway :oops:

I'll get my coat.....
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Hemingway

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Post by Kats_ » Thu, 30 Mar 2006 1:51 pm

Camera mostly. I hardly use the video funtionalities. I do send out that look-what-I-found picture-messages to my friends once in a while.

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