The MPI
After Newcastle got beat by Hull the other weekend, I got the bus home with my son, BTP. Nothing inherently unusual or problematic about that. Indeed, I sent my GLW a text from the bus, telling her that we were on our way home.
When I got home, I decided to send her another text, telling her that we’d got there. Only the phone didn’t appear to be in the pocket I had expected it to be in. Nor was it in any other of my jacket pockets, or my trouser pockets.
Ringing my mobile from the house phone to see if I could hear it ring, I discovered that I couldn’t. Hmm… it appears that the phone may have fallen out of my pocket on the bus, on the basis that I definitely had it when I was on the bus, and by the time I’d got off the bus and walked a hundred yards to my door, I didn’t have it any more. Bugger.
The MPI could have been considerably were, had it not been for two customer service departments (although one might have been slightly better).
Firstly, I phoned the bus company, to discover that their customer service department only worked weekday office hours, and they were not willing or able to provide me with any other phone numbers or contact details, so I couldn’t even ask them to put out a message to the relevant driver (as that bus would still have been continuing its journey at this point) to look out for my phone.
However, when I phoned up Virgin Mobile, they were tremendously helpful. I explained the situation, and said that I would not be able to check whether or not my phone had been found or was permanently lost until the monday. The operative suggested putting a temporary suspension on the SIM card, to prevent anyone from using it, but not cancelling it completely, or blacklisting the phone, just in case it turned up; and if it didn’t turn up, to let them know and they would send me out a replacement SIM…
And then, on Monday morning, when I finally did get through to Go North East customer services… (”your call is important to us and will be answered as soon as possible… you are now ninth in the queue”), the guy I was speaking to asked me to hold for a moment, phoned the depot, established that my phone was there, and I could just pop down and pick it up, which I did.
So, it’s nice to know that people (whether the driver, a passenger or whoever) are honest enough to hand in a mobile phone to lost property when they find one. I would have done the same, as I would expect most people I know — but it’s still a pleasant surprise that someone did, as it has saved me an awful amount of inconvenience (needing to get everyone’s number again, passing on my new contact details) and expense (buying a new phone).
Then I phoned Virgin Mobile back, explained that I had my phone back, and could they now unblock it please; no problem, and fifteen minutes later I had an operational mobile phone again. Thank you, Virgin Mobile. Thank you, Mr. Bus Driver on the No. 97 and/or considerate passenger. Thank you, Go Ahead customer service… although surely it can’t be that hard to have some sort of extended hours service…?
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