Wednesday, July 11, 2007
Lost and found
"That's the peril of traveling with lots of gadgets!" said a colleague in response to the news that I'd mislaid my E61 mobile at Chicago O'Hare airport yesterday. Here's the back-fill, I was actually at the airport in good time ... in good time for the thunderstorm that swept off the plains and across the Mid-West, also delaying the departure of my plane from its previous destination (St Louis) to Chicago.
Three gate changes and three hours later we were finally ready to board. I'd been camped out on the wi-fi at the original gate, and had placed my phone on my jacket. When I grabbed my jacket the phone must have tumbled to the floor.
I didn't notice until 15 minutes later, on board, when I remembered I hadn't switched it off ... er, what phone would that be??? No phone - and too late to get off and find it. So I borrowed a phone from my friendly seat-mate and activated the E61's emergency lock feature that I'd set up, but never tried. We were about to taxi so there was no time to call the phone and ask the person who answered to hand it over ...
This is a simple and ingenious idea - on receipt of a keyword via SMS from any phone number, the phone automatically locks down, requiring PIN and lock code (they're different) to reactivate. It even goes into offline mode so it can't receive calls. This worked a treat since anyone calling my phone went straight to voicemail.
Called the American Airlines lost property office this morning and got voicemail ... explaining that they only call back for items that have been turned in. Oh no. Left a message anyway, in the vain hope that someone would call back. Ten minutes later (max) the callback came in. The phone was handed over, and by the time I got the call, they'd already made arrangements to hand it back to me when I fly back through Chicago in a few days. Now that's customer service!
So, whoever found the phone and handed it over - thank you. I hope to be able to do the same for you one day.
Three gate changes and three hours later we were finally ready to board. I'd been camped out on the wi-fi at the original gate, and had placed my phone on my jacket. When I grabbed my jacket the phone must have tumbled to the floor.
I didn't notice until 15 minutes later, on board, when I remembered I hadn't switched it off ... er, what phone would that be??? No phone - and too late to get off and find it. So I borrowed a phone from my friendly seat-mate and activated the E61's emergency lock feature that I'd set up, but never tried. We were about to taxi so there was no time to call the phone and ask the person who answered to hand it over ...
This is a simple and ingenious idea - on receipt of a keyword via SMS from any phone number, the phone automatically locks down, requiring PIN and lock code (they're different) to reactivate. It even goes into offline mode so it can't receive calls. This worked a treat since anyone calling my phone went straight to voicemail.
Called the American Airlines lost property office this morning and got voicemail ... explaining that they only call back for items that have been turned in. Oh no. Left a message anyway, in the vain hope that someone would call back. Ten minutes later (max) the callback came in. The phone was handed over, and by the time I got the call, they'd already made arrangements to hand it back to me when I fly back through Chicago in a few days. Now that's customer service!
So, whoever found the phone and handed it over - thank you. I hope to be able to do the same for you one day.
# posted by Nesjo : 23:03
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