How to retrieve a watch left in an Alamo rental car?

January 2, 2016 1:21 PM

We rented a car to drive from Charlotte to Hartford and my husband left his engagement watch in the car, tucked away in a little pouch. I dropped off the car in Hartford this morning and by the time we discovered the loss it was already on its way to Newark, and no one in Hartford can say if they've seen it. Has anyone ever successfully gotten a lost item back from a rental car?

* The watch was $300 new, probably worth a lot less now, but is obviously sentimental and he wears it every day.
* We have called the Hartford office a few times and the Newark office once. The car is not supposed to be dropped off until tomorrow.
* They have said that the Lost and Found person is only in on weekdays but that she will be able to help us--I don't really see how that's possible since the longer the car and watch are gone, the greater the chance they will get more lost.

What are the best practices here? I don't really use twitter but is this a situation to try it?

posted by chaiminda to Travel & Transportation (7 answers total)

I left a cell phone in a rental once. It was in a 'lost and found' box in the little hut at the drop-off site. If they have a lost and found procedure that puts things in a lockbox or something, it's plausible that the people there now don't know what's in it until the person in charge of it opens it.

My strategy would be to hammer on the Hartford office, both myself and trying to get Alamo corporate to call Hartford for me and ask about it officially. It WAS DEFINITELY in the car, is it your procedure to inspect/vacuum out the car, etc. after turn in? Why do you not know where it is then? Did your person not inspect the car like they're supposed to? It was just this morning, where is that person now? Can you call them? Sometimes they're a lot quicker to 'find' it if you can make it about saving someone's ass for misconduct and not just about being helpful.

Sure, being nice works even better when it works, but it's not working for you so far.
posted by ctmf at 1:47 PM on January 2, 2016 [5 favorites]

There are a couple of possibilities
1. the watch was found while cleaning the car in Hartford and turned in to Lost and Found. In this case, it is safely resting in the Lost and Found in Hartford and person there can tell me you about it when she returns to work on Monday.
2. the person driving the car now finds it, is honest, and will turn it in when they return the car. It will then show up in Newark lost and found when it is dropped off. It may not get logged in right away but you should call on Monday.
3. the watch is still tucked away in a corner of the car where no has found it. The people in Newark may be able to find it if they look for it. Call Newark tomorrow and again on Sunday to encourage them to look for it.
4. either the rental car cleaners or the new rents find the watch, is dishonest and pockets it. Nothing you can do about that.

So, call Newark a couple of times (be nice!) and call Hartford on Monday. It still seem very likely to me that it will turn up.
posted by metahawk at 1:49 PM on January 2, 2016 [3 favorites]

And yes, you can and should still be nice and polite, even when asking pointed questions like my answer above. It's a fine line between not letting them blow you off and being so jerky to them they don't want to help. There may actually be nothing more they can do until Monday, but I would want Monday to come with finding your watch item #1 in Hartford, Newark, and someone at corporate wanting to hear how it turns out.
posted by ctmf at 1:56 PM on January 2, 2016

I left my wallet (with all my ID, credit cards, etc.) in a rental car once when I dropped it off AT THE AIRPORT. So I made quite a lot of frantic calls once I got to the security checkpoint and realized I had no identifying information. Sadly, the wallet did not find me in time for the flight but I was able to board anyway and they FedExed it to me a day or two later.

I bet they completely missed it in Hartford, especially if it's tucked away somewhere - they don't search every crevice and pouch, they just clean the car up a bit for the next person. I bet it will turn up in Newark safe and sound. Of course there's a chance it has gotten stolen, but it's not really getting "more lost" - it's either still in the car or chilling in a locked drawer in Hartford (and in either case you will almost certainly get it back), or it's Somewhere Else (in which case it's almost certainly a lost cause).
posted by mskyle at 2:16 PM on January 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

I forgot a tiny mp3 player in a rental car a few years ago. I called the place the car was returned to, they'd found it, I had to provide a FedEx account to have it sent back to me. Other than the pain in the butt that they wouldn't just send it on their account and bill me for it, it was pretty painless. There was a similar thing where the lost and found office only had certain hours but that's not too unreasonable.
posted by Candleman at 2:45 PM on January 2, 2016

Whatever you do, be nice and try to make them sympathetic. There’s absolutely no way being rude is going to help when you’re talking to someone in another city who can easily blow you off. Really nice and persistent might help though.
posted by bongo_x at 6:15 PM on January 2, 2016 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: No one found the watch in Hartford or Newark. Guess it's gone. Sad but not hugely surprising.
posted by chaiminda at 5:21 AM on January 6, 2016