A sad day indeed ...
If things had gone as planned, I would be enjoying my lil break right now in Kuala Lumpur (KL) but instead, am feeling very miserable in Singapore. It started some weeks ago when we decided to take a short trip to KL and we managed to get our coach tickets and had good rates for a lovely hotel in KL - Hotel Nikko. I even had plans to check out some places in KL that I have not been to for awhile such as the market at Jln Petaling etc, catching up with my usual shopping joints and feasting away.
But it was decided by two strangers that we would not have this trip that we have been looking forward to. While waiting at Transtar Travel waiting lounge (meant exclusively for first class/premium passengers only) at Golden Mile Complex, I went to the ladies and left my rucksack with my friend. I didn't want to bring my rucksack cuz the toilets there were filthy and had nowhere to hang anything. So told my friend that I was going to the loo and to keep an eye on my rucksack. My friend was watching over my rucksack closely until a lady (she looked like a foreigner) approached my friend to ask for the time. We only realised later after the Transtar staff played the CCTV that it was a pair of thieves working together. The lady's role was to distract my friend while her friend (a guy who had behaved rather suspiciously by walking around, changing seats, looking uneasy) switched bags while my friend was distracted. The lady had tried to take my friend's handphone on the pretext of taking a closely look at the time and while my friend was preventing her from taking the phone away.
All it needed was that few seconds, not even minutes, to look away from your things and the guy managed to switch my knapsack with an empty black knapsack. The Transtar staff did their best to help us by calling for the police. And they did remind us that our personal belongings were our own responsibility.
I agree with them totally that yes, my rugsack was my responsibility. I guess I assumed too much to assume that they would be more careful in who they allow to sit in their waiting room, especially if it's not something that has happened for the first time. The police are investigating the case and I am not going to get my hopes to high up on this because in the hierarchy of things, theft would not probably rank very high among the many cases that our law enforcers are busy handling. And I am still fuming mad that it happened in Singapore, a place that I considered to be safe but I guess with changing times, there's no such thing as a safe place anymore. And I have a feeling that such things would continue to be on the rise. So after much thought, I decided to blog about this, in hope that you will not have to go through the same experience and the inconvenienced of such an incident. I have used Transtar many times and it has never happened to me before. And we always think that it will never happen to us but it just may. So better to be safe than sorry ya.
Some important lessons from this rather painful (and expensive because I lost my phone, laptop, two brand new Ranger external drives that I just bought, camera) experience:
1. Be vigilant. These are desperate people and they will do anything to get your belongings. They have no qualms taking what is not theirs. If anyone seems to be behaving suspiciously, don't brush it aside. Trust your instints. I am usually a trusting person (of others) and believe that people are naturally good and I would not think the worse of anyone. But maybe that's silly and makes me more vulnerable. Guess got to learn to be more on the cautious side from now on! :o)
I think we also need to look out for one another and if see something going on to another person, it's our moral obligation to let the person know. In a room full of people, I am surprised that no one else saw what was happening or is this just our attitude these days - to each his own? I surely hope not!
2. Stay Calm. You need to stay calm so that you can think straight. Take a few minutes, sit down with a pen and paper and recall what are the things you need to do. Have two columns, one for the things that you and the other is what action needs to be done. You cannot do this if you are panicky or getting all hysterical. If you're with friends, get them to help but I feel for a few minutes, you need to just sit down on your own and THINK. After that your friends can help with the recalling too in case you miss out anything. Cuz what you need to do is as soon as possible, if not immediately, report your cards especially credit cards, atm card and phone stolen (not lost or missing, get use to using the world STOLEN). You also need to make a formal police report (eventhough the police came down to Transtar Travels, I still needed to go down to a police station/police post to make a formal report).
Your friends can help by getting the numbers of the banks but you need to personally talk to the bank representatives because they need to verify details. But what I found interesting was, when I keyed in the option to report loss/stolen card, I was put on the queue and it took a while before I got through to the reps. I would think that I would be able to jump queue so that I can report my loss cards before the thief have the chance to use the card? Guess not. Also, they asked me what was my card number and my reply was, 'Er, I have no idea cuz my card has been stolen?' *laughs*
3. Travel Insurance. Always get travel insurance. To KL, it cost me $24 and I am in the midst of getting my documents together to put in my claims. However, I am not sure if I will get any reimbursement and I sure hope I will. In June, when I was in UK, I had to get medical help and forked out GBP400 as the doctor had to come to my hotel room. And I put in the claims and received it within 14 days. Though I am using a different company, I am hoping that I will be able to get reimbursement for some of the items that were stolen. Will update you on this! :o)
I am not in the habit of keeping receipts but have learnt that I need to start doing that especially for expensive items. Also, make sure you have copies of your police report which you will need. I wasn't sure if I needed to submit originals to the various places so the policeman who was helping me was kind enough to indulge me when I asked him to 'certify true copy' on all five copies that he made for me.
4. Review our SOPs. This is more of how we run our organisations and how often do we review our systems or do we assume that if it works, why change? When I went back to Transtar Travels later in the day to get receipts, I noticed they had placed a rostum such that passengers will be 'checked in' at the rostrum before entering the waiting lounge. This prevents people from walking in and out unless they have documents to show that they were legit passengers. I am glad that they put that in place after the incident but I had a few questions. They had the rostrum, why didn't they do this in the morning which could have prevented the incident from taking place and also especially if such an incident had taken place before many many moons before. I don't think it's a Transtar thing because like I said before, I have travelled with them before and have had no problems with the services rendered and yes, I would still travel with them if I want to go to KL in the future.
Standard Operating Procedures exist to ensure that we do things in a safe, effective and efficient way and it's important that we constantly review our SOPs. Sometimes, we tend to get complacent, especially during 'peacetime' when nothing happens and we assume that it's okay short cut certain procedures. Only when something happens, then we're all up and about, going back to our SOPs. I think we have enough experiences to learn from. I am constantly reminding myself that if it can happen to another organisation, it can also happen to the organisation I am in. So I am hoping that Transtar Travel continues with that 'check-in' process, even many many moons from now as part of their good service to their customers. And as customers, it may be inconvenient to us to have to wait for our turn, but let's remember that it's for our own safety when the company does such a thing.
So right now, am in the midst of trying to put together my documents for the claims, getting my phone sorted out and I see myself spending the whole of next week retyping documents that I didn't manage to back up before the trip. I thought I was being hardworking by bring work along but I should have just left my work stuff at home and just have a good break instead of a working break. Yeah, lesson learnt! By the way, my dearest friends, could you please drop me an sms (identify yourself please) so that I can start my contact list all over again. Appreciate your help!!
Let's hope I have some better news to update about this soon *group hug*
But it was decided by two strangers that we would not have this trip that we have been looking forward to. While waiting at Transtar Travel waiting lounge (meant exclusively for first class/premium passengers only) at Golden Mile Complex, I went to the ladies and left my rucksack with my friend. I didn't want to bring my rucksack cuz the toilets there were filthy and had nowhere to hang anything. So told my friend that I was going to the loo and to keep an eye on my rucksack. My friend was watching over my rucksack closely until a lady (she looked like a foreigner) approached my friend to ask for the time. We only realised later after the Transtar staff played the CCTV that it was a pair of thieves working together. The lady's role was to distract my friend while her friend (a guy who had behaved rather suspiciously by walking around, changing seats, looking uneasy) switched bags while my friend was distracted. The lady had tried to take my friend's handphone on the pretext of taking a closely look at the time and while my friend was preventing her from taking the phone away.
All it needed was that few seconds, not even minutes, to look away from your things and the guy managed to switch my knapsack with an empty black knapsack. The Transtar staff did their best to help us by calling for the police. And they did remind us that our personal belongings were our own responsibility.
I agree with them totally that yes, my rugsack was my responsibility. I guess I assumed too much to assume that they would be more careful in who they allow to sit in their waiting room, especially if it's not something that has happened for the first time. The police are investigating the case and I am not going to get my hopes to high up on this because in the hierarchy of things, theft would not probably rank very high among the many cases that our law enforcers are busy handling. And I am still fuming mad that it happened in Singapore, a place that I considered to be safe but I guess with changing times, there's no such thing as a safe place anymore. And I have a feeling that such things would continue to be on the rise. So after much thought, I decided to blog about this, in hope that you will not have to go through the same experience and the inconvenienced of such an incident. I have used Transtar many times and it has never happened to me before. And we always think that it will never happen to us but it just may. So better to be safe than sorry ya.
Some important lessons from this rather painful (and expensive because I lost my phone, laptop, two brand new Ranger external drives that I just bought, camera) experience:
1. Be vigilant. These are desperate people and they will do anything to get your belongings. They have no qualms taking what is not theirs. If anyone seems to be behaving suspiciously, don't brush it aside. Trust your instints. I am usually a trusting person (of others) and believe that people are naturally good and I would not think the worse of anyone. But maybe that's silly and makes me more vulnerable. Guess got to learn to be more on the cautious side from now on! :o)
I think we also need to look out for one another and if see something going on to another person, it's our moral obligation to let the person know. In a room full of people, I am surprised that no one else saw what was happening or is this just our attitude these days - to each his own? I surely hope not!
2. Stay Calm. You need to stay calm so that you can think straight. Take a few minutes, sit down with a pen and paper and recall what are the things you need to do. Have two columns, one for the things that you and the other is what action needs to be done. You cannot do this if you are panicky or getting all hysterical. If you're with friends, get them to help but I feel for a few minutes, you need to just sit down on your own and THINK. After that your friends can help with the recalling too in case you miss out anything. Cuz what you need to do is as soon as possible, if not immediately, report your cards especially credit cards, atm card and phone stolen (not lost or missing, get use to using the world STOLEN). You also need to make a formal police report (eventhough the police came down to Transtar Travels, I still needed to go down to a police station/police post to make a formal report).
Your friends can help by getting the numbers of the banks but you need to personally talk to the bank representatives because they need to verify details. But what I found interesting was, when I keyed in the option to report loss/stolen card, I was put on the queue and it took a while before I got through to the reps. I would think that I would be able to jump queue so that I can report my loss cards before the thief have the chance to use the card? Guess not. Also, they asked me what was my card number and my reply was, 'Er, I have no idea cuz my card has been stolen?' *laughs*
3. Travel Insurance. Always get travel insurance. To KL, it cost me $24 and I am in the midst of getting my documents together to put in my claims. However, I am not sure if I will get any reimbursement and I sure hope I will. In June, when I was in UK, I had to get medical help and forked out GBP400 as the doctor had to come to my hotel room. And I put in the claims and received it within 14 days. Though I am using a different company, I am hoping that I will be able to get reimbursement for some of the items that were stolen. Will update you on this! :o)
I am not in the habit of keeping receipts but have learnt that I need to start doing that especially for expensive items. Also, make sure you have copies of your police report which you will need. I wasn't sure if I needed to submit originals to the various places so the policeman who was helping me was kind enough to indulge me when I asked him to 'certify true copy' on all five copies that he made for me.
4. Review our SOPs. This is more of how we run our organisations and how often do we review our systems or do we assume that if it works, why change? When I went back to Transtar Travels later in the day to get receipts, I noticed they had placed a rostum such that passengers will be 'checked in' at the rostrum before entering the waiting lounge. This prevents people from walking in and out unless they have documents to show that they were legit passengers. I am glad that they put that in place after the incident but I had a few questions. They had the rostrum, why didn't they do this in the morning which could have prevented the incident from taking place and also especially if such an incident had taken place before many many moons before. I don't think it's a Transtar thing because like I said before, I have travelled with them before and have had no problems with the services rendered and yes, I would still travel with them if I want to go to KL in the future.
Standard Operating Procedures exist to ensure that we do things in a safe, effective and efficient way and it's important that we constantly review our SOPs. Sometimes, we tend to get complacent, especially during 'peacetime' when nothing happens and we assume that it's okay short cut certain procedures. Only when something happens, then we're all up and about, going back to our SOPs. I think we have enough experiences to learn from. I am constantly reminding myself that if it can happen to another organisation, it can also happen to the organisation I am in. So I am hoping that Transtar Travel continues with that 'check-in' process, even many many moons from now as part of their good service to their customers. And as customers, it may be inconvenient to us to have to wait for our turn, but let's remember that it's for our own safety when the company does such a thing.
So right now, am in the midst of trying to put together my documents for the claims, getting my phone sorted out and I see myself spending the whole of next week retyping documents that I didn't manage to back up before the trip. I thought I was being hardworking by bring work along but I should have just left my work stuff at home and just have a good break instead of a working break. Yeah, lesson learnt! By the way, my dearest friends, could you please drop me an sms (identify yourself please) so that I can start my contact list all over again. Appreciate your help!!
Let's hope I have some better news to update about this soon *group hug*
posted by Me, Myself n I at 11:56 am
2 Comments:
My dear so sorry for your loss! Do let me know if you need help sorting out stuff!
Thanks for the offer. Right now have put in the claims and will have to just wait and see. Have settled the work stuff so that was the main priority. If only I can get my hands on them thieves!!!
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