_

_

Saturday, December 16, 2006

Bombay cabbies are the best...

The highlight of the week - I forgot my wallet in a taxi after work.
This happened on Tuesday evening while I was going to a mall with a
friend of mine. I realised that I had lost my wallet half an hour after
I had left the cab. Though I was not sure if I had lost it in the cab
or if it had been picked while I was in the mall.

Luckily for me, I had a photo copy of all the cards (Debit and credit) in my
knapsack, so canceling all of them was a breeze. All the card companies
(HDFC, ICICI and HSBC blocked the card immediately). Though HSBC wanted
me to register a FIR with the cops, to protect myself from a manual
card swipe transaction.(Which I believe is not too fair). Also,HDFC
debit card required me to visit a bank branch and make a fresh
application for a new debit card, and refused to accept by request over
phone or through net banking. Again very inconvenient and absolutely unnecessary.

In addition to the cards, I had lost my drivers license, some other
loyalty and membership cards, cash and food coupons. But my biggest
worry was potential misuse of credit cards (I was sure that the debit
cards were safe as it can be used only with a online machine) and the
trouble I would face fighting with the card company. And this would
have been a reality had my wallet been picked.

Luckily I had taken the cab from a taxi stand close to my office, so the driver who
had driven me would have been a part of the click that usually hangs
out at the taxi stand. So on Wednesday evening I went at the same time
as Tuesday to enquire if any driver had found a wallet and also to
spread the word around. I got a call at my office (I had my visiting
card and office photo Id card in the wallet as well) asking me to
collect the wallet, so by Thursday evening the wallet was returned to
me. I was delighted to get my wallet in exactly the same condition as I
had lost it, but the true delight was the honesty of the cab driver. I
decided to reward him with all the cash that i had in my wallet on that
day.

No comments: