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HAL Does Care and Here's Why!

idiebabe

By idiebabe,
in Holland America Line

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idiebabe

idiebabe

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We were on the SA Sailing on March 4th on the Zaandam. This isn't a review about our cruise although we had a wonderful time but instead something positive I wanted to share about HAL. :)

 

In Puerto Madryn, we had booked the Private Van through HAL to go to Punta Tombo to see the Penguins. My friends were with us along with four (4) others from the Roll Call. As anyone who has been there knows it is a 2 1/2 hour drive out to Punta Tombo. It was a beautiful day and we all really enjoyed seeing the Penguins and our visit there! Before heading back to the Ship we stopped in the Gift Shop. I had decided to buy a couple of T-Shirts for my Daughter & SIL who were watching my "four-legged" babies for us. I put the Ipad down on the Counter in front of me along with my water bottle. The Woman brought over a bunch of different types of T-Shirts along with a couple of different sizes. I bought two and she handed me the bag. I went to pick up my Ipad and Water Bottle and the Ipad wasn't there. At the time I didn't think anything of it as I thought my DH picked it up as he was standing next to me the entire time. When we were about 15 minutes or so away from the Gift Shop I asked him for my Ipad and he said he didn't have it. My heart sank! :eek: The Driver turned around on that bumpy, gravelly road and the Guide and my DH went into the Gift Shop but they "knew nothing about it"!

 

When we returned to the Ship I told Belle, our Concierge, and we filled out a report. We immediately called my Daughter from the Ship's phone and she took over notifying our Cingular carrier and it was noted stolen, changed all my Passwords for email, FB, etc. and with no hope of getting it back she also ordered me a new Ipad!

 

I was given the Ipad by my Daughter & SIL as a gift the Mother's Day before the Cruise. As you can imagine the Ipad meant a lot to me and since receiving it I had taken it on Cruises to the British Isles, Panama Canal, Carib and a land stay in Paris (not to mention Holiday, Birthday, etc. pics). I couldn't believe it! It had travelled all over with me and here in this little Gift Shop in the middle of nowhere it is gone! :(

 

This is where it gets interesting and why the Internet can be wonderful or a scary thing!

 

(continued next Post)

Edited by idiebabe
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idiebabe

idiebabe

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A couple of weeks after we returned home I started noticing pictures uploading on my Iphone and also on my new Ipad. We had changed all my passwords except my Apple ID. The pics was that of the Woman who worked in the Gift Shop at Punta Tombo as well as the Young Man who worked there, too. They were having a great time with my Ipad! Taking it on family outings, taking Selfie's, etc. After seeing the pics I notified HAL that the Woman who worked at the Gift Shop is the one who took my Ipad. I also sent them the pictures of her and her Family.

 

On Palm Sunday in April pics uploaded with the Woman and her Family at a Church in Trelew, Argentina. I was able to see the name of the Church and googled it and looked it up on FB. I was able to find out their names since they were "friends" of the Church and also the name of their Priest. I messaged the Priest and sent him pics of the Family and told him that they took my Ipad and asked if he would intervene to help get it back. I don't speak Spanish or write Spanish so all of this was done using Google Translate. He answered me and said that she admitted she had my Ipad and would contact me. She never did! I messaged her and her DH several times but they ignored me! It was then that they turned off the "Cloud" so nothing more would upload and I, in turn, changed my Apple ID. In the meantime though, I turned all this information over to HAL.

 

I received a call from Pete in HAL's Security Department. He said they were taking this very seriously and had forwarded the info to the Port Agents in Argentina. We had numerous exchange of emails and while on the Veendam on June 11th I received an email from Pete saying my Ipad had been successfully recovered! :) WooHoo!

 

It took several months after that but it was brought to Seattle and I received it via FedEx from Pete a couple of days ago. :) I can't thank him enough for all his efforts in getting my Ipad back where it belongs! :)

 

I wanted to share this as I get so tired of reading the negative about HAL and without their help I never would have gotten it back! :)

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sail7seas

sail7seas

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Wow, Amazing.

I am so happy you not only got your IPad back but were generous to share this story with us.

 

Kudos to you for being persistent in trying to identify the thieves and especially to HAL/Pete for their diligence in following through in this matter.

 

Imagine the character of those thieves to not only steal from you but to lie to their priest. :eek:

 

Thanks for sharing with us.

Edited by sail7seas
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idiebabe

idiebabe

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Thank you! :)

 

It really ticked me off when I saw that it was the Woman who sold me the T-Shirts. They had deleted my pics but those that had backed up my Daughter recovered after I called her from the Ship. I had lost my Buenos Aires and Punta Tombo pics though as they hadn't backed up at that point.

 

I have since put the Password Lock on but if I had it on that Ipad, I probably wouldn't have gotten it back as their pics uploading is what caught them! Pretty stupid thieves! :D

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Loreto

Loreto

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An inspiring story and congrats for your perseverance. great that HAL followed through.

 

Unless she owned the store she might have been fired, HAL may discourage passengers from shopping there.

 

On a Baltic cruise on the old Noordam I know that a vendor on a HAL excursion in Pushkin, Russia took my credit card number. I think they were gassing up their tour busses on my card. :eek: I notified HAL, not to make accusations, but make them aware since Bank of America said "something was going on there." HAL could have cared less.

 

Glad to hear they care now!

 

Karen

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serendipity1499

serendipity1499

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Wow..What an amazing story! Kudos to HAL 's Security for helping you to recover your IPad & thanks for sharing your story with us..

 

Hope you wrote a letter to HAL's President, giving your praises to Pete..

 

Many people write letters of complaint, but very few write commendation letters & Management in many companies would love to have those too..

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Hlitner "Live from...." Rare

Hlitner

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Love this story and thanks for posting. In fact, after reading about your experience I looked at my "Settings" in our iPad to make sure it was set to back-up to the Cloud. It does sound like some credit should go to HAL's port agent and if we were in your situation would probably ask HAL how to contact the Agent so we could send him/her a "Gracias."

 

This is also one of those stories that should make it onto some of the "Stupid Criminal" story web sites.

 

Hank

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idiebabe

idiebabe

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An inspiring story and congrats for your perseverance. great that HAL followed through.

 

Unless she owned the store she might have been fired, HAL may discourage passengers from shopping there.

 

On a Baltic cruise on the old Noordam I know that a vendor on a HAL excursion in Pushkin, Russia took my credit card number. I think they were gassing up their tour busses on my card. :eek: I notified HAL, not to make accusations, but make them aware since Bank of America said "something was going on there." HAL could have cared less.

 

Glad to hear they care now!

 

Karen

 

Sorry to hear that happened to you, Karen!

 

I felt violated that they had my Ipad especially when they deleted my pics!

 

The Woman and Husband own or work for a Catering Company that run the Gift Shop/Café at Punta Tombo. The older Sons work for the Company, too, and the one was behind the Counter that day! I'm hoping that they lose their job with it because if she stole from me, she may have done it before or will do it to others!

 

As Sail mentioned she lied to her Priest which clearly shows the character of this Woman and what she is teaching her children! :eek:

 

Wow..What an amazing story! Kudos to HAL 's Security for helping you to recover your IPad & thanks for sharing your story with us..

 

Hope you wrote a letter to HAL's President, giving your praises to Pete..

 

Many people write letters of complaint, but very few write commendation letters & Management in many companies would love to have those too..

 

Definitely, Mr. Kruse will be receiving a letter! :) I can't praise Pete enough! This was a six month process and there were times when I felt that I wouldn't get it back but he stayed on top of it and assured me I would! He's the BEST!

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idiebabe

idiebabe

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Love this story and thanks for posting. In fact, after reading about your experience I looked at my "Settings" in our iPad to make sure it was set to back-up to the Cloud. It does sound like some credit should go to HAL's port agent and if we were in your situation would probably ask HAL how to contact the Agent so we could send him/her a "Gracias."

 

This is also one of those stories that should make it onto some of the "Stupid Criminal" story web sites.

 

Hank

 

Hank, thank you!

 

Absolutely and I did ask Pete several times to please thank the Port Agents for us! :) They recovered it from them in Trelew and then it went to Buenos Aires and then one of the Port Agents who was going to Seattle hand delivered it to Pete. They, too, took it seriously and we truly appreciate it! :)

 

You are so right it should make "Stupid Criminals"! The Woman & her Husband who had it has two Sons and two Daughters. One of the Sons (around 18 yrs old) took naked Selfie's of himself and those pics uploaded! :eek: I didn't send those ones to HAL! lol There were some interesting pics taken with my Ipad! The whole family just really enjoyed themselves! :mad:

 

It woke me up, too, to learn the settings, etc. I didn't have that one Password Locked which, in this case, led to them getting caught so that was a good thing. I do have the Password Lock on now.

 

In case anyone is wondering what I'm going to do with owning two Ipads? Since I received it as a Mother's Day gift from my Daughter I am giving it to my very high tech Mom who is 87 yrs old and has an Iphone for her to enjoy!

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Hlitner "Live from...." Rare

Hlitner

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Hank, thank you!

 

Absolutely and I did ask Pete several times to please thank the Port Agents for us! :) They recovered it from them in Trelew and then it went to Buenos Aires and then one of the Port Agents who was going to Seattle hand delivered it to Pete. They, too, took it seriously and we truly appreciate it! :)

 

You are so right it should make "Stupid Criminals"! The Woman & her Husband who had it has two Sons and two Daughters. One of the Sons (around 18 yrs old) took naked Selfie's of himself and those pics uploaded! :eek: I didn't send those ones to HAL! lol There were some interesting pics taken with my Ipad! The whole family just really enjoyed themselves! :mad:

 

It woke me up, too, to learn the settings, etc. I didn't have that one Password Locked which, in this case, led to them getting caught so that was a good thing. I do have the Password Lock on now.

 

In case anyone is wondering what I'm going to do with owning two Ipads? Since I received it as a Mother's Day gift from my Daughter I am giving it to my very high tech Mom who is 87 yrs old and has an Iphone for her to enjoy!

 

Now you really do have me LOL :). We never put the Password lock on our iPads because we are always afraid that one day we will wake up and not remember our Password (getting old does have its drawbacks).

 

Hank

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3rdGenCunarder "Live from...." Rare

3rdGenCunarder

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Sorry to hear that happened to you, Karen!

 

I felt violated that they had my Ipad especially when they deleted my pics!

 

The Woman and Husband own or work for a Catering Company that run the Gift Shop/Café at Punta Tombo. The older Sons work for the Company, too, and the one was behind the Counter that day! I'm hoping that they lose their job with it because if she stole from me, she may have done it before or will do it to others!

As Sail mentioned she lied to her Priest which clearly shows the character of this Woman and what she is teaching her children! :eek:

 

 

 

Definitely, Mr. Kruse will be receiving a letter! :) I can't praise Pete enough! This was a six month process and there were times when I felt that I wouldn't get it back but he stayed on top of it and assured me I would! He's the BEST!

 

It sounds like she had her technique down pat. Show you lots of shirts, you pick a few, and she puts the others away--with your ipad conveniently tucked into the stack of shirts.

 

I'm not sure they were stupid. I think they sound brazen. They probably thought you'd write it off as hopeless. So good on you for not giving up. And good on HAL for helping you!

Edited by 3rdGenCunarder
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