On their visit to the states my mom had given me a coin from Vaishnav Devi temple which I kept in my wallet. Since then I avoided carrying change for fear of the coin getting mixed with other coins and accidently being traded..
Yesterday I was coming home from the airport on a Septa bus. Since we have to pay the exact fare I had a couple quarters with me. As soon as the coins rolled off my fingers I realized that I had dropped of my silver coin. My fingertip scratched the surface of the deposit box to stop it from going in, but I wasn't quick enough. I asked the drive if I could get it back. To my dismay the driver explained that there was not much he could do about it. He did not have access to the deposit box and at the end of shifts someone from septa collects all the deposit box. The box is then taken to the collection center along with other boxes where all the coins are deposited. He however gave the bus details, asked me to call Septa customer care number and wished me luck with my pursuit.
I came home and without much hope gave it a try. I narrated my story to the lady on phone. At first she didn't knew what to do about it. She noted down the details, gave me a complaint number and put me on hold... and then forwarded me to "Refunds" department. The lady on the line told me they don't handle such cases and asked me to remain online while she figure out what could be done. After a few minutes she redirected me to the Supervisor of "Collections" department. The supervisor pulled up my complaint number and assured me that she would look into it. She told me to wait for a day and if the coin was found someone from the collections department would give me a call.
And I sure did get a call today :) informing me that they had found my coin and I could come and collect it at the office or they could mail it me. I decide to go pick it up myself.
Throughout the whole process the thing that impressed me the most was this. At no point was I told hang up the phone and call someone else, even when my concern was not under their purview the person on the other end politely put me on hold and then figured out whom to redirect me too and then did so. I was fortunate enough to get my coin back, but even if I hadn't I still would have felt good about the way things were handled.
I would really like to express my gratitude to everyone from Septa who helped me.
THANKS!!!!
