WHEN
IT COMES TO CUSTOMER SERVICE ON THE GROUND, NO ONE CAN BEAT THE UNITED STATES
SERVICE INDUSTRY.
I
had arrived in the United States from Qatar on the 16th July and my
destination was the American Indian Reservations in the Plains States. I flew
to Miami, as I consider this to be my American Base, so that I can gather my
balance and move on to the Midwest.
The
flight on the 17th was unremarkable. I had a very pleasant stay at
the Centurion Club at Concourse D, including a head and neck massage by Vicky
who is good at what she does. I had been
upgraded on the flight from Miami to Dallas and after a very short stay at the
Admirals Club; I boarded the regional airlines flight, upgraded on that one as
well, with only about 9 first class seats. I was busy reading and writing and
planning my upcoming trips and the short flight glided by smoothly. On arrival
at Omaha Airport, a very small airport with no international or long distance
flights (New York, Dallas, Houston, Charlotte, Minneapolis, Phoenix, Denver. so
this is an outlying station connecting to the hubs).
I
had no special identifications on the iPhone 7 plus except two flags:
Australia, Breizh (Brittany) and the face of Emir of Qatar, to show my
solidarity with Qatar in the current crisis.
I
tried not to let the panic take over when I realized that I had left the
telephone in the men’s toilette near the exist from the American Airlines
arrival area. Alas, within five minutes, the phone had vanished. I went to the
information desk, lost and found and custodian’s office and the airport police.
No one had turned in an iPhone.
My
iPhone had been a gift to me from one of the Indian tribes, so that I can be
available to them, regardless of where I was in the world and it had been a
good tool for me, to travel around the world and be in touch with my Tribal
colleagues.
The
sim card in it was from T-Mobile, as a part of family plan of my Brother In Law
and he quickly called the T mobile and cancelled the sim card. Using the Find
my phone app, we reported it as lost and left a message to contact if it were
found. But when you opened the app, iPhone appeared as OFFLINE.
Brandy,
my friend at AVIS was rather more philosophical. It takes a little time for
lost things to find their way to Lost and Found and also most people do not
know where to return the lost items. Everybody especially the employees of AVIS
rent a car were being more than helpful.
But
I was left with a sense of guilt, why did I leave the telephone in the
Bathroom? Why didn’t I put the phone in a safe place if I were using it in the bathroom?
I was using whatsapp to tell a friend in Iran that I had arrived
Just
arrived in Omaha 14 48
I
received her reply 1456
I
left with somewhat of a heavy heart, wanted to drive the 150 km to the Indian
reservation, feeling bad that I had lost the phone the tribe had loaned to me.
Every
one was comforting, my colleague and her husband did some tracking and IT
manager of the tribe wrote to say, comfortingly, that telephones are lost
constantly, and he would replace it for me.
Once
I was back with the Indians, my mood began to change. The chaos and
inevitability and the risk which are commonplace among the Indians of North America,
was soothing, as I fit into the cosmos and worldview and the fact that the next
ten days of my stay in the USA, I would be surrounded by them, not by
descendants of recent arrivals to this land they call the Turtle Island.
Every
day I would call the Lost and Found at the airport and they would say: strange,
normally we get one or two iPhones per day but for the last few days we have
not received any. Police refused to take a report as I had lost the phone and
not robbed of it.
In
the meantime T mobile had offered to send me a new sim card with the same
telephone number to an address in this isolated village. My brother had to pay
a nominal fee for the UPS services. T mobile response was swift and within 30
hours of contacting them, I had a new sim card with the same old number.
I
had lost the telephone around 3 pm on Monday, within 48 hours I had the
replacement sim card mailed to me, so that I got back my number, despite it
having to be used on another telephone but at least there was a method for anyone
to get in touch with me.
On
Thursday, around noon, a message had been left on my number (in the replaced
telephone), It was from the American Airlines and they said, they have found my
phone and that could I please call a particular number to confirm. It was late
in the evening when I saw the message so on Friday I called them and sure
enough I could identify my phone, two flags and a face.
Someone
recognized Sheikh Tamim of Qatar or someone associated that face with me, or
how did the phone end up in the lost and found section of the American Airlines
at the airport?
I
often fly in and out of that airport, about once a month, so there are people
who work there who see me twice a month, but there are thousands of people
wandering through the airport. I am very friendly to the people at the airport:
AVIS rent a car people, the agents who check me in at the counter or at the
gate and very often I have a little conversation with them, many of them
showing interest in my far away destination. It is possible that someone from
the Airline, soon after its arrival, found the phone and then looked at the
passenger list, and matched my name and looking up my profile could find my
telephone number. In any case, somebody had to put some work into that, and I am
grateful for him or her.
Throughout
the drive to the airport, I was thinking: why did this happen to me? I tried to
think in the worldview of the American Indians, they would say, you had done something
that is why this happened. What would that Something be? That I had behaved in
an arrogant or not so humble fashion during this past trip through the Orient
and the Levant. I had to agree; I had become too engrossed in the comforts of
flying Qatar Airways that I might have forgotten certain niceties that I
normally exchange with fellow travellers. I had to ask forgiveness for that,
believe it or not on the Thursday, before I received the confirmatory message
that they had found my phone, I had discussed with some good friends about
humility and expressed my gratitude for their friendship.
Everything
is connected, say the Indians. A lovely South Korean woman was my FA on the Doha
to New York portion, and when I arrived at the Indian reservation, a gaggle of
nursing students from South Korea were there to listen to the interpretation of
Indian culture.
I
had apologized for my lack of humility, soon after that my phone was returned.
The
lady who called me, addressed me by my first name, and said your phone has been
found. I had not lodged a complaint with the American Airlines and they had
done some groundwork to connect that phone to my name on the passenger list.
Every
thing is related, say the Indians, and I do believe in that.
Despite
the national hysteria of the politics and health care in the USA at the moment,
I felt very grateful for the people of USA, their civic responsibility and also
the generousness of their spirit.
I
am grateful to them.
(below is a typical sunset seen at this Indian Reservation at this time of the Year)
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