I was in Philadelphia last week for the QRCA conference. A wonderful event, and I will write more soon about the cool stuff I learned.
On the Lady Liberty Shuttle back to the airport, I pulled out my BlackBerry to send a quick note to my spouse. Then -- stupidly -- set it down on the seat, instead of in my handbag.
I discovered this error on the plane, of course, when I went to shut down the BB for takeoff. So had the whole flight to fuss about the problem!
What happened next was just so nice.
[Not quite as spectacular as the rescue of the Chilean miners, but it did reinforce my faith in humanity.]
As soon as I got off the plane at home, I called the shuttle service. Amazingly, my phone had been turned in. They suggested I contact them Monday to arrange delivery.
In the meantime, a nice person in the shuttle saw my phone and called the last number dialed. [Was that not clever?? Great thinking!] My friend Betsy recognized the area code, and suspected it was me, so sent me an e-mail. The kind stranger, meanwhile, gave the phone to the driver, George.
George, clearly an honest man, turned in my phone. Yup. He did. [Thank you George. I'm sure the Phillies will benefit from your support. And thank you Sonny and the other office staff for helping me get my phone back. Most of all, thank you kind stranger!]
Where Dunkin comes in
I had a pleasant call with the shuttle service, who agreed to ship my trusty BB back to me on overnight courier, provided I would cover the cost. [Of course! I'm already in withdrawal! Plus I have no alarm clock!]
They were so helpful, I wanted to do something nice, so thought of sending a gift card from Dunkin Donuts. That was actually a bit of a production.
Dunkin's web site makes the assumption -- wrongly -- that the only people who would ever want to send a gift card are residents of the USA. Took me a while to figure out some hacks to make this work, but I successfully fooled the system into taking my credit card with my Canadian address.
It surprises me how often I run into this very problem.
Web developers take note...
... allow for the possibility of foreign fans. They might be somebody's grandma. They might be someone like me, wanting to acknowledge a good deed.
Every now and again ...
... it's nice to be reminded that human beings still walk the Earth. We had a great reminder of stellar leadership and teamwork in the Chilean mining disaster, and another one happened to me in an airport shuttle. I hope one passes your way one day soon.
One more thing -- when in Philadelphia, do take the Lady Liberty Shuttle service.
