Hey Delta, is it this hard to find an iPad?
So this post is a bit of a rant more than anything, so for the three regular readers of this blog feel free to skip over this post. I promise to make this foray a brief one.
I made a blunder on my flight home from Atlanta to Akron/Canton Airport a few weeks ago; I left my lovely, SugarCRM logo and my name engraved iPad safely in it’s case in the seat pocket of seat 3A. D’oh!
I realized this the moment I got home, and being a bit of a snow storm decided it not prudent to risk life and limb to return to the airport. Calling the airport informing them of this, they took my name and number as said they would ask the Delta desk about this. Being my self driven self, I started tracing the plane, and saw it was doing a CAK-ATL-CAK-ATL-OMA run that day, so figured it would end up in one of CAK, ATL, or OMA ( Omaha for those who aren’t as familiar with airport codes ).
So I went back to the airport at CAK, and they didn’t have it ( but had another iPad someone lost on a plane ), and called OMA, which didn’t see it either. My guess is that it’s in ATL, but low and behold, THERE IS NO NUMBER TO CALL ABOUT DELTA LOST AND FOUND AT ATLANTA. That’s right, nobody to call and ask, nor anyone I could be transfered to that will call there and ask. What do they want you to do? Fill out a web form and hope for the best. Which I did, and all I am left with is hope 
.
So my call to the blogosphere and twittersphere is this: short of going down to Atlanta and stalking the Lost and Found desk, who can I call to help me.
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About Me
I am software developer, living in Northeast Ohio ( Doylestown to be exact ). Graduating from the Kent State University BS in Computer Science program in 2001, I now work as Community Manager for SugarCRM.
My first contribution to the open source world is an installer for PHP 5.2 and later, build using the Wix toolkit. It will install PHP on Windows systems, as well as configure it and the Web Server ( IIS, Apache, Sambar, NetServe, and Zitami ). It provides an easy-to-use method for getting PHP configured the way you want it and also a tool for easily deploying PHP to many machines thanks to MSI technology.
I'm also an avid writer, publishing articles on IBM Developerworks, Apple Developer Connection, and PHP Architect, and authored the book The Definitive Guide to SugarCRM: Better Business Applications
I am happily married with a daughter and a son, living on a hill surrounded by farm fields.
sorry about your iPad; something similar happened to my Bose headphones a few months ago.
Most airlines only offer a voice mailbox or fax number or email address for lost items – it sometimes takes time to find and identify an item, and they probably do want to protect their employees from people calling every 30 minutes
Given that your item does have some value, I am afraid the same thing might have happened as with my headphones: either the cleaning crew or the next passenger were happy to keep them. Still hope you’ll eventually get the item back!
Thanks Christian. My only hope is the engravings on the back make it stand out and make someone feel it is secretly being tracked by SugarCRM
.
But yeah, I do get why having a call line for an airport with over 1000 departures on Delta alone a day could be a bit overwhelming, but I was really hoping my Diamond status could come in handy here in getting a few favors. Guess not
.
Unfortunately the same thing happened to me on a Delta flight. I have emailed Delta multiple times with no response. I was hoping to find on line somebody who had had success retrieving their valuables from Delta. I was told the crew checked “every seat” after “every destination”! If that is true then they could have easily found it. Mine is also engraved & easily identifiable. Good luck!
So I wanted to give everyone an update on a happy ending to this story….
I am on my way back home thru ATL, so I took an earlier connection flight from RDU so I would have time to take a visit to the Delta ATL Lost and Found. Headed over to the SP Baggage Service counter, where the nice agent took the serial number of my iPad and made a call down to Lost and Found. Low and behold, it was there! I went over to Lost and Found to claim it, and now it’s sitting next to me in the T7 Sky Club charging back up.
So a few lessons I learned in the process:
- Don’t forget you iPad on an airplane ( pretty obvious now
)
- Keep a record of the serial number of your devices, as this is how ATL tracks the items. For Apple products, once you register it you can find it pretty easily in the ‘My Support Profile’ page ( Google around for links to it ). Also, when submitting a L&F claim form, be sure to include the serial number for you device.
- Apple does have a way to let law enforcement track your device being registered by someone else, so do a police report and then the officer can report it to Apple. Again, it only comes up on their radar if it’s been re-activated by someone else.
- Lock your iPad down, and if it’s a Wifi one put a few common AP names in it ( like Linksys and Belkin ) which give it more chances to call home.
- Going to the L&F in person is much more effective than over the phone or the web form. If you think your device made it to ATL, go there to find it.
Thanks again to everyone for your help and advice, I truly appreciate it.
Hi, John. Unfortunately I just had a similar experience like you (however, you retrieved your ipad, congratulations!).
I left my Sony laptop on the plane during a Delta flight from Detroit to Washington Reagan last night. I didn’t notice
that until I got back to my apartment in College Park, Maryland.
I completed a “lost item form” on Delta’s website. They said they would contact me if they find my laptop. However, there is no tracking system for the lost item. All I can do is wait, wait, and wait. So I went to the Delta Baggage Service in Washington Reagan and was told “no laptop here”. (I’m typing these words in Reagan airport right now)
I thought there might be certain possibilities that the cleaning crew didn’t find the laptop (I put it on the seatback and it’s quite thin), then my laptop took another flight with the aircraft. I met a nice guy at the front desk and he told me the aircraft I took was landed at Atlanta one hour ago, so I tried to contact Atlanta airport for my lost laptop. No one answers. The lost&found website doesn’t work either.
I was desperate, so I tried google and found your post. May I ask if you have any numbers of the crew members in the lost&found office (Atlanta) that I can contact directly with? Thank you very much for your experience, it helps me a lot!
Sorry to hear about your iPad loss as well. My situation seems all too familar, as I also was all the way home and then thought “Crap! I left my iPad on the plane!”.
As I found out the annoying way, there is no direct number for L&F in Atlanta. Your best bet with Atlanta lost and found is to physically go to the Atlanta airport, exit security, and head to the Delta baggage office across from the baggage carosels. Make sure you have your serial number for your iPad for them to look it up by, as that’s the only way they cross reference the iPads by.
Don’t fear, as they said there are over 100 iPads in L&F in Atlanta at any given time, so there’s a good chance it made it’s way there. Best of luck to you!
Thx a lot! However, what I lost is a laptop, and I didn’t remember its serial number (its printed on the back of it). OMG. Anyway, thank you for your advice!
I left my dslr camera on a flight. I am now attempting to get it back. I have very little hope. The only positive is that I can now buy a new camera if I can’t find my old one. I pity those who lose something that is of great value to them. I am glad that I can afford to replace my camera and that it didn’t have something valuable on it like honeymoon photos. Delta really stinks in this regard. Hardly anyone gets their stuff back.
March 14, 2013 Lost my black carrier on baggoing from imgration elevator to the transit train, It has old shoes blowdryer Cancun Mexico broshures, old make up, Books and some gives my handicalp son purchase for himself, also my car keys. Please if you found it, return it to Delta and God Blessed.
I managed to leave a tablet on Alaska and filled out their form. Over a month went by and they had finally gotten it through the system to finally call me. It may take a long time
Seems that nothing has changed. My grandson left his iPod in the seat pocket. He remembered while they were still at the airport and the supervisor refused to call and and check the seat pocket though the plane was still there. Seems a bit mean to make him fill out a form and then there is no way to check what happened. Did anyone get anything returned ?
I lost my Smartphone- Samsung Galaxy Note- at Raleigh somewhere between TSA and Delta Gate today for a flight to Memphis, (eventually SLC). I called TSA RDU Coordination Center where you can call within the first 24 hours: (919) 468-4053 but they had no record of a phone turned in. They gave me a backline to RDU police lost and found. Police open m-f, 8-5. Call lost and found at (919) 840-7553 and wait till after noon for them to clear weekend/evening stuff.
Hope this helps someone, I’m having no luck so far. Hope you all get your items back!