Lost my PDA in a taxi

[freefall]

Coming home last night... had a little too much to drink... left my PDA (with plecodict!) in the taxi. Didn't get a receipt. Don't remember the car number or the driver's name.

There's a number you can call in Hangzhou (96520) that will take you to a hot line where you can inquire about missing goods--they said all they can do is wait to see if my PDA gets turned in and call me if it does.

I'm feeling pretty helpless about the 1600 kuai loss. Is there anything else I can do? Go to some headquarters and personally ask?

Otherwise I'd just like to encourage everybody to always get a receipt from the taxi driver--if you lose something it should be pretty easy to trace it back.

[roddy]

Not a great deal. In Beijing there's a regular slot on the 北京交通台 where people who've lost stuff get messages read out on the off-chance the cab driver in question hears it. Don't know what the success rate is, or if you have something similar in Hangzhou.

The only other thing I can think of is if the cab was waiting outside a certain venue or building, there's a fair chance it's regularly there - you could go back and see if you can find him. Don't fancy your chances though.

You should be able to transfer your Plecodict license to a new PDA very easily. I know this due to having a history of murdering PDAs.

[flameproof]

Even with a receipt the chance is next to zero. The driver will just say he didn't see it. Period.

As far as I know you can transfer PlecoDict to a new PDA free as long as it's the same system, means you have to stick to Palm if you use Palm now. Your flashcard records are gone though.

[roddy]

If you were regularly syncing you may find your flashcards are on your desktop - when I moved from a T3 to a T5 I just gave the new machine the same Hotsync username, synced, and it moved all applications on board fine, including Pleco + flashcards. I then had a few technical issues as some T3 apps wouldn't all work on the T5, but overall it made life a lot easier. If you weren't syncing though . . .

But yeah, a receipt doesn't count for much - if the guy's out of sight, then you're dependent on his good will.

[flameproof]

If the driver didn't took then for sure the next guest.

I once met a foreigner who was so proud that he found a cell phone in the taxi - and he kept it as a birthday present for his wife back in Europe. Well, what shall one say?

[randall_flagg]

I have nothing new to add, just wanted to know that I'm sorry for your loss. This is one of my personal worst-case scenarios!