Real life MMD:Should I pay for the £700 watch my friend forgot?

Elvisia

She lost the watch in the first place, what happened to it after that is a different matter. Ask her if she can get it back on the insurance, if not you can make her an offer of what you can afford, maybe £50, and leave it at that. Has she left it in the classroom in the first place and it was stolen or put somewhere 'safe' and lost she wouldn't be getting anything back. My friend broke my mobile phone - she was drunk and she said she thought she'd see what would happen to it if she dropped it (yes people really are that stupid) and it smashed and broke. She gave me £15 towards the cost of a new one, and since I knew I wouldn't get anything more I left it at that.

Belfast_Girl_2

I'd suggest that you pay the whole excess but nothing else; after all the watch wouldn't have gotten lost it you hadn't taken it, good as your intention was. Her asking you to reinbursh her the whole amount is ridiculous, don't even consider it. After all, that is why you take out insurance in the first place.

Anyway, she says the watch is worth £700, but how does she know that? She would have to have gotten it recently valued to know for certain, unless it was relatively new, in which case she should have proof of purchase. Like you said, £700 is a lot of money for a student, so I find it hard to believe that she'd be happy leaving something like that hanging around.

In the meantime, why not stick up posters around the university or something? You could even offer a small reward- it'll be less than £700, and could be enough to save you a friendship!

Marisco

SimonFin wrote: »

Whats wrong with wearing a nice watch? I wear a £1500 watch daily because I like it, I can afford it and it has sentimental value for me. If I lost it, would I be a tool for this?

If you took it off and then forgot about it, then yes!

melezka

Reverbe wrote: »

Just on a side note why do you have to remove jewellery and watches for drama anyway?Do people in plays and tv shows never wear it or something??

(Just in case anyone is really interested) drama, as currently taught, tends to be more physical and involve more rolling around on floors and potentially painful contact with sticky out items like jewellery than it does holding a script and pacing the floor whilst enunciating. Well you would do both, but no guarantee of which on which day. Also (just to be boring) plays and tv shows are not the only end point for people doing drama at college. There is much demand at present for people who can roll around on floors correctly. Without jewellery, of course.

cazpost

She's an idiot for wearing something that valuable to college. Shes even sillier for taking it off and forgetting it. You are an idiot for picking it up and losing it.You are even sillier for believing it is worth that much,and more importantly for not reporting it to college,the police etc, insisting she report it and claim the insurance and searching everywhere you could possibly have lost it. She doesnt sound like much of a friend for over-reacting,but as another poster said, you are drama students !

auntie_sal

I don't think you should pay her anything. She lost her watch and it is very likely that it would have stayed lost anyway. It was stupid of her to have worn the watch when she knew it would have to be removed in the class. Stupid not to have made sure it was put somewhere safer if it was so valuable. Surely if she has to pay the excess on the insurance claim, that is a little enough price to pay for her own stupidity. If it was me I would thank you for trying to help and learn to take more care.

Marco12452

See if you can value it online by make/model on one of the sites that will give this information. She may be trying it on ?
If she is correct, then speak to her about an amicable resolution.

bogwart

I think you've done enough already. She was careless enough to leave this watch behind in the first place and this whole situation has come about because of her negligence. You've made a good offer, stick to your guns.

Carriannelouise

grandnational wrote: »

Utter nonsence. The person who owned the watch should consider that she alone was responsible for losing £700 worth of jewellry allegedly of sentimental value. That someone else tried to help is to be congratulated not blamed. Without the efforts of the party who tried to help, the owner would not have the flowers and still would have lost the watch.

Similar thing happened between me and my friend in school. my grandma bought me a fancy leather bracelet with my star sign on a silver piece on the front . i forgot to take it off in the morning so i put it in the box in the PE class and forgot about it as i didnt normally wear it. she picked it up knowing it was mine. i saw her later in the day, turned out she'd been looking for me during the lunch break but the bracelet had fallen out of her pocket. she was really upset... we looked everywhere for it but it was lost. i bought her some flowers as she helped me look and she offered to pay for a new one, it wasnt her fault as if i didnt pick it up it would have been lost anyway as people in my school would take anything that wasnt bolted down! my friendship was worth much more than the bracelet or the money! your friend should take the kind offer of the excess money x

JayD

Well if it was insured and she can make a claim for the value of the watch, it is only fair that you pay the insurance excess.

I don't think anything else is reasonable at all.

You only have her word for the extremely high value she says the watch has - and if it was so expensive then it should certainly have been insured for that sum. So why does she want to be reimbursed twice? Once from the insurers and then again from you! If it wasn't insured then she certainly did not value it to any great extent at all!

I think she has to take some responsibility for taking such an expensive item to the class and for then forgetting to pick it up herself. You were only trying to do a good deed. You lost it on the way and have been very remorseful about it but if you hadn't picked it up to give to her, the outcome may well have been exactly the same. After all, if you lost it between classes and no one has found it and handed it in, it is unlikely that it would have still been there or been handed in if you hadn't picked it up for her.

No doubt she is upset - especially as she says it has such sentimental value - but I think you are only responsible for any excess she has to pay on the insurance and she should stop giving you such a hard time when your actions were so well meaning.

You have my sympathy - you must have felt dreadful. Well done for being so honest and having the courage to tell her.