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

pollypenny

There's a clear consensus here - she lost it, she was very foolish to wear such an expensive watch to college and there are real doubts as to true valuation.


you were a good friend and you have made a fair offer.

Not sure about your friend though.

Gresp

bennett2kuk wrote: »

if you'd left it where it was then it was her problem. As you moved it and YOU lost it then it's your responsibility.

I couldn't agree more.

You were happy to take responsibility for the watch, therefore you should stick by this responsibility and compensate her for losing it.

Yes, your friend was careless to leave her watch. But if you hadn't taken it, at least she'd have known where to look for it. And even if it was no longer there, it would have been possible to find out who was in the room after you, and therefore some chance of tracking it down. But since you lost it, it could be anywhere.

A similar thing happened to me when I was at uni. My mate left his wallet behind, so I took it and returned it to him the next day. But if I'd failed to do so, I would have fully expected, at the very least, to have paid him in full for any lost contents.

So you should pay for the watch - although I'd ask for proof of it's value. And if your friend is trying it on - while I do NOT condone this, you can't blame her for not entirely trusting you, when you can't carry an item from one class to another without losing it.

milvusvestal

Your friend was careless enough to lose her watch in the first place; had she not done so, the dilemma in which you find yourself would not have arisen. Don't accept responsibility for her negligence.

The watch's value is immaterial, and I would question the value of anything that is no longer available to examine. Even if your friend can produce a receipt, who is to say that it relates to the lost watch? Too many scams like this occur frequently - the losers are the insurance companies and policyholders like you and me.

Moon_Maiden

REQUEST from this "friend"
1. photographs of HER wearing this watch esp poloroid pics
2. blow up photo could possibly show watches' make & model
3. ask for THREE valuations
4. ask her to report the item SHE lost to the police
5. request the crime number from her
6. request she report it to the college and copy of receipt
7. request proof of insurance cover - who is it with, excess etc
8. report the item YOU lost to the police

Is she fails to do any of this or provide evidence then I believe your "friend" is trying it on with you.

Your offer to pay half the excess is fair. Like all other posts I question why she would wear an "expensive" watch to class. Did the value increase to £700 after you offer the excess?

melody53

What a shame this has happened - you were being a good samaritan, you have bought flowers and offered to pay the excess on the insurance I think that is fair.

johnduffell

In that circumstance I would never leave the building with something in my possession that wasn't mine. I would always either hand it in at reception or security. If you walk out with it whatever is it, as you found you leave yourself open to all sorts of trouble.

The only exception, would be if I knew it belonged to someone who would trust me. So if I did lose it, they'd know that I'd taken as much care of it as if it were my own.

But at the end of the day, I think you've left yourself wide open and you could have handled the original find a lot better.... but we live and learn!!

Who should pay..... even if you are providing the full facts, you both contributed to the loss, I would certainly be mortified but I'm pretty sure I'd not pay... I don't think I'd be able to return to the class in future though. But given the story each of you give I can think of a few scams each of you could have pulled.

Savemesome_2

As a student I would never have had £700 lying around to cover the cost of losing something valuable that is why we have insurance.
Therefore paying the excess is reasonable, the full value is not as that is what insurance is for.

georgiana89

On a "moral" level, this is quite a tricky one. In the friends position, I can imagine being really upset and blaming you. At the same time, I think I'd feel really unfairly treated in your position when I'd only tried to help.

If she does have insurance, then you certainly shouldn't pay anything more than the excess, that's just unreasonable, sentimental value or not.

If she doesn't, or they won't pay up, then as the two of you could debate the rights and wrongs endlessly, I think you have to look at it from a practical position and so a three stage test:

1)Can you afford to pay? If you absolutely can't (And I don't think I could have afforded £700 as a student even if I'd only paid back £50 a month till it was covered) then you can't and it's a pointless argument and you'll just have to make that clear. If it was a small sum that you could easily pay (or you were well off enough that £700 wasn't that big a deal) then I'd probably pay to keep the peace even if I was gritting my teeth when I handed it over. But assuming you're in the middle, where you could just about pay but it would ruin your budget, then;

2)Is she the sort of person who'll never speak to you again/have a huge go at you/bad mouth you to mutual friends? and

3)If so, do you care? Ie. if this was one of my best friends, £700 might ultimately be a small price to pay to save the relationship.


Whatever you do, I wouldn't go down the route some people are suggesting of demanding proof of its value. You'd be basically accusing her of being a liar and a fraudster and I'd be so offended if someone did that to me - I'd rather they flat out refused to pay. Plus, frankly, it's probably going to be hard to prove one way or the other. Unless she seems like a very dodgy person, I find it easier to believe she was wearing an expensive watch then that she's trying to con a friend and to be honest, the more expensive it was the more sense it makes that she's so upset.

Finally I second what a few other people have said about launching a massive hunt for it before doing anything else.

Well done on being both helpful and honest, just try to be more careful next time maybe...

jamespir

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 wore it to a place where you were highly likely to lose it yes you would be sorry whether you can afford it or not which clearly this student cant hence why she/he want their freind to coff up

Surreylass_2

No way should you pay! She lost the watch in the first place by forgetting it. why would someone with a £700 watch which is so sentimental take it off and just leave it lying around. She is just trying to push the blame on you for her stupidity.