Need Advice

[+Seeker_Knight]

I recently aquired a trackable geocoin from a local cache. When I got online to log the aquisition, it gave me all sorts of trouble, saying the coin did not exist. There was another number (a TB) listed on the web page, that the owner requested be used when referencing this coin. I then tried to use that as well. Once again the site said it did not exist. I contacted the owner for directions on what I should do. I managed to log the "find", but then it gave me trouble again when I tried to log the placement the next day. By then the thing was out of my possesion, and placed in a really good cache where it would be easy to aquire, and have a great chance of logging some serious miles.

I was stuck at this point, and didn't know what else to do. So I contacted the owner again, and let him know where the coin was, and what had happened. As you can imagine, this all ate up quite a bit of time, gasoline and some substantial effort on my part. I didn't mind, as I wanted to do right by the owner. I figured some old timer would find it, and get it straightened out. It was my honest best effort for what I could do to get this thing back on track.

I went back ( http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.as...e6-491d2c9b69c9 ) to the log for this coin, and noticed that someone had in fact obtained the coin, and was willing to get it straightened out. I then also noticed that the owner had made a log entry, and made some very nasty comments about me publicly. I wrote and told him that I didn't appreciate the rude comments, and asked that he edit them out of his log.

This is not what I would call very good sprortsmanship on his part. Even as frustrated as I was with the darn thing, I still tried to do right by him and his coin. I think it would have been better for him to offer to help a bit more, and gripe a bit less. Newbies need some help from time to time when something like this happens. I would think the owner would appreciate the player trying to fix the mess. It is not fun to be maligned by such a person, and does not leave a good feeling with me toward him.

This type of thing is the root cause of problems in a game like this. It is just unfair and mean for the sake of being that way. If I were a lesser person morally, I would have just tossed his coin in a river and been done with it. I know there are lots of people who would do something petty like that. For my own conscience, I went the extra mile to try to fix the mess, and got rewarded with insults and sarcasm. Go figure!

How would the rest of you handle a problem like this if you ran into it. I'd just like to know, so I can act accordingly if it happens again in the future.

 

A would be fair player,

Seeker_Knight

Edited February 16, 2009 by Seeker_Knight

[+DJ.J.ROCK]

i think you did the right thing, and the coin owner needs an attitude adjustment, or stop putting out trackables, if he cant handle to explain about his own coin,, he should have never let it go!!

 

if this happends again just repeat what you did above

[+Seeker_Knight]

Thanks DJ. I thought I did the right thing by him. I guess you just can't please everyone.

 

i think you did the right thing, and the coin owner needs an attitude adjustment, or stop putting out trackables, if he cant handle to explain about his own coin,, he should have never let it go!!

 

if this happends again just repeat what you did above

[+OshnDoc]

You did well, and the comments on the coin page from the owner are more than out of line. Thanks for the effort you put in. I wish I had that kind of commitment for some of my coins out there.

[+Seeker_Knight]

This is the email I recieved this morning:

 

Excuse me, but I did try helping you and explained what needed to be done. I even told you if you had further problems to contact us again. But you throw it into a cache saying your glad to be rid of it because it was nothing but trouble. It was clear you had no clue what was going on and I offered help and to help you even further but you did not contact us you just placed it into a cache without logging it. What I don't get here is how it got to be in your inventory for me to grab but you couldn't place it into a cache properly and had to make it out to be the coins fault and my so called directions on my web page. A coins web page is set up and run by Groundspeak, as a coin owner we just enter the tracking & activation numbers and the rest is done by them. The TB# that is on the page is there for everyone to see and is assigned to a coin by Groundspeak themselves it is not supposed to be used to log your find of a coin. That page is not "my web page", those pages are assigned by Groundspeak when a coin is activated.

The number that is supposed to be used to grab or retrieve a coin is the one on the coin. In other words, a "secret code" that no one can use to move coins around unless they actually have the coin in their possession. Because the font is small some numbers and letters look the same which is why I mentioned trying to change to the "O" to a zero, it may take a few tries to get a coin logged but that is how it's done. I understand your frustration but I don't appreciate the way you handled our coin. You are the one who sported the "tude" in all of your loggings of this coin. When I received the notification email yesterday from geocaching.com about how this coin was placed I was extremely angry and quite frankly still am. And now your upset with me because I am treating you the way you have treated us and our coin in your posts.

We just buried my father-in-law two days ago and in the midst of all that was going on here I took the time out last week to answer your first email and tried to explain how to log the coin and even offered further help if needed.

You are absolutely right, this is about fun and finding "treasure", but I find your postings rude and ignorant. You can say it's a newbie thing, but manners are manners and you clearly lacked them in this instance. I am not trying to start trouble, just stating what happened to the coin in an effort to get it back on track and it's miles traveled corrected.

 

 

--- On Mon, 2/16/09, Geocaching <noreply@geocaching.com> wrote:

 

From: Geocaching <noreply@geocaching.com>

Subject: [GEO] Seeker_Knight contacting BVnLJ from Geocaching.com

To: bvnlj2nd@yahoo.com

Date: Monday, February 16, 2009, 1:26 PM

 

BTW - I don't appreciate your calling me ignorant. That is not a good way to

win friends. This is supposed to be about having fun, not starting trouble. I

made every effort to get that coin back on track. I even made sure it was placed

in a location that was convenient, and assured the best possible chance of

getting a good long ride on the interstate. I would appreciate your revision of

the remarks you made. It was just not done in a malicious manner by me. I really

had problems getting the site to recognize the darn thing. Next time, you might

want to be a bit more helpful to a newb, instead of being so critical. I'll

be watching to see if you revise that log entry. I assure you, it was noted.

 

User's Profile:

http://www.geocaching.com/profile/?guid=09...5c-1aad5b2b7432

 

------------------------------------------------------------

Forward abuse complaints to: contact@geocaching.com

 

 

 

 

This is the most recent email I recieved from the owner of this coin. I noticed that he has suffered a recent loss of a loved one. I think this accounts for his anger and innapropriate attitude. I think he is grief stricken, and just lashing out. I can understand if the guy is just hurting I think. Enough said on the matter. My prayers are with him and his family at this terrible time in their life.

If He reads this, I hope he knows my thoughts are with him and his family during their grief.

Once again, I apologize if I seemed rude or abrasive in my communications to this owner. It was not my intention. I just wanted to get the mess fixed and get clear of the problem, regardless of why I had the problem to begin with.

Edited February 16, 2009 by Seeker_Knight

[+LadeBear68]

I am going to post that I believe that I have met the owner of the coin and do not believe them to be rude, etc. If I had buried someone days before I am not sure I would be very happy either. Perhaps you should have kept this to private email instead of bashing the owner in the forums. There was no basis to post all of this information when the problem has been handled.

[+Seeker_Knight]

You are quite right LadyBear. This did not need to become a public issue until this coin owner chose to place abrasive rmarks on a public forum. But once the Pandoras box is open, lets make sure the WHOLE thing is made public. Not just the rantings of a grief stricken angry response.

Fair is fair! If I'm going to be maligned, I WILL defend myself in whatever way is required. You can be assured of that.

 

I am going to post that I believe that I have met the owner of the coin and do not believe them to be rude, etc. If I had buried someone days before I am not sure I would be very happy either. Perhaps you should have kept this to private email instead of bashing the owner in the forums. There was no basis to post all of this information when the problem has been handled.

Edited February 16, 2009 by Seeker_Knight

[+BVnLJ]

Seeker_Knight....if you want to state facts then state facts...this is the first email you sent and my response...I tried to help on the 11th and even offered further help.

You in turn just dumped my coin with rude loggings and I in turn treated you with same respect.

If you truly needed more help then I should have been contacted further as I offered or you could have come here and asked for help seeing as you know how to use the forums

 

"Hi there,When you are entering the numbers on the coin be sure to have the caps on if that's the way they are. Also, try using the number zero rather than the letter "o". I just tried it and it worked fine so I think one of the things I mentioned above might be where your going wrong. Hope that helps, but if not just email us again and we'll help out the best we can.Thank you for getting in touch with us on it rather than just dropping the coin somewhere out of frustration : )

Lois Jean (BVnLJ)

--- On Wed, 2/11/09, Geocaching <noreply@geocaching.com> wrote:

 

From: Geocaching <noreply@geocaching.com>

Subject: [GEO] Seeker_Knight contacting BVnLJ from Geocaching.com

To: bvnlj2nd@yahoo.com

Date: Wednesday, February 11, 2009, 1:14 AM

 

Hi BVnLJ,

I found your "Troubles Tazmanian Devil" geocoin in

"Ethan's Party" geocache, located in Joppatowne, MD. Tried to log

the retrieval on geocaching.com, but the system is saying that the number you

listed does not exist. I even tried using the number on the coin itself, and it

was not registered. Other people have managed to log this TB/Coin, so what do

you thing it is that I'm doing wrong?

Any help you can offer wood be appreciated. I want to make the log and move

it on.

 

Seeker_Knight

AKA Kevin"

[+Eartha]

The whole exchange could have been handled in a much friendlier manner. The reference number and the tracking number difference can be confusing to newcomers, and at least this finder tried to communicate with the owner that there was a mix up and wanted to fix it, even if he did sound frustrated by it all. That kind of public owner log could make one think "Fine, I won't fix the problem, you figure out where your coin is, I'm outta here, if you can't be civil!" That's the feeling I would get from this kind of log, posted publicly. I think you guys should work on the issue at hand, straightening out the mis-log, and edit the public logs to get rid of anything you feel is rude towards each other, and move on. Life is too short.

[+Droo]

Since this is out in public I checked both profiles and don't get the newb references. The OP has 64 cache finds, a few coin icons and even owns a coin and has accomplished this in under 2 months. Seeker you're not a newb anymore and you should know at this point that the coin owner does not assign or even prints the tracking numbers on the coin (Groundspeak does the former and the coinmaker/designer does the latter).... you're a coin owner and you obviously did not do any such thing with your Maryland coin.

 

Hopefully by now you've realized that there are two numbers used to track coins. One gets you to the coin's tracking page (can be available to all) and the other (only available to those handling the coin in person) also allows you to post tracking logs to its page. You may even have surmised that reading the tracking code on the coin can be challenging since 0s and Os look a lot alike as do 8s and Bs, 1s and Is, Zs and Ss and even 5s and 6s to name a few. I keep a magnifying glass in my desk drawer (and reading glasses too) to help decypher what's been etched on the coin in sometimes impossible dimensions.

 

As a coin owner I've sent the tracking code to cachers who have had difficulties moving my travellers. I've received them from other COs when I've had difficulties but it's never come to this. I've been frustrated by cachers who refuse to work with me when difficulties logging the coin in or out arise and even more with those who don't care to do either. Believe me, releasing pretty shiny bits of metal into the wild can be a nail biting experience.... as can be trying to log a coin and do the right thing when it won't work for you.

 

It sounds like you both really meant well and came across in ways that pushed the other's buttons. Get over it! Now kiss and make up and be best friends forever.

[+DJ.J.ROCK]

after reading this as it has moved along scence my first post, i only had half of the information,,

if they had replyed to say if you need more help then contact us,, thats exactly what you should have done,, and you hang on to the coin till you get a response. or log it correctly.-- lesson learned

 

im sorry to hear about your loss- BVnLJ