Jump to content

How do you get a GeoCoin back?


Stinkerbelles

Recommended Posts

My children are involved in a contest for whose Geocoin can mark the most miles. Last fall someone picked up our Geocoin and still hasn't placed it in a cache. We have tried contacting them twice, but they do not respond. What if anything can we do to get it back? My children are very upset about this! Add to the situation that we replaced our ME cache 2 weeks ago once the snow had gone and now someone has stolen the WHOLE CACHE!! Our children are only 5 and 8 and 8 years old. They are very upset that people are doing this. Any suggestions?

Thanks so much!

Link to comment

Sounds like you have done what you could to get the coin moving. Too many emails... well, you know....

 

Wording is important. Be careful so that you do not seem demanding or scolding.

 

There is a silver lining, of sorts. You can use this to teach you children that not everything goes the way you would like it to.

 

Rule #1 -- Never release anything into the wild that you cannot afford to lose.

 

Little can be done about the cache, also. Once a hiding spot has been muggled, it usually is a good idea not to use that spot again.

It may not have been a muggle at all. Occasionally, a noob comes into the forums and wants to know "What do I leave in the place of a cache?" (or something akin to that). Many noobs never find the forums, indeed, many with 1,000's of finds have never been here.

 

We had a large ammo can taken last week. A youngster walking the family dog found it (last finder didn't secret it too well) and took it home. His mom made him return it. Funny, mom told us about it -- not knowing about geocaching or that it was OUR cache. I checked and re-hid it. He had simply placed it near a tree, perhaps how he found it. Yes, he did sign the logbook.

Link to comment

well thats hardly a helpfull answer. these kids have certain expectations about the sport as we all do. unfortunately they have twice now been stuffed up by people who didnt play by the rules. but dont let this discourage you from continuing with the sport stinkerbell. i would guess better than 98% of the people who do caching are honest people who have some degree of respect for things. perhaps it might be best to draw a line under these events and have another crack at it. try and get your geocoin down my way thats sure to collect a few miles or kilometres in my case lol

Link to comment

The way I see it with my coin and bugs out in the wild is basically once they leave my hands they are gone never ever to be seen in person by me again. I can't consider something that I released into the wild ever to be stolen. Lost, maybe, but not stolen as I have no way to prove malicious intent in the handling of my bug. And there are certain realities. People lose them. I remember searching a car for a solid hour for a lost bug or accidentally dropping one on the trail (found it but I was bothered by it).

 

We play a game in nature and sometimes that means animals find our containers and do what they want with them. Sometimes they even get into the containers and spread the contents around. Some containers get mauled by farm equipment or other large pieces of machinery. And then sometimes like this spring rivers get high, places wash out and caches vanish. I found one by a storm drainage area that had been washed away once complete with bugs.

 

You will be horribly disappointed in the over hobby if you place expectations of travel on these items. Between the human factor and the nature factor many of these items will go missing. That's just the sad reality of it. If you are going to get emotionally attached to these items you probably shouldn't ever release them and just track the bugs you move or something.

Link to comment

Stinkerbelles, if you are sure that your coin won't be resurfacing, you could re-activate it so your kids can still watch its travels. You know its tracking number, you can grab it back from the current keeper. Make a tag with the tracking number on, attach that to something like a keyring then release that. Put some explanatory wording on the tag too, and change the coin's name to include something like "copy" "replica" or "proxy" so future finders will know what to expect.

Link to comment

At the top of this forum is a topic called Snoogans TB Longevity Clinic would be good to read. When I give my classes the first thing I say about travelers is do not get emotionally attached to anything you send out and if you are doing it with your kids explain that they may disappear into the void for long periods of time or even forever. It is just part of this hobby.

 

My standard solution is two margaritas and a bourbon marinaded, bone in, rare ribeye. That seems to make anything that happens in this world fine.

Link to comment

The cacher who picked it up was a newbie, who hasn't visited the site again, since 5 days after picking up your TB. But the guy that discovered it the same day was out caching with them, and is a prolific cacher. Maybe even showing them the ropes (and failing at it? ;) ) You could very politely email that person and ask if they could go and ask for it back from their friend, and place it in a cache. Be very nice and sweet when you contact them.

Link to comment

Not that it is much help for this lost coin... but what I do the moment someone picks up one of my trackables is send them a message to thank them for helping me.

 

Basically I do this to

 

1) thank them :)

2) giving the trackable a personal touch..so they feel more guilty when they keep it for too long :)

3) so I have their email and it's easier to get in touch with them when they hold on to the trackable for a longer period of time

 

I must say.. geocachers seem to be VERY BAD at replying... It happened at least twice I helped someone with a TB but no thank you whatsoever.

 

Good luck and I hope some day the coin will pop up again!

 

cheers,

Bruno

Edited by bruno-b
Link to comment

Not that it is much help for this lost coin... but what I do the moment someone picks up one of my trackables is send them a message to thank them for helping me.

 

Basically I do this to

 

1) thank them :)

2) giving the trackable a personal touch..so they feel more guilty when they keep it for too long :)

3) so I have their email and it's easier to get in touch with them when they hold on to the trackable for a longer period of time

 

I must say.. geocachers seem to be VERY BAD at replying... It happened at least twice I helped someone with a TB but no thank you whatsoever.

 

Good luck and I hope some day the coin will pop up again!

 

cheers,

Bruno

 

I try to follow this path myself... I move TBs as best I can, try to log them promptly and with something worth saying.

IF (often) I choose to 'discover' instead of move it, I still try let people know where it is and what condition it is in.

A photo if possible / prudent... especially where there is no clear pic of it on the TB page by the owner... MINUS the Tracking Number showing of course! :rolleyes: IF it's a coin / TB on a list or at an event, I say so, including who's list, where it was and again it's condition. ie Joeblow's collection @ XXXevent, wherever, good/bad. That's handy for tracking where it is. I'm sure if more people did that, they (GC's mostly) might not end up in as many moving collections instead of the wild. I'll say that I believe in giving credit to the collector as their due for their time and effort spent gathering them one way or the other.

 

As for emails... I think that SEEM is an appropriate term. I have run into many people who seem to take the 'profile' message at face value. When you send a message through someones profile, the message is sent via 'noreply @...' but UNLESS you block your registered email, a reply only needs to be selected and the correct (your) email will be filled in... just ignore the bit about not bothering 'noreply'... of course they won't reply, but I will. Of course you can post your email address directly onto your profile if you wish as well. Some simply won't reply of course, nothing will fix that. But a lot simply don't understand the process of a 'blind' contact like that. That said, it might be nice if GS could do an periodic automated revalidation of email address for cache owners, maybe trackable owners, who knows maybe everyone now and then... the result would be a 'cutoff' of service until revalidated... or maybe just a flag on your file for someone to review it. Might improve things a tad re absent/missing owners and caches without maintenance... but just a tool for the system managers.

 

Doug 7rxc

Link to comment

>snipped<

 

As for emails... I think that SEEM is an appropriate term. I have run into many people who seem to take the 'profile' message at face value. When you send a message through someones profile, the message is sent via 'noreply @...' but UNLESS you block your registered email, a reply only needs to be selected and the correct (your) email will be filled in... just ignore the bit about not bothering 'noreply'... of course they won't reply, but I will. Of course you can post your email address directly onto your profile if you wish as well. Some simply won't reply of course, nothing will fix that. But a lot simply don't understand the process of a 'blind' contact like that. That said, it might be nice if GS could do an periodic automated revalidation of email address for cache owners, maybe trackable owners, who knows maybe everyone now and then... the result would be a 'cutoff' of service until revalidated... or maybe just a flag on your file for someone to review it. Might improve things a tad re absent/missing owners and caches without maintenance... but just a tool for the system managers.

 

Doug 7rxc

Yes!

Maybe they do reply, but do it by hitting "Reply" on the Groundspeak email, not realizing the sender has opted to 'not send their email address' with the message.

Link to comment

I'll throw in another bit... IF you block your email when sending a 'profile' message... you can always include a reply email address in the body of the message near your signature... I do that even though I don't block it... I DO use my hotmail.com address though.

I haven't bothered with a special account yet. I have enough trouble remembering the ones I have now!

 

I will comment that most of my emails sent out have been responded to, but there is a large body that aren't... most of the people who do reply have been quite friendly... quite a few have become regular contacts. You can't make people contact you though, or make some of them STOP contacting you sometimes.

 

Doug 7rxc

Link to comment

My children are involved in a contest for whose Geocoin can mark the most miles. Last fall someone picked up our Geocoin and still hasn't placed it in a cache. We have tried contacting them twice, but they do not respond. What if anything can we do to get it back? My children are very upset about this! Add to the situation that we replaced our ME cache 2 weeks ago once the snow had gone and now someone has stolen the WHOLE CACHE!! Our children are only 5 and 8 and 8 years old. They are very upset that people are doing this. Any suggestions?

Thanks so much!

 

I hear you...and yet...well, leaving aside the heartache issue, this micro-universe is merely a reflection of our society. I would just make this a learning moment and go and buy more trackables. I just bought the three basic bugs since I don't want something pretty enough to keep.

 

My current dilemma is settling arguments between my three very young children...the youngest (4) is determined to hold on to the GPS and telling the other two where to go. Invariably, one of the three will break into tears when I explain that you don't always have to take something...

Link to comment

One of my kids TB (8 and 10 years old) got stuck in Australia for almost half a year. Due to severe weather and geological conditions I didn't contact the owner after a month. When weather changed and a few months later I contacted the owner. First of all asking is all was fine with him and his family (that's more important than a $5 TB), asked about the conditions of geocaches in that area and finally asked he was willing to put the TB in a cache nearby so my daugther's TB could continue to compete with her brother's TB. He was very pleased with the fact people on the other side of the world were concerned about their situation. The TB was placed in an geocache a few week later and is on it's way after a long break.

 

Like said before. Don't get mad at the owner, it will not do any good. Be kind, don't ask just for a reason why the TB is held. And don't even think about ordering the owner to put the TB in a cache.

 

And also take the time to explain your kids about what's happening and how such things do happen without blaming the owner of the TB. Get a new TB and send it on it's way. Tell in your TB's goal it needs to catch up with the other TB's. Perhaps it might travel faster then the other ones.

Link to comment

One of my kids TB (8 and 10 years old) got stuck in Australia for almost half a year. Due to severe weather and geological conditions I didn't contact the owner after a month. When weather changed and a few months later I contacted the owner. First of all asking is all was fine with him and his family (that's more important than a $5 TB), asked about the conditions of geocaches in that area and finally asked he was willing to put the TB in a cache nearby so my daugther's TB could continue to compete with her brother's TB. He was very pleased with the fact people on the other side of the world were concerned about their situation. The TB was placed in an geocache a few week later and is on it's way after a long break.

 

Like said before. Don't get mad at the owner, it will not do any good. Be kind, don't ask just for a reason why the TB is held. And don't even think about ordering the owner to put the TB in a cache.

 

And also take the time to explain your kids about what's happening and how such things do happen without blaming the owner of the TB. Get a new TB and send it on it's way. Tell in your TB's goal it needs to catch up with the other TB's. Perhaps it might travel faster then the other ones.

 

Excellent!

Cachers could look at the area that their traveler is in. Is it in Texas, in the midst of the wildfires? Is it in the Plains, swept away by tornado? Is it in Japan, or New Zealand, struck by earthquake or tsunami? Is it in the Northeast US, where winter wouldn't leave? Is it in any area where weather or geological events are going on?

Travel Bugs want to travel, but every now and then, they have to stop for a while, until travel is available again. We can't expect them to be moved weekly. Or even monthly. We can hope, we can dream, but we should keep our expectations low. It's like sending out a message in a bottle, you don't know if it will float ashore, or sink, or smash up on the rocks. You just hope someone will find it intact. And with TBs, getting the message back is a little easier, than with a bottle. :lol:

Link to comment

Some people think that geocaching is actually about moving the CACHE ... met one of those recently, and did my best to set her straight without showing too much horror and scaring her off the sport. Fortunately she's not a cacher, just someone who'd heard of it. And one of our personal favorite caches got muggled recently ... either deliberate theft or an unknowing kid, hard to tell with playground hides. But that one had squirrels after it, too, so it was bound to happen eventually ... still, we're pretty disappointed and it's not even our cache ... just one close by that we liked to keep an eye on.

 

And newbies make mistakes. One local newbie took a micro with him before an upcoming event, so that it would be protected from muggles during said event ... not thinking that cachers might be at the event too, looking for it! He responded to initial emails and intended to return the cache later, but never did, and now the owner has finally had to archive the listing. Guess the guy never really got into the hobby after that, or lost the micro or something. Maybe he was embarrassed about the mistake, let too much time go by, and decided to just disappear. Which is a pity, since we'd all rather have more players and cachers back, and forgive mistakes, than to lose players and caches.

 

The idea about making a replacement is a good one. If you've got a picture of the original, you could do a laminated card type thing, and put the code on it, so it still kinda looks like what it used to be. At least then the contest can continue.

Link to comment

The coin is probably lost... I have some friends who are from the States that came to Canada. I introduced them to geocaching, and they loved it. In one of the caches we found a geocoin. I explained it to them and they really badly wanted to take it back to the states. I told them to place it in a cache and tell me the name of it so I can log it... And don't lose it!!! Well I contacted them a week after asking them if they had put the coin down and they said they lost it. It's going to be hard to explain this one to the coin owner considering it was logged on my account... I feel really bad. I'm going to guess this sorta thing happened with a newbie finding ur coin and then not knowing how to log it or lost it.

Link to comment

The coin is probably lost... I have some friends who are from the States that came to Canada told them to . I introduced them to geocaching, and they loved it. In one of the caches we found a geocoin. I explained it to them and they really badly wanted to take it back to the states. Iplace it in a cache and tell me the name of it so I can log it... And don't lose it!!! Well I contacted them a week after asking them if they had put the coin down and they said they lost it. It's going to be hard to explain this one to the coin owner considering it was logged on my account... I feel really bad. I'm going to guess this sorta thing happened with a newbie finding ur coin and then not knowing how to log it or lost it.

(added highlight) An often reported/posted problem in the forums.

 

Never, never, never, never, NEVER give a Travel Bug or geocoin to a muggle to carry or place somewhere. It seems to rarely work out properly.

Can't really say why, but only guess, that no matter how much you may think a friend or relative (non-cacher) says that they understand, they don't! Perhaps if they actually understood, they would be a cacher -- not a muggle.

Link to comment

It's incredibly easy to lose those little things. I've even lost my own TBs and coins, when I thought I had stored them where they would NOT get lost.

 

As mentioned many times, you can hold onto your own nice coin, let people "discover" it, and "visit" it in any cache you like. It stays with you. You might end up losing it anyway, but you'll know it's just a matter of looking in pockets, your car, etc., and it's more likely to turn up again.

Edited by kunarion
Link to comment

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.
Note: Your post will require moderator approval before it will be visible.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

Loading...
×
×
  • Create New...