C
Coleve
Guest
Myself and my fiance were away last week in the algarve on a package holiday. On our final evening we returned to our apartment at about 7 from the beach where we had spent the day. On returning we found that the safety deposit box in the bedroom had been robbed. In it we had placed 2 phones, 2 passports, car and house keys, wallet with cash,credit and bank cards,a bracelet and 2 rings, one of which, worst of all, was an engagement ring - We had only just got engaged few weeks beforehand! The police and holiday rep and apartment owner were called from reception straight away.
The police found no evidence of a break in to our third floor apartment and from what we could understand they were having a very heated discussion with the apartment complex manager. Our apartment key had been left at reception all day,while we were at the beach. The safe had only been screwed to the wall and required a key, as opposed to a digital code, to open it. The actual safe had just been removed from the wall and robbed. A case belonging to us was also taken, presumably to carry the safe out. The apartment owner said "in this case we give a thousand euro". We were disgusted to discover this and never would have placed such items in the safe if we realised this. When we questioned management and our holiday rep (who had finally arrived after 2 hours) as to where this information was written, they said it wasn't written anywhere and was just their policy. We didn't know whether to take this money or not and wanted to think about it and seek advice as we weren't flying home until the following morning. We were told we had to make our minds up there and then as the manager wanted to go home. Our holiday rep said we should take the money. As you can understand we were totally confused and distressed and took the money.
We then had to go to the police station to obtain a report on the robbery, which mainly consisted of listing the items contained in the safe.
Our main problem is that we feel that we robbed by our hosts...key at reception,out all day everyday, the safe was not secure and didn't require any personal code etc. to open it (so our hosts would obviously have been able to access safe with a master key to investigate contents, if they hadn't already noticed the my engagement ring when wearing it each night when handing in the key at reception) ,no evidence of forced entry found by police etc. We know we have no proof of this - we're not conspiracy theorists either, but everyone we speak with feels the same as us about where the blame lies!
Our second bone of contention concerns the lack of help we received from the holiday rep (well known irish company) following the robbery. When we initially contacted her she said she would be with us within an hour. When there was no sign of her, we rang again, only to discovered that she had decided not to come - she felt it could be resolved over the phone! When we insisted that she come to help us, she reluctantly said that she would,and so it was another hour before she arrived. She was therefore not present when the police were having the heated discussion with the manager. We were only guessing as to what was going on but were totally frustrated at the lack of information we were getting. When it came to going to the police station she was not going to come. We had to plead with her to come with us. She was Portuguese and in hindsight we would have never been able to get the police report completed without her translating for both us and the police. She then left at half 10, saying she had asked the police to organise a taxi for us. It was an hour and a half later before we got one.
We returned to the room to pack but we couldn't stay there - i was very distressed after what had happened there and felt sick at the thought of being in the apartment. We stayed with our two friends on the couch in their room as we hadn't been offered an alternative room.
Does anyone know how we can progress with this to achieve compensation for the ring? Our holiday insurance only covers our passports and jewellery to the value of four hundred euro. Unfortunately the engagement ring wasn't on our house insurance, as we weren't long engaged.
Any help will be gratefully accepted.
The police found no evidence of a break in to our third floor apartment and from what we could understand they were having a very heated discussion with the apartment complex manager. Our apartment key had been left at reception all day,while we were at the beach. The safe had only been screwed to the wall and required a key, as opposed to a digital code, to open it. The actual safe had just been removed from the wall and robbed. A case belonging to us was also taken, presumably to carry the safe out. The apartment owner said "in this case we give a thousand euro". We were disgusted to discover this and never would have placed such items in the safe if we realised this. When we questioned management and our holiday rep (who had finally arrived after 2 hours) as to where this information was written, they said it wasn't written anywhere and was just their policy. We didn't know whether to take this money or not and wanted to think about it and seek advice as we weren't flying home until the following morning. We were told we had to make our minds up there and then as the manager wanted to go home. Our holiday rep said we should take the money. As you can understand we were totally confused and distressed and took the money.
We then had to go to the police station to obtain a report on the robbery, which mainly consisted of listing the items contained in the safe.
Our main problem is that we feel that we robbed by our hosts...key at reception,out all day everyday, the safe was not secure and didn't require any personal code etc. to open it (so our hosts would obviously have been able to access safe with a master key to investigate contents, if they hadn't already noticed the my engagement ring when wearing it each night when handing in the key at reception) ,no evidence of forced entry found by police etc. We know we have no proof of this - we're not conspiracy theorists either, but everyone we speak with feels the same as us about where the blame lies!
Our second bone of contention concerns the lack of help we received from the holiday rep (well known irish company) following the robbery. When we initially contacted her she said she would be with us within an hour. When there was no sign of her, we rang again, only to discovered that she had decided not to come - she felt it could be resolved over the phone! When we insisted that she come to help us, she reluctantly said that she would,and so it was another hour before she arrived. She was therefore not present when the police were having the heated discussion with the manager. We were only guessing as to what was going on but were totally frustrated at the lack of information we were getting. When it came to going to the police station she was not going to come. We had to plead with her to come with us. She was Portuguese and in hindsight we would have never been able to get the police report completed without her translating for both us and the police. She then left at half 10, saying she had asked the police to organise a taxi for us. It was an hour and a half later before we got one.
We returned to the room to pack but we couldn't stay there - i was very distressed after what had happened there and felt sick at the thought of being in the apartment. We stayed with our two friends on the couch in their room as we hadn't been offered an alternative room.
Does anyone know how we can progress with this to achieve compensation for the ring? Our holiday insurance only covers our passports and jewellery to the value of four hundred euro. Unfortunately the engagement ring wasn't on our house insurance, as we weren't long engaged.
Any help will be gratefully accepted.