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By way of introduction, I am the
Managing Director of Crawford & Company South Africa, (www.crawfordandcompany.co.za).
We are insurance loss adjusters with our head office based in
Atlanta, Georgia, USA. Crawford & Company is the worlds largest
independent provider of claims management solutions to insurance
companies and self insured entities with a global network of more
than 700 offices in 63 countries. Our major service lines include
workers compensation, claims administration and health care
management services. property and casual claims management, class
action services and risk management information services. The
companies' shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange. I am
responsible for our sub-saharan Africa operations, managed from our
head office in Johannesburg, we also have branches in Cape Town,
Durban and Port Elizabeth.
The purpose of this correspondence in to complement you on what I
believe is a superior product in the business luggage market. I have
been the proud owner of a Targus TR700 since May 2005 when I
purchased the item at the Johannesburg International Airport on my
way to the UK for a business visit. The design, materials used and
general construction of this unit has saved me thousands of Rands
and you will see from my description of the events on
Wednesday/Thursday the 3rd / 4th May 2006.
On Wednesday morning 3 May 2006 at about 07h15 I left my house in
Randparkridge for my office situated in Bryanston without having
realised that I had driven over my briefcase as I reversed out of my
garage. The briefcase had become lodged under my car, and as a
result was dragged for no less than 800m to the next corner where,
as I completed the turn, it was dislodged and was left lying in the
middle of the road. Not having noticed, I drove on and arrived at
the office only then to discover that the briefcase was not in the
boot of my vehicle as it would normally be. As you can imagine, a
moderate state of panic ensued and I rang my wife who was still at
home at the time and requested her to check in and around our
property as I the recalled that I had walked out of the house with
it, but that I had perhaps pushed it back with my vehicle in the
driveway before leaving the property. My wife checked the property,
found nothing and then went on to check our residential road and a
portion of the route that I would normally take to the office. The
case was nowhere to be found.
I retraced my steps to our house also not finding anything. After
arriving home I noticed drag marks on our paving and then also found
a small piece of black plastic and a piece of string that I
recognised from the briefcase. At that point I knew without any
doubt that I had failed to put the briefcase in the back of my
vehicle an that I had driven over it dragging it out of my property
into the public road. At this time, I must mention that there is a
municipal work team busy digging a trench on the opposite side of my
property so there were many potential witnesses that would have
noticed my dragging the bag under my vehicle all the way down the
road. I questioned the foreman who in turn kindly called all the
workers together but unfortunately no-one had noticed or seen
anything? You can just imagine what the conclusion is that one would
draw from that. Two domestic helpers were standing at one of my
neighbours front gates and when I approached them to ask them about
the incident, one of them remarked that as she was walking to her
employers premises, she noticed around the corner from my street a
white Citi Golf with a description as a school bag stuck underneath
the vehicle. Apparently the driver was severely distraught as she
did not want to drive the vehicle any further for fear of damaging
the undercarriage or other parts of the vehicle.
Questioning the occupants of the houses in the immediate vicinity I
established that one particular owner had assisted or attempted to
assist the driver of the white Citi Golf and that the driver had
phoned her father to come and assist. According to the domestic and
other eye-witness, the vehicle had to be jacked up in order to free
the briefcase. The driver of the white Citi golf apparently left for
work and her father left with the briefcase. Unfortunately, no one
had recorded her details or the registration numbers of the
vehicles. According to eye witness descriptions, the driver of the
white Citi golf admitted that she was speeding down this particular
road when suddenly she saw the briefcase lying in the middle of the
road. Swerving for some of the road works, she then hit the
briefcase head on, dragging it down the road for a further 200m
before she could bring her vehicle under control and to standstill.
She apparently said that she thought the vehicle’s spoiler would be
high enough to clear the case.
Armed with this information, I approached a neighbour who has
surveillance cameras outside of his property, but unfortunately, by
that time the tapes had been overwritten and I could not trace the
registration of the vehicle. Returning home at about 19h00 on
Wednesday evening, I decided to have a look around our neighbourhood
for white Citi golfs and between then and about 23h45 knocked on the
doors of no fewer than 11 houses where I saw white Citi golfs
parked. Unfortunately none of these were the one involved in the
incident. At one particular property there was a white Citi golf
outside but no one appeared to be home at the time and so at 05h00
on Thursday morning 4 May 2006, I went knocking on their door to
establish that it also was not the correct vehicle. I now had only
one alternative and that is to hope that the driver of the white
Citi golf would follow the same route to work that day and so I
waited from 05h30 until 07h30 recording no less than 17 white Citi
golfs driving down the same road each time hoping that this would be
the one matching the eye witness description. Finally at 07h30, a
white Citi golf with a young female driver matching the description
approached and I attempted to flag her down, but she accelerated and
sped off. Fortunately, I recorded her registration number and traced
the vehicle to her place of residence. After considerable
difficulty, I managed to get her mobile number and established
contact.
According to the driver, following hitting the briefcase in the
road, she had indeed requested her father to assist in extracting
the briefcase from underneath her vehicle and he was now in
possession of the briefcase, but was unfortunately “too busy? to
check whose property it was and apparently did not have time to give
me a ring.
You should know that inside this briefcase I had a very valuable
Meccer personal laptop computer, a 3G card, a Nikon digital camera,
HP calculator, Philips dicataphone, personal papers etc., etc. As
far as personal details are concerned, my business cards with all my
details as well as my passport and international drivers licence was
also inside. I will be completing my Doctorate degree soon and my
research (although backed-up) was on the computer as well! Without
going into too much detail, the driver’s father informed me
telephonically that everything in the bag was destroyed and that he
did not understand why I would want it anyway. He suggested a
negotiated settlement, you can just imagine my response.
Collecting the bag from him at 15h30 on Thursday 4 May 2006, I
discovered that not a single item within the briefcase had been
harmed in any way!! The notebook computer, the camera, dictaphone,
calculator, personal papers, etc. was perfectly intact and
undamaged.
I find it absolutely incredible that the briefcase after having been
crushed under my vehicle, an Audi A8, dragged for 800m, hit by a
second vehicle and dragged for a further 200m still protected its
contents to the extent that I suffered no damage whatsoever.
I am a regular international traveller and considered many
alternative brands before selecting this particular unit. I
carefully considered weight, design, materials used, number of
internal pockets, ease of access, and perhaps, most importantly, the
extent to which the notebook computer is protected within the unit.
Yours, offering sealed air pockets around the computer appealed to
me, simply because I could not think myself of a better way to
protect such an asset. The mesh internal pockets, within which I
store cables, a travel mouse, flash memory cards, headset etc. is
perfect! And then of course the fact that it has a strong, sturdy
handle and smooth air filled wheels.
I cannot compliment you enough on the overall design and also the
quality of materials used and assembly. It is only because of these
factors that I have not suffered any loss through this quite unique
incident.
Please accept my most sincere thanks and compliments for a wonderful
product. You and your staff should be proud to be associated with
such quality.
Yours faithfully
A G Willemse
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