Grabbed too soon

[+Wombatwandering]

Newbie sorry. I dropped off a TB today but it was grabbed before I could get home and log that. I use a GBS and not a phone. I've seen in trouble shooting to contact the person and ask to grab it back but I didn't save the tracking number. Besides that, did I do anything else wrong? I can't see how I would have known in advance where I was going to place it so I couldn't 'pre log'. I have contacted the grabber and I realise I can just go back and edit my log to tell the story. What I'm really asking is what is the proper etiquette to grabbing? If you find a TB in a cache that is still listed as being in someone's hands, how long should you wait before you grab it?

[+cerberus1]

Isn't a good answer, but it depends...

Most times I log it when I get home.

If someone grabbed it from me, and logged it already with their phone, I feel that's kinda on me, and forget it.

- It's still moved properly...

There's one near me that's so backlogged, they'd mess up the trackable's movement by the time they get around to write it up.

- Might have been passed a dozen times already, and this brainiac's placing it in a cache from four months ago.

 

I just got one that (so far) hasn't been logged into the cache for two weeks, from a person normally up on their logging.

- Isn't in by Monday, I'm logging it.

[+on4bam]

Newbie sorry. I dropped off a TB today but it was grabbed before I could get home and log that. I use a GBS and not a phone. I've seen in trouble shooting to contact the person and ask to grab it back but I didn't save the tracking number. Besides that, did I do anything else wrong? I can't see how I would have known in advance where I was going to place it so I couldn't 'pre log'. I have contacted the grabber and I realise I can just go back and edit my log to tell the story. What I'm really asking is what is the proper etiquette to grabbing? If you find a TB in a cache that is still listed as being in someone's hands, how long should you wait before you grab it?

 

Happened to me a few times.

I keep all info in my GSAK databases so I have tracking numbers for all trackables I logged in the last few years.

What I do is:

1. Grab the TB back (grab from...)

2. Log that I dropped it in the cache I left it in.

3. Contact the cacher who took the TB and tell hem what I did and that I appreciate it if I could at least be given the opportunity to log online before "grabbing" from me.

 

If I take a TB that wasn't logged yet, I put it on my watchlist so I get an email when it's logged. I also keep an eye on the previous cacher so I can see when he logs the cache he dropped the TB in. If he logs the cache but not the TB I send an email asking to log the TB so I can move it along.

 

BTW, I log everything when I get back home in the evening (GSAK) so cache and TB are logged at the same time. When on holiday I try to log the same evening if I have internet access, if not I log at the first opportunity I have and that's never been more than 3 days.

Edited May 1, 2016 by on4bam

[+cerberus1]

The few times someone was so anal to hassle me over a trackable, I just dropped it in a nearby cache when I could, without responding to them at all.

[+on4bam]

The few times someone was so anal to hassle me over a trackable, I just dropped it in a nearby cache when I could, without responding to them at all.

 

If expecting common courtesy is anal so be it.

At least I haven't seen many instances of immediate, at the spot logging. I guess not leaving TBs at tradionals works very well to avoid it.

[+noncentric]

To the OP: You didn't do anything wrong. You could grab the TB from the person how holding it, then drop it into the cache where you left it, and then ask the person now holding it to retrieve the TB again. However, that will be difficult if you don't have the tracking number anymore. You could ask the person now holding it to give you the tracking number.

 

Or, you can just let it be.

 

I've had this happen to me before. I dropped a TB in a cache one night, then it was picked up the next morning. The cacher that picked it up was kind enough to contact me and let me know that they found the TB before they logged it. I then logged the drop TB right away, contacted the other cacher, and they grabbed it. TB's history kept nice and neat.

 

Since I'm often behind in logging cache finds, then I'll drop TB's using a 'Write Note' log. I then immediately delete that Write Note log. The TB will be in the cache's inventory and another cacher can retrieve it properly.

 

If I find a TB that isn't in the cache's inventory, then I'll either:

-- If the holder of the TB hasn't logged their Found It yet, then I'll check back every few days. Once they log they Found It, then I proceed with...

-- If the holder of the TB has logged their Found It , then I'll contact them and ask them to drop the TB into the cache. If they don't respond after a few days, then I'll grab the TB from them, place the TB into the cache, then retrieve it from the same cache.

[+Walts Hunting]

Just let it be. Maybe the grabber will dip it where he found it or not. Trackable's locations and tracking are so out of whack it doesn't matter much. I would advise against grabbing it since the person you grab it may not want to deal with grabbing it back.

 

While I wouldn't use the language a previous poster did I do what he did. I have had about a dozen grabbed from me over the years and I just drop them in the next large enough cache and let someone else worry about it. It isn't that important.

[+dprovan]

It happens. No big deal. Post a note to document your drop. Not a bad idea to explain why it was picked up before you could drop it. (It's OK to say "because it was grabbed really fast", but also OK to say "I wasn't logging anything for the 2 weeks I was on vacation.")

 

How long should you wait to grab if you're in the other position? I don't think you have to wait at all, but my practice is to wait "as long as I can", which normally means I'll put off grabbing it from you until I have to drop the TB myself the next day. I'll always mentioned the I took it in the cache's Found log, and normally I leave a note on the TB page that says I'm waiting so that if I happen to forget I have it, someone knows I'm the one to poke.

 

If you do have to grab one from someone else, be sure to have it visit the cache where you find it so that its path from cache to cache is properly reflected in the system.

 

If I found it had been grabbed before I dropped it, I would never grab it back since the upside is tiny -- nothing bad happened just because it was grabbed before you could drop it -- yet it can cause a great deal of confusion if you tell the system you have it when you don't.

 

By the way, I was very amused when you mentioned that you should have written down the TB code. As I say, I'd never use it to grab back the TB in this situation, but there are other situations where it is important to have the code after you dropped the TB, so I'm glad you've already recognized that is a good idea even if it was for the wrong reason.

[+Wombatwandering]

Thanks everyone! I know for next time.