Michael Roebuck's Blog: May 2009

Friday, May 01, 2009

StuffBak Loss Protection

The official description of StuffBak is: "StuffBak is a service that makes it easy for consumers and businesses to confidentially link important mobile assets to an international 24/7/365 recovery network. When a StuffBak-labeled item is found, the registered owner is immediately contacted by phone and email. StuffBak facilitates a speedy recovery and always thanks the finder."

In laymans terms, you place a sticker on your items. The sticker reads "Reward if Found" and has a phone number to call or a website to view if the item is found. Pretty basic. I'm normally not a fan of these types of services. I have my reasons. However, I bought something back in 2007 that had a StuffBak label included trying to get me to try the service. I tried the service and bought the "Mobile Professional Pack" for my keys, laptop, laptop bag, etc. I must have been feeling really generous that day. Then I forgot about it.

Last year, my son bought an iPhone and I found my folder of stickers and gave him one. He could barely afford the iPhone to begin with and certainly couldn't afford to replace it. We then forgot about the stickers.

My son also volunteers on the local ambulance. Last Saturday, he was on an ambulance call in a park where he proceeded to drop his iPhone somewhere. Before he could come home and tell me about it, the phone was found and whoever found it had called StuffBak who then called the house and spoke to my wife. The finder had already left town and was traveling to Chicago or else someone could have gone and picked it up. Regardless, a few days later my son received his phone in the mail. It cost me $20 reward money which I'm sure my son will happily reimburse.

Moral of the story? I have dug out my folder of StuffBak labels and have now labeled many more items that I carry around. Looking at the StuffBak website, The Mobile Professional Pack contains 16 labels for $60.00 and includes 2 years of return service. I volunteer on the Fire Department and have an iPhone myself. I'd gladly pay $60 every 2 years for it to be returned to me if I loose it!

The stickers come in a variety of sizes and are relatively small and out of the way.