Lost property - whose property?

Indraneelan

TonyMMM wrote: »

Nothing to do with Police.

They are entitled to charge an admin fee to cover the costs of dealing with lost property - You can complain to them about the amount if you wish.

It's the extent of their entitlement that I'm questioning. I find it hard to believe they're entitled to charge whatever they want. The price structure makes it clear it's not an admin fee. To the suggestion earlier that they keep it in more secure storage - they don't, I saw where they got it from, it was from the same place as my other bag.

And a charge of 10% for cash is clearly not an admin fee. There's no way that can possibly be argued.

halibut2209

If I found someone's wallet and refused to give it back unless they gave me 10% of its contents, I'd be expecting a visit from the boys in blue. And I don't mean Chelsea FC.

CoolHotCold

yes hallibut2209, but you are not a company that has to pay staff to hold belongings, itemise them, indeed search them for unlawful materials (bombs) and try to contact the owner if there are documents inside, no do you need to provide safe and secure area to store items.


The 10% fee is a little unfair, but cheaper than loosing all the money.

The fact they hold the items at all is good as they could just forward everything onto a police office and destroy cards and important documents for security reasons. (They'd probably find a loophole anyway)


End of the day, it's a AVS (added Value Service) and I'd prefer those who lost items by forgetting about them (Honestly who forgets two baggage items) pay for the storage rather then the price being added to the tickets.

halibut2209

There's a difference between an admin fee, and a sliding scale based on the wealth of the customer.

wealdroam

Has been discussed before...

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/46659925#Comment_46659925

Guardsman

Do they check to see how much cash you have on your credit card:D

JimmyTheWig

ThumbRemote wrote: »

The train company have a duty of care of the OPs belongings, and can only charge their actual costs, not an arbitrary amount.

Does it have to be the actual cost per item, or is it reasonable to charge those who "should" (on some scale) pay more than others so that the total covers their actual costs.
E.g. if it costs them £10 to run the service and one person loses £70 and another loses £30 is it fair to charge one £7 and the other £3? I.e. they have only covered their actual costs, despite charging different amounts.

It strikes me as similar to a bureau de change charging a percentage of the amount you are changing as their fee. It could be argued that there is no more admin in exchanging £1000 as there is in exchanging £100, so should these customers both pay the same fees?

halibut2209

A Bureau de Change isn't retaining property that does not belong to them.

ThumbRemote

CoolHotCold wrote: »

The 10% fee is a little unfair, but cheaper than loosing all the money.

The fact they hold the items at all is good as they could just forward everything onto a police office and destroy cards and important documents for security reasons. (They'd probably find a loophole anyway)


End of the day, it's a AVS (added Value Service) and I'd prefer those who lost items by forgetting about them (Honestly who forgets two baggage items) pay for the storage rather then the price being added to the tickets.

If they forwarded it all to the police, that would be fine. Destorying items would not be.

It's not an Added Value Service. It's a legal requirement to look after the items.

ChadMan

well this could be tough. i would call the local police station and report a theft or sale of stolen goods but you should not have to buy your goods back like a !!!!!! shop dealer.