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Don’t leave your wallet on an Arriva Trains Wales train...


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Doing anything incurs a cost (need to employ someone to handle the lost items if nothing else). I'd rather that was included as a negligable (which it should be, spread out) extra charge on my ticket, if you must feel the need to account for every little thing.

Quite so - however we live in an age where the people making the decisions “know the value of everything but the value of nothing” such an approach is not looked on favourably as ‘providing best value to the taxpayer / business.

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Charging a fee to return lost property is not unreasonable, given that there is a cost involved in storing and handling it, and that fee could be related to the size and awkwardness of the item. It is also fair that the fee should be paid by the loser of the property, rather than everyone having to chip in whether they are careless enough to lose valuable items or not. However, taking a cut of any cash found is most certainly a step too far, and another example of the railway industry finding ways to damage its reputation (as if it needed any).

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Arriva Tains Wales couldn't care less. Their franchise runs out in a few days!

 

Maybe, but then again...

 

They are promoting (and even paying for people to hand out leaflets for) their "Club 55" tickets, some of which will probably be bought for dates on which they are no longer running services.

 

They don't look as if they've given up bothering because the franchise is nearly done.

 

(OK some posters with apologies and explanations for putting 153s on the Coryton line and leaving people behind at stations would be nice, but trying to pretend the Coryton line doesn't exist is nothing new).

 

And bringing this more on topic (sorry), a few years ago I left a hat on a Stagecoach Bluebird coach (Aberdeenshire). When I turned up to lost property they didn't have my hat, but they did have a collection of similar ones that nobody had claimed so they passed the box over and told me to pick one. There was no charge.

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It’s illegal. Full stop.

 

You really ought to check the facts before coming out with bald statements like that   As a matter of fact, not surmise or guesswork, it is perfectly legal and is included in the Conditions of Carriage - which also set out the maximum amounts which may be charged for the service.

 

And of course it is nothing new that can be blamed on privatisation because NBR also charged for Lost Property which had been taken into the system - you only got it back without a charge if you got it back before storage etc was added.

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They can take a percentage if they want from my wallet...

 

There's never much in there anyway. What's 10% of nowt?

 

Yes, I have a load of correspondence which I purchased with other ephemera some years ago and among it there is a letter relating to an umbrella which a lady had left on a train and which was subsequently unclaimed fro several days and then had to be sent from Paddington to Kemble.  The memo advising the Kemble Stationmaster that the umbrella was being despatched from Paddington also reminded him to raise the appropriate charge - that was in the 1880s.  BR charged if the item had been booked into the system or had gone to the Lost Property warehouse.

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You really ought to check the facts before coming out with bald statements like that As a matter of fact, not surmise or guesswork, it is perfectly legal and is included in the Conditions of Carriage - which also set out the maximum amounts which may be charged for the service.

For the storage and return, yes, but surely just helping yourselves to content from the wallet is pushing the line too far.

 

Taxi companies must be making a fortune when drunken people leave wallets, phones and laptops. Just keep them.

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That’s precisely what they often do. A friend had it at the weekend. Realised almost immediately, “dunno what you’re talking about mate, no wallet here”.

 

I left my wallet on a Southern train. It was returned, in person, by the chap manning the ticket office at the next station, who found my Photocards and looked the number up on the system. I was more than a little appreciative!

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In days of old it used to be called offering a service to the public

Legend

 

Totally agree with you. In the old days customers used to receive service from those who services you used. Now it’s all about the bottom line. In addition is it not a crime to find money and not return it

 

However both the companies and the unions who represent their staff need all the good will they can get from the long suffering customers who constantly have to put up with sky high prices, overcrowding, delays, cancellations etc

 

To all the senior managers I say “ please give something back to your long suffering customers

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To all the senior managers I say “ please give something back to your long suffering customers

And they would most likely reply “we are powerless to do so”

 

It’s a sad but very real fact that those who make the decisions about fares, charges, service provision, etc are remote from those who have to carry it out. Moreover such decision makers rarely have to deal with the consiquences of their actions.

 

For example the decision by how much regulated fares rise is down to that nice Mr Grayling and his mates in Whitehall - not senior managers at GWR.

 

Equally the decision to start a major fight with the RMT over Guards had nothing to do with senoir managers - and everything to do with that nice Mr Wilkinson and his Thatcherite mates in the DfT

 

Similarly for non regulated fares it’s the accountants and senoir executives that have the power - and they care far more about their city share price (and keeping on good terms with Mr Grayling) than passengers.

 

Even things like lost property policy are not in the hands of senior managers anymore - policy will be decided at executive level with the primary concern to maximise shareholder returns.

 

Where senoir managers are given the necessary freedom, many do recognise that customer service is important but unfortunately most organisations don’t like going down that route as it undermines the power of the ruling elite as it were.

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We live in a free market era, where "competition" overrules everything else, and private = good and public= bad. Low headline prices for tickets to get us on to planes, busses and trains is the aim, wbich means we are charged extra for any extra services, such as lost property. Tbe "low cost" airlines have this down to a fine art, the ticket is cheap, but you pay extra for things you'd expdct to be included in the ticket price, like checking in, or having luggage. TOCs are in it to make money, and there's no competition in finding and returning lost property. Personally, I'm surprised that another passenger hadn't swiped the cash in the wallet.

 

Also, in our era of nutters of all sorts going round planting bombs, there are probably security implications in dealing with lost property, and that costs. Thank goodness airport style security checks aren't yet needed for trains, apart from services using the Channel Tunnel.

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I'm confused as to why they charge different amounts for different items, it would make sense if it was size based as bicycles take up a lot more space than phones but £3 for a bike and £25 for a camcorder is rather strange.

They clearly don't know the cost of bikes these days, with some costing more than many laptops or tablets or high end smartphones.
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