Keith wrote on Oct 10
th, 2010 at 8:11pm:
Fortunately as it was a Thursday he lost his bag so my son went to the lost property office at Guildford the next morning. His bag wasn't there. That is the only way of contacting the local lost property office. You have to turn up in person. After 24 hours the property is sent to Waterloo. If you want to get it back you have to go to Waterloo to get it or pay postage for the return.
Utter madness.
So if it were a station you didn't visit regularly or weren't going in the next day (say he lost it of Friday), then we have to make a fruitless journey to Guildford (30 mile round trip) just to find out it isn't there, rather than make a call and be told it isn't there.
Or we can wait 24 hours and call the central number who may tell us that they now have it, the bag having made a needless train journey to Waterloo. However it apparently can't make a journey back so we have to collect it or pay postage.
I don't have a problem with this for stuff that isn't claimed quickly, but to obstruct customers from finding out if something has been handed in until it is sent to Waterloo 24 hours later is perverse.
An absolutely crazy situation!
As you say, it's the first 24 hours that are crucial, and if you could have spoken to them there and then (when it became apparent that the luggage had been forgotten), then the situation could have been resolved so much easier.
Of course, this is is South West Trains policy, which presumably applies at all its stations and on its trains. Other rail operators that run other stations may have similar or different policies on lost property.
All in all, it's the luck of the draw as to which station you loose your property at and what the operator's policy is.
I suggest you might like to consider one or more of the following:
- South West Trains is part of Stagecoach Group. FWIW, write to its chief executive and co-founder, Brian Souter. See here. CEO e-mail gives his PA's address: glenys.mackreth@stagecoachgroup.com, although the September 2010 edition of the company's newsletter says that Ms MacKreth has retired.
- Write to your MP (you would perhaps be best waiting until it is resolved and you have the bag back until you do this).
- Contact to your local newspaper about this.