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Aer Lingus charges for lost property

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    #32
    OU812
    Registered Users Posts: 6,035 ✭✭✭OU812


    fael wrote: »
    I would be more interested to see what this third party does with items that aren't retrieved by the owner. Are they sitting on a pile of ipads, laptops and phones that were forgotten about by the owner? Where are they going? Will they be sold? Will all my family photos on my laptop be deleted or are they selling on my private stuff as well?

    Should be backing your photos up to at least two separate locations.


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    #33
    Stovepipe
    Registered Users Posts: 2,979 ✭✭✭Stovepipe


    The most common lost items are : phones, sunglasses, ordinary glasses, passports, ID cards, drivers' licenses, wallets, laptops and tablets (more of these than old style laptops), earphones, headphones, jewellery (the amount of people who take off rings never ceases to amaze me).
    The persons most likely to find them are: cabin crew, engineers, cleaners and the load supervisor(s), as they will all pass through the cabin as part of their duties in the turnaround of the aircraft.
    The persons most likely to bring stuff to Lost Property: engineers / cabin crew (if they are passing it on the way out) / load supervisors (as they are the first point of contact with the aircraft's passengers).
    The persons most likely to look for lost stuff: the four grades mentioned above.

    It really does consume a huge amount of staff time looking for lost stuff. On one occasion, we had to dismantle three Premier seats to find a dropped engagement ring (she had taken it off to clean it and didnt know which seat she had dropped in on and she had a meltdown after the aircraft landed. We stripped the seats down and eventually found it. It added half an hour to the turnaround time, which pissed off the outgoing pax. She was blissfully ignorant of all this, of course and later wrote a snotty letter to the CEO, blaming us for taking so long to find her ring. Yiu can imagine what we thought of that.

    Apart from all that, we used to post stuff out to people or notify them by text or Fb or email to come and collect their stuff. I did it as recently as last week. Most people have stopped bringing stuff up to Lost Property, so the company has lost all that goodwill, in one fell swoop. So, travelling public, please take more care of your belongings, as it will cost you money to retrieve them.


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    #34
    partyguinness
    Registered Users Posts: 8,207 ✭✭✭partyguinness


    Stovepipe wrote: »
    T jewellery (the amount of people who take off rings never ceases to amaze me).


    :o Guilty.


    I have an awful habit of taking off my wedding band when washing my hands and misplacing it- will turn up in trousers etc weeks later. I am on my second on wedding band having left one in a toilet sink out on the beer. Or taking my watch off and leaving it by a sink- lost at least 2 watches that way not expensive ones.


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    #35
    partyguinness
    Registered Users Posts: 8,207 ✭✭✭partyguinness


    cloudhopper19 wrote: »
    Top Tip: Don't leave your stuff on the plane and you won't have to pay. Simples.


    Do you know what?

    I came close to posting a similar comment at the beginning but I didn't want to that dick.


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    #36
    trellheim
    Registered Users Posts: 5,864 ✭✭✭trellheim


    Have AL amended their T's and C's to note the outshop of lost property ?


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    #37
    Tacklebox
    Registered Users Posts: 419 ✭✭Tacklebox


    Gone are the days when you could have lost a bag with two slr camera's, a Shimano biomaster, Abu 6500 CT, daiwa 7ht, a pair of Ray-Ban.

    Put all that in your docket, price's new,and get a cheque in the post.....


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    #38
    smurfjed
    Registered Users Posts: 10,051 ✭✭✭✭smurfjed


    Wallet lost on Swissair, Samsung 1 week old S9 lost in a first class seat going to Dubai, IPAD left on Lufthansa, hat left after landing in Geneva, pouch with old passport and lots of money left in hotel in Kenya....... all returned for free with a smile.

    I'm gonna suffer if more airlines follow this cost reduction program.


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    #39
    OU812
    Registered Users Posts: 6,035 ✭✭✭OU812


    smurfjed wrote: »
    Wallet lost on Swissair, Samsung 1 week old S9 lost in a first class seat going to Dubai, IPAD left on Lufthansa, hat left after landing in Geneva, pouch with old passport and lots of money left in hotel in Kenya....... all returned for free with a smile.

    I'm gonna suffer if more airlines follow this cost reduction program.

    Or... and run with me on this... maybe be more careful & look after your stuff.

    I don’t know anyone that’s ever lost something valuable.


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    #40
    smurfjed
    Registered Users Posts: 10,051 ✭✭✭✭smurfjed


    Or... and run with me on this... maybe be more careful & look after your stuff.
    LOL, true.... but I do close to 500 flights per year.


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    #41
    Bazzy
    Registered Users Posts: 1,484 ✭✭✭Bazzy


    Cloudio9 wrote: »
    Is this a new thing ? Aer lingus using a third party wereturnit.com to manage lost property. e.g. €60 cost to return a laptop, €30 for headphones.

    Obviously there is a cost managing lost property but there's also a ticket premium flying AL over say Ryanair which a lot of people pay as there is an expectation you will be treated better. Seems a bit strange when they are upping the service levels in some areas.

    My brother left a jacket on a ryanair plane with his passport inside was returned free of charge

    Glad we didnt pay a "Premium" to ge tto our destination on time


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    #42
    Locker10a
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 4,155 Mod ✭✭✭✭Locker10a


    partyguinness wrote: »
    :o Guilty.


    I have an awful habit of taking off my wedding band when washing my hands and misplacing it- will turn up in trousers etc weeks later. I am on my second on wedding band having left one in a toilet sink out on the beer. Or taking my watch off and leaving it by a sink- lost at least 2 watches that way not expensive ones.

    Just stop taking off your rings/watch when you wash your hands !! It’s thats simple


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    #43
    plodder
    Registered Users Posts: 7,143 ✭✭✭plodder


    faoiarvok wrote: »
    I'd be really interested to hear some informed people's opinions on the legality of this.

    If I leave my property at your house and subsequently inform you, surely you can't legally demand payment for its return? I imagine it would be fair enough for you to request I cover the cost of postage if that's required, but I can't see them having any legal leg to stand on if you demand they return it without paying other fees.
    Not a lawyer, but I'd imagine the legality depends on how reasonable the charges are. If the charges are based on the actual work required to provide the service, as opposed to say, how much the item might be worth to the owner to get back, then I'd say it's legal..

    I can totally believe and understand the frustration caused by the engagement ring story above, and why airlines would want to get out of the lost property business themselves.


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    #44
    partyguinness
    Registered Users Posts: 8,207 ✭✭✭partyguinness


    Locker10a wrote: »
    Just stop taking off your rings/watch when you wash your hands !! It’s thats simple


    Genius.


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    #45
    fael
    Registered Users Posts: 121 ✭✭fael


    OU812 wrote: »
    Should be backing your photos up to at least two separate locations.

    You're missing my point.
    Can a company sell on a laptop with private data on it, even though they know it was lost by the owner?

    I don't know if that is what they do, but I can guarantee you not 100% of all lost items will be retrieved. So by the end of each year they will be sitting on a stack of valuables, where do they go?


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    #46
    faoiarvok
    Registered Users Posts: 644 ✭✭✭faoiarvok


    fael wrote: »
    You're missing my point.
    Can a company sell on a laptop with private data on it, even though they know it was lost by the owner?

    I don't know if that is what they do, but I can guarantee you not 100% of all lost items will be retrieved. So by the end of each year they will be sitting on a stack of valuables, where do they go?

    From their terms and conditions:
    We are not under any obligation to store indefinitely property that we have received. We reserve the right to dispose of unclaimed property for valuable consideration or otherwise and are under no obligation to you if your property came into our possession and we disposed of it before or after you filled out a lost property request.
    We will endeavour to delete all material from electronic devices before disposing of them but reserve the right not to do so if there are technical issues that make this impossible or excessively difficult or costly.


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    #47
    Suckit
    Registered Users Posts: 11,215 ✭✭✭✭Suckit


    The lost property in Dublin Airport was up for tender last year or the year before (can't remember). I know one of the companies that were going for it, and they thought that they had it. Their main priority was finding somebody to legally wipe/clean all of the devices so that they could resell them. No doubt wereturnit has that idea in mind too, which is probably why they are charging people for finding their items. It's a bit of a deterrent for some to ask for it back, and it means they (wereturnit) get a laptop/tablet/phone for the cost of wiping it.
    One of the rumoured problems/obstacles at the time it was up for tender, was staff in the airport (I've no idea in what capacity) were not handing in lost property and they needed to force that to happen. They believed them to be holding on to found items and selling them themselves.

    I think if I found an item in the airport now, I wouldn't hand it in. I would advertise that I found it.


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    #48
    Locker10a
    Moderators, Society & Culture Moderators Posts: 4,155 Mod ✭✭✭✭Locker10a


    partyguinness wrote: »
    Genius.

    Well what can I say, I’ve never lost a ring or watch !! Lol


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    #49
    Stovepipe
    Registered Users Posts: 2,979 ✭✭✭Stovepipe


    True story: a cleaner found a laptop on an aircraft and took it home, trying to unlock it. The owner had traced the laptop via a tracking app on her phone and told the Gardai that it had been stolen. Initially the Gardai were fobbing her off until she showed them the phone image of a map showing the location as an apartment in Gardiner Street. She could see the guy's face on her phone from the camera in the laptop so they arrested him and returned the laptop. The cleaner was sacked. So now, cleaners (and others) won't take anything that can be traced like that. thank heavens for small mercies ;-)


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    #50
    Brian201888
    Registered Users Posts: 1,048 ✭✭✭Brian201888


    Suckit wrote: »
    The lost property in Dublin Airport was up for tender last year or the year before (can't remember). I know one of the companies that were going for it, and they thought that they had it. Their main priority was finding somebody to legally wipe/clean all of the devices so that they could resell them. No doubt wereturnit has that idea in mind too, which is probably why they are charging people for finding their items. It's a bit of a deterrent for some to ask for it back, and it means they (wereturnit) get a laptop/tablet/phone for the cost of wiping it.
    One of the rumoured problems/obstacles at the time it was up for tender, was staff in the airport (I've no idea in what capacity) were not handing in lost property and they needed to force that to happen. They believed them to be holding on to found items and selling them themselves.

    I think if I found an item in the airport now, I wouldn't hand it in. I would advertise that I found it.

    If it was my property I'd definitely fancy my chances with the airport staff than some random throwing out a tweet saying he'd found a phone


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    #51
    Suckit
    Registered Users Posts: 11,215 ✭✭✭✭Suckit


    Brian201888 wrote: »
    If it was my property I'd definitely fancy my chances with the airport staff than some random throwing out a tweet saying he'd found a phone


    I meant I would send a text to someone in their contacts if possible.


    Anyway, just saw this thread about the lost property and I remember the company and all the happenings around a year ago.
    The important point was that they were trying to secure somebody to wipe the data so they could sell on the devices.
    I thought that was unusual. I don't know what the timeframe on missing items is vs the depreciation but must be worth it.


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    #52
    plodder
    Registered Users Posts: 7,143 ✭✭✭plodder


    https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2018/09/revealed--more-train-firms-taking-10--of-lost-cash/

    The article above mentions a train company in the UK that takes a charge of 10% of any cash found in a wallet, in addition to a charge of £2 for returning the wallet. Granted the maximum they will take is £12 in total, but I think that is sailing really close to the wind in terms of legality. Why should the charge have anything to do with the amount of cash in it?


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    #53
    Strumms
    Registered Users Posts: 24,856 ✭✭✭✭Strumms


    PCros wrote: »
    There really should be an option for people to collect their property for free landside.

    Truth, i doubt there is so much lost certainly of any value that would require a huge space and a team of dedicated employees.


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    #54
    Cloudio9
    Registered Users Posts: 1,351 ✭✭✭Cloudio9


    In the claim form you have to put in your items unlock code. Call me cynical but ........


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    #55
    plodder
    Registered Users Posts: 7,143 ✭✭✭plodder


    Cloudio9 wrote: »
    In the claim form you have to put in your items unlock code. Call me cynical but ........
    Seems reasonable to me. It proves you are the owner. I guess though if you really insist, you should be able to call into the office (which could be in a different country) and take the chance that the device they have found is yours. It might not be of course, so I imagine that most people would choose to disclose their password/code for the device.


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    #56
    Suckit
    Registered Users Posts: 11,215 ✭✭✭✭Suckit


    *Presses fingerprint on claim form and scans face.


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