National Express - Lost luggage

[give_me_it_back]

Hi all

 

My elderly Grandmother travelled on a National Express coach recently. When she got to her destination, she realised her suitcase was missing from the hold. Another passenger's also was.

 

The driver was helpful and took her back to the depot where they filled out a form. However, it has now been several weeks and she has now received a letter from them saying that their investigations have not resulted in finding the suitcase. They say that another passenger has 'probably taken it' and they cannot be held responsible for other people's mistakes...

 

Hmmm...

 

Their terms and conditions say:

 

5. NATIONAL EXPRESS RESPONSIBILITIES

5.1 Our obligation to carry you:

It is our obligation to carry you and your permitted luggage on the journeys permitted by your ticket, on and subject to these General Conditions of Carriage and any Special Conditions. We will make reasonable efforts to carry you with the minimum discomfort and inconvenience.

 

5.7 Our maximum liability to you:

Our maximum liability to you for any reasonable and foreseeable loss, damage or liability (including but subject to the limitation set out in Clause 7.11 for loss or damage to your luggage)which you may suffer or incur as a result of our failure to carry you, our delay in carrying you, breach of our contract to carry you, our negligence in connection with carrying you, or the deliberate or negligent acts or omissions of any of our officers, employees, agents, representatives or sub-contractors, shall be limited to an aggregate of £1000.

 

7.10 Notification of loss or damage:

If during any journey you should lose any of your luggage or any of your luggage is damaged you must notify a member of our staff as soon as possible after your discover the loss or damage. You must confirm any loss or damage of your luggage within 72 hours after the end of your journey by writing to the Lost Property Department at National Express Limited, P.O. Box 9854, Birmingham, B16 8XN, or email us at [email protected] or any other advertised address for the purpose. If you do not notify us of any loss or damage to your luggage as required, then we will not be liable for that loss or damage.

 

7.11 Our liability for loss or damage to Luggage:

Your luggage shall be at your risk at all times, and we will only be liable for any loss of or damage to your luggage caused by our negligence. Our maximum liability to you for any loss of or damage to your luggage, whether for breach of contract, breach of any duty of care in relation to the luggage, our negligence, or any deliberate or negligent acts of any of our employees, agents or representatives, shall be limited to £500 for all such loss or damage. You should insure your luggage with reputable insurers against all usual and normal risks of loss or damage, to the full replacement value of the luggage, with no excess.

 

 

Can anyone help..? Do you think she has a case (well - not literally - obviously! That's the problem!!) for a claim with them?

 

By the way... she has no insurance (either household or holiday!) Yes - I had a go at her about that!!!

 

Thanks everyone.

[give_me_it_back]

bump..?

[CJ&theBOS]

our negligence, or any deliberate or negligent acts of any of our employees, agents or representatives, shall be limited to £500 for all such loss or damage

 

she should be able to claim compensation up to £500 i would have thought.

 

negligence on their part.

[give_me_it_back]

Thanks CJ. I'll give it a go!

[give_me_it_back]

I have now heard back from them, and they say that, as passengers choose their own luggage from the hold (the driver hands it to them), they are not responsible. Seems to make rubbish of their terms and conditions to me..

 

It also seems ludicrous that any passenger couldn't simply choose an extra suitcase - just 'cos they fancy the look of it! Seems like a fast way to a Louis Vuitton case to me!!!

 

Anyone got any comments?

 

Thanks

[sleepz]

Don't National Express include insurance in the ticket price?

hmm, im not sure, never mind, ignore me

[give_me_it_back]

Hmmm... I'm not sure either... Must check. Thanks!

[sleepz]

I had a look on the National Express site, went through the process of booking a random ticket, in the process there's a checkbox to also buy insurance, it was only £1 with the random fare i was fake booking (Edinburgh to Liverpool).

If they still have the ticket or receipt check on it if it says anything about additional insurance.

 

Note 2 however in the "You are not covered" section might apply to you if the loss wasn't reported to the police.

Insurance note says :

YOU ARE COVERED

 

A. PERSONAL BAGGAGE

 

For up to £750 after making proper allowance for wear and tear and depreciation, for the value or repair of your own baggage (not hired, loaned or entrusted to you), which is lost, stolen damaged or destroyed: limited to £100 in respect of all valuables, limited to £100 in respect of a single article or a pair or set of articles (eg golf equipment). NOTE - In the event of a claim in respect of a pair or set of articles we shall be liable only for the value of that part of the pair or set which is lost, stolen, damaged or destroyed.

 

YOU ARE NOT COVERED FOR

 

1) If you do not exercise reasonable care for the safety and supervision of your property

2) If you do not obtain a written police report within 24 hours of the discovery in the event of loss, burglary or theft of baggage, valuables or money

3) If you do not obtain a written carriers report if your baggage is lost or damaged in transit (or a Property Irregularity report in the case of an airline)

4) For loss, destruction, damage or theft;

(a) due to confiscation or detention by customs or other officials or authorities

(b) of contact lenses, dentures, hearing aids, samples or merchandise, bonds, coupons, securities, stamps or documents of any kind, (other than as defined in the money definition), vehicles or accessories (other than wheelchairs and pushchairs only), tents, antiques, musical instruments, pictures, typewriters, portable telephones, computers and/or accessories, televisions, sports gear whilst in use pedal cycles, dinghies, boats and/or ancillary equipment, glass or china.

© due to wear and tear, denting or scratching, moth or vermin

(d) of valuables left as 'check-in' baggage

5) For mechanical breakdown or derangement; for breakage of fragile or brittle articles being transported by a carrier, unless the breakage is due to fire or other accident to the vessel, aircraft or vehicle they are being carried in.

6) For baggage or personal property stolen from;

(a) an unattended coach/bus unless it was in the locked luggage compartment of the coach/bus and evidence of force and violent entry to the vehicle is available

(b) the passenger compartment of any unattended vehicle

7) For any shortages due to error, omission or depreciation in value

8) For any property more specifically insured or recoverable under any other source

9) For anything mentioned in the General Exclusions shown on page 2.

[give_me_it_back]

Thanks so much for going to all that trouble! This was my elderly Grandmother's ticket, and I very much doubt if she took the insurance option... I will certainly give this a go when I respond though.

 

Thanks again - you're a star!

[Shellyo1o]

I had the same thing happen to me - about 12 years ago though. But I think it was the driver who took my bag off the stop before I got off.

I did manage to claim back a few hundred pounds - no where near what the contents of my bag was worth, and it did take a couple of months to sort out.

As far as I remember I didn't have insurance, I definatley didn't report it to the police and the driver was not very helpful, just left me in the bus station with no money,(as it was in my bag) at 2am in the morning.

I just asked for a claim form from them.

[give_me_it_back]

Thanks very much for this Shelly. That sounds awful! I will keep asking them for the claim form.

[pyms road]

I recently left a bag on a bus by mistake and partly by luck and partly by persistence managed to get the bag back.

 

Having realised that the bag had been left on the bus (travelling from Heathrow to Norwich) I phoned the help line (08717 818 178). They told me that I should phone 0208 754 7662 which was, apparently, the base for the bus. By this time it was after 10 p.m. on a Friday and the answer I got, after phoning the number, was: "This is an answering machine. Please phone back later".

Due to the lateness I assumed that the office was now unmanned.

 

I phoned up several times over the next two days and got the same response as before. I guessed that the office was unmanned over the weekend.

 

On the Monday I phoned up again and yet again got the same response. I phoned the help line again and explained the situation but they replied that the number they had given me was the only one they had and I should keep on trying.

 

Several unsuccessful attempts later I emailed the "contact us" address and explained my problem. The next day I received an answer stating that there had been problems with the telephones and I should keep on trying.

 

After more unsuccessful attempts I phoned the help line again and explained the problem. They said that they would try to find an alternative number. They later phoned back with an alternative number (0208 754 7344). This number worked and I told them about my lost bag. After searching through the records of left luggage they said that my bag had not been handed in but suggested I try again the next day because it may still turn up.

 

The next day I phoned the number again, this time speaking to a different person. He said that the bag had still not been handed in but then studied the route the bus had taken. He noted that when the bus called at Stansted Airport there was a change of driver and therefore it was possible that the new driver would have handed in any left luggage at his depot at Stansted. He gave me the phone number of the Stansted depot (01279 659 108).

 

When I phoned this number I was told that the bag had been handed in and I could collect it.

 

The lesson to be drawn from this episode is that persistence pays off and that it is worth pursuing alternative routes of enquiry whenever possible.

[skmcintyre]

Dear Mcintyre,

 

Thank you for writing to us.

 

I am sorry to learn that some property has been lost on your travels from Aberdeen to London 31 December.

 

I can confirm that we have not stolen your property and any left property will be retained until it has been claimed from the operators depot, where the coach would have returned to.

 

I believe the telephone number has already been provided to you by telephone call, and this is also logged under reference 2124233. I will forward this to lost property also to see if they can call the depot for you.

 

At this moment in time, I will not be able to refund your ticket and I sincerely apologise for the experience you have had.

 

I hope this information will help and best wishes.

 

Kind regards,

 

Yasir Ahmed

Customer Service Advisor

National Express

 

Now you have had the opportunity to read our response we’d love to know how we did. Please tell us by completing our short survey.

 

Here is a link to the survey:

-------Original Message--------

From:MsandMr Khan-McIntyre

To:LostPropertyEmailQueu

CC:

Sent: 05/01/2016 15:41:17

Subject: Re: Lost an item enquiry

 

Customer Name: MsandMr Khan-McIntyre

 

Customers email address:

 

Query Subject: Lost an item - I have left belongings on board the coach

 

Service number:

592

 

Scheduled departure time:

22:31

 

Departure Location:

aberdeen

 

Ticket number:

kqpl4899

 

Date of travel:

31 January 2016

 

Item type:

:Dundee;Geybackpackcanvasbagpassportsmoney

 

Item model:

white laptop tablet

 

Item make:

mountain warehouse, pack,

 

Lost items:

At Dundee- grey backpack, small, laptop/tablet/passports for sam and gavin K_M money/wallet/bank cards....

 

stolen by national express....please return asap-We can pick it up at Victoria....thanks!

 

Distinctive features:

grey/ mountain warehouse logo

 

Was the luggage labelled:

dundee

 

Was the luggage insured:

n/a return

 

Customers phone number: 08789876765

 

Destination: london

 

Colour: white laptop tablet

 

Contents: laptop, passports, bank cards, money!

 

Enquiry: form-also rude/ national epress staff- general complaint about service, gheneral and ongoing probblems and rascism from National Express-would like ticket refund also 74.50- thanks