It's taken a while to throw off the full devastating effect of the Man Cold - but something happened this week that inspired me to get on the old blog soap box once again.
As I was walking to work on Monday (at a very silly time of day) it started to rain. Being a sensible sort of chappie I delved into my rucksack and produced my battered but trusty brolley. Once on the train there isn't really anywhere obvious to store a dripping wet brolley apart from under the seat.
Well - you've guessed it - I left my trusted old friend on the 0605 from Ipswich. Not a very Champerton thing to do you will no doubt agree! Not a problem I thought - the trusted and dutiful staff of 'One' (daft name) Railways will hand it in and I will simply poodle along to Lost Property at Liverpool Street (open from 0700 until 2300 7 days a week) and be re-united with my missing item. Champerton!
Now... the 0605 arrives in London well before 0700 hours so rather than wait I decided to go to work and explore the ins and outs of retrievig said lost item.
Well - let me tell you - I can now understand how they can afford to appoint a 3rd party company to run their lost property office for 16 hours a day, 7 days a week - it was going to cost me £2.00 to get my own property back! Ohh - and that's not all! If you are unlucky enough to leave behind your CD player they'll fleece you for a fiver, your mobile phone will set you back a tenner, and if you part company with your laptop they'll stuff you for 20 quid!! However - under 16's school work, medical items and kiddies toys are exempt - so that's all right then!
As a matter of principle I refuse to pay - which probably means my principles will eventually get me very wet until Santa brings me a replacement (hint hint!).
The charge is apparently to cover ' the cost of retrieval' and is in line with guidelines agreed by all UK train operators - which sounds like a perfect stitch-up to me!
Obviously they have taken a leaf out of the Chancellor's book - because these charges can be described as nothing less than a tax on honesty!!
To mis-quote James Blunt - 'Goodbye my brolley, goodbye my friend....'
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