Edinburgh couple fuming at Lothian Buses over £5 pick up fee for lost phone

An Edinburgh couple have been left fuming at being asked by Lothian Buses to pay a £5 fee to pick up a mobile phone from their lost property office.

Stacey McManus realised she had left her gold coloured Samsung mobile phone charging on the No.7 bus on Tuesday afternoon after dashing off the vehicle to try and make the No.11 bus in time.

When she returned home to Gracemount later that day, her fiancé Laurence Hunter called Lothian to report the item lost.

Mr Hunter, 40, said the bus company called him on Wednesday morning to say they had located her phone - but he was shocked at being told there would be a £5 collection charge.

Mr Hunter, who receives benefits along with his 31-year-old fiancé, said: “I have lost things on the bus before and never been charged to get stuff back. It’s disgusting. When I was getting my phone back on Wednesday, there was an old lady who turned up to get her bus pass back who was also charged. She thought it was ridiculous.”

Mr Hunter’s mother, Joan Hunter, who lives in Kirkcaldy, is especially angered by Lothian’s fee after phoning up Kirkcaldy bus station this week to ask if they had a lost property charge – and learned they do not.

She said: “I think it’s shocking. Why is there one rule for Kirkcaldy and another rule for Edinburgh. It’s hitting folk in Edinburgh who maybe don’t always have the money to easily pay for it. But they paid for it because it’s a mobile with their contacts in it.”

It comes two weeks after the Edinburgh Evening News told how Beckie Cunningham, a 25-year-old single mum, was also left in disbelief at being charged to pick up her son’s lunchbox from Lothian’s lost property office. She described the need to pay for her son’s property as “ludicrous” and believes the charge should be dropped.

The couple were incensed by the £5 pick up fee to collect Stacey's mobile phone which, as shown in the pictures, had cracks in it prior to being left on the bus. Pictures: Laurence Hunter/ Lisa Ferguson

Lothian Buses declined to comment.

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