They lost my bags!

I boarded a bus from Kasane to Gaborone on March 14th.

My bag was loaded in the bus storage without a tag. I inquired about the tag and was told they were running out of tags but our luggage was safe. My bag was missing when I arrived. The conductor traced it and established that the bag was taken by someone in Francistown. In fact, it was stolen because this person is said to be moving around stealing bags from buses. The conductor said that they were still investigating to see if they could recover the bag.

I am writing to seek advice from you because I have been inconvenienced.

I think you’ve been more than just inconvenienced. I think you’re being mistreated and abused.

Clearly the bus company have been negligent by not caring for your property adequately. Section 14 (1) of the Consumer Protection Act says that when a company offers services (such as transporting you and your luggage from Kasane to Gaborone), they must do so “in a manner and quality that consumers are reasonably entitled to expect”. I think it’s reasonable to expect a bus company to take reasonable care of our belongings and I think it’s reasonable for them to have luggage tags if that helps them do this.

If their claim that someone stole your belongings is correct, then where is your copy of the police report? Where are the updates from the police investigation? Or is it possible they haven’t even reported the theft?

And if they already knew that there’s someone stealing bags from buses, why aren’t they focusing more on security? Why are they being so careless?

Unfortunately, when we spoke you told me that you didn’t have any household insurance policies that might have covered the cost of replacing your lost belongings. But where is the bus company’s insurance policy? Have they mentioned that? Is it possible that they don’t have insurance? If not, why not?

I’ve contacted the bus company. Let’s see how they’re prepared to fix this.