Policy
This page is long because the question is short, and people keep asking it. The question is "that's mine, can I have it back," and the answer is the rest of this page.
Possession is nine-tenths of the law. People say this as a joke, and it is a joke, but it is also a fair description of what happens when an umbrella is left on a train. The person who had it does not have it. The person who has it, does. Every rule on this site follows from taking that saying at face value and building a checkout flow on top of it.
When a finder photographs an item where it lies, that photograph records the moment the nine-tenths changed hands. The item was on a seat. Now it is in a listing. Nobody was holding it in between, which is the whole point of guideline one.
We are often asked about the remaining tenth. The remaining tenth is the buy-back discount. If you can describe a detail of the item that is not visible in the listing photograph, ten percent comes off the price and the finder is required to accept it. This is the entire remedy. It is applied at checkout, it requires no paperwork, and it is the reason this page does not have a form at the bottom.
A dispute is a buy-back discount that has not been applied yet.
Every listing says whether anyone came back for the item. This is a courtesy to buyers, who sometimes prefer a story with a clean ending, and to owners, who can search for it. It is not a hold. An item marked "still being looked for" is still for sale, and in our data sells faster, which we report without comment.
Wallets are listed with the cash counted and included, because removing the cash would be a change in condition. Phones are listed locked and are shipped silenced. Keys are listed with no address attached, ever, and finders who add one are removed. In all three cases the buy-back discount applies and the owner is usually the buyer. This is the part of the site that works best, and it works because nobody has to speak to anyone.
If you have read this far and still wish to dispute, you may write to us. We will reply with a link to this page and a code for ten percent off. That is the escalation path. It has one step.
File a loss report instead