Left Phone On SNCF Train

Has anyone else had a different experience than Susan?

Sorry to be negative Raul, but that phone is long gone.

Raul,, sorry , concur with Susan.. this is one of those things you just chalk up to experience and move on ... They wouldn't send it to you anyways likely ,if you were actually there and they found it, you might be able to pick it up, but I really think it likely never made it anywhere like a lost and found. Another reason I don't mind travelling without phones,, one less thing to lose.

Raul, I tend to agree with the others. Even if the phone was found by an "honest" person and they turned it in to SNCF personnel, it will likely end up in a Lost & Found office with about 10,000 other phones and probably auctioned off. If it was found by a "less-than-honest" person, it's long gone! Was it a Smartphone protected by a Password lock? Even if could speak French and were willing to make international calls (probably several calls would be required), I suspect your chances of finding it are VERY slim! Best to plan on buying a new phone. Cheers!

I tend to disagree that it is certainly gone. While I don't have experience with the SNCF system for lost and found I do have experience with SNCF operating staff and British lost and found systems. It all depends on how much energy you want to put into finding it. Every minute is valuable. Recent finds have a much better chance of being returned than those which have sat around for a day, let alone several days. In my part of the world lost items, especially phones, tend to be turned in at either the origination or termination station, and get given in to the supervisors. It then stays with them a shortish but variable time and is then turned over to the left luggage company where it is logged and kept the legal duration and then auctioned or destroyed. I have been very impressed by the number of very honest commuters and travelers who turn in lost property, usually by speaking to the on-train staff, especially with smartphones. Does it work the same or similar way in France? Dunno. But if I had lost a valuable phone I'd certainly have called or had a friend call my departure station, my destination station, and the termini of the train - the moment I knew it was missing. Maybe it was lost. Maybe stolen. I don't know, but I'd sure give it a go. Unless it was worthless. If you don't look for it you won't find it.

Thanks for the replies so far. Does anyone have experience (good or bad) trying to find a lost item with a SNCF station in France? Any details would be greatly appreciated.

Raul, If you got off at the terminal there is a slight chance the phone is there. Where did you get off? What was the terminal for the line you were riding? What were the intermediary stations between where you got off and the terminl.p? You could write to the station master in each place.

I left a leather jacket on a Paris to Avignon train a couple of years ago. The train stopped long enough to let people off and I realized I'd left my jacket as the train was leaving the station bound for Marseille. We went immediately to the Lost and Found and my friend who is fluent in French talked to the staff who promised to alert the Lost and Found desk in Marseilles and they also provided us with a fax number to the desk. When we got to our hotel in Carpentras, my friend composed a note in French describing my jacket and giving her address and phone number in Paris and asking them to call or send my jacket if found. We faxed the note to the Lost and Found fax number given to us. Never heard a thing, the jacket was never turned in, or if it was, we were never notified.

Well folks seems some time has elapsed since loss, more then a day or even two or three days.. I think Raul can certainly try to get his phone back, but I wouldn't bet 10 cents on him actually being successful.

I left my passport on a Swiss train some years ago and had no luck getting it back. One thing you might try, if you haven't already, is calling the phone and see if anyone anwers. Even if it is in a box of other found phones someone might answer it.