Coat disappeared from Dublin nightclub cloakroom

tradhead

My friend and I left our coats into the cloakroom of a well-known Dublin nightclub two weeks ago. I didn't have any change, so my friend paid for the three items (I also had a cardigan as it was particularly cold that night!) and held on to the three tickets. She ended up forgetting to collect the items that night, and when she remembered a day or two later, I was told that I could only collect the items on specific days the following week, during a three-hour period.

When we went to collect the items, we were waiting about half an hour for someone to come to reception, take our tickets and go up to "the attic" where leftover coats are kept. Eventually he came back down, and handed me my coat and cardigan, and a random purple coat to my friend.

She went back up to the counter, and told him that it wasn't her coat. He was utterly uninterested, and showed her the entry in the book, that it was a size 12 purple atmosphere coat and told us there was nothing he could do (even tho on closer inspection the one he handed back was a size 10). When I pointed out that the whole point of paying for a cloakroom was to avoid this kind of situation, he grudgingly suggested that we could contact the manager the following day and gave us his number.

Before contacting him, I was just wondering what exactly are my friend's entitlements here? Or are the club responsible for the loss of the coat at all?

Apologies for the length of the post, I just didn't want to leave anything out that might be important! Any help at all would be hugely appreciated.

The Big Red Button

I wouldn't imagine your friend is entitled to anything - if she's very lucky, she might get some sort of token gesture of goodwill.

You're only paying to have them mind your jacket for that one night - if you haven't collected it by closing time, why would they have any responsibility for it?

the groutch

your contract with them is to keep the coat safe for that night only, and I'd imagine it'd be very hard to get any recompense.

if the owner/manager doesnt help you, you might just have to chalk it up to experience.

foggy_lad

They have a duty of care for your property until it is collected but that duty does not end on the night. They must keep leftover clothing for a certain time or face having to pay for items they have disposed of. The club will have to pay for or replace the jacket in the same way a dry cleaners must replace lost clothes for about 2 years after the collection date.

thecommander

foggy_lad wrote: »

They have a duty of care for your property until it is collected but that duty does not end on the night. They must keep leftover clothing for a certain time or face having to pay for items they have disposed of. The club will have to pay for or replace the jacket in the same way a dry cleaners must replace lost clothes for about 2 years after the collection date.

Nonsense.

Morph the Cat

foggy_lad wrote: »

They have a duty of care for your property until it is collected but that duty does not end on the night. They must keep leftover clothing for a certain time or face having to pay for items they have disposed of. The club will have to pay for or replace the jacket in the same way a dry cleaners must replace lost clothes for about 2 years after the collection date.

Why are you making stuff up?

foggy_lad

Once they charge for the service they have a duty of care.

thecommander

foggy_lad wrote: »

Once they charge for the service they have a duty of care.

Should have collected the jackets that night then. It's not up to them to store your stuff until you decide you want it back again.

Dry cleaners don't have to replace your stuff 2 years later. Or 1 year later, or 6 months. Clearly you're just making up stuff.

foggy_lad

There has been several threads here about the same issue of clubs losing customers jackets and they do have a duty to look after your property in the same way a dry cleaners must keep all uncollected items for two years before disposing of them. They also must place notices in local papers informing people and giving notice of the disposal to give people a final chance to collect their clothes.

Dry cleaners are in the small claims court every week over claims for lost clothes and nightclubs have the same responsibilities regarding clothes left in their care.

P. Breathnach

tradhead wrote: »

...
She went back up to the counter, and told him that it wasn't her coat. He was utterly uninterested, and showed her the entry in the book, that it was a size 12 purple atmosphere coat and told us there was nothing he could do (even tho on closer inspection the one he handed back was a size 10). When I pointed out that the whole point of paying for a cloakroom was to avoid this kind of situation, he grudgingly suggested that we could contact the manager the following day and gave us his number.

Before contacting him, I was just wondering what exactly are my friend's entitlements here? Or are the club responsible for the loss of the coat at all?...

Set aside the question of rights for the moment. You encountered an employee who, according to your account, simply couldn't be arsed to deal with the problem.

Your first hope should be that the manager is prepared to make an effort to find the coat.

emeldc

foggy_lad wrote: »

There has been several threads here about the same issue of clubs losing customers jackets and they do have a duty to look after your property in the same way a dry cleaners must keep all uncollected items for two years before disposing of them. They also must place notices in local papers informing people and giving notice of the disposal to give people a final chance to collect their clothes.

Dry cleaners are in the small claims court every week over claims for lost clothes and nightclubs have the same responsibilities regarding clothes left in their care.

I'm a drycleaner. If we had to keep all the old stuff for two years, there would be no room for all the current stuff. There is nothing set in law on this issue. And as for notices in local papers..............