Hannah Jowett, pictured, was suspicious and frustrated earlier this year when she says she had to wait three hours for her Ford Focus to be returned after her flight from a three-week trip in Mexico
Hannah Jowett, 36, a video production manager living in Leeds, was suspicious and frustrated earlier this year when she says she had to wait three hours for her Ford Focus to be returned after her flight from a three-week trip in Mexico.
Even so, she was relieved when, after more than 25 calls — and with eight other customers standing with her in a similar quandary — the car was returned, despite looking ‘extremely muddy with steam coming from the bonnet’.
Hannah (pictured right) claims she assumed the steam was due to the car not being driven for a while. But 40 minutes later the engine ‘completely and utterly died’.
A breakdown assistant said water had got into the engine and it was a write-off.
She had to pay £800 to be towed home to Leeds and later had to find another £2,000 for a new engine.
A ‘significant’ number of miles had also been added to the vehicle’s odometer, she said.
‘I don’t know whether it had been used as a taxi or just for spinning round a field, judging by the mud,’ she added.
She had paid £80.85 to My Parking Limited, which said the complaint was ‘false’ and ‘we believe it’s essential to verify the accuracy of the claim to ensure a just resolution’.
On being presented with further information, the company did not comment.
‘I was stranded for two hours’
Fiona Bugler, 55, a freelance editor from Brighton, says she was among a group of customers who were stranded without their cars after flying back to Gatwick earlier this year.
‘There was a couple who had a babysitter and a woman who was working at a children’s home among us,’ said Bugler, who had been on holiday in Lanzarote. ‘We were standing and waiting and I then called the company.
‘A ridiculously rude woman eventually answered and told us to wait for a car to pick us up to take us to our vehicles. She was talking to us as if we had done something wrong.’
They waited for two hours and, late at night, ‘were taken in a car in the pouring rain to a horrible field near a mechanics’ yard’.
Fiona has received no compensation so far. Just Park Me, through which she booked a My Parking Gatwick meet-and-greet service, did not respond when contacted by email.
Returning from Spain, David Kidd (pictured) and his wife were surprised when no one from the meet-and-greet company they had booked was to be found — or their car
‘Parking firm lost car key, and then left me £270 out of pocket’
Returning from Spain, David Kidd and his wife were surprised when no one from the meet-and-greet company they had booked was to be found — or their car.
When they called Safe Park Meet & Greet Gatwick, they were told their car key had been misplaced.
Several more calls and two-and-a-half hours later, David (right), 76, from Petersfield, Hampshire, was advised to return home by taxi, fetch a spare key and come back the next day. The firm promised taxi fares would be reimbursed.
Yet next day, no one was around to meet them. An hour-and-a-half later, their car was returned — the key having been found — and David was given an email address so he could send on the £270 taxi bill. But since then ‘we have had no response from the company and the phone is permanently unmanned’, said David, who originally paid £131 for the parking service.
When Escape called Safe Park Meet & Greet Gatwick, an employee said: ‘I do not have to give you an answer.’
The Kidds were not the only ones to suffer. After a week’s holiday, Matthew Jervis, 27, a doctor from Oxford, went to collect his car from Valet 365 Limited. But no one was around. After two-and-a-half hours, he was told by a representative of the firm that his key had been lost. He was advised to stay overnight at a hotel as it was past midnight and that the firm would cover the cost. Then to return home by taxi the next day, collect his spare key and come back.
All this Matthew did to the cost of £901.65. But he could not get his expenses reimbursed. He has since taken Valet 365 to the small claims court and won his case, but has still not got his money back.
Valet 365 was contacted by Escape, but did not respond.
Source link
CHECK OUT: Top Travel Destinations
READ MORE: Travel News
