Airport Parking - Car Broken

sexki11en

Hi guys, hope this is in the right place and someone can advise us

On 6th September, we left our car at an airport parking place and happily flew off. On our return the following day, we were given the keys to our car, got back to it and found the gearbox was broken. No one had pulled us aside to explain. So we go and complain to be told 'it was like that when we got in it to move it'

I said if that's the case can you explain to me how I saw your guy drive it past me whilst I was having a cigarette and suggested they check the camera which was pointed directly at me at the time. They then changed their story.

Anyway, long story short, we paid £200 to be towed from Birmingham back home to Bristol AND our car is dead and not worth repairing.

3 weeks it's taken the 'customer services' department to contact us (we tried repeatedly but no one ever answered) We received a letter today saying they will not take responsibility for mechanical faliure and there is no evidence to suggest that damage was cause whilst it was left with us as you believe (obvioulsy they think we drove it to them with the gears broken stuck in third! :mad: )

Oh really? Can they explain to us then why it's stuck in 3rd gear when it was only being moved a few feet AND the mileage trip and clock were reset to zero????

So, my question is - where do we go from here? We KNOW it was working when we left it with them and we absolutely refuse to accept it 'just broke' especially when they've lied to us 3 times. Who can we contact to take it further and make them actually listen and discuss it with us? We have had to spend £2k on a new car yesterday (plus £50 to hire a car to get the new car and £70 on taxis taking the cat to the vet plus £200 to be towed home)

SK x

pinkshoes

Have you been to the CAB to get any advice? They should be able to point you in the right direction.

Work out what you feel you should claim from them i.e. towing cost, what the car was worth (get valuation from garage), then send a letter to the company (recorded delivery) detailing exactly what happened, and giving them 7 days from receipt of letter to respond appropriately (put date). Let them know that if they don't reply, or you don't receive a satisfactory response, you'll be pursuing the claim through the small claims court.

You could also see a solicitor that gives a free half hour.

maninthestreet

Yes, see a solicitor. It's difficult for the car park to claim it was like that when they got in it, as you must have driven it to the car park without any problems.

deanos

Reminds me of this, maybe they were using it

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/sussex/6400271.stm

sexki11en

Thank you for the replys. Does anyone know what kind of Solicitor I would need to contact?

SK x

d.edna

Your home/car insurance may have legal assistance they should be able to help you out.

Unless you can prove their staff did it, I assume there would be very little you can do/claim for

omen666

I remember watchdog doing a couple of articles on this where they fitted the cars with GPS and saw that the cars were used on weekends and nights out by staff.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/consumer/tv_and_radio/watchdog/reports/holidays_and_travel/holiday_20070227.shtml

http://www.travel-insurance.net/blog/2007/03/06/pink-meet-greet-airport-valet-scandal/

http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/Articles/2007/03/08/23967/airport-parking-companies-hit-back-at-watchdog-report-8-mar.html

soolin

Even before the intense media coverage of these parking companies I stopped using them after my car was used while suppsoedly in their care.

We didn't reset the trip as we thought that was a bit obvious but we did mark the mileage down and when we got back the car had travelled around 30 miles. It smelt of smoke (and we are fanatic anti smokers) and we were told we were imaging it, but even they looked sheepish when we found ash and a cigarette butt in the otherwise pristine ash tray. We also later found a baby's dummy under the rear set of seats (it was an Espace).

I have no idea though what the OP can do, it sounds like a nightmare and I hope you get it sorted.

uktim29

Going back to the original post. I've known cars break down on peoples driveways, in other words it was fine the last moment they used it then it doesn't work.

How can it be proved this isn't the case here? In other words could it be possible it's not the fault of the company and that the breakdown would have happened then anyway.

pinkshoes

uktim29 wrote: »

Going back to the original post. I've known cars break down on peoples driveways, in other words it was fine the last moment they used it then it doesn't work.

How can it be proved this isn't the case here? In other words could it be possible it's not the fault of the company and that the breakdown would have happened then anyway.

I thought the whole idea of these companies is that they take your keys from outside the airport then go and park the car for you - it's a luxury convenience service you pay a premium for(!). If the car was stuck in third gear when it was dropped off, then they wouldn't have been able to drive it and park it, so the gear jamming must have happened AFTER the keys had been handed over.

It also seems very odd that the trip milage was reset to zero. Why would someone parking a car need to do this?

Parking a car stuck in 3rd gear isn't easy either, and would no doubt have required pushing into place...

A decent company should have their own insurance for things like this.

uktim29

pinkshoes wrote: »

Parking a car stuck in 3rd gear isn't easy either, and would no doubt have required pushing into place...

Could it just had not been put into neutral when parked? Then the fault happen?