Looking4Parking deal offered in 2015

Snowedunder

Firstly, apologies as I could not find the correct place to post.


Following a discount offer of up to 31% on this site last year I made a booking for December 2015.


I have had an horrendous experience with a booking made via this offer, and despite writing to Looking4Parking and Ace Parking, have received absolutely no responses whatsoever.


I will not go into details until I know I am in the correct place, so could Moderators, etc. transfer me to where I need to post.


Many thanks

Snowedunder

OK so perhaps I am in the correct place, so here goes:


My letter to Looking 4 Parking was as follows:
I ordered Parking at Gatwick South Parking through your website in mid-2015. At the beginning of October 2015 I extended my stay by 2 days from returning on 19th December to returning 22nd December, I paid the extra required and received my Confirming Details. My Contract was therefore with yourselves.
Upon reading various paperwork and web pages, I was not sure which actual company would be handling my car, Ace parking or ? Manor. At one stage there was also mention of handing in and collecting my keys from an office in the car park.


When I arrived at Gatwick the representative went over the paperwork with me whilst my sister struggled to get 2 carts for our luggage, I do of course understand that I had not paid for anything like courteous assistance, but as 2 senior disabled ladies, it would have been nice. The representative then mentioned a return date of 19th December which I immediately corrected and showed him your receipt , noting the return date as 22nd December 2015. We left whilst he was taking photos and he ran after us with a piece of plastic saying that’s’ for your return.


After a 2hour delayed transatlantic flight we returned to Gatwick. It took an age to get through Customs given the season, I suppose, and then we had to unload our cases from the trolley as the gates from the shop to the Airport were not wide enough, we had some assistance though.


As soon as we were in arrivals I telephoned the number given to advise we were on our way to the car park only to be greeted, “well you can’t have your car until you have paid the £20 for the 2 extra days,” so I very respectfully replied telling her the above information, at which time I was called a liar and told you cannot do that online (pay and change dates). I then advised that well I had the receipt on me ‘somewhere’ but was struggling with baggage to get to the car park, and I could not talk on the phone as well. I was then passed onto someone who answered their extension by saying, “I understand you wish to pay an extra £20 “ so again, all the while struggling through a Christmas arrivals hall to explain, and was told “well I will give you an e-mail address to send us the receipt!!” I would ask you to consider how stupid and thoughtless was that comment! I then finished the conversation by saying that if our car was not delivered in 10 minutes I would call the police.


At that point I became unwell and had to sit down, breathless, unsteady on my legs and perspiring. We were given assistance and helped to the parking garage office by a Gatwick representative for further help, which they could not give telling me that ‘most’ car parking companies used their office but not ‘this one’ You need to go down one level – exactly where we had been all the while struggling with 2 heavy trollies of luggage. We managed to get into a lift eventually with all the crowds, but I had to sit down again, and my sister went to see if she could find our car.


She eventually returned, saying they were still refusing to hand over our keys and needed to see the receipt and piece of plastic, so long before I felt well enough I struggled to where the company had sent what looked like three ‘bullies’ to handle us. One was fairly pleasant the other had a terrible attitude, waving the keys at me with a smirk on his face.


I am very shamefaced to say I told him, in a loud voice given me my *keys or I will ‘phone the police – if it was not so serious, the reaction of this man would have made good tv comedy, becoming all coy and upset and responding in a foreign language. Still refusing to give us our keys, and I could not sit down anywhere and it looked like all 3 were advancing to me in a very threatening way.


My sister took the receipt and plastic card from me and I went to lean on a wall, with them all looking and laughing. I rang the police and they said they would send someone to help us. I have a ‘crime’number.


After a few minutes of abuse in a foreign language and a very frightening approach direct to her face, and with fingers pointing, she was told if she let them photograph the receipt we could have our keys, at which time the car did not start, but one of the men referred to in your paper work as chauffeurs managed to get it started.


With 2 of them standing (threateningly) around us, one did offer to help us pack our car, but we refused as we just wanted to be left alone, I was in tears by that time and have a terrible time catching my breath. My sister called the police and informed them we had resolved the situation.


By the time we reached the barrier at Gatwick we had to pay a further £10.70 as it had all taken much longer than officially allowed.


I would like to mention in closing that because of the extra delay this caused us (we had already changed our Car Ferry booking before flying because of the delay,) This extra delay cost us our place on our homeward ferry, we lost our booking and when we should have been home by 6pm, we had to wait at Portsmouth dock a further 3 hours and pay for a later crossing costing around £40, and it was not possible to get disabled assistance as booked for originally because all the help had been pre-booked by other passengers.


By the time we arrived home we were both extremely distressed and unwell, indeed, I was sent to hospital by my own doctor the next day because he suspected I had had a mini-stroke – TIA – it was diagnosed that I probably had so had to spend several days over Chistmas in bed. My sister is also deeply distressed by this turn of events, and has herself written a formal complaint to Gatwick Airport who allow such behaviour and stunts on their property.


Also, our car has developed a fault which may have been visible when we collected it, as now it would not start on first try, and eventually today, 29th December would not start at all. At this moment in time the RAC are collecting details.


Our clock and dials and radio all had to be re-set pointing to the battery as having been disconnected. As this was a brand new battery fitted by the RAC a few weeks earlier that had been ruled out as a cause. We will now have the expense of finding out and repairing whatever damage has been the cause of these problems.


I would finally like you to know, I spent 12 months planning this which was to be our final overseas trip. I checked and double checked every little detail and your web pages appeared to offer a not to be rivalled valet car parking experience, at a higher than normal price.





My sister is a cancer survivor and had not travelled for a few years, but was given the OK by our Doctor as long as she followed certain criteria so as not to stress her body in any way. We drove to the airport the afternoon prior to our flight so that we could relax. We booked as much assistance as we could and just needed to seamlessly get from our car to the Hilton, all of which your web pages promised, forgetting to add the multitude of long corridors and lifts. I would also add that the signage on entering the car park and the written instructions received conflict somewhat, as already mentioned upon first booking, I had assumed all we had to do was arrive at the car park and give our keys to an office, and the same upon return. Perhaps you could make this clearer as it is so NOT the case





This has been our last trip, planned so meticulously and the above has ruined the memory of our holiday, caused real physical illness, and ruined the Christmas of 2 70+ disabled ladies who had thought they had made meticulous plans. I beg of you to think very carfully of you customers and not just the profit to be made.


What, if anything can I do?

Snowedunder

In case anyone is wondering, I am not in anyway trying to blame this site for offering the deal, I was posting purely for hopefully getting any advice on where to go from here, and also to pre-warn anyone else who has booked with these companies, whether through this site or not, to be very wary as there are some awful reviews on line with some forums having to delete most of the responses from the companies' themselves, so presumably they are rude and abusive!