Gatwick Meet and Greet..Damage to Car but no admission of Responsibility

stuartaman

My wife booked a Meet and Greet at Gatwick in February. She used Airport Parking Essentials as the booking agent. She kept trying to call (as stated) when 20mins away. Only when she arrived at airport did they answer and because she was nearly late for her flight they said they would come to the terminal to pick keys up. She waited and waited and they finally came but demanded £10 for the car park otherwise they would not take. She then handed keys over. Upon her return to the country, she again rang when she had her bags BUT after another 10-15 mins they answered but said they would be half an hour more. The car came and had a dent in it BUT they said it was already there when they picked it up....she had no comeback as they did not get her to sign anything at pick up and took no photos (surprising that!!). She was distraught. When she chased it up with booking agent AND operator they said check cctv if any at the car parks which she did but they did not have any pictures of car (also surprising). So having saved £10 going through this company, we have a £600 repair to deal with.

Any idea anyone what we can do? ..now we only ever use 'reputable' meet and greet companies (or so we believe) but nonetheless i really want to highlight to everyone out there that they have to be really careful who they use and not to go for the cheapest...read all the reviews etc. I also want to get compensation and if not shut this company down.

Anyone have any ideas as to what i can do then please post.

Thanks very much

EdGasketTheSecond

Without proof of the state of the car when you left it and collected it there is not much you can do. Seems to happen frequently with secondary parking outfits along with joy-rides; speeding etc.



Next time only use the official car park where you park it yourself and keep the keys or use public transport.

foxy-stoat

£600 for a dent, can you sort it out cheaper?

Forget about compensation or reclaiming cost of repairs - no proof.

tonyh66

The moral of the story is. Never use a meet and greet service

Basically your handing your keys over to a total stranger, they will drive your car like they stole it then park it in a field somewhere during your time away. They have no accountability of any damage done while in their posession you can't prove that it wasn't there beforehand.

Like the other post says, park your car yourself and take your keys with you.

TadleyBaggie

tonyh66 wrote: »

The moral of the story is. Never use a meet and greet service

I've used the official Gatwick Valet Parking for a few years never had an issue. I've even checked my dash cam footage to see how they treated the car, often better than I would have! And it's parked in the the regular long term car park.

The cost is also usually cheaper than the long term car park too, which I find strange.

iolanthe07

TadleyBaggie wrote: »

I've used the official Gatwick Valet Parking for a few years never had an issue. I've even checked my dash cam footage to see how they treated the car, often better than I would have! And it's parked in the the regular long term car park.

The cost is also usually cheaper than the long term car park too, which I find strange.

Official valet parking is usually fine, but there are lots of cowboy outfits out there who undercut rates and treat the cars badly. There was a scandal about this sort of thing at Bristol Airport not long ago. Be especially careful if you hand over a motor lusted after by boy racers; you'll likely come back to a much higher odometer reading, and of course lack of proper insurance won't come up on ANPR cameras.

mattyprice4004

Just on a side note, I love when people say they want to shut a company down - like Joe Public is going to be able to walk up to them and demand they close up shop for allegedly causing damage for which they have no proof.

You need some kind of evidence I’m afraid - how do they know you’re not making it all up?

facade

Would any parking company be liable for damage not caused by a negligent act on their part?


Say it was parked in a compound, and vandals throw stones over the fence, that isn't down to the parking company's negligence.

stuartaman

Thank you for all your replies..very helpful..

I think the message of this thread is the following:

If you are going to use Meet and Greet at any airport, then make sure you pay that bit more to get an approved operator/one with good reviews.

Take detailed pictures of your car (don't rely on them or the car park cameras)...that is going to be your only proof.

DO NOT expect any help from the booking agent (i would suggest that you think very carefully about using Airport Parking Essentials) as they take NO RESPONSIBILITY whatsoever.

Good luck all...It has definitely been a harsh lesson for us and an expensive one....hopefully this thread may help other who choose to gamble and use Meet and Greet.

neilmcl

stuartaman wrote: »

Thank you for all your replies..very helpful..

I think the message of this thread is the following:

If you are going to use Meet and Greet at any airport, then make sure you pay that bit more to get an approved operator/one with good reviews.

Take detailed pictures of your car (don't rely on them or the car park cameras)...that is going to be your only proof.

DO NOT expect any help from the booking agent (i would suggest that you think very carefully about using Airport Parking Essentials) as they take NO RESPONSIBILITY whatsoever.

Good luck all...It has definitely been a harsh lesson for us and an expensive one....hopefully this thread may help other who choose to gamble and use Meet and Greet.

Maybe not as expensive as you might initially think. What sort of dent and where is it, did you take it to a main dealer for a quote?

A lot of dents that dealer bodyshops want to charge hundreds to sort can quite often be sorted by a decent paintless dent removal (PDR) company for a fraction of of the cost.

I had a door ding on my last car that the main dealer want to charge £500 to fix but had it fixed perfectly by Dent Devils for £90.

MataNui

A friend of mine had similar at the official Manchester airport meet and greet at the start of the summer. Huge scrape on the rear side of the car (like it had been reversed into a wall). Also they had obviously been using it as a runaround as the rear seats had been put back up when he collected it (small car so he had to put them down for the luggage) and dirty foot marks in the front passenger and both rear seat foot wells.