Scammed by airport valet parking

born_again

al3759 said:

we parked with them 365 valet parking but they changed the name to 
p compare the  parking
park with us meet and greet
we parked our car with then 29th of may 2024 for 7days came back on 5th June 2024 and we keep calling for our car to be back.  we are waiting in the airport
they said the our car got in to a accidents and  crashed. 
it was so stressful my family and my 3 small kids are waiting in the airport for 2 hours 
and at 8.40 am they saying my car crashed 
thy not keep us ther company public liability insurance details 
to clam from 

please can someone help us 

Whats the website?

Do you have legal cover with your car insurance?

Okell

al3759 said:

my insurance its not taking responsibility because i wasn't driving
they telling me clam in ther insurance 

Your insurer won't be interested if you voluntarily handed the keys over to a third party.

If you can't find out who their insurer is you'll have to sue the company.

What's the cost of the damage?  Is the car written off?  I believe the maximum claim you can make in small calims is £10,000

I'm sorry to have to say this but your predicament demonstrates the folly of handing your car keys over to someone you don't know from Adam.  When leaving your car at an airport always use one of the official parking sites where you take your keys with you.  Neven leave your keys with someone you don't know for this so-called "valet parking".

Okell

TELLIT01 said:

Okell said:

I know this is shutting the stable door long after the horse has bolted, but I would never dream of leaving my car keys with a "valet parking" service. 

If you use a valet parking company you have no option but to leave the key with them.  There are reputable companies around but you do need to check things out carefully.

     And that is precisely why I would never dream of using any valet parking company - as the recent new poster has discovered.

It's like going away for a couple of weeks and handing your house keys over to someone you don't know and have never met and keeping your fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong.  

I'd never leave my car keys with anyone I didn't know at an airport no matter how good their reputation.  (Unless like @pinkandfluffy I didn't really have any alternative)

soolin

I'm following this thread as the key situation is always something that I have worried about. Obviously I feel very bad for the OP who faces a struggle whatever the legal situation is.

I am always being told by friends and online that I'm daft to pay for 'proper' parking and should just use one of these off site companies that will deliver me to the airport door and pick me up again. About 25 years ago when I was recovering from a very serious illness we did use one of these companies as it was easier with 3 small children and luggage. We were lucky in that it partly worked as it was supposed to although they picked us up in a mini van initially as they needed to do something with our car (I suspect remove all the junk from it for the person who was using it) - but our 7 seater car had had all the children's car seats removed and were in a pile on the back seat, there was cigarette ash all over the car which stank of smoke and there was approx 95 extra miles on the clock.

It wasn't until afterwards that we started wondering what the situation was if the car had been trashed or stolen after we had given over our keys to a bloke in a high vis jacket and a card that said he was blue flamingo parking (or whatever) - I wouldn't normally hand my car keys over to anyone.

HillStreetBlues

It's horse for courses.
I'm been stuck at Jetparks for over an hour waiting for a bus arriving after arriving at 3.30am on a freezing January morning driving a cheap car. I've never considered handing my keys over to some stranger and will never do that. But do understand those who are willing to take that risk.

jon81uk

I've used the official Gatwick Airport valet parking without issue, but I wouldn't trust any old third party.

shazzah1590

Hi.  After looking up fees last night, I was going to book meet and greet with comparetheparking.  I thought I may have used them before as my address came up after entering name, email address and telephone number.  Whilst I was on the site, I had a call from a lady claiming to be from comparetheparking offering me a discount.  Thought it odd as was booking it but thank God she rang as it alerted me to the scam.  She said they were offering a discount.  I said it sounded bit odd but she said she would get an email from their finance department sent and would ring me back.   I called the company number and the same lady answered the phone!! I saw on Trustpilot a few warnings about them. I blocked the numbers.  She did call 10 mins later from a different number saying the email was sent and to book it.  When I said “no” that  it is obviously a scam, she hung up on me!! I assume that it would be a different bank account the money would go to from their link.  The phone number on their webpage is 020 3603 9797.  They called me from 020 3404 2464 and 020 3026 4020