Cancelling airport parking booked online

Aylesbury_Duck

I'm amazed that anyone would hand their expensive car and key to a complete stranger.  To consider handing over a phone as well is even more surprising.

The question has been raised on this forum before:  Does anyone know what insurance companies' views are on this sort of parking?  Are they happy that people hand over cars with keys to strangers in tabards to drive them into a pound, a field or even to dump on a residential street miles away from the airport?  I know there are some 'official' valet parking companies but there's also a Wild West of cowboys undercutting them that must hoover up a lot of business simply by being cheapest when searching.

born_again

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Well they haven't, in fact the oppisite, they've had a windfall of full payment without providing the service.

OP this falls under terms regarding retaining disproportionate sums where the consumer fails to perform their obligations under the contract, technically you are looking at them retaining either costs or loss of profits rather than both but given it isn't, I'm assuming, a huge sum and the resistance you'd face in claiming what may be a rather small amount it's propbably one of those to chalk up to experience.

I get that, but given the OP cancel at gate, they also had no time to minimise any loss?

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

born_again said:

I get that, but given the OP cancel at gate, they also had no time to minimise any loss?

If we say parking is £20 a day, the OP booked for 10 days and the business costs of looking after a car are £5 per day, one of 3 things should happen:

1) The business finds another customer, if they suffer any costs they claim those so if it costs them £10 to do the admin, they get £200 from the other customer and £10 from OP (with £190 refund) this puts them in the exact position they would have been in but with a bit of headache.

2)They aren't able to find another customer so they keep £150 and refund £50 (as they didn't have to suffer the costs of looking after the car).

3)If the service costs we top heavy with the booking and first greet resulting in costs of say £125 it makes sense the company claims costs instead of profit and only refunds £75.

I'm not sure how costs are worked out, there was one higher court case about weddings where costs were taken on average over the year vs general customer levels but that was a case about frustrated contracts rather than here where the consumer is breaching the contract*.

If the company went with option 2 it's not a bad deal for them, booking system is there anyway, greeter is probably there anyway and they get their profit without having the risk of looking after the car for 10 days.

HillStreetBlues said:

I don't think the OP did.
When booking the OP wasn't compelled to use parking space, it was simply available if OP chose to use it, in the end OP decided not to. The contact was fulfilled.

*In this case I think OP is possibly breaching the contract by not supplying the key*, even if not then you could breach the contrct through inaction (simply not turning up) or by saying "I'm cancelling" (in a situation where the right to cancel does not exist).

I'm not sure if airport parking would be viewed as "services related to leisure activities" so if it isn't we'd need to know when OP booked and what info they were given regarding cancellation as to whether or not they'd be within the cancellation period.

*One intresting point is:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/69

If a term in a consumer contract, or a consumer notice, could have different meanings, the meaning that is most favourable to the consumer is to prevail.

I wonder how specifically the work "key" was defined in the contract, if not particularly then a phone could very well be viewed as a key with it then being the trader breaching the contract.

eskbanker

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

I wonder how specifically the work "key" was defined in the contract, if not particuarly then a phone could very well be viewed as a key with it then being the trader breaching the contract.

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your point, but surely the issue isn't that the trader disputed that a phone was a key, but that the consumer was (understandably) unwilling to leave that 'key' with the trader as required by the contract?

Hoenir

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

Hoenir said:

jackisla said:

When I e-mailed the company asking for a refund, they refused.

Am I entitled to anything?

You booked a space. With no opportunity to resell it. The business has lost revenue. 

Well they haven't, in fact the oppisite, they've had a windfall of full payment without providing the service.

An empty space generates no revenue. The business meanwhile incurs all the fixed operational costs of the business. Windfalls are unexpected monies. Magic money trees are unfortunately in short supply in the real world of commerce. 

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Hoenir said:

An empty space generates no revenue. The business meanwhile incurs all the fixed operational costs of the business. Windfalls are unexpected monies. Magic money trees are unfortunately in short supply in the real world of commerce. 

They have been paid, they are entitled to keep the profit as there wasn't time to find another customer but they can't keep full payment.

eskbanker said:

Perhaps I'm misunderstanding your point, but surely the issue isn't that the trader disputed that a phone was a key, but that the consumer was (understandably) unwilling to leave that 'key' with the trader as required by the contract?

I thought OP offered to leave the phone with them but seems on reading again OP only offered to leave the phone for a while so the car could be parked rather than for the whole stay so yes not leaving key, whether traditional or the phone, would be a breach by the OP if the terms required such is left for the duration

user1977

Aylesbury_Duck said:

The question has been raised on this forum before:  Does anyone know what insurance companies' views are on this sort of parking?  Are they happy that people hand over cars with keys to strangers in tabards to drive them into a pound, a field or even to dump on a residential street miles away from the airport

Whose insurer? If there's a loss then I doubt the owner's insurer would be picking up the tab, so you're relying on the operator having cover (or enough of their own resources).

Not a particularly new concept anyway, I remember non-valet airport car parks in the 80s wanting the keys left so they could shuffle the cars around their site.

HillStreetBlues

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head said:

I don't think the OP did.
When booking the OP wasn't compelled to use parking space, it was simply available if OP chose to use it, in the end OP decided not to. The contact was fulfilled.

*In this case I think OP is possibly breaching the contract by not supplying the key*, even if not then you could breach the contrct through inaction (simply not turning up) or by saying "I'm cancelling" (in a situation where the right to cancel does not exist).

I'm not sure if airport parking would be viewed as "services related to leisure activities" so if it isn't we'd need to know when OP booked and what info they were given regarding cancellation as to whether or not they'd be within the cancellation period.

*One intresting point is:

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/15/section/69

If a term in a consumer contract, or a consumer notice, could have different meanings, the meaning that is most favourable to the consumer is to prevail.

I wonder how specifically the work "key" was defined in the contract, if not particularly then a phone could very well be viewed as a key with it then being the trader breaching the contract.

Turning up isn't part of the contact,  the parking space is, but using it isn't.
The OP tried to breach the contract by parking and not leaving the key (or in this case phone).

Aylesbury_Duck

user1977 said:

Aylesbury_Duck said:

The question has been raised on this forum before:  Does anyone know what insurance companies' views are on this sort of parking?  Are they happy that people hand over cars with keys to strangers in tabards to drive them into a pound, a field or even to dump on a residential street miles away from the airport

Whose insurer? If there's a loss then I doubt the owner's insurer would be picking up the tab, so you're relying on the operator having cover (or enough of their own resources).

Not a particularly new concept anyway, I remember non-valet airport car parks in the 80s wanting the keys left so they could shuffle the cars around their site.

Yes, the customer's insurer, and I think you're right.  When I get a chance I'll check my policy details to see if it says anything about situations like this.

user1977

HillStreetBlues said:

user1977 said:

Surely other keys are available? What happens when you eg put the car in for servicing?

OP only realised after getting to car park so didn't have any other keys with them.

Ah. I suppose the car park could have installed the app and used the OP's login? It doesn't literally need to be the driver's phone.