Heathrow Meet and Greet

Callydog

I went on holiday and parked my car with Heathrow Meet and Greet on 25th February

We went o Dubai just before the war started so I was stranded in Dubai for an extra 6 days.

When eventually I returned on the 8th March I had received a penalty notice from Hounslow council as my car had been spotted in a bus lane on the 28th February.

Friday the 3rd April I receive two more fixed penalty notices from Slough council which occurred on the 26th February.

Obviously was not in the country at the time of the offence.

My wife picked up my car when we knew we had no idea when I was going to return to the UK. When she picked up the car there was no fuel in the car and it was a mess inside

Obviously my car had been used in my absence by someone at Heathrow Meet and greet.

We have made compliant with no response from them

I have reported the crime to the Metropolitan police who given me a crime reference number but have decided they cannot move forward with the case as they believe that they cannot get enough evidence for a prosecution.

Has anyone had a similar experience and can tell me what I need to do

TroubledTarts

Well that's nasty, sorry that has happened but you always do wonder what happens to your car when you leave it in someone else's hands.

Might be worth investigating in an air tag or similar in the future and out of interest did you record the mileage as left with them at Heathrow?

I would be taking the company involved to court, small claims should suffice

Le_Kirk

As said, you should keep chasing the Meet & Greet company; do they have a formal complaints policy. In the meantime, as you are registered keeper you might have to appeal/defend them. Pop over to FLTA here: -

Council
https://www.ftla.uk/civil-penalty-charge-notices-%28councils-tfl-and-so-on%29/

mr_stripey

Was this with official Heathrow parking, or one of the many other companies who operate there (and other airports?)

FabFifty

Had the same a couple of years ago with a Meet & Greet service. Filled up the fuel tank before leaving the car so I knew I'd have enough fuel to get me home and when I collected the car the tank was virtually empty. Complained to the company but as I had no evidence that someone had used my car in my absence there was little I could follow up on. Have never used a Meet & Greet service since.

Coupon-mad

Complain to the BPA as the Meet & Greet companies are probably members these days. The BPA has made much of overseeing dodgy Meet & Greet firms.

James_Poisson

I would never use any of these so called meet and greet companies there are horrendous stories of vehicles left in fields, in streets anywhere, vehicles used for drug dealing, totally trashed, speeding offences, hundreds of miles on the clock etc etc.

Anyone can build a snazzy website and offer this service do all sorts with vehicles and then phoenix into another company just like that, they don't have to belong to any organisation, the BPA have no control over their members let alone these charlatans.

You can transfer liability to the company that had the vehicle during the time surely if you have the booking evidence and the flight evidence etc.

There are a number of businesses calling themselves "Heathrow Meet and Greet" in my search on Google the top one has it's offices over a shop and the Companies House registration states their nature of business as:

52290 Other Transport Support Services, 56101 Licensed Restaurants, 56103 Takeaway food shops and mobile food stands, 61900 Other telecommunication services.

They are quite obviously nothing to do with Heathrow or anything official, they have no membership of any organisation and state they will charge £500 per day for any derogatory comments posted on review sites that are not taken down.

What is the exact name of the meet and greet company and it's registered address I am sure it wasn't an official Heathrow partner, if it was there is your starting point.

soolin

We only used one of those leave your keys companies once , some years ago. We had a 7 seater when it was returned one of the baby seats was moved and squashed into the back , there was cigarette ash in ashtray ( we were non smokers) , stains on the seats, used baby wipes on floor and around 90 extra miles on the clock. I suspect somebody had a family outing!

We did try complaining and got absolutely nowhere , it was like talking to a brick wall. Luckily we had no fines or tickets on our return , but never again.