This was an official parking provider? Wow.
You’re probably lucky you got your car back full stop.
DO NOT EVER USE Nation Wide Airport Parking!
Online, it shows that their office is based in London:
71-75 Shelton Street, London
WC2H 9JQ
Greater London
United Kingdom
If you want to know why, read on...
So, back in September, we went on holidays and booked normal airport parking, as usual. While we were away, in Portugal, the rules have changed and we needed to self-isolate for 14 days on arrival. I've read somewhere that if you go to another country that has a airbridge - your quarantine starts as soon as you leave the country that doesn't have the airbridge. So, we decided to go to Poland for a week after Portugal with a connecting flight in London. My girlfriend quickly booked something that was advertised as ''meet and greet parking''. She didn't think twice as it was on an official Stansted Airport website.
We got back from Portugal, moved the car to the Nation Wide Parking - it is not meet and greet - you go to the Orange zone, have to pay minimum of £8 (hidden fee, that is not mentioned online - same thing on arrival) or so to give the car to a driver (who happened to look like a random dude and smelled of weed). Off we went.
When in Poland, the quarantine rules changed again and we had to come back 3 days earlier. Called the parking as soon as we found out, they said there's no problem, you just need to pay £15 to amend the booking and you can get the car early - fair enough, didn't think much about it. We were instructed to give them a call when we get our bags, so after landing and getting the bags, we did just that. The guy on the phone said ''no problem, the car will be there in 20-30 minutes''. Great stuff. It was around 21:00 already and raining, so we were waiting... 20, 30, 50 minutes. Gave them few calls in the meantime, they answered some, said ''you have to wait'' and hang up. After almost 3 hours (3 hours!) waiting they said our car is blocked by another car and they lost their keys. Therefore, they can't access our car. And guess what... they hang up again! We called and called for another 30 minutes or so and someone answered and said ''customer service will call you soon''. We got a call from a guy instructing us to get a taxi and they will refund the fare, and that our car will be delivered next day. We forced him to send us an email, so we have that in writing, took a taxi home (£240). So, that was Friday. The car was supposed to be delivered on Saturday, no reply, not answering our phone calls. Same thing on Sunday, but at the end of the day some guy on the phone said that they had a guy sick with covid, another guy quit and it's a bit hectic. Ok, fair enough - we can understand it, no problem. He said the car will be delivered Monday by 4pm. Ok, Monday... 4.30pm we get a phone call from a guy who doesn't speak English very well saying ''postcode, coming''. Car showed up at... around 23:00! Filthy. Muddy inside out. The whole drivers door was covered in dry mud, it looked like they left a window open and it just rained mud. Or they did some mud drifting, I don't know. The whole interior was so messed up that the local valet service could get it all out. So, there's that.
We've been trying to contact them for a while now but no luck. We've been in touch with Citizen advice and they have advised us to try and contact them (which we were doing anyway) and if no luck send a letter. So, we wrote a letter, printed all the correspondence we've had, pictures of the dirty car and all. Posted Signed For. The tracking of the letter indicates that it was delivered and signed for on the 21st of October but on the 22nd of October it's been ''refused and returned to sender''. So, they basically opened it, read it, decided not to do anything about it, and next day when the postie arrived they said there's been a mistake or something and we want to refuse it. I am shocked and disgusted by the way this company operates. Reading reviews online this is not an uncommon occurrence. How can they even advertise on the official Stansted website?
We are in contact with Citizen advice to see what we can do next.
If you got this far... what would you do?
This was an official parking provider? Wow.
You’re probably lucky you got your car back full stop.
Having watched enough "dodgy dealer" TV programmes, I'm not sure you are going to win against a company of cowboys like this. They'll duck and dive even when you get a CCJ and bailiffs in.
I encountered this with a skip hire company that was meant to apply for council permission for the skip...they didn't, subsequently couldn't provide the skip and then refused to refund my money. It was a Pakistani run firm that I could barely understand on the telephone and had to give up in the end.
Do everyone a good deed and just make sure you leave appropriate reviews everywhere for this place - make it clear what people are risking if they choose to use them.
I've just read their trustpilot reviews...it would be madness to go ahead and book them if you read the reviews!
Last edited by Christian; 30th October 2020 at 18:03.
Pakistani... sounds about right!
If you read their reviews it seems like my story isn't as bad as it could be. Smoking in the car is pretty common as well as using the car while the owner is away (some up to 100miles of fuel too).
I just don't understand how this can be advertised on the official Stansted website. I will get in touch with them too.
Shared this on 2 forums so far.
sounds like a nightmare! Unfortunately I suspect the booking site was not the official Stansted airport website. It’s our closest airport by car so we fly out from there a few times a year normally. As far as I am aware the only parking available on their site is their own official parking. I have used the meet and greet and valet options a few times without an issue.
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If they are official providers the first thing would be to contact whoever said they are official and tell them what happened, sounds like you need to assess your losses and start the recovery process, one problem is any damage to the car may be down to your insurance.
I keep thinking about opening a Twitter account just in case I need to embarrass a company into providing good service
A ha ha ha ha, over 60 employees and some great job descriptions!
"With the majority of registration applications process within just 3 hours, this is the most efficient and reliable way to set up a company and start trading today."
I wonder what sort of companies would need to be set up and trading in a day.
Last edited by oldoakknives; 30th October 2020 at 18:16.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Started out with nothing. Still have most of it left.
Looks like somebody has set up a relatively new company and you have been the victim of crap service - I suspect you are wasting time and effort trying to get any recompense.
When you look long into an abyss, the abyss looks long into you.........
Not a stupid question at all, I was not clear what I meant.
Yes, it is a bit like registering your company at someone else's address, in this case the address of the outfit who registered their company.
It makes you wonder why they would want to do that.
It is quite common to use the address of an accountants or similar, who has some connection to the business - which is quite normal. In the case of your parking company, I suspect they are trying to hide where they are actually trading from.
Last edited by Maysie; 30th October 2020 at 18:26.
So you were allowed to enter the country from a quarantine country, then hop about all over the airport and car parks before taking another flight in close proximity to strangers? I had no idea.
Does your car have any form of tracker so you can see where it went?
Has the mileage gone up by much?
Just wondering if it has been used as an Uber while you were away..?
On a serious note, utterly shocking service though.
Yes, exactly. I'm sure you'll find many shocking things you can do during these times, when the government doesn't really know how to deal with it.
On a serious note - we did have FFP2 masks which protect us and others from all particles. The standard surgical masks do not protect us from other peoples particles, so please be careful when travelling.
- - - Updated - - -
Ours not so much but if you read reviews online - it does happen!
I would never, ever use a parking solution at the airport where they are driving your car at any point. All I ever heard for years were these horror stories. I will just park myself and get the shuttle.
That is disgusting behaviour. We had similar a few years ago (can’t remember there name) but car was smashed up by the “valet driver” who crashed it. They then left the car at some random persons address in London. We had to report it as stolen but then there is the whole question from insurance company regarding willingly handing keys over to someone.
Long story short - don’t cheap out on airport parking. If you can leave it on site at the airport then pay the extra and do so.
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Last edited by Stonewood; 30th October 2020 at 19:03.
And I have also read of stories about people’s cars being left in boggy/muddy fields (sounds like OPs was).
Some of these airport parking owners are just scammers. Try and claim against them and they will dissolve and then start up in a new name.
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Last edited by Stonewood; 30th October 2020 at 19:25.
As a few have suggested I think you’ll have to take this loss on the chin, if you pursue in the courts you’ll just be throwing good money after bad.
This firm is not likely to have any assets or a physical location for you to receive any redress via the courts/bailiffs.
It’s not unusual for these type of firms to just park the car in a rented farmers field for 2 weeks. Not quite the secure lock-up you were expecting.
Good on you for spreading the bad review about, it’s the best you can do in this situation.
F**k reading that wall of text. Anyone got a synopsis?
I am guessing you paid by credit card? Have you contacted the card company?
Also I would contact Stansted and see if they will help as you found them via their website, they will be taking a commission or payment for the company being on their site so they do have an obligation to help, they will say they don’t but legally they do.
Paid by debit card, unfortunately...
We will be in touch with Stansted, just waiting for the Citizen Advice people to get back to us.
I have already given up worrying about it, now just want to make sure as many people as possible are aware. Posted this on 3 different forums I'm on, this thread here already has 500 views, so I'm happy :-)
Airport parking companies are invariably run by cowboys. Even if you get a CCJ against them, they'll just stop trading with the limited company you have a CCJ against and start afresh with a new one.
Personally, I'd draw a line under it and vow to always get a taxi to the airport in future.
Their 'modus operandi' is the same as a bunch of Dutch valet parking cowboys. After comments like yours, Dutch investigative journalists handed a 'spiked' car (BMW 120) to that Dutch firm: filled with cameras, gps and trackers. Long story short: it was used as 'transport vehicle' between the owners' home address where it was parked on the street in a shady part of Amsterdam and Schiphol. It was trashed during that week!
Did the total mileage go up; how much petrol was left in the tank.
You’d have to be mad to hand your car keys over to any such company, official or otherwise.
I just pay for the closest car park to the terminal - a 1 minute walk (literally) and it’s still half the price of paying a valet to take your car to a muddy field / council estate 10 miles away. And I know where my car will be when I get back from holiday / business.
Yes you do have a contract between you and the parking provider, but that agreement is practically worthless.
Unless you can find some company assets worth going after.
Otherwise you’re down the route of doing a money claim online but in the long run you have a 99% chance of wasting your money and a 1% chance of ever seeing anything.
Sounds like the person runs a couple of business' so i'm sure you can extract a home address from the 1st one (JHS Sports) if you wanted to take him to small claims court or something
https://find-and-update.company-info...mpany/11987567
Address of the above company
https://www.google.de/maps/@51.50955...4!8i8192?hl=en
https://find-and-update.company-info...31826/officers
All in the public domain, so up to you what you want to do next