Airport Meet & Greet - damaged my car

[Kemik]

Hi guys,

Left my car with Luton DriveFly using their Meet & Greet service from Friday to Monday. Checked over the car at the airport and couldn't see anything but it was covered in mud. Figured I should check my dash cam.

• They reversed into another car. I've checked and there is a scratch on the left side bumper.
• They left it running for at least an hour and a half.
• They took it for a jolly into Luton, driving over the speed limit and over speed bumps.

Called them just now and their bloke said he would let the manager know. He also asked me to email their head office and told me to save the video.

What would you be asking for in compensation? Events like this really ruin the trust in these kinds of services.

 

[Kemik]

Well firstly you should be entitled to a full refund as the service was not as described. They should also cover any repairs to the car and a sum for fuel used.

Great ideas thanks.

My detective work suggests its a Golf GTD.

Good detective work Not sure why they would pick mine when there were much nicer Mercs I saw parked up on the videos. They did cane a land rover at the same time as they seem to leave the parking lot in convoy.

The idea that is a secure car park is a joke seen as they just drive on and off it with no gate or barrier.

I would never use one of these services. For me it's park at the terminal or make other arrangements. These sort of stories are far to common.

The annoying thing is I've never had an issue in the past with other companies at different airports. Then again, I only checked the dashcam this time because it was covered in thick dust. I'm booked with the same company (unknowingly) for my trip to Vietnam from Heathrow in two weeks time... Might look elsewhere.

 

[Kemik]

Get the video on yourube and post it here

Which one do you want to see? It took place over three days. Will upload them tonight.

 

[Kemik]

Any recommendations for Heathrow?

Been doing some digging. They don't list their company details anywhere on their website. The owners did post some personal adverts on facebook though and a WHOIS search gave the second Director. They never seem to file accounts and just open a new company when they get struck off by Companies House.

I've contacted Trading Standards but will hold back on going all out until I hear back from them. They seem to have operations across the UK so I'm not sure how they can operate on such a scale without any kind of official limited company to manage it all.

 

[Kemik]

Video time

[Edit: removed]

Watching it back I should probably add a few notes:

- The sole time they should have used the car is 15 minutes to drive to their car park, say 15 minutes to move it round as they arrange their parking, and then 15 minutes to come and drop it off at the airport. I had around two and a half hours of video. I cut out loads. E.g. they moved the car on the Saturday around 4 times and was sat in it for at least 10 minutes each time. They messed with the heating system, the radio, you hear things opening and closing constantly.

- The main issue I have is the use when they don't need to use it. Looking back, the reversing into another car isn't the most obvious and could be heavy breaking but there are definitely scratches on that side of the car that I'm fairly certain weren't there when I dropped it off as I hand wash my car every few weeks.

 

[Kemik]

Like this ^

The bloke was really weird. You don't want to know half the conversations he was having with his "babe" in the car. He must have sat in it and moved it around (e.g. forward a bit then back a bit rather than something useful) about six times on Saturday and Sunday.

 

[Kemik]

Haha, I posted a question about this on reddit legal advice and now a Daily Mail reporter has reached out. I'm going to need to mark the video as private until the company respond to me - sorry guys!

 

[Kemik]

Crazy that these people think they can get away with this kind of business - reminds me I should get a dashcam myself!

What unit does your VW have Kemik?

Not sure on the model sorry. It's some Chinese unit off eBay. Keep randomly shutting off too unfortunately.

They just have to unplug it!

Mine is wired into the fuse box for when the engine is on they can still delete the videos via the screen though!

 

[Kemik]

Chinese
ebay
wired directly to fuse box!

eeeek!! *runs for the hills!

Heh, it's sufficiently protected. I think...

It's the Mini 0805 model.