A man has claimed a parking firm was unable to find his Mercedes two days after he returned from London Gatwick airport.
Paul Swift, who had paid to leave his car with My Parking Limited whilst he was on holiday, claims that the company couldn’t locate it.
After a week away with his wife and kids, he recalls going back to the valet firm to pick up the family car, only to be told that he had to wait half an hour for it to arrive.
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Paul says he didn’t think anything of it, up until the point where he realised that other people had been waiting over three hours to collect their cars.
He claimed after waiting three hours, an attendant told him that they were unable to locate his keys, and asked him to go and wander around the car park to see if his keys had been dropped…talk about cheeky!
After being told not to worry, and that his car would be delivered to his home the following day, Paul got into a taxi with his family and headed back to their home in Ealing, West London.
Nobody will be surprised to find out that the car didn’t arrive the next day, and he therefore contacted the operators by phone, who took the situation to a whole new level.
They informed Paul that they couldn’t locate his booking, nor his car…*gulp*.
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Fearing that a crime had been committed, he got in contact with the Metropolitan Police to report the issue.
Speaking to the Mirror, he said: “I spoke to an employee who was completely unaware.
“She couldn’t find my booking.
“She believes it’s in the compound somewhere.
“She’s trying to find it for me.
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“Everyone else has been completely incompetent.
“I don’t think anything has been done intentionally wrong, but not returning the car is an escalation of complete incompetence.”
You can say that again!
And the situation has become rather expensive.
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He paid the firm £114 to look after his car whilst away on holiday, and has spent £150 on taxis since then back from the airport.
Taking matters into his own hands, he decided enough was enough and went back to Gatwick airport to retrieve his car.
Although it meant him taking the time off work, Paul did eventually manage to get the family car back, after someone who worked there went to physically look for it.
Gatwick airport, who have no relation to the company, are urging their travellers to be 'vigilant' when booking these kinds of services.
Mia Williams