The Worst Manchester Airport Parking carpark EVER? Part 1.
Last year I managed the office at a good Manchester Airport Parking carpark. But, down the road was possibly the worst Manchester airport parking carpark ever! While working nearby I saw and heard true stories from actual customers and kept up to date on their shocking antics that appeared in the Google Maps reviews. Here I am going to tell you the unbelievable but true things that happened!
I started working up the road in May last year and even though my job was managing the office, I also had to learn driving one of the minibuses to and from the three terminals at Manchester Airport, which involved passing the rogue Manchester airport parking carpark. I had to learn to drive the minibuses in case I ever needed to help the drivers in an emergency, and so I knew exactly where the airport terminals were.
Police outside
As we passed the carpark down the road we started to notice Police cars and vans parked outside. We thought ‘Something must have happened’. But then we started noticing the Police cars and vans there more frequently, several times a week, and eventually nearly every day.
Sometimes when the Police were there, the arriving customers could not get in and obviously realised something is not right with this Manchester airport parking carpark! Luckily for us, the Police started telling the customers that there is a good Manchester Airport parking carpark one hundred yards up the road. So as the Police were recommending our carpark, they took their advice and came to us. This is how I started hearing what was going on there.
We were grateful for all the customers that were sent to us as we still had spaces and so I would book them in and take payment. I also advised them that they should be able to get their money back on the rogue carpark through their credit card. We had just opened two months earlier and we were running the business professionally, and had everything a good carpark should have. But we were not full yet, and were happy for the additional customers.
Customer mistakes
Ironically, some customers came to us by mistake. They had drove straight past the rogue Airport carpark they had booked with and paid for, and accidently came to us. This was probably because it didn’t look like a carpark, because it wasn’t. It was just a muddy field full of cars. It had no gate, no signs, no security, no lighting, and a caravan with a fire outside it for an office! It also had no planning permission to be a carpark. It was just a muddy field, pretending to be a carpark, but they had a website offering cheap parking.
A few customers came to us by mistake every day, and as it was my job to book in new arrivals, I would direct them back down the road to where they had booked. But I felt I had a duty to tell them that it was a dodgy carpark, the Police were there nearly every day, and I would not park my car there. I was telling the truth and usually they would turn around go back out and go to the carpark they had booked with and paid for. They probably thought I was not telling the truth because it was a competitor, and they had already booked and paid. But when they saw it many of them came back and said ‘I am not parking my car there!’ and then asked ‘Have you got any spaces?’.…and I would book them in. They had made a good decision.
Ironic Cheek!
As I was telling the customers who came to us by mistake about the Police being outside the rogue carpark and that I would not park there, something shocking happened. One customer went back there to book in and told the owner of the dodgy carpark that I was slagging them off calling them dodgy, which was true. I was surprised when the owner of the dodgy carpark had the cheek to come up to our carpark to complain about me calling them dodgy! I told them “It was the truth!”, and they said they were going to complain to my boss! I didn’t care and neither did my boss. He said companies like that give the industry a bad name.
Customer Relief
One day, one couple arrived looking worried and asked have they got the right carpark. I checked their car registration and confirmed that they had. Their worried look immediately left their faces and was replaced by a look of relief, and then they both fell about laughing. I was a bit confused and said ‘What is so funny?’ They explained that they had accidently gone into the dodgy carpark down the road and came back out hoping that that was not the one they had booked with. Their laughs were of relief and how completely different the two places were. They were very happy they had not booked the bad one. I booked them in and we took them to the airport.
Keys
Customers started to tell us that the bad carpark was just a field and the cars were crammed in all over the place in no order! There was actually lots of cars blocking other cars! We then started to hear about customer keys. We would allocate each customer a secure plastic wallet which would contain their booking card and their keys, if they wanted to leave them. The wallets would be carefully filed away in date returning order. So on the day the customer is due back, their wallet would be taken out and be ready for their return.
The dodgy carpark didn’t have a system like that. The field they used as a fake carpark was quite big and would probably hold about two hundred cars. They also insisted on the customers leaving their keys so they could move the cars. But instead of an organised system, ALL the keys were thrown into a huge BUCKET! Can you imagine the chaos of trying to find your keys in a huge bucket of TWO HUNDRED sets of keys! This led to a serious problem.
Missing Key!
Without any system regarding the secure holding of keys at the rogue carpark, it was inevitable that they would lose customers keys. Since they simply threw everyone’s keys in a huge bucket! It must have been awful for returning customers queueing up for their turn to find their keys in the huge bucket! I doubt they were bothered about supervising when customers were trying to find their keys and so it would only take a careless customer to take two or more that look like theirs and forget to return it to the bucket! There were also the prospect of them losing the keys when they had to move cars.
One day a family from Scotland returned from their holiday abroad to the rogue carpark to collect their car and could not find their key. They searched and searched and it was not there. They called the Police but the Police could not do anything. In frustration and after being there for hours, the man of the family decided to get a taxi home, all the way from Manchester to Scotland! That is at least 275 miles, and possibly a lot more! That journey would take at least three hours in clear traffic, and possibly a lot more. He had to get his family home. The taxi cost them £350, one way!
He returned with Anger!
That wasn’t the end of it. The man knew he had a spare car key at home and so the next day he returned to the rogue carpark to collect his car. He got another taxi, costing him another £350, and taking at least another three hours. His total cost because of the lost key was now £700. When he got there he demanded they refund him his £700. They refused. He was very angry and so he got in his car drove to the entrance of the car park and parked his car there! He got out and locked his car, and refused to move it unless the paid him back £700. This meant no new customers could enter or returning customers could leave the carpark! He effectively closed their business in one move.
The Police Again!
This time it was the dodgy carpark that called the Police! They complained that this seriously disgruntled customer was stopping their business, which was the case. While this chaos was being sorted out, the Police sent all customers trying to enter up to our carpark. I was working on that day and that was one of my busiest hours, as I had our own customers to book in as well as all the customers from the dodgy carpark, and to take payments as well. Luckily we had enough space to accommodate everyone and we smoothly dealt with it and got everyone to the airport without a problem. The customers redirected by the Police told me what was going on down the road. I also advised them all that they should be able to get their money back through their credit card.
Was that the worst case?
I don’t know what the end result was for the customer from Scotland whose keys the rogue carpark lost. The chaos ended after an hour or so, but this was not the only shocking case for customers at the rogue Airport carpark. Over the next few months I kept checking Google Maps for the reviews for the rogue carpark, and they were unbelievable! There was several shocking cases and I will include them in the next post: Part 2: The nightmare carpark continues!
Please Note: the dodgy rogue carpark was NOT called ‘Manchester Airport Parking’. So do not get confused with any existing Airport Parking carpark companies that use that trading name.