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Our car was damaged by Gatwick Valet parking. We didn’t notice the damage on collection but they have provided us the photos of us arriving and the driver returning and the damage is not there when we arrive but is there when we collect (as the driver comes through the cameras). I am very surprised they sent us the photos but I suspect it was because they couldn’t see the damage until it was pointed out – under the front bumper. It’s a big car and those kerbs in the parking area are high. It was grounded out and has two lots of front/drivers/underside damage.
Reading some reviews, this is par for the course and they don’t really care about sorting the damage out.
We paid by Amex, am wondering if there is an angle I can take that – thinking Rowan Atkinson and his rug that caught fire!
Alternatively I assume I shall have to go MCOL – does anyone have any advice to offer.
Thanks in advance.
In the first instance you need to make a claim to Gatwick for the cost of the damage and only after they have refused claim elsewhere. I would be amazed if they didn’t pay up since you have the evidence, although you may have to escalate. I’m not sure that Amex would cover it – I think you are referring to their ‘purchase protection’ cover that wouldn’t apply here and you wouldn’t really want to use your own car insurance. One thing to be slightly careful of is that when you renew your car insurance they will probably ask you if you had any claims, even if you didn’t make a claim on your own insurance. Assuming you wish to be truthful in answering that question, you need to be careful how you word your letter to LGW.
@JDB, would you expect to be able to claim under personal car insurance? Although the car was damaged by a third party, that third party was actually driving the vehicle with permission. If you lent your car to a friend who then damaged it, i believe that most policies would only cover you for damage caused by them to other parties (eg repairing the car park speed bump that was hit). This is an unusual situation, though, as the car has been entrusted to a professional service business rather than a friend.
@JDB, would you expect to be able to claim under personal car insurance? Although the car was damaged by a third party, that third party was actually driving the vehicle with permission. If you lent your car to a friend who then damaged it, i believe that most policies would only cover you for damage caused by them to other parties (eg repairing the car park speed bump that was hit). This is an unusual situation, though, as the car has been entrusted to a professional service business rather than a friend.
Yes, if you have comprehensive cover I believe it would be claimable and your car insurer would hopefully claim against the parking company’s liability insurance, so it would be a no fault claim. It’s akin to claiming for damage by vandalism or an unknown car/source although that is usually a fault claim. I probably wouldn’t personally claim on my insurance if it is a smallish sum because a claim is a claim, irrespective of fault in the rating algorithm. However, in this instance, I have no doubt Gatwick will pay as Vinci is a respectable company, this is a fairly standard claim apparently supported by photographic evidence and even if they initially reject it as part of the standard shakeout system, it will go through.
PS – as you suggest, it would be different if it were a friend driving the car with only third party insurance, but a professional company will carry insurance or just pay as part of the cost of doing business.
There are many problems about making claims on your car insurance. First: it will invariably put up your insurance premiums, even if you are not at fault. Second: your insurer can decide how to settle the claim, and they often go for 50:50 even when you know you were not at fault. Third: you will have to declare the incident for all vehicles where you are a named driver, adversely affecting premiums there, too. Fourth: this lasts for a minimum 5 years, and if you don’t declare it (the claim), you are in all sorts of trouble.
[Side story: I messed up and backed into a parked vehicle – he was illegally parked on double yellow lines and half on, half off the pavement. But I backed into a stationary vehicle and made a bit of a dent in one panel. I apologised, swapped details and waited for his claim – which luckily never came. He was a commercial delivery guy and probably pretty savvy about how insurance works – probably better to get his mate to sort out the minor dent for £30 than make a claim.]
Interestingly the wording on Gatwicks valet parking page doesnt really say they will take good care of your car, looks like an amex claim will not help and car insurance may be costly, depends how much damage is caused. Have you made a formal complaint yet?
Guard those photos with your life – and the original email they sent them in.
The valet parking co would of course be carrying insurance for this. Or, wherever they parked it would have insurance if it wasn’t parked in the valet co’s own enclosed area? Where it was parked might matter, and it might matter that they, a professional business being paid by you, parked it and brought it back and not you. It sounds like the location of the damage on the car means it could only be caused by the driver, however, luckily.
@JDB isn’t there something about your own insurance always having to cover damage to your parked car if it’s damaged whilst parked in a public car park, such as might be an option used by the valet parkers? This has a few layers, would make a good exam question!I think you need to call them explain the damage and its location on the car and how would the company like you to proceed in these circumstances. Taking JDB’s advice into account, this is one instance where I would really want them to take the car and get quotes addressed to them for the damage repair, then you take it to their repairer arranged by them (normally I’d want my own repairers but based on JDB’s warning to you I’d not want my name on it anywhere).
I think you need to do it promptly as there’s probably some kind of time limit involved – also to find out if they are going to play ball or if you will end up having to notify your insurance co. as a precaution. Oh, and keep the evidence that you were away and nowhere near the car just in case that end gets sticky, it may or may not help.
Interestingly the wording on Gatwicks valet parking page doesnt really say they will take good care of your car, looks like an amex claim will not help and car insurance may be costly, depends how much damage is caused. Have you made a formal complaint yet?
There’s an implied duty of care in the provision of the services.
We had a similar situation when Blue Circle valet parking at Heathrow crashed our car in Jan 2020. The damage to the front wing was extensive and they owned up to it when we picked up the car. I got a handwritten note from the valet admitting their fault.
There then followed 40 days of silence from their customer service team, not replying to emails or returning calls. We sent them repair quotes of about £3k but were stonewalled. Eventually they offered to get some mobile scratch polisher to look at the car, which was ridiculous.
SkyParkSecure, who we booked the parking through, and Heathrow Parking were responsive but said they couldn’t do anything about it. The car was driveable home but we didn’t want to use it beyond that as we didn’t know how safe it was. In the end we ran out of patience and turned to our insurer, QuoteMeHappy.
QMH were excellent. They processed our claim as a no fault claim so we kept our no claims bonus. Our renewal premium didn’t go up. We had legal cover so we pursued Blue Circle for our excess and in December 2021 (two years later!) we got our £350 excess back.
We were shocked that, for something that must happen every now and then, there didn’t seem to be any proper protection for customers nor any process that kicked in to resolve the situation. Heathrow don’t appear to do any due diligence on the valet companies they allow to operate there.
Have we booked valet parking since? Yes. Have we booked it now we’ve got a brand new car? No – we’ve gone for the pod parking 🙂
Easy… you’ve got images from them which clearly show damage between entry and exit. Make them aware of this which you probably have. Get 3 quotes to get it repaired. Only get quotes from garages you are genuinely happy to use. Send quotes to the parking company giving them 7-21 days to approve one of the 3 quotes for reimbursement. If no response, go for the cheapest quote, put in a money claim in the small claims court. Unlikely, but If repair amount is less than the parking cost, then dispute the transaction with Amex. DO NOT dispute transaction with Amex if the amount is more as they may be able to claim you’ve been refunded for the failure of service.
Thanks all for your responses. We have emailed them showing the damage and await a response.
We had an email today from Gatwick confirming they will cover the repair via the RAC.
It was a lengthy email with details of what the RAC do ‘on the spot’ and what they will do should it need to go to a garage. There is a three year warranty on the repair and it won’t be in our name at all (insurance renewal not affected) and we shall be given an equivalent hire car delivered/collected from somewhere of our choice whilst the car is being repaired.
Thank you all for your posts and hopefully should you ever have similar you can find this thread and see that the reviews on Gatwick Valet Parking apropos damage not being sorted, are not all one-sided.
I am still absolutely perplexed at the photos being emailed to us – I suspect this was an error or only done because they couldn’t see the damage by glancing quickly at the photos – but thank you to the lady that did this as although the damage isn’t catastrophic, it will be in the £1K region rather than £100s.
Sounds like a smart repair. Was the RAC quote provided by yourself?
Sounds like a smart repair. Was the RAC quote provided by yourself?
Carlos, sorry in my haste to quote you I think I’ve reported you…..huge apologies.
No we actually haven’t got round to getting quotes yet as we were up in Surrey seeing our son at the weekend and also had the misfortune to watch England V Argentina at Twickenham, so only just back.
I haven’t heard of a ‘smart repair’ before. I am prepared to be educated. 🙂
SMART (Small to Medium Area Repair Technology) is the process of repairing a car using specialised tools, paint and materials on a localised damaged area. SMART repair avoids the need to remove or repaint the entire panel of the car. Instead, by seamlessly blending the latest paintwork technology and fantastic process, SMART auto repairs technique allows us to focus on the damaged area.
It might be worth verifying a few quote from different sources as mentioned above incase they do a cheap repair job before you agree.
@marshy11 well done, pleased to hear this. This is what any respectable valet should do and as anticipated in my initial response. It is as advantageous to the customer as it is to the provider that they take full photos these days. There was no reason for them not to send any photos as they would have had to in the end and Vinci, the majority owner, is a good quality company.
I think they made a mistake in sending you the photos. They must which cars they damage before handing back, however reading reviews on trustpilot it seems to be a regular occurrence
Thanks @JDB – I have not heard of that. To be completely honest, the damage is only noticeable if you know it wasn’t there before. It’s a big car and has a limited turning circle. Our best guess is the driver didn’t anticipate that and floored the underside of it when going in/out of the circular merry-go-round. I do wonder if the photos would have been available some other way – i.e. not by their own volition…? SAR perhaps? Is it like CCTV and is disposed of within X days?
@Carlos I had read a couple of really poor reviews apropos damage by them. Someone seemingly had £6k of very visible damage done and weren’t being helped.My first impression from their email in response to the damage claim was not one I would care to publish. It didn’t leave me with a positive hope they would be honourable. I can only hope the photos being emailed to us was ‘par for the course’ and that it wasn’t in anyway an attempt to prove we were lying about damage caused on another occasion.
We had a call from ‘RAC” last night to ask if we could accommodate Friday (today) for the repair.
Yes, we could and today he came. Indie garage (albeit he was from Hayle in Cornwall the company is nationwide).
Erected some sort of inverted bouncy castle tent (the sides were air) and he then drove the car into it (thank goodness for the drive the size of a Gatwick runway).
90 minutes later the car came out unscathed – and repaired.
Technician (had worked in bodywork for the last 30 years) had worked for this outfit for six years and loves the new technology. Akin to my toenails being painted and lasting three weeks (gel nails!).
So there we have it. An effortless repair and on our drive. Can’t say fairer than that.
But the whole experience would have been better [of course] had the original driver fessed up/had Gatwick Parking given the benefit before saying T&C overruled everything/had they been even slightly up for reviewing the photos.
That said. Job done.
Well done Marshy11. I am particularly glad that no quote for damage was addressed to you by this method as it avoids insurance complications.
I think when they gave the photos they genuinely thought you didn’t have a claim. Or it’s just possible the person handling the photos did spot the damage and was kind enough to forward them to you so that you could draw your own conclusions and act aa you thought best (I like to think I would have done the same in their place).
At least it’s sorted and congratulations on being persistent.
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