I left my car with a ‘cowboy’ airport parking firm – now my BMW has been butchered and I’m £700 out of pocket
AN ENGINEER was left more than £700 out of pocket after a parking firm allegedly butchered his beloved BMW.
Mark Stuchbury says he paid £222 for Mayfair Parking’s Heathrow Meet and Greet service for a month-long business trip.
But he was left staring down a mammoth repair bill after he claims it was handed back to him severely damaged.
The firm’s representative met the engineer, 46, at Heathrow’s short-stay car park in March before it was taken away to a “secure location” supposedly patrolled by guards.
But his luxury £25,000 BMW 530D was instead allegedly bashed and bruised by careless valet staff.
Snaps taken after the car was returned to aeronautical surveyor Mark show a major dent left by a wheel jack in the right-hand side’s undersill.
Other pics show a shredded tyre and severe damage to shock coil springs.
The parking firm copped to giving the car a puncture – but it is claimed that it failed to tell the aeronautics expert about the full extent of the damage to his motor.
It meant he completed a 45-minute drive home to Aylesbury, Bucks, unaware of the potential risk.
He alleged: “They didn’t tell me the shock coils and absorbers had been broken and were totally ruined on the right-hand side of the car.
“Somehow that was dressed up as a puncture and they didn’t have the grace to tell me what really happened.
“Once I took the car to the garage they told me it was a miracle I’d made it home safely and that the edge of the broken absorbers had been slicing my tyre like a tin opener.
“I could have had a blowout and caused a bad accident with other vehicles and worse.
“Even if it was a puncture it was made worse because they didn’t use a jacking point to fit the space saver wheel, meaning they made a huge dent in my car.”
Despite being accessible whilst abroad, Mark was not informed of any damage until he arrived back in London to collect his car 26 days after leaving it on March 5.
His local garage quoted him a £710 repair bill to cover over the visual damaged to his prized auto.
And after attempting to establish exactly where it had been stored, he was shocked to find his security camera had been disabled by valet parking staff as part of an obscure company policy.
He added: “Obviously the fact my dashcam was turned off means I have no idea about where my car went or how the damage happened.
“When I gave them my car it was in good condition. Somewhere in the weeks I was away they have damaged it.”
Despite claiming the damage on his car insurance policy, married Mark was still forced to pay a £450 excess – even though the incident was not his fault.
Heathrow has yet to respond to Mark’s complaints over the firm using the airport’s name as part of its official branding.
He added: “I stopped using Heathrow’s meet and greet service because the cost skyrocketed, so I used a travel service that I believed had vetted their clients.
“That’s how I ended up with Mayfair Parking. I know that it isn’t an official Heathrow product but it operates on their premises.”
Mayfair Parking did not respond to requests for comment.