Man charged £1,200 after leaving vehicle in car park for just one day
We all know that city centre parking prices can be absolutely extortionate.
But paying a four-figure sum to park your car for just one day might be pushing it a tad too far.
That’s exactly what happened to one driver in Cardiff who was hit with a mammoth parking bill when he returned to his vehicle after a day at work.
When Gareth Price left his car at an NCP multi-storey in the Welsh capital last Thursday, little did he realise it was going to cost him a whopping £1,201.85.
The 36-year-old commutes to Cardiff once a week from his home in Neath, South Wales and regularly leaves his car at the site.
On this occasion, however, he was charged the standard £7.95 fee for the day and then given another receipt to say he owed thousands.
His huge bill indicated his car had been parked there for 42 days – fortunately Mr Price had a promotional code to get the overall price down to £320.35
IT worker Mr Price was still forced to pay the massive extra charges and didn’t receive a refund for days on end.
Following the hefty bill payment, he said: ‘I drove out of the car park on Thursday and on the app I had two receipts come through.
‘One of them said £7.95 for the day, and the other was for 42 days I think it was in total.
‘I paid on June 1 and have paid for parking for the day since, which is £7.95, so I’ve no idea what has happened. It must be a glitch.’
Mr Price said he immediately contacted NCP when he returned home but they took four hours to reply – and at least another four days to return his cash.
He added: ‘I got home and opened the chat session at 6.30pm and I finally got a reply at 10.30pm.
‘They said they’d send it to the refunds team and they’ll pick it up when they pick it up. But I’ve still not received anything back.
‘I’ve emailed the complaints team but had a response saying they also take 14 days to reply. So I’ve just been left for the moment. It’s frustrating.’
NCP has since apologised for the error and says it has now issued a refund to Mr Price.
A spokesperson for NCP said: ‘We are so sorry that this issue has occurred whilst parking with us, and for the delay in refunding.
‘We are investigating with urgency to understand why the parking sessions weren’t automatically closed down.
‘Whilst we look into this we have spoken directly to the customer and the refund is being issued today.
‘We have also offered a week’s free parking as a further gesture to acknowledge the inconvenience experienced, along with our most sincere apologies.’
Earlier this week, a 75-year-old man was fined £255 after he stopped to read a car park sign for ‘less than a minute’.
Back in May, a woman accused a parking firm of being ‘cold-hearted’ after she was given a £100 penalty for stopping at a retail park for 28 minutes to help her unwell husband.
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