‘Worry-free’ airport valet parking came with a R2 600 bill
Owner vows to ’overhaul’ business after crashing ’parked’ car
IT’S always a little disquieting leaving your home, pet or car in the care of strangers. And for good reason. The list of things that can go wrong when you’re away is endless and, thanks to Hollywood movies, decidedly angst-causing.
That’s why professionals offering to care for and protect your possessions (and beloved animals), for a fee, are appealing. But it seems you’ve got to have your wits about you when you agree to hand over your car keys to third parties. Even then, you could become a victim.
Ask 60-year-old bookkeeper Sue Maurel. Using a Groupon deal for valet parking at King Shaka International Airport in April, she happily handed over her 2005 Ford Fiesta to the Park & Fly Africa representative.
Maurel and her husband were flying to Cape Town to visit their grandchildren for five days; the car was to be stored — untouched — at the company’s Tongaat premises about 10km from the airport. But four days later, a driver from the company made two trips to the airport in her car, on the same day.
On the first trip, he was speeding. On the second, he was cornering hard and braking even harder. Seconds later he smashed her car into a pavement.
How does Maurel know this? As a Discovery Insure client, her car was fitted with an optional BAD FORM: Sue Maurel is now paying off a replacement car after an airport valet company wrote off her paid-up car when it was supposed to be safely stored telematic device that measures acceleration, braking, cornering, speed, distance and location. The impact alert feature notifies the insurer immediately when high or severe G-forces are experienced by the car.
Maurel unfortunately missed her insurer’s call soon after the accident but was alerted to it four hours later by company owner Joel Pillay.
“I asked him why my car was on the road when it was supposed to be parked securely at their premises,” said Maurel. “He told me my car had been taken by mistake as there were two of the same cars on the premises. I didn’t believe him at all.”
Maurel said Pillay assured her that his insurance would take care of the repairs but turned down her request for a hired car in the interim, saying he could not afford it.
“I was obviously very upset,” said Maurel. “We decided to claim through our insurance company to ensure that the repairs would be effected quickly and properly [and] this also allowed me to get a hire car.”
To Maurel’s horror, the car, fully paid off, was declared a write-off and she was paid out R46 000, with an excess of R3 000.
“I am upset that this company will get away with what they have done . . . it used my car without my permission, so in my opinion it is theft. I had telematics technology in my car, but what about the people who don’t? How many people have they done this to who are none the wiser?”
Several, it seems. Although none had their cars totally destroyed, Pillay admitted that other consumers’ stored cars had been “misused” (odometer readings and petrol gauges told the story) and valuables left in cars had disappeared. It had compensated affected customers, he said.
Sounds like a free-for-all at one-year-old Park & Fly Africa?
Not so, said Pillay, who lays the blame on a single part-time employee hired six months ago. He has since been arrested for theft and fired.
“When the driver was questioned [about the crash] he stated that he was confused as to which car should have been delivered as there were two vehicles of the same type going out the same day,” said Pillay.
“However, I take responsibility as its shows lack of supervision from my management team. Due to negligence by our driver, the customer has incurred costs.”
He said he was willing to arrange a payment plan to assist Maurel with the excess, which the company would try to recoup from its own insurer.
“One of our goals when this business was established was to provide jobs for our local community,” said Pillay. “The employee that has damaged the reputation of my business pleaded for a job. He was hired on trust and, unfortunately, a growing business fell.”
He said the business was being “overhauled”, and would impose a code of ethics for drivers, and criminal checks.
Groupon, meanwhile — which Pillay says brought in 80% of his sales — has stopped doing business with the company, at least for now.
Groupon’s Wayne Gosling said: “We have a rehabilitation process with our blacklisted merchants . . . the merchant in question won’t be considered any time soon as it still has remaining vouchers to service.”
Pillay said the business approach was “now centred fully around the customer”, with the main aim to provide the best price and service. “We are picking up the pieces and building this business again . . . to avoid a repeat of this setback.”
But the self-employed Maurel is not easily appeased. Hard to blame her; she now has to pay R2 600 a month for the next four years to pay off a replacement car. Her 2005 Ford had been fully paid up.
“I do not accept this man’s explanation at all,” she said. “I accept that the car could have been taken by mistake once, but not twice.
“The first time it was taken by mistake, management should have intervened.
“Also, none of the owners came to the airport to meet us when we came back from Cape Town and, on top of that, we had to wait half an hour for them to send a car . . . it was very bad form as they should have done everything possible to accommodate us.”
As with other airports around South Africa, several valet services are on offer at Durban airport; Maurel had twice used AT Dell Computers’ repair agent Bytes Technology Group, who assessed and fixed my dead laptop within a day. The technician arrived first thing the morning after the fault was logged, armed with replacement parts. Even our in-house IT support guy was impressed! another service, Fly and Park (not to be confused with Pillay’s company), with no problems.
None of the valet services at King Shaka airport are contracted to, or accredited by, Airports Company South Africa, although Acsa is “extremely sorry” about Maurel’s experience.
Even more reason to choose a valet company wisely.
There’s no protection against accidents, but there are ways to mitigate the risk. Before you hand over your keys, cover yourself as best you can by reading all terms and conditions.
Better still, record (cellphone pictures are useful) the car’s odometer reading, fuel level, and scratches or dents in the presence of a company representative.
Tune in to Power 98.7’s “Power Breakfast” (DStv audio channel 889) at 8.50am tomorrow to hear more from Megan
He lays the blame on a single part-time employee hired six months ago. The worker has been arrested
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