BMW written off by airport parking staff
BUSINESSMAN GETS MESSAGE TO PULL OVER...WHILE HAVING DINNER IN CHICAGO
A MAN’S £30,000 BMW was written off after it was crashed by Manchester Airport valet staff in a multi-storey car park.
Andrew Swindells, 47, handed over the keys to his BMW One Series after paying just short of £100 for the airport’s valet-style ‘meet and greet’ parking service before jetting off to the US for a business trip.
But he told the M.E.N how the car’s on-board telemetry system alerted him via his mobile phone to a ‘serious collision’ – as he was sitting down having dinner in Chicago days later. He was then called by BMW to ask him if he was alright and tell him to pull over immediately.
On arrival back to Manchester, father-oftwo Andrew, from Widnes, Cheshire, said he was taken up to the top floor of a multi-storey car park, where he saw the BMW crashed into a concrete bollard. He said the airport has now settled with his insurers. The airport, meanwhile, has also now apologised.
The car itself – bought second-hand by Andrew 12 months ago at three months old – was left up on the car park for weeks because it couldn’t be moved, he added. He was also critical of the level of customer service he got from the airport.
Andrew, an IT product manager who regularly flies abroad on business, likened the scenes at the airport to ‘something out of Only Fools and Horses.’ He said: “It all happened at the end of January, but it has taken ages for the airport to sort the insurance out. It dragged on and on.
“It’s valet parking and they move the car to another site on the airport. “During the trip I received notifications from the in-car telemetry to tell me it had been involved in an accident. Upon returning, I found the car had been driven into a concrete block. “The airport team told me the car was being driven slowly and safely, however the car has been written off by the insurance company. They managed to completely write it off by crashing it into a concrete block. “I landed back in Manchester on January 27 and went to the meet and greet reception. There were two managers waiting for me. I have to say they were really good. They said ‘yes, your car has been in a crash. We need to show you what happened.’” Andrew said he was given a hire car while the situation was dealt with by his insurers and the airport’s. A Manchester Airport spokesperson told the Manchester Evening News: “We apologise to Mr Swindells for the damage to his car and have worked with his insurance company to ensure he is fully compensated. Thousands of passengers use our Meet and Greet products every week and incidents leading to any kind of damage are extremely rare.”
They managed to completely write it off by crashing it into a concrete block Andrew Swindells