How would you feel if you entered a car park, couldn’t find a parking space – but still had to pay a fee to exit once you gave up and drove out?
Needless to say, paying for a service you don’t get is not good business – but that is exactly what Trading Standards officers discovered when they visited Manchester Airport car parks recently.
The problem had been reported by several users of the car parks in recent times. Apparently it is quite common to enter the multi storey car parks and fail to find a space. Manchester Airport car parks are always busy and constantly have people trying to park and not being able to do so.
It is frustrating enough to try and park only to find you cannot locate a space and have to go elsewhere instead. But when you still have to pay upon leaving, this is not good news at all.
A driver reported the situation to Trading Standards officers, who subsequently visited the car park to see whether anything could be done. The car park was the short stay one at Terminal Two at the airport. They have warned the airport bosses that customers should always be able to tell whether there are available spaces –at the time of the incident this was not the case.
The man who contacted Trading Standards said that when he drove into the car park he could not find any signs letting him know whether the car park was full or not. Needless to say this was breaking rules, and Trading Standards let the car park owners know this was the case.
Bosses at Manchester Airport released a statement confirming the incident, and hopefully signage will be changed so people will know whether the car park has spaces before you enter it in future.
The man who reported the problem stated that the £2 fee he was forced to pay was not important. Rather it was the issue of charging for a service he didn’t receive that was the main problem. It seems as if he may have spoken up for the many other people who could have been through the same process. It is hard to believe he was the only one, after all.
So if you are visiting Manchester Airport in the near future, keep an eye out for signs before entering this car park – and report any problems immediately.