
I was really shocked when you recently told me about your trip to Stanstead Airport and about how much they had charged you to park there for 1 hour and 1 min - £29.40!!!!!
For anyone this would be an excessive sum to pay for an hours parking in a designated "short stay" car park...but for a pensioned widower who holds a blue badge this is a huge chunk out of your weekly pension and frankly I think it's disgusting that you have been fleeced in this manner. As I explained in letter of complaint to the airport (see below) part of the reason that you took so long to get back to the car was the distance at which they had placed the disabled parking bays from the terminal. You said you estimated it to be 1/4 mile away and that with your struggling with Arthritis in your hips and knees as well as chest pains bought on by the exertion of walking that distance and the Emphysema (caused by years of working with toxic chemicals and twice having your face and lungs burnt by spilt chemicals) making you short of breath - you had seriously struggled to cover the distance at any sort of "regular" walking pace.
I have therefore written to the airport to put a complaint in and to request the money back as most carparks in the UK will allow blue badge holders to park for free or certainly at a reduced rate - they do not rip off the elderly, disabled and vulnerable as appears to have been the case here. I am not hopeful of even getting a reply as I had a "thank you for sending us your feedback reply" that told me to contact an alternative address should I not have heard anything back in a fortnight!! :-O
Even if I do get a reply I am confident the tone will probably be brusk and of the "serves you right for choosing to park there - them's the charges and we don't refund them for anyone" nature. However I'm happy for Stanstead Airport ( and BAA who run it) to prove me wrong and show that actually they do have a heart and aren't total rip off merchants, feeding of the poorer sections of our society.
Here's the letter I wrote:
Dear Sir,
My Father recently attended Stansted to pick up a family member. He is 70 years of age, a registered disabled driver due to Arthritis, Emphysema and having had a number of heart attacks recently. He parked in your short stay car park after being told by a policeman on site that his Blue Badge did not allow him to park in the pick up bay whilst entering the terminal to search for his brother. Having parked in the short stay car park, he found he had to walk a fair distance (My Father said to be approx 1/4 mile) to the terminal which he obviously found to be a struggle. He then found his brother after a short search of the terminal building and they proceeded to make their way straight back to the car. Upon returning to the car and because of the distance involved to him as someone who is disabled and has impaired walking ability, he discovered that he had been charge £29.40 for parking for 1hr and 1min. To say this was excessive is an understatement and I was shocked when my elderly Father explained this to me with tears in his eyes. He was obviously frustrated at being charged so much as the distance had been too far for him to swiftly return to his vehicle (as this was the nearest disabled parking bay that you provided) and it had resulted in him being charged such an extreme amount for such a short stay. As such I wondered if you may be able to reimburse the charge a) as it was partly due to the distance involved which accounted for the length of his stay, b) it is an excessive amount to charge anyone let alone a disabled pensioner. c) Most other carparks do allow disabled drivers to park for free or at a reduced rate with a blue badge. I am quite happy to produce the ticket should you require to see a copy and await your reply.
Yours sincerely
Mrs Freya Sykes
****UPDATE***** Here's the email I've had back in reply.
Dear Mrs Sykes
I am sorry to learn that your father incurred a substantial car parking charge when he came to Stansted on 2 February to meet his brother.
Firstly, I can confirm that there are no blue badge parking spaces on our terminal forecourt which for security reasons is designated for set down only.
Each of Stansted 's short stay car parks which are located directly in front of the terminal offer accessible parking spaces for Blue Badge Holders, the spaces themselves have been positioned closest to Help Points and payment machines. Large monolith signs, marking the entry point for each car park, display an icon indicating that blue badge spares are available. For security reasons the Blue Badge scheme does not operate on Stansted's roads (including terminal forecourt) and within the car parks there are no parking fee concessions or exemptions A number of organisations involved in accessibility were party to this decision when Stansted first opened.
Tariffs will vary according to the car park used and its proximity to the terminal building and details of the charges applicable for a particular car park are displayed beside the entrance barrier. Your father appears to have parked in our "Pick Up car park", this is the closest to the terminal, the access tunnel to the building is adjacent the zone and the distance certainly not a quarter of a mile. This car park has a punitive tariff, a minimum charge of £1 but rising to £29.40 after an hour. Apart from the on the tariff boards as you approach the barrier equipment, a warning about this charge is also displayed across the entry barrier arm and throughout the car park If passengers are not yet waiting to be picked up we would recommend using the other car parks ('Red', 'Orange' or 'Green') where stays of up to an hour cost between £1.50 and £2.80. As already mentioned each of these have Blue Badge parking. 'Red' car park, which is nearer Domestic Arrivals has 16, 'Orange' which is closest to International Arrivals has 20 and 'Green' car park has nine, in addition to six in the 15-minute 'Pick Up' car park.
We sympathise your father had to pay such a large car park fee but in considering your request for a refund of the parking charges, must reiterate there is Blue Badge parking in all zones and plenty of signage in place to warn drivers of the tariffs applicable.
With regards,
Jill VailCustomer Insight AnalystOn Behalf of BAA Stansted Ltd.
****My reply to Ms Vail*****
Dear Ms Vail,
Thank you for your reply as it raises a number of questions.
Firstly, you say that "A number of organisations involved in accessibility were party to this decision when Stansted first opened." Please could you out line which organisations these were and whether or not (although I do strongly suspect the later, being a committee member for a well known Disability Charity myself) they were in agreement with the system for disabled parking as you seem to intimate they were with your wording.
Secondly you mention that "Tariffs will vary according to the car park used and its proximity to the terminal building and details of the charges applicable for a particular car park are displayed beside the entrance barrier. Your father appears to have parked in our "Pick Up car park", this is the closest to the terminal, the access tunnel to the building is adjacent the zone and the distance certainly not a quarter of a mile. This car park has a punitive tariff, a minimum charge of £1 but rising to £29.40 after an hour. Apart from the on the tariff boards as you approach the barrier equipment, a warning about this charge is also displayed across the entry barrier arm and throughout the car park If passengers are not yet waiting to be picked up we would recommend using the other car parks ('Red', 'Orange' or 'Green') where stays of up to an hour cost between £1.50 and £2.80."
I wonder how you expected my Father to know that he would have trouble finding his Brother and would therefore be delayed in returning to his vehicle in advance? I'm sure if he had known he would have parked in a longer stay carpark, however he was not anticipating the delay and the struggle he would physically have to get back to his car when placed in a stressful and "timed" situation. As you can see from his ticket he had made every physical effort to return to his car in the time frame your company dictacted (It's not as if he spent 3 hours in the carpark but was simply 1 minute late!!) I would therefore ask you once again to reconsider the somewhat mealy mouthed stance your company seems to be taking in grabbing the money from a disabled pensioner Ms Vail and in the interest of goodwill and good pr to refund the extortionate penalty he has had to pay for being disabled and unable to return to his vehicle as swiftly as someone who is able bodied.
I look forward to your reply.
Yours sincerely.
Mrs Freya Sykes
****NOTE: I strongly suspect that she may ignore my request to tell me who the "organisations" involved are as they probably *were* consulted and told Stanstead they were being discriminatory towards disabled persons by putting them under a "stop watch"...but we'll see what she says.
Also I fully expect her to come back and say no again to the refund...but again she may prove me wrong and I sincerely hope she does!
****24th March 2009...As yet I have had no reply to my previous email of the 10th March - as I suspected above would be the case. I have therefore sent to following request to Ms Vail:
Dear Ms Vail, Further to my email of the 10th March, I do not yet appear to have had a reply and wondered if you may be so good as to respond to my communication. I await your reply. Yours Sincerely Mrs Freya Sykes.
Once again though I am not holding my breath as I suspect that she is now simply ignoring my communications (great customer Service hey? "We'll rip you off, tell you to get knotted when you complain and if you dare to question our explainations we'll simply ignore you until you go away." Nice hey?)
****UPDATE, 9th April 2009...Once again I am sad to tell you that as of yet I STILL have not had any reply from Ms Vail to my previous emails of either the 10th of March NOR my email above of the 24th March...I think I have been fair and generous in the amount of time I have given her to respond as well as giving her a "prompt" email on the 24th March. However I do feel that 1 month is more than adequate time for her to respond in and now can only assume she is just simply ignoring my emails. I will therefore find out next week who her boss is and will put my complaint in writing to them, both about the treatment of my Father as well as my own subsequent treatment at the hands of their "Customer Care" staff (Yes I too am wondering about that bit!!) I will keep you all updated.