Contact for Parking for Cruises

[tring]

After advice form this board, we have used Parking for Cruises for a Princess cruise last autumn and are booked with them for a couple of future P&O cruises as well as a cruise with Fred which returned yesterday.  There were problems with our car on our return yesterday, which I will not give details of at present as I wish to give them a chance to deal with the issue first.  We were told they would ring yesterday afternoon, though, (as we had mentioned), we were still traveling home then and DH's phone has been turned off for part of the time since we picked up the car.  However there does not appear to have been a missed call so I rang them about half an hour ago, only to get an answerphone reply, and I did leave a message.

 

Can I ask if other posters here have had a good (or bad) response from Parking for Cruises if there had been a problem when their car was picked up, and was there problems getting in touch with them to deal with the situation after that?  Any other hint on how to speak to a person in their company would be much appreciated.  Our initial thoughts were not to cancel our other bookings with them as otherwise everything has worked well and the problem is not a major issue and may genuinely be a one off, but how this is dealt with matters a lot to us.  

 

Edited March 25, 2022 by tring

[majortom10]

It would perhaps help, even if only vaguely, what the problem was. We have used them many times and never had an issue and nothing but exceptional service.

[tring]

1 hour ago, majortom10 said:

It would perhaps help, even if only vaguely, what the problem was. We have used them many times and never had an issue and nothing but exceptional service.

 

Since they have not come back to me, It will mention what happened.  Our glove box was left open with various things in it clearly rifled through, with containers left open, e.g. a zipped container with copy CD's, an umbrella in a small zipped container and other similar containers.  The only thing missing was a bag of small coins worth about £10, probably because nothing else was of any value.  There was a sat nav elsewhere in the car, but it is an old one which would not be saleable.

 

We were just glad to get the car back and find there was no great loss or damage yesterday, so even the return of the £10 plus a good apology would have been appreciated.  Feeling a lot more annoyed now we have not been contacted as promised.  Also, thinking back, the initial response was to tell us the car was kept in a locked warehouse, yet the state of things was clearly visible and it is unlikely anyone would leave a glove box open with items like that when leaving a car for a cruise.  We were told they would look into who the driver was and come back to us though, so seemed a decent initial response  after that.

 

Edited March 25, 2022 by tring

[Ardennais]

You deserve a response, and a good one at that. That really isn’t acceptable, no matter what the value of lost items. It’s theft, plain and simple. 

[pennib]

Sorry but I am struggling to imagine how anyone using this type of service would leave anything in their car. Hope you find that “once bitten twice shy” will apply in future.

[Gettingwarmer]

7 minutes ago, pennib said:

Sorry but I am struggling to imagine how anyone using this type of service would leave anything in their car. Hope you find that “once bitten twice shy” will apply in future.

I think it that they hadn’t left anything valuable but the car had been rifled which is unacceptable. 

[Ardennais]

7 minutes ago, pennib said:

Sorry but I am struggling to imagine how anyone using this type of service would leave anything in their car. Hope you find that “once bitten twice shy” will apply in future.

They didn’t leave anything of value, but that isn’t the point. 

[terrierjohn]

4 hours ago, tring said:

After advice form this board, we have used Parking for Cruises for a Princess cruise last autumn and are booked with them for a couple of future P&O cruises as well as a cruise with Fred which returned yesterday.  There were problems with our car on our return yesterday, which I will not give details of at present as I wish to give them a chance to deal with the issue first.  We were told they would ring yesterday afternoon, though, (as we had mentioned), we were still traveling home then and DH's phone has been turned off for part of the time since we picked up the car.  However there does not appear to have been a missed call so I rang them about half an hour ago, only to get an answerphone reply, and I did leave a message.

 

Can I ask if other posters here have had a good (or bad) response from Parking for Cruises if there had been a problem when their car was picked up, and was there problems getting in touch with them to deal with the situation after that?  Any other hint on how to speak to a person in their company would be much appreciated.  Our initial thoughts were not to cancel our other bookings with them as otherwise everything has worked well and the problem is not a major issue and may genuinely be a one off, but how this is dealt with matters a lot to us.  

 

The only problem we had was a parking charge a few years ago, but that was handled promptly and they handled the payment, or cancellation very efficiently.

Post covid communications have been a bit difficult but I have found e mails do get answered, even if after a bit of a delay.

[Gettingwarmer]

3 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

The only problem we had was a parking charge a few years ago, but that was handled promptly and they handled the payment, or cancellation very efficiently.

Post covid communications have been a bit difficult but I have found e mails do get answered, even if after a bit of a delay.

Does this not mean your car was taken and parked on a public road or somewhere else that contravened parking laws. A bit strange. 

[terrierjohn]

1 minute ago, Gettingwarmer said:

Does this not mean your car was taken and parked on a public road or somewhere else that contravened parking laws. A bit strange. 

The parking charge was for the short stay car park at Mayflower, where you drop off and pick up the car.

[tring]

1 hour ago, pennib said:

Sorry but I am struggling to imagine how anyone using this type of service would leave anything in their car. Hope you find that “once bitten twice shy” will apply in future.

 

So are you suggesting you would strip your car of all items which you may need for the journey (seven hours each way for us) and take them on a cruise ship, or flight?  That would include tools, torch for map reading in the dark, as well as other minor things.  The original CD's are kept at home for security and was why copies had been made.  The bag of coins were for if they were needed for parking metres etc., so are useful to keep there, but were of no consequential loss at all.  Obviously nothing else was taken, because there was nothing of value which would have been wanted or was saleable.  It was only the passenger glove box that had been affected and was also left wide open, so no wish to even hide what had been done, but was obvious to DH as he always leaves any containers zipped up with items in place. 

 

We were surprised this happened as I have read a number of complimentary comments about the company and we had a good experience previously.  The reason I started this thread was to try to gain information regards making contact with P4C, though I was also wondering if anyone else had experienced problems more recently.

 

 

  

Edited March 25, 2022 by tring

[tring]

55 minutes ago, terrierjohn said:

The only problem we had was a parking charge a few years ago, but that was handled promptly and they handled the payment, or cancellation very efficiently.

Post covid communications have been a bit difficult but I have found e mails do get answered, even if after a bit of a delay.

 

Thank you John, much appreciated.  Will email if we hear nothing by tomorrow lunch time.

 

[tring]

I forgot to come back to this thread earlier - sorry.  DH did email P4C at the weekend, as suggested by John and the boss rang DH early the following week.  He said the driver told him he did not notice the glove box was open, which DH thought may possibly have been the case since the cars are apparently were moved to the dock from a warehouse in Southampton, where they are stored whilst it was still dark and the passenger glove box concerned was the lower of two passenger glove boxes, so under the dashboard and sloping towards the front of the car.  It seems the cars are parked right up to each other in the warehouse, one by one, so the driver gets out of the car, before another car is driven closely to the RHS of the first car.  Hence unlikely the inside of the car was accessed whilst in the warehouse.  One possibility that was discussed is that the car may have been inadvertently left unlocked and someone had been trying to access the parked cars by the cruise terminal.  If that is the case, then it could be a problem for any cars parked there, even with CPS as I assume they would also be returned to the terminal in the dark.  Whoever went through the items had obviously been disturbed as everything was left open, yet had things been closed and the glove box closed we would not have realised anything had happened.

 

The owner did sound very concerned about what had happened and made recompense straight away, with a future offer as well.  Since DH did feel the situation had been taken seriously, we have kept a parking booking for a further cruise in November in place, though we will be keeping an eye on any feedback/reviews that we can see in that time, to make sure we are still happy to trust them with the car again.

 

Thanks again for any useful comments made here previously,

 

Barbara

  

  

[Harters]

I've only used them once before. I'd paid for the car to be valeted but it hadnt been. The guy at "pick up" said to contact the office which I did, by email, as soon as we got home. Had an apologetic response the next day and a refund within hours after that.

 

FWIW, I'm using them again next month

[tring]

1 hour ago, Harters said:

I've only used them once before. I'd paid for the car to be valeted but it hadnt been. The guy at "pick up" said to contact the office which I did, by email, as soon as we got home. Had an apologetic response the next day and a refund within hours after that.

 

FWIW, I'm using them again next month

 

Thanks for the feedback on that, I hope all goes well with you next month.