Driver charged £638 for less than an hour’s stay in Manchester Airport car park

A driver was left stunned after being charged £638 for parking his car for less than an hour at Manchester Airport.

James Flack, from Huddersfield, was hit with the astronomical toll after leaving his Peugeot in Terminal One’s short stay car park for just 50 minutes while he collected family members. James explained that the charge should have been just £12, payable on exit.

He said: “I parked at Manchester Airport Terminal 1 for 50 minutes from about 12.35pm to 1.25pm ​​on Wednesday 15 May. It’s an ANPR system, no tickets, no receipt, no paper trail other than my bank statement.”

“The charge should have been £12 to exit the car park. I could not clearly see the digital display on the payment machine at the exit gate due to the height, angle and glare of the sun on it. But I thought, well, I know that. it’s £12 and I put in my card and pin and left when the gate opened.” However, the real shock came the next day when James checked his bank statement and saw the huge charge.

James added: “I called the bank because it said pending transaction. They said that unfortunately because I had authorized the payment with my PIN they could not stop it as it was a legal contractual agreement to pay the amount. There was nothing they could do about it. and urged me to contact the airport.”

James was left frustrated after multiple attempts to contact the airport through an automated system proved “impossible” prompting him to resort to the website’s complaint form, the Daily Star reports. Despite lodging his complaint and receiving a reference number, he faced a two-week silence with no follow-up from the airport.

“It’s a lot of money to be out of pocket and it’s a pretty random amount. How many other people have had this happen to them – I can’t be a one-off. It was a short-term multi-storey car park. near arrivals, just I drove in and was asked if I had booked a seat, I explained I was only there for an hour and was directed to level two and it’s all ANPR.

James has since received a refund. A Manchester Airport spokesman expressed regret for the incident: “We apologize to Mr Flack for the inconvenience caused by this technical error and have refunded him in full. We can assure customers that issues of this nature are extremely rare and whenever they are brought to us. attention, we rectify them immediately.”

The airport also clarified: “Our customer feedback team attempted to contact Mr Flack several times, including on the day he lodged his complaint, but due to a mistake in the email address he sent it, these messages may not have reached him. . We have processed a full refund of the £638.00 he paid and as a courtesy this includes the £12.00 parking fee due.”