Money Problem: 'I parked in wrong airport car park and got charged £885 - what can I do?'

Every week, the Money team answers a reader's financial dilemma or consumer problem. Today's is…

I booked holiday parking with Purple Parking at Heathrow Airport via a website called Holiday Extras. I used the postcode provided but this kept taking me to the Terminal 3 staff car park. I eventually managed to find the public entrance for the parking and left my car. By this point I was very worried about missing my flight so hopped on a bus to the airport. When I returned, I was charged £682 for parking in the wrong place. Holiday Extras told me I was not even entitled to a refund of the original £203 I had paid them for parking.
Jas

Navigating the roads around Heathrow Airport can be stressful, confusing and expensive if you end up in the wrong place (I speak from experience).

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You told me the reason for this trip was that you were taking your late husband's ashes to India, so it was already an emotional journey for you.

After you eventually found the car park, when you returned to the airport and tried to insert your ticket to leave, it would not open.

It turned out you had inadvertently parked in the wrong place, even though you believed you were following the correct instructions.

It meant parking for two weeks ended up costing you £885 - a costly mistake.

I spoke to both Holiday Extras and Heathrow Airport, asking them what had gone wrong, if they felt the instructions given to you were clear enough and why you weren't given any support when things went wrong.

Holiday Extras got back to me first.

A spokesperson said they were committed to supporting customers during challenging times.

"Upon further review of the circumstances, and in the spirit of goodwill and understanding, we have refunded the cost of the parking that Mrs Dhami booked with us," they told me.

The company also said it had reached out to Heathrow Airport, which runs the car park you mistakenly used - but said the airport had "so far not responded to our requests for clemency on behalf of our customer".

As for the question of signage, the spokesperson said: "Holiday Extras is a trusted provider of airport parking to millions of UK travellers every year.

"We are proud to supply accurate and detailed text, map, photo and video directions to every car park we offer, and we confirm that our directions to this car park, like all of our car parks, are comprehensive and accurate."

You are now in the process of receiving your refund from Holiday Extras, which is proving tricky because the card is no longer active.

I also reached out to Heathrow Airport to ask why the amount you were charged was so expensive.

It turns out you were charged the roll-up fee for long stay parking, which is approximately £38 per day.

Had you parked in the short stay, it would have been an even costlier mistake, to the tune of £90 for 24 hours, which meant you would have returned to a bill of more than £1,200.

However, the airport did say it had reached out to you to offer you a partial refund as a gesture of goodwill.

The phrase bandied around when it comes to consumer rights is "the customer is always right" - unfortunately, in this instance, it wasn't the case.

But it was good to see Holiday Extras and Heathrow step up with a refund, although I am not sure how willingly that would have happened had I not got involved.

Parking in the wrong airport car park can prove costly, so the best thing to do is leave as much time as you possibly can to avoid this kind of mistake in future.

This feature is not intended as financial advice - the aim is to give an overview of the things you should think about.

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