Stansted Airport, Stansted Meet and Greet

Never use Stanstedmeetandgreetparking.co.uk They have returned our car badly damaged and are refusing to pay for the repair. The so called manager has to be the rudest man on the planet. Added to that he is sexist as he refused to deal with me despite me making the booking but said he would only talk to my husband. I find it shocking that someone in business can behave like this.

I honestly don't know where to start with this diabolical excuse for a company.

Firstly, they had overbooked on the day we arrived which resulted in us sitting in a queue along with 20 - 30 other cars and the hopelessly overwhelmed staff had absolutely no idea where to park them all. There simply wasn't enough room in the car park. As a result, it took a half an hour to leave our car and get to the terminal.

But it gets worse.

When I picked up my car, the windscreen was cracked. I noticed it as soon as I got in. I went back to the office and spoke with the Car Park Duty manager who took photos of the damage and said that he would compare them to pictures taken when we dropped the car off to confirm that the damage was done in the car park.

He then returned a few minutes later, after, I assume having checked the pictures and proceeded to take my details. He then gave me a card with the an online feedback form, a case number and told me to contact customer services and lodge a complaint with them, which I did in the next few days.

After several weeks of apologies and assurances that they would get around to me, I got an email which said that their terms and conditions stated that they didn't cover windscreens and that the case was closed.

I wrote back and said that I wanted to lodge a formal complaint but they responded by saying that they weren't taking responsibility and that was that.

No information on how to proceed from there or who to contact to take the matter further and no acknowledgment of the fact that I had stated that I wanted to make a complaint.

These people simply could not care less. I have since checked the terms and conditions and can see no mention of the fact that they don't cover windscreens.

Never use meet and greet, leave your car in the long term car park.

After we arrived and parked, there was a massive queue to hand in my car key. Apparently people were in the queue for two hours to collect their cars. We were told by someone in the queue to speak to a bloke with a clipboard who was walking down the queue and he sorted us out.

When we arrived back from holiday, our car had been reversed so far back, the back of the car was in some undergrowth but there was no damage. There was plenty of space in front of the car so no need to have reversed so far back.

The front passenger seat had been reclined backwards. Why??

The side of the car had a scratch on it.

We observed the staff driving customers' cars into the car park. The cars were being driven at considerable speed and being thrown about.

Stansted Parking sent me an e-mail with a link to review their service, but the link didn't work.

So all-in-all, not a great experience.

We returned to our car - massive crack in windscreen and no mention of this to us on picking up key. We raised this on site and pictures on entry /exit confirmed that this damage was done while car was in the possession of the Stansted Meet and Greet. They have denied all responsibility - but we question how fast was the car being driven to sustain this damage? It would need to be going very fast. It also became apparent that our power steering was also damaged after the car's sejourn. We did not even bother raising this - it is SO SO hard to speak with anyone. We cannot recommend this service and will NEVER use again and will avoid Stansted as a result.

Total shambles, landed early hours of the morning, to be told our car will be about 1 hour, when we asked why they said it has got to come from the compound, this compound was meant to have been 5 miles away !!! so why would it take a hour, the lady we dealt with was very rude and off hand, there was about 20 other people waiting with the same problem, some with children, to be told this at 2am in the morning is disgusting. Its not meet and Greet - More like sit and wait. Don't use the service it does not give the service they advertise, totally unprofessional and very rude, not what your expect when this is the most expensive parking at Stanstead, they do not provide the service they advertise. Also when the car was returned it was dirty and the radio station had been changed. Our advice would be never use them.

The new meet and greet service is appalling,one the entrance barrier did not recognize my car and took ages to sort it out then you had to park the car yourself and walk to a reception area where there were loads of people both trying to leave their cars and also get their cars back and half the time the computer service was not working.

on return waited about 20 minutes to get served and then had to walk about 10 lanes to retrieve my car.

this is not meet and greet.this is just the airport finding another way of earning monies from the public

Arrivals just about acceptable but still had to queue to book in and compared to other airport Meet and Greets I've experienced, still a way to walk with luggage to check-in. HOWEVER, this was nothing compared to trying to collect the car. You have to estimate a time of collection, and provide them flight details. They told me to notify them if I would be more than an hour early. I wasn't, so didn't. The queue was out of the door with several people stood outside but not queuing. 20 mins in the queue and I was at the front, only to be told my car was not available as I was 25 mins early (I specified 19:00 and arrived to collect car at 18:35. I thought they would go on plane arrival time as how am I supposed to know EXACTLY how long passport checking and luggage collection will take?). Car was eventually available at 19:20. The people outside not queuing were also in the same situation. I will NOT be using this awful service again, and has put me off Stansted also. As someone else has said, the volume of cars they try and manage is simply too large. They claimed to have too few drivers - but that's not my problem to solve.

I wish I had read reviews for the meet & greet service at Stanstead. They just cannot deal with the volume of customers using this service. If it wasn't for a fellow passenger who went iside the office who came out with a load of tags and instructions to write your details and attach to your keys and then photo as a receipt and abandon in a box then I don't know what I would have done. I arrived over 2 hours before my flight and just made boarding. Then to complete their poor service, on my return had to wait 10mins for my car to collected and delivered. You are better off with the long stay and catch the bus not worth paying a premium at this airport for M&G.

This is an on site meet and greet at stanstead the customer service desk where you drop your keys off is nearly always empty and it can take up to 40 minutes to drop off / pick up your car I always used this service 3/4 a year but it has gone downhill nowadays and I will never use it again very poorly run

wish I had read these reviews before booking, had to pay £45 to get my car cleaned after leaving with Mercury meet and Greet, car left spotless and returned manky, many miles more on the clock than expected, looks like it was used as a taxi service for their own staff, why do hey do this when they know we will find out, suppose total arrogance