‘I booked airport meet and greet – my mileage went up 60 miles and dashcam history was deleted’
Every Saturday, we help a reader with their consumer issue or personal finance dilemma in our Money Problem series. You can send yours to moneyblog@sky.uk. Today we’re tackling this one from Shelley…
We paid for meet & greet airport parking at East Midlands Airport. On our return from holiday, my husband noticed it had approximately 60 miles more than when we dropped it off. We then found all of our destinations and previous trip data had been deleted from the BMW system records in the sat nav. I then checked our dash camera, which records automatically every time the car is unlocked, and found that all data after our last trip in the car had been deleted from this too, very suspicious. I contacted the airport meet and greet department and have been told on four occasions now that it’s being looked into and someone from customer services will get back to me, as I’m sure you can guess, nobody has!
Shelley Allen
Hi Shelley. Thank you for getting in touch with this problem.
For those who don’t know, here’s a quick recap of how airport meet and greet services work.
Generally, customers would drop their car with a member of staff in a designated zone when they arrive at the airport.
The staff member then drives the car to a secure, official on-site or nearby car park, where it remains until the customer returns.
After the customer gets back from their holiday, they call the service, and a staff member drives the car back to the designated zone, where they then pick it up.
East Midlands Airport states on its website that vehicles will be driven to an “official and highly secure on-site car park” and that all of its drivers are “fully qualified and insured”.
I asked the airport where this car park is and how far it is from the drop-off location, and a spokesperson told me it was around a mile away.
You say the car had done 60 extra miles – but the difficulty is you don’t have proof, as you don’t have a photo of the mileage before your trip.
That leaves us with a he said, she said, as East Midlands Airport assured me the car hadn’t been driven further than the one mile stated.
They added that the service’s key logging system and CCTV footage have confirmed that Shelley’s car was taken to and from the on-site storage area “exactly as it should have been”.
It said the police had also confirmed that the vehicle was not picked up by their ANPR cameras around the airport.
So what’s the explanation?
East Midlands Airport said it has previously dealt with instances where glitches on vehicles that have been stationary with no battery charge for long periods mean that the car’s systems produce false reports.
In Shelley’s case, it said this could be what happened.
“We have fully investigated this complaint, and we are completely satisfied that this car was not driven while its owners were away, except to and from the Meet & Greet compound on site,” the spokesperson added.
“Our systems would alert us if keys were not returned, which didn’t happen in this case.”
Curious, I asked BMW if they were aware of any glitches that could have occurred.
It told me: “We are not aware of reports of issues of this kind. Without a proper investigation of the vehicle’s systems, it would not be appropriate to speculate on the specific circumstances in this case, as there could be a number of possible explanations.”
Not satisfied? What you could do now
Consumer rights expert Scott Dixon pointed out that modern vehicles have ECUs (Electronic Control Units) that are essentially onboard computers that monitor and record sensor data to ensure the vehicle runs smoothly and efficiently, and these will record the mileage.
On the dashcam issues, he suggests checking to see whether your dashcam footage was overwritten during normal use, or if there’s any evidence of manual deletion.
The dashcam manufacturer may be able to advise if any manual deletion is recorded on the device, he said.
If you are still suspicious and have concerns about whether or not your car was used without your permission, you could submit a Data Subject Access Request (DSAR) to the airport, asking for any personal data related to your vehicle and booking.
This could include records, timestamps, photos, and ANPR entries, as well as police confirmation that supports what the airport has said.
You can then cross-reference the DSAR to what the meet and greet firm says to pinpoint any discrepancies.
We would also suggest looking for online reviews on Google for the meet and greet firm to see what others say and if they have had similar problems.
If you’re convinced you’re right…
You should go to the police.
I spoke to Leicestershire Police and a spokesperson said they had spoken to officers based at East Midlands Airport and cannot see that the incident was reported to them.
“We would encourage anyone who believes such an incident to have occurred to make a report to both the car park operator and police,” they said.
“Any vehicle owners may also wish to consider taking photos of their mileage and/or fuel levels when they drop the car off, too.”
