cophallparkinggatwick.co.uk

WITHOUT DUE PREJUIDCE

WITHOUT DUE PREJUIDCEOn the 3rd of March 2020 I booked an 8 day slot with this company for the end of May 2020 and due to the UK lockdown starting on the 23rd of March 2020 and U.I.A airlines grounding their fleet on the 17th of April 2022 as Ukraine completely sealed their borders. I cancelled my booking and asked for a refund, on the 29th of April 2020 I got an email confirming cancellation which also stated, only credit notes for future use would be issues, no mention of only being for a 12 month time span. Yet the rest of the travel industry were offering either open ended credit nots or vouchers or full refunds whichever customers preferred even though there would be a delay in the excessive number of refund requests being processed.During 2020 I repeatedly chased this company for a refund, explaining that a credit note was of no interest or indeed use to me going forward, as my only option would be to cover the journey by road a mere 36 hours each way! due to the uncertain state of airline operations and the never ending government changes at last minute.com style of flights being banned from selected countries.Finally on the 3rd of October after chasing them yet again, the reply this time was mainly full of the excuses about covid- 19 and lack of staff, I wonder what made them think the rest of the UK workforce was not affected by the restrictions then?? and could I bear with them as I was in the list for a refund.On the 3rd of January this having got fed up of waiting i contacted with only to get a rapid reply saying they were still trading but had gone into administration with an attached copy of the administrators letter and details, which states all customer's who paid by credit card should contact their card provider immediately as the administrators would only issue credit notes. They knew well in advance that credit card companies will not try to clawback payments as the offer of a credit note has been made.. This company entered administration on the 2nd of November yet they chose not to advise any of the existing customers.Since then I have done some checking at companies house, which shows the parent company Park First have a long track record going of putting their trading brands into administration after a few years of trading, then changing the name and starting off again using the same company registration number and simply completing a change of trading name form. In fact the Cophall brand name and logo, stationary, liveried minibuses had been in use since at least mid 2018 while the details logged at companies house where for another company called Help Me Park also owned by Park First at the same site as Cophall, were put into administration on the 17th July 2020, two days later Cophall's name was officially changed, interestingly in very single case it is always the same administrators used. The F.O.S described their operation as unethical especially as on the Cophall Parking web site they have hidden the fact they are in administration at the very bottom of the booking page in very small print.So use this company at your peril

Date of experience: Mar 22, 2021