What you need to know before handing your car over

But that’s not quite what happened. 

The car was driven for almost 100km and if you discount the drive to and from the depot, that leaves 70 to 75kms unaccounted for.

And it’s not just the fact that it was driven that’s the problem, it was how it was driven - harsh acceleration, harsh braking, and exceeding the speed limit a number of times.

Chibarabada knows this for two reasons: an odometer reading and a tracking report.

Whenever she hands over her car to  anyone, to have it serviced, for example, Chibarabada uses her phone to take a photo of her odometer when she exits the car, and again when she gets it back. Great habit, that.

As for how the car was driven, well, as a brand ambassador for a cellphone network, the car is covered in the network’s distinctive branding for which she receives payment every month, on condition that the tracking device installed in the car does not reveal any bad driving behaviour on her part.

So Park & Fly Africa not only drove her car without permission, but jeopardised her brand ambassador agreement.

Interestingly, Kundai knew something was wrong because she’d made sure there was enough fuel for her to get to the airport and back home, with the trip to and from the depot in between, but when she got back into her car after her 10-day holiday, the fuel gauge was sitting on empty.

Park & Fly Africa respond

So she called David Pillay, who owns the company with his brother Joel. “I said, look, there is about 75km unaccounted for, you need to explain what exactly happened, because obviously it was not just parking. He said there was CCTV at his premises which proved that my car was not moved.”

It was only when she downloaded her tracking device records for the period she was away and emailed them to Pillay that he conceded the car had been “misused” by a member of staff. Camera footage, he said, showed him driving “around the parking area to and from our designated wash area and our auto valet location throughout the day” and that he’d been dealt with.

But that doesn’t tally with the tracking report, which shows the car being driven, at speeds of up to 131km/hr with harsh braking and acceleration, on at least two of the 10 days it was in their possession.

Then came Park & Fly Africa’s compensation offer - a R250 refund, and an offer of five days’ free parking in the future. Having paid R300 for the parking service, only to have her car driven hard and fast for more than 70 unauthorised kilometres, using most of her fuel, Chibarabada never wanted to use the company’s services again, so she refused the offer.

She'd been introduced to Park & Fly Africa by Groupon, and had paid for the first five days of her parking service with a Groupon voucher.

When Kundai complained to Groupon, she was refunded, and told that they’d forwarded her complaint to the merchant - presumably without a response - and that they could do nothing further, suggesting that she deal directly with Park & Fly Africa.

I raised the case with Groupon owner Wayne Gosling, who said Park & Fly had been highly rated by many Groupon customers, but that in light of this “terrible incident”, they’d be removing the company from its page.

Responding to the evidence of abuse supplied by Chibarabada, David Pillay said there had been a “a mix up with job cards” for her car, with the result that  her car was driven to the airport on the assumption that she would arrive on that date, when in fact another client arrived that day. He said the driver had been given a warning, and that the company was willing to compensate Chibarabada's fuel costs.

“I’m so sorry for the service Ms Kundai Chibarabada received and all measures will be taken to prevent such negligence reoccurring,” Pillay said.

Note how the story evolved - first that the cameras showed the car hadn't been moved, then that an employee had “misused” by a member of staff, then the mix up with the job cards.

Chibarabada's was not an isolated complaint.

Umi Khan's story 

Another East Coaster, Umi Khan, used Park & Fly Africa just a few days  before Chibarabada did, for just one night.

After the car was returned to her, she discovered that missing from the car were her R5000 sunglasses, usb memory stick, 20 fuel slips, mini Quraan and a CD.And the car’s tracking device had apparently been activated at the KFC in Tongaat.

A Park & Fly employee has since appeared in court on charges of theft. He was released on bail and the case remanded to the 6th of June.

Joel Pillay confirmed this, saying Umi Khan’s items were returned to her because he and his brother recovered them and handed them over to the police. “We then got into the police vehicle ourselves and directed the police to proceed in order to have the criminal apprehended,” he said.

The Airports Company of South Africa told Umi that the only accredited valet parking company operating at King Shaka is the Executive Carport.

Moral of the story: Do your checks before choosing a service provider, always make a note of your mileage before and after handing your car over to a company. Oh, and tracking devices are very, very useful.