Colleen C

Katanga Parking Service P4 & P5 Cape Town International Airport

Katanga Parking Service at the Cape Town International Airport. I do believe that this parking service does not comply with the consumer protection act 68 of 2008. I needed to park for 12 hours at the airport and was told that I should park at the Long Stay parkin if my parking was to exceed a couple of hours, the direction of the long stay parking, was given to me as the carpark on the RHS of the entry road. This is where I entered at around 4 am in the morning. On my return from JHB on the same day I was charged R915 for my 12 hour parking. I drew this to the attention of a kind Katanga assistants attention, her name was Lauren. She encouraged me to keep my parking ticket which contained the evidence of duration of stay and the amount paid of R915-00, she kindly gave me an email address and suggested that I scan in the ticket and inform the Katanga Parking Management of the error, she then offered to allow me to exit the parking garage upon exit by buzzing her and not using my ticket, as I need to retain that as evidence of my stay. This morning I called Katanga Parking Management and informed them of the error of purchase and that I had been charged in excess for the service which had been provided to me. I could provided evidence of this owing to my receipt and the time stamp on the parking ticket. Mr Jason Prince who assisted me, admitted that people often call with this same complaint. It made sense, as the road signage is not clearly marked. The road sign leading up to the parking reads: LOND STAY PARKING P5 and SHADED PARKING P4. Once you enter P5 before the ticket boom, there is no slipway on the road to backtrack. Katanga Parking Services definition of Long Stay parking is apparently 0-5 days at a flat rate of R915-00. Yet I was informed that anything over 3 hours, it would be best to park in Long Stay, I would therefore assume that since I was parked in Long Stay, the parking ticket machine would calculate my hours of parking and and charge me according to the hours used. Mr Jason Prince was not helpful and directed me to the same email address for my complaint, namely: care@katanga.co.za When I asked him for a contact name, so that I could address the email to a person, he refused to offer me a contact name. I asked him for his surname, her responded by telling me his surname was Prince. I then said sorry I missed your first name earlier, would you also tell me what your first name was? He responded sarcastically, by saying, my first name IS Jason. He had a disrespectful and sarcastic tone of voice and I did not appreciate being treated with a sense of disdain. I wish for the green road signs to correctly reflect the parking, namely: P5 LONG STAY > 4 day AND P4 ONE DAY PARKING (Not shown as Shaded parking). I can go to Woolworths a ask for a credit on a magazine, which was bought twice for my father, by both my sister and I. They assess our receipts, the record of evidence, and the reimburse us. Katanga's staff namely: Lauren is understanding of the error made and is helpful in her assistance, yet the Katanga Parking Service contact person Mr Jason Prince, is sarcastic and obnoxious, not being sympathetic, even though clear evidence was presented to him. Wayfinding and signage, especially adjacent to roads, require a slipway, especially if the road leading into the entrance only has one way lanes. I can mention several shopping center's and other roadway entrances, where a slipway is standard practice. Once you have a car or two waiting behind you, it is impossible to reverse. Reversing back into a one way lane would also be illegal. I am happy to pay R200 for my 12 hour parking, yet the remaining R715-00 needs to be reimbursed to me, on evidence of my time stamped parking stub. The road signage needs to be corrected and a slipway, needs to be created. On placing this complaint at the airport, there was a gentleman behind me with the exact same complaint. He went to the Long Stay parking, as he was away for 2 days and on payment, he was charged the 5 day R915-00 rate. The way that the long stay is advertised is highly deceptive.