I advise against booking an airport carpark online using Flyparks - flyparks.com.au. We did so recently, searching explicitly for a carpark at Hobart Airport starting the next day for two weeks, and Flyparks came up with a competitive rate on which I clicked and completed the booking with a credit card payment. Only when I received the confirmation did I realise that somehow in the process Flyparks booked a carpark for at the Airport in Sydney. We never searched for Sydney as we started our journey in Hobart and never went near Sydney.
Their terms and conditions stated that you couldnât cancel the booking online within 48hours of the booking, and if you needed changes within that time, they provided a phone number to call. This turned out to be the Sydney Airport carpark we apparently booked, and landed us with an almost abusive carpark owner/employee who refused to talk to us because he hadnât received our booking or payment (yet?).
In brief, we had a long and unsuccessful email exchange with the company who refused to refund the $300 charge. I tried to challenge the credit card charge via my bank which ended up unsuccessful due to Flyparks term and conditions. I wonder how many people have booked and paid for a useless carpark within the 48h window and never got a refund. I consider this a scam.
Hi @AMGlen, welcome to the community.
It is worth noting that this isnât an Australian company, but one based in the Netherlands and appears to be an third party onseller.
Looking at their website, while they have Hobart listed as an airport to do searches, when one searches using any dates it comes up stating that âNo results foundâ (see below). This could mean that that your contact with them identified an error with their website allowing bookings at Hobart airportâŠor that for some reason through searching the search defaulted to Sydney Airport.
It sounds more like a sham - offering something that they canât honour or be purchased.
Contact your credit card provider and request a chargeback. You can use the ground that that claimed to offer parking booking service for Hobart Airport, but such service isnât available (take screenshots). Instead they defaulted the booking to Sydney which is neither what you paid for or can use.
The Flyparks company does say this on their website.
The rates above were valid at the time of publishing in September 2022, for bookings made in October 2022, subject to availability. Please note that you cannot book at any of the official Hobart Airport car parks through Flyparks at present.
So you managed to book parking at Sydney airport, as something you didnât want to do, but somehow deliberately did.
The company, and it seems your card issuer, could see this as a âchange of mindâ condition and you are not entitled to a refund, or ability to use credit card chargeback.
Yet another example of the problems in using overseas based aggregator companies.
They wonât as their website gives a strong impression that they offer Hobart airport parkingâŠ
These are screenshots as I suspect they could disappearâŠ
It is worth looking at the links at the bottom if the page as it includes specific information in relation to pricing etc.
The website clearly advertises the availability of Hobart Airport Parking. This is sufficient grounds to lodge a successful chargeback request as the website is misleading and âthe products or services received are not as describedâ.
Their paid first page Google search for Hobart airport parking isâŠ
Again misleading as you canât find the best dealsâŠthey donât exist.
Looking further, many of the other airports they give an impression one can book car parking, also canât be done. The website is extremely misleading.
They canât bury one sentence in fine print as an out for being deliberately misleading.
BTW, who was the booking with for the parking. I wonder if the secondary party was the cause of the issue and not flyparks.
Deceptive and misleading? Sure is.
But can you actually book parking using Flyparks for Hobart airport? Seems no to that.
Perhaps it is a work in progress and the information is on the website in advance of some yet to be established agreement.
Anyway, the notion that a booking system having Hobart airport unavailable would automatically and without informing the user of switching the airport to Sydney is absurd.
I donât believe it happened unless the OP selected Sydney as the airport.
While one canât book Hobart Airport today, based on the information from @AMGlen, it was possible in the past. As Flyparks is an aggregate type website, it is possible that a secondary booking party could have resulted in, the incorrect display of Hobart airport parking which in fact was Sydney Airport parking. There isnât anything on their website which would give the impression that one canât book Hobart parking, the contrary exists.
It is also possible that after @AMGlen contacted Flyparks, booking settings on their aggregate website changed removing Hobart searches (and most other airports they give the impression booking is available).
Not absurd. A real possibility if the website
and not fully tested. @AMGlen may have provided valuable feedback if the website was buggy (which is a possibility as they may have blamed their website for booking issues in the past). They are unlikely to refund as they sit overseas (as many consumers find is the case) and if their own aggregate agreements with others lock out refunds after booking confirmation.
I would be lodging a chargeback based on the above.
The first request for a chargeback was rejected by the card issuer as it did not meet the criteria. Perhaps a second request, with more substantiating details may be accepted.
Worth a try.
But then Flyparks would presumably claim that parking at Sydney airport was requested, and provided. Chargeback would be reversed.
One could then go to the card network provider, Visa, MC etc to be the final arbiter when disputes arise between parties using their facilities.
I agree.
The other issue with many aggregate booking website is they âadvertiseâ offers on other aggregate websites. If a search is done, they can show offers which are different to that on the aggregate website (one searches for A, but the offer is about B). Unless one really concentrates, it is easy to be misled with displayed offers.
I used to use aggregate websites looking for offers, but found them more and more unreliable as the information displayed at first glance was different to the clickbait link to another aggregator. They were being dominated by sham type operators.
We used to use Momondo when travelling in its early days, but stopped using it as it has many sham aggregates. I am no the only one with similar viewsâŠ
Aggregate websites are great in theory, but are exploited by those you definitely donât want to do business with.
This may be the litmus test
and as for âeverythingâ Hobart Airport, it is common web site coding to accept âthe product + locationâ and fill it in everywhere, including adding library information such as airport details, types of parking and everything else from the snap to make it look local, is served, and often is served from local.
Absurd it is, but I can assure you that I never ever searched for anything else but Hobart Airport. I never selected a different airport, though I may have missed that the booking process displayed Sydney Airport by default or however it worked. The company asked me to provide âevidenceâ, like a screenshot, that I searched for Hobart Airport. As if one would take a screenshot at every step of a booking process.
The bank investigated as I requested to reverse the transaction, but eventually stated that the terms and conditions stated âno refund within 48 hoursâ, and that was that.
The anger and abuse I received when calling the car park directly, using the phone number provided by Flyparks, makes me think that we werenât the first caller who wanted to cancel a booking.
I am sorry to hear of the scam.
Have you considered giving flyparks a negative review on
Most reviews on that site are +ve, a few -ve. Other than a cap park called âAndrewsâ, no mention of which car park folk are happy or unhappy with.
I mention this site, which I just found because flyparks reply to -ve comments with an invitation to contact them, hopefully for a refund. One review I saw is:
Rebecca ward
2/10
30-08-2022
Would not use !!!I could not get a visa due to japan borders being closed and 16 days away from flying they would not give a full refund they try and take 15% for nothing!!! They are not a company I would never go through this parking company . No phone number to call. I tried to cancel on line it keeps going back to original dates. I want a refund still waiting for reply. Also rang andrews airport parking 3x they had no such reference number spoke to head office doesnât exist!!! Going through PayPal and now bank as well. I do not recommend this company at all. They are a the worst company ever.
Reply Flyparks:
We are very sorry to hear that your experience didnât match your expectations. Could you please contact us at info@flyparks.com.au and tell us your full story and weâre confident that weâll find a suitable solution. Hoping to hear from you soon and kind regards, Team Flyparks
Score on Flyparks: 1/5
Would you recommend this company? No
Carparking
and
Sam Poulton
1/10
14-07-2022
Fraudulent. Took my payment, then I had a phone call from car park operator saying they didnât have space. Trying to get my money back so I can book through someone else.
Reply Flyparks:
We are very sorry to hear that your experience didnât match your expectations. Could you please contact us at info@flyparks.com.au and tell us your full story and weâre confident that weâll find aâŠ
Would you recommend this company? No
Looking closely at the reviews, i estimate there are over 30, they seem to be suspiciously similar.
One mentions an airport in WA, a couple mention Andrews Car Park in BNE.
The rest, a good 90% of them mention NO AIRPORT when raving about the âgreatâ service; âclean toiletsâ and âgood priceâ. Smells fishy to me.
I would follow the advice of @phb and be relentless in seeking a chargeback.
Good luck @AMGlen
Whether reviews are genuine or not, when a company responds to contact them there is very rarely (ever?) any details added. Could be as genuine as any review, or equally possible it is window dressing but as you wrote, worth a try.
Jeez. The Feedback company for reviews?
Take a guess anyone where they are located? Possibly just down the road from Flyparks.
(Hint, they are in the same country).
I thought I give it a go with the feedback company, though also suspect Flyparks reply is window-dressing as I had many emails going back and forth with no result.
Let me know of any good sites out there to spread the word on this company, which would be a small compensation for the $300 I lost. Choice was the one coming to my mind, so I landed on the forum.
Productreview.com.au - many reviews look sus but it might be as good as it gets? There are a number of reviews about specific parking facilities.
