Contour Enthusiasts Group Archives Forums General General Bad experience with parking valet(s)

Is anyone else completely paranoid about letting a valet park their beloved Contour? A little while ago I was on a road trip that took me through Portland, OR. We stayed at the Westin Portland - beautiful new boutique hotel in the heart of downtown. Unfortunately they only had F*&^in valet parking at $20/night.

Stuck between a rock and a hard place, I had the choice of parking the car downtown on the street for the night or inside "secured" parking wherever the valets parked the cars. So I VERY reluctantly turn over the keys, showed the kid how to put the car in reverse using the reverse lockout ring, and warned him to be careful.

Next day I call the valet for my car. I see it coming from a few blocks away (where the Heck do they go???!). Kid pulls up, door flies open, valet says "NICE CAR!" and I get in. Inspection passed...things look OK. An hour later I notice that my front spoiler has a huge scratch about 5 inches long by 1/2 inch thick on the front passenger side, just ahead of the front wheel.

GRRRRRRRRRRRR! To this day it still makes me mad. The hotel manager denied all responsibility, I complained further, made calls every day after. I wrote a letter to his hotel and the Westin headquarters (Starwood Hotels and Resorts, apparently). No response.

Estimate to repair: $350 via a respray of the entire front bumper. I don't think so!

Lesson: NEVER let a valet touch your car!!! Especially an SVT with the precious front and rear fascias.

P.S. My SVT is not lowered.

Kerry

I completley hear ya, man. Try giving up the keys to a valet right after getting a $7400 paint job on your car! That was my position a couple of months ago...

And then there's this. I live 15 minutes out of downtown Cleveland, so I'm downtown just about every weekend. Now, let's say you have a security system on your car that requires certain things to take place in order to start the car. And let's also say that you car isn't exactly run of the mill, meaning that people notice it. Do you really want to give some kid your security settings? Next thing you know, he tells his other 3 valet guys. Now 4 people know your security to a stand-out car. Doesn't exactly leave me with the warm and fuzzies... I can see it now:

"Hey look! There's that sweet-ass car again."
"Yeah, I parked it last Saturday night. I even know the steps to bypass his alarm."

As you hand him the key, tell him that if this car comes back ANY different than it is now, you and him will have a brawl....forget about managers, supervisors, if anyone else drives it or anything else - Just you and him, then slip him 5 bucks and pat him on the back or something.

Then he'll mess up you car just because you talked trash to him. I have never used valet parking but the key is to give a big tip. Tip'em a 20 spot if you have to and they will remember you and take care of you car. If you don't tip big they'll do things like shift without the clutch, mess with you radio settings, tire smoking burnouts at 5k rpm. They'll do it just because you said "I'll kick your a$$ if you don't take care of it." Besides how will you know they took 10-20,000 miles off your transmission, tires and clutch?

not if you're a big guy

I used to have a Blue 1972 Mustang Fastback.
Had a Cleveland 351 Engine and a three speed ATX.
I kept this car IMMACULATE.

Went to Crab Shanty, way out on the end of City Island, one night, with my mother for dinner.
Mind you, this was 20 years ago, and I was a teenager not to be reckoned with.

Gave the car up to the valet, across the street from the restuarant, and walked across the street with my mother.
As we walk up to the restuarant door, I hear the squeal of rubber, and turn to see my car doing burnouts in the middle of the parking lot.
I walk back over to the parking lot, where I am stopped by another attendant,
and he tells me that I can't walk into the lot.
I tell him to get out of my way or he won't be walking home tonight.

I walk up to my car, and meet the attendant as he is getting out of my car.
I broke his nose, and knocked him unconscious.
Took the car and parked it right in the front of the lot, next to the attendants office, and locked it up.
Walked back to the restuarant and asked to speak to the Restuarant Manager.
Explained to the Restuarant Manager what I witnessed, and what I did,
and suggested that he call an ambulance for the guy laying in the middle of his lot.
The Manager apologized profusely for the incident,
and my mom and I enjoyed a dinner on the house.

I never went back there again.

I've worked part-time for valet parking companies. The best thing to do if something happens to your is to make lots of noise and to get the phone number and address of the valet company itself. Most have insurance up the wazzoo and should reimburse you. It's not worth it for them to lose an account with a restaurant. The best way to make sure nothing happens to your car is to be friendly and tip the attendant when they first take your car, but just remember that most times a car is damaged, it's because the attendant is 17-18 and can't drive for ****... not because he's messing around. Sometimes they just can't help their own incompetence.

aahh, story brings tears to my eyes

--
on a complete other note-

damn, RoadRunner, that's quality! haha

Two valet-related incidents from my hometown, both involving 911's, funnily enough:

1- First incident was when a valet got into some guy's 911, put it in 1st, and dumped the clutch, right in the hotel driveway- which was milling with tourists at the time. The car screamed forward, slammed into a Taiwanese woman, and pushed her into the rear of a delivery van, cutting her in half... in broad daylgight.

2- Second incident, just months later, happened in the same area but at a different hotel. The hotel drive was up on a hill about 50 feet above the passing road. Valet gets in, engages 1st, and again dumps the clutch. The car screamed forward, then sideways, and the rear slips off the hill. The 911 rolled down the hill, spinning wildly, and crashes down in the middle of the intersection at the foot of the hill.

These are true stories. And the reasons why I don't like valets. Simple, really

Well, let me relay my first Valet parking experience with one of my cars.

When I had my Contour (and lived back in NM) a buddy of mine and I went to a club in El Paso, TX (Far West Rodeo) because we heard it was supposedly the "trendy" place to be on the US side of the border (my buddy was a bit leery about crossing the border and going to the clubs in Juarez. I had been and you can have one hell of a good time! ). Well we pull up to the Valet and get out of the car. Some bald guy with an attitude rushes up and said very rudely "Ok, do you want the regular ticket or the VIP pass that you go to the head of the line?" Just as I was turning to my friend to ask him the jerk butts in "C'mon, what's it going to be?" I was like WTF? I saw the line was relatively short so we got regular tickets. "Hey, you can't wear your baseball cap in there!" I asked why? "No baseball caps, only cowboy hats, you're going to have to leave it in your car." Finding that totally ridiculous, I complied. The damn valet takes off and did what looked like a 30 mph turn around a sharp turn. Needless to say I was not impressed.

The club sucked, it was too crowded and the snobby girls seemed to rather stand their and look like they had attitude problems rather than get on the dance floor with us. After downing several overpriced beers, we decided to cut our losses. We left and I handed my ticket to the Valet. He calls out my number on the radio and almost 10 minutes later the other valet returns with my car. I could smell ****ing cigarette smoke inside my car. He stood there waiting for his tip. Yeah right!

We left, went to another club on the other side of El Paso, ran into some people we knew and finally started having fun.

Lesson for today: Trendy places suck!