Furious lawyer blasts car park after she was hit with £20 fee for leaving space EARLY
AN EAGLE-EYED lawyer has blasted the operators of a "filthy" car park who charged her extra for leaving early.
Belinda Lonsdale took the car park operators to task in a letter of complaint
Barrister Belinda Lonsdale had arrived at the inner city car park before work, hoping to take advantage of its £8 early bird offer.
She then left promptly at 1:48pm – but bizarre smallprint landed her with a whopping charge of almost £20.
Ludicrously, the inappropriately-named early bird offer penalised the savvy lawyer for leaving before 3pm.
The straight-talking barrister took the firm to task in a letter of complaint
Lonsdale has since accused jobsworth bosses at parking giant Wilson of misleading customers in a blistering letter of complaint.
She said: "Effectively, you get penalised for leaving early, even though you have freed up a bay for another customer to use.
"That makes no logical sense whatsoever."
Lonsdale said the car park was visibly filthy
The employment lawyer went on to accuse the firm – who raked in over £450 million last year – of "daylight robbery".
She said: "Once a parker has paid the maximum fee, does it matter whether they leave early? I think being charged an extra £10 for two hours less parking is, frankly, daylight robbery."
Lonsdale added that the unstaffed multi-storey facility in Perth, Australia was a "visibly filthy" crime hotspot.
Boxing Day punch up over car parking space
She said: "People have clearly been living there and urinating in the stairwells.
"It stinks, is visibly filthy and the lifts don't work – which really adds to my resentment at being charged extra."
Defending their punitive terms and conditions, Wilson Parking claimed their so-called early bird rate was "a discounted all-day product, tailored to city workers".
And though the megabucks firm agreed to refund Lonsdale's £10 surcharge, they refused to take responsibility for their broken lifts – protesting that they don't own the building.