A man says he was was left stuck in a Nottingham car park after his valid ticket wouldn't scan and let him leave. Mark Jackson, 49, from Louth in Lincolnshire, had travelled to the city centre to attend a gig at Rock City with his friend on Tuesday, March 29.
They arrived at around 6.30pm and had paid £7 in advance to park in the Talbot Street car park for the entirety of the evening, returning at around 11pm after it had ended. However, after joining the long queue of cars waiting to leave the car park, they reached the machine to discover their ticket wouldn't scan properly. The car park is owned by Q Park and is not linked to Rock City.
Mr Jackson said: "We were expecting that, because we paid in advance, it would mean we wouldn't have to queue with everyone else - so that was a bit annoying. When I got to the front of the queue it said 'this does not work for this location'. I checked it and it was for the correct location - Talbot Street car park, right day, right time.
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"We found out someone else in the queue had the same problem - so it wasn't just me. There was no staff around and so, when staff aren't available, it asks for you to press this button. I pressed it and nobody was coming. I tried it again - still nothing."
After trying to persuade his friend to just try and leave, as they did have a valid ticket, the pair decided instead to buy another ticket - this time costing them £8, as it is slightly more expensive for those who don't book ahead. It took them around half an hour to get out of the busy car park, full of others who had been to the gig at Rock City. Mr Jackson then complained about the ordeal to Q-Park, which operates the car park, the next day, explaining that they had to pay more than double what they should have despite having a valid ticket.
"They said they would refund me the £7 pre payment," he continued. "I thought we should get a full refund and even some compensation as we were essentially falsely imprisoned. They told me that we could have walked out at anytime but we couldn't leave - it's not like we could have walked back to Lincolnshire. How much would they have charged us if we had kept the car in there overnight?
"I ended up paying £15 - they should have just said 'we're really sorry, here's your money back and here's a gesture of goodwill'."
Mr Jackson told Nottinghamshire Live that Q-Park refused to refund the £8 as he refused to go out of his way to retrieve the ticket as proof of purchase, suggesting he should charge them an hourly fee for this process.
Q-Park have been approached for comment on the matter.
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