Crap Service of the Week - congratulations Westfield Shopping Centre
Today it is the turn of shopping centre giant Westfield, or more specifically, the car park at the branch in Stratford, next to the Olympic Park.
This story involves a reader I am going to call Dave.
Dave has been driven up the wall by the carefully-crafted incompetence of the management of this car park.
Even I am sometimes surprised at the lengths some will go to to get this award.
Let’s just remind ourselves where this particular Westfield is - right slap bang next to the Olympic Park, to be the focus of the entire world in just a few weeks.
Dave, who works near the park, was eager to pay his parking fee and went to one of the ticket machines which was marked “This machine accepts credit cards”.
Putting in his plastic, he was greeted several seconds later with the message “This machine does not accept credit cards”.
Must be a faulty one.
Machine number two...check...accepts cards....check - inserts card.
“This machine does not accept credit cards.”
A drive around the car park to machine number four, once again the machine which invited credit card payments, spat it out saying it had changed its mind.
Now this might seem like a small irk, but as we all know, it is these minor irritations which get under the skin and niggle their way to fury.
Dave eventually managed to get hold of a warder who was only too pleased to take his money.
This car park, being so close to such a significant location, would be designed and built to cope with the British weather, of course it would?
Oh no it wouldn’t.
Admittedly it has been wet, but the rain made short work on one of the levels which was closed off due to flooding just a few hours after the first sign of drizzle.
And no-one seemed in a any great hurry to get it opened again, according to Dave. Poor old Dave.
But then no-one was in a hurry to fix the escalator from the ground floor to the street. This has been out of action for weeks. Dave ended up using the stairs.
This car park does have one redeeming feature - a swanky red and green light system telling customers where there is a space free.
Well, it would be swanky if it actually worked.
Because Dave managed to find two green-lighted (i.e. empty) spaces, both of which had cars in them.
He isn’t having much luck is Dave. Who would have thought one car park could cause so much misery to one driver?
There is one saving grace to this sorry tale. The millions flocking to Stratford in a few weeks for the Olympics will never get to experience all this fun.
Someone in their wisdom has decided the car park will be closed for the entire period. Right up until September.
Why? Well, it would make too much sense to leave it open.
Westfield Shopping Centre, Stratford, herewith your Crap Service of the Week Award - know it has been hard-earned.
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