ORLANDO, Fla. – A glitch in the parking system at the Orlando International Airport forced a couple to pay twice after they said they were “detained” by the parking attendant.
MCO has been touting its new reserved parking feature at the dazzling, newly-completed $2.8 billion Terminal C which guarantees a spot and a smooth experience if a passenger makes a reservation and pays in advance.
Jeff and Sherry Courterier said, instead, for them, it was uncomfortable and frustrating. And they believe it’s happened to other passengers based on what airport officials told the couple after the incident.
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The Courteriers showed News 6 their emailed MCO reservation confirmation containing the amount they’d paid – $96 for three days of reserved parking and a QR code they’d be required to scan upon entering and exiting the Terminal C parking garage.
“This is the reservation I made for the parking, it gives me a QR code that allows me into the reserved area,” Jeff Courterier said about the email.
Indeed, the Courteriers said they scanned their QR code first at the Terminal C garage entrance gate, again at the reserved parking entrance on the fourth floor of the garage, and one final time when they attempted to exit the garage after returning from their three-day trip.
But the parking attendant couldn’t verify the QR code and insisted the Courteriers pay a second time.
“She looked at the screen several times, looked at my prepaid receipt and my QR code, and explained to us that we had to pay an additional fee in order for us to leave the area, that was the only way we’re going to get out of the parking lot,” Jeff Courterier said. “We said ‘well that’s not right, we had already paid, here’s proof that we paid and we’d like to leave.’ She explained again that the only way we’re going to get out is that the gate wasn’t going up until we paid the fee. I said well there has to be a button somewhere you can push to let us out that’s nothing more than for emergency purposes. She said no, the only way you’re going to be able to leave is to pay the extra fee.”
The Courteriers said traffic behind them was “piling up” and they couldn’t wait much longer so they paid $72, the price of three days of parking in the non-reserved lot, on top of the $96 they had prepaid.
“Don’t like it at all, don’t like it at all,” Jeff Courterier said. “I think we were, for lack of a better word, detained, after we proved we had paid for parking and everything was legit until that point. To turn their issue into a customer issue and expect for them to try and collect the money back is wrong.”
The Courteriers emailed the airport trying to get their money back and got no response for several days. The Courterier then contacted News 6.
“So I emailed you and you responded,” Jeff Courterier said. “And on Thursday [almost a week later] I started to get results and hearing from people from the airport about the situation.”
Angela Starke, MCO Senior Vice President of Public Affairs & Community Relations, thanked News 6 for passing along the Courteriers’ issue.
“You may recall that the Reserved Parking program began a few months ago as a way to deliver more options to passengers who wanted a guaranteed parking spot as MCO adjusts to significant passenger growth,” Starke wrote in an email to News 6. “As with any new system, there will be wrinkles despite the best efforts from our staff and partners to have a smooth experience. It is unfortunate that the system appeared to miss Mr. Courterier’s entrance to the reserved lot. Therefore, our parking attendants were obligated to charge him the daily rate upon exiting.”
Do the Courteriers believe the parking system “appeared to miss” their entrance to the reserved lot?
“First of all, if it let me through two gates, the one outside of the parking garage and the one inside the parking garage, I find it hard to believe that it missed my entry,” Jeff Courterier said. “Second of all, if we could provide proof that we did pay that reservation then they should have let us out at the end of the process through the gate so we could leave.”
The Courteriers believe they weren’t the first passengers to experience the glitch.
“No, no we don’t, because the employees had already been told if this comes up this is what you tell the customer,” Jeff Courterier said. “The person I spoke with on the phone from the airport said that they know there’s a glitch in the system, and the employees have been told to tell the customers they had to pay the additional fee until they are allowed to leave the parking toll booth when they exit the airport.”
The Courteriers have been promised a full refund but they said it’s not about the money.
“If they’re going to tout the new reservation system, they need to make it work,” Jeff Courterier said. “If they do have an issue they need to make it easier for the customer to deal with the problem. They need to educate the employees how to treat the customer if there’s a problem, so something like this doesn’t happen to someone else.
Starke also said MCO is working with its vendors “to determine if there are any additional issues.”
“This is the first time MCO has embraced a parking reservation system,” Starke said. “Even though the program works well, we will continue to monitor it for any missteps.”