During my work travel years, I had to take the airplane 1 to 2 times per week (roundtrips of course) for more than one year. One time for sure to visit my girlfriend, who at the time was in another city, and one more time for my work, visiting clients and trade shows. I was using the same airport at my hometown, and I was reaching it by car. As a consequence, I had to pay for parking, and actually a lot. I was lucky enough to find a promotion, to get a parking spot at a parking lot / car renting service near the airport, along with shuttle bus transportation to the main building, for one year with only a fraction of the cost. As my company was not versatile and fast regarding this kind of negotiations (and taking into consideration that they couldn’t predict the trips I would have to make over the year), I paid the parking out of my own pocket, hoping to get reimbursed later. The only trick here was that I needed to get an invoice every time I went to park there, with the invoice mentioning a part of the parking fare.

The hardest part in this kind of travelling for me is when it is too early in the morning, or too late. Because in both cases the participants in the act might be sleepy, and especially when returning to pick up the car, very tired as well. I could have travelled from the other side of the world, cramped in coach, without much sleep and tired after a week in cars and offices, so all I wanted was to get my car and go hope.

Overall, I was very happy with the deal I had (I got almost 100 days of parking for free), and happy with the service most of the time. The procedure was simple. Book online the exact dates you would park, arrive there and drop the car. Then return after the trip, pick up the invoice and the car and leave. No surprises, no issues. Until they hired a new employee.

All the team until then new the deal I had, I was one of the few regulars and they knew everything about the invoice and my schedule. So, one night I return to pick the car and I find this new hire on duty. Middle aged woman, who at the time seemed to be very frustrated. She had to deal with parking and the rental services however there was not much traffic. I traveled a lot and I know how busy can get a place like that, this was not busy at all. After waiting some time there (which seemed like eternity to me) she came back to the desk and she gave me the keys as well as the invoice, but with zero value mentioned. I argued that I needed the invoice to show a value to show expenses and to get reimbursed, but she denied knowing anything about it. She promised however that she would try to fix it during the following week. Understanding that the time was difficult and since I never had before an issue with them, I departed.

3 days later I went again to park, finding that the issue could not be resolved. As the days had passed, they couldn’t issue an invoice with dates not corresponding to the business trip. I explained the situation and they promised not to repeat that mistake. Alas, when I came back (another late Sunday), I met the same employee; and guess what. She had made the same mistake. And only that, but she also delayed a lot (like 20 minutes) while she tried to service other clients that came obviously after me at the desk. I was frustrated, but I didn’t make a scene. The last thing you want at such places, while being tired and overworked, is to get into a fight. I could tell that for some reason she was disoriented, perhaps very tired and overworked too. I took my car, and I went home.

The next day it was the first that I took the time to give some feedback to the email I got every time I parked them, asking me to rate the service. I wanted to help the situation, so let them know that the employee seemed very tired and stressed and perhaps she needed a break from the night shift. But the next time I went to park I was welcomed with a surprise. It was during the day, and while there was another lady at the front desk, once she greeted me by my Surname, the other night shift lady rushed from another area (the car rental) to confront me about my feedback. While I thought that the feedback was given directly to the operator, it was not. As I had booked the parking through a parking handling platform, the feedback was made public on the platform. I have been using this platform for over a year and I never had seen a single feedback comment. I thought it was something used to improve service, but in the end, it was used to evaluate parking providers for future customers. She shouted at me, she told in front of customers and other employees that she didn’t need a break and that she needed the night shift as she was a single mother and many other stuff. Not direct insults, but still it was not something that you would make you feel comfortable, and for sure it was unprofessional. I do not remember what her manager did at the time, and to be honest neither did I. I face a lot of unstable situations where I live and I have learned to let it go, just to keep my sanity.

Conclusion:

Sometimes we want to give feedback to make things better, but this is OUR target, and it is not always shared with the one collecting the feedback. They might be intermediaries just pretending to care, or trying to evaluate other people services (thus we should be paid to give that feedback). The one receiving the feedback, should be susceptible to criticism and willing to improve. If not, then stop pretending that you care. Protect the people wanting to help you, do not expose them to backlash. Otherwise, how are you expecting external reviewers to come to the front and give you’re their experience for free? To get scolded afterwards? The platforms that are currently available for such constructive criticism are not made for improving services; they are made for punishment or praising and marketing. No meaningful improvement can come out of this.