What seemed like a great deal for parking near Los Angeles International Airport turned into a sky-high parking bill for one Thousand Oaks man.
Geoff Glassner is a frequent traveler and no stranger to LAX parking lots. So in planning a trip to Europe, he booked a 12-day reservation in a lot called Easy Park near the airport, all for only $140.
"I've parked at LA Easy Park before, multiple times, and never had any problems," said Glassner.
But just two days before flying home, he got an email saying "your reservation has been canceled" and that the parking facility "went out of business."
"I wrote back and said is this a mistake?" Glassner said.
A customer service representative confirmed that it wasn't, but she assured him that his parking reservation price would be honored by the new owners, ABM Industries. When he returned to pick up his car, though, a parking attendant insisted the price had gone up. His $140 reservation instead was going to cost nearly a hundred dollars more.
"I felt like I was blindsided," Glassner told the I-Team. He said no one would honor his original reservation, forcing him to pay up. "My car was basically being held hostage."
Stu Tally, a consumer attorney, says that Glassner technically didn't have a valid contract with the new company. When a company takes over a business, it doesn't always have to honor the customer's contracts left over from the previous company, but that doesn't mean they can charge you whatever they want.
"It's implied that when you park somewhere you have to pay, the amount would be a reasonable amount," Tally said.
So what's reasonable? Tally thinks ABM's $240 is probably reasonable for 12 days, coming out to about $20 a day.
The I-Team reached out to ABM Industries, and they agreed to refund Glassner the difference, saying "This presale was ran by a previous parking operator who was leasing the parking lot."
ABM says if it learns of other people affected by this change, it will refund those customers, too.
For now, Glassner is just relieve to have his money back, and told us in the future, he'll do more research before choosing a parking lot.
