A UK woman was accidentally charged £4,586 (R110,000) after parking for two hours at a multi-storey car park.
According to the BBC, 39-year-old Yaditi Kava was charged this figure at the Queensmere Observatory Shopping Centre in Slough.
The shopping centre takes payment at the exit barrier, and Kava did not thoroughly check the amount before entering her pin number.
“I was in a rush, the girls were getting tired, and I did not see the number on the small card machine,” Kava told the BBC.
“The big display showed ‘4,5’, so I thought it was £4.50.”
When she got the bank notification on her smartphone, she received a nasty surprise.
“To my shock, I saw that they had deducted not £4.50 but £4,586 from my account,” said Kava.
“It was surreal – I just couldn’t fathom that they had taken that money.”
Shopping centre responds
The shopping centre’s managers – Savills – called the matter an isolated incident.
“Savills can confirm that it is aware of an isolated incident concerning an anomaly with a parking charge in the car park,” said Savills.
“We have been in regular contact with the customer to rectify the issue as a matter of priority and can confirm a full refund is being processed.”
However, despite Kava originally being told it would take 2-3 working days to refund the money, she only received her money back about three weeks later – and after involvement from a consumer rights programme.
“It was a godsend – One call from Jonathan [Vernon-Smith, the show host], and the next day the money was in my bank,” said Kava.
“This was a very unusual occurrence, and we are investigating the car park system to prevent this from happening in the future,” said Savills.
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