Chucky300

tlbeedy.... you are so right. Till RPAYER decided to post - you can see that each and every post from EVERYONE on this forum was ON TOPIC - and too the point. Only when he hijacked the post with his admitted enjoyment of trolling around the forum to pick a fight with me did it sadly veer off topic.

I will stick to the post - I am adult and enjoy this forum VERY much! Cheers! Have a great weekend.

MercedesFTW

I'm still legally a kid.

Chucky300

hehe

rob13572468

keep in mind that even a $1-2 dollar tip is not bad for a valet... a good valet; meaning one that will run and get cars and actually *work* will easily make $100 for a 6 hour shift... thats $100 cash in pocket or about $16/hr. when i payed out my guys at the end of the night they never made less than $130 for working from 10pm-4am.

now while taking a pic of the kid and warning him might or might not have been a bit of an overreaction, its really a moot point... you are the customer.. its your car... we are talking about mercedes so it's a nicecar that you probably spent alot of money on. you have an absolute right to have the best service possible without any sort of threats, implied or otherwise. no valet should ever be anything but friendly and $10 is not considered cheap. if the attendant cannot keep the vehicle up front for $10 then they can tell you that the pirce up front is $20 (or whatever) but regardless you have a right to excellent service whether you give a big tip or none at all.

I, myself personally very much believe in tipping properly and generously. i tip a minimum of 20% for good service and higher for great service. i tip even when i order carry-out food and i tip well when i valet (but i also keep my car up front). i also however believe in a lousy tip for lousy service and on ocassion if i get crap service i will leave an obviously small tip to reflect it. america is a service economy today and in many ways we do not have much else. yet there are many people who simply seem unwilling to properly provide service. you would think that if you are going to be valeting $100K+ vehicles that you might want to take pride in how you dress yet i had to on many occasions send kids home for wearing ripped jeans or sandles or other amazingly stupid things.

tlbeedy

I've noticed that while dining at most restaurants that offer valet, they typically like to park the finer cars up front. It's the best advertisement their establishment can show as being first class. You can almost guarantee that anyone pulling up in a Bently will get front door parking.

NZ_Benz

Here we don't do tipping, well it's comming in more and more. I had my car parked at quite a nice hotel in the capital. They use a system where all the cars are stacked in a big lift shaft sort of thing on a carasel or however it's spelt. Anyway my car came back the first time with oil on the windscreen from the car in front. It was right in the middle of the screen so I know they saw it. I was pretty annoyed but just asked nicely for them to clean if off I even helped the guy cause I was in a hurry. Anyway I asked him to make a note of the car above and to either put something under that car or put something over mine to stop the leaking. So the next day the car comes up with the same crap all over the windscreen I was pretty pissed off this time, I went into the lobby and made an issue of it with some guy at the front desk who just happened to be the duty manager....The thing that got me was that it was too different valets who had managed to do this, it takes about 30secs so wash it off the car and they didn't even bother.

Just as an aside on tipping, even when I've been in the US I don't do it out of habit, if someone really does a good job then I will tip but I'm not in the practice of tipping without a reason. You should not have to go out and pretty much have the car extort money from you it's almost as if to say "heres the money, please don't f$$k up my car"

rob13572468

parking is a tricky situation and how it is arranged financially depends entirely on the location...

typically the valet company will rent an entire lot or portion of a lot for a time period (e.g. i did nightclubs so we leased the lot from 9pm-6am every day). prices can vary wildly also depending on the location. in the suburbs parking is easy and the venue will have their own lot that they provide to the company free of charge. in the city on the other hand its pretty much a free-for-all... parking lots are highly coveted and sometimes very difficult to obtain since any available land can be converted to residence/commercial at $25+ sq ft. most lots get built on.

most city lots cost more to rent than a very large home so it becomes important to maximize the profitability by picking a lot that can park cars for a number of venues. sometimes the owner of a parking lot will decide to keep his own attendants on the lot and then charge a discount price per car of maybe $3-5. Also some cities actually attempt to regulate the price of parking and all cities have a valet tax. for instance in chicago, the price currently is around $10 all over the city for up to 4 hours (non regulated) except for some very busy areas where parking can cost 2-4x as much. the city gets $1 for every car that is parked. usually the entire cost of the parking price goes to the company, then out comes the tax, the lot lease payments, insurance (thats a big one too) and then usually there is a fund set up to cover smaller pay-outs for things like broken windows, dings, scratches, etc. all the things that would be under the normal insurance deductable. the valets usually work for tips only and that should be able to pay everyone out at a rate of ~$15/hr.

sometimes an account has a lot that very far away and requires lots of extra attendants so the company will take out an extra dollar or two per car to pay additional employees. an account may be a small place that only parks a few cars per night so sometimes the venue will have to subsidise the account to cover the costs of valet attendants. Each account usually has a manager who takes care of the staffing and works the front, greeting the customers and collecting the money, of course people get greedy and managers will sometimes understaff an account simply so there is less payroll. have you ever had to wait 20 minutes to get your car? thats a greedy manager. managers will sometimes misrepresent how many cars have been parked to keep more money for themselves. there is naturally alot shadiness that can go on. the rule of thumb is that if the attendants are well dressed and professional and arent speeding off with the cars then its probably on the up-and-up.

insurance can be an issue. most high end places nowadays have security cameras at the front of the building and many parking lots have cameras as well. most businessess will gladly look over their surveillance tapes if you approach them in a calm and reasonable manner; remember you are their customer and they want you to be happy and satisfied. obviously the best bet is if you notice any damage before you leave but in reality this might not be the case. when you do notice the damage you should call the venue as soon as possible (this means the resturaunt/theater/club first) and relate to them the damage and ask what you should do.. usually they will then give you the contact information for either the account valet manager or the corporate office number (this depends on how the individual company handles it) naturally some companies may be less than reputable about damage claims. if things do not get moving within a day or so then immediately file a police report for the damage as you may need legal recourse.

Claims will happen, accidents happen its an unfortunate part of the business...here is how i handled the common ones and i would imagine is how any decent company should..(your results may vary)...

1. with my company the typical claim was lost keys... the valet is running with 20 sets of keys in his pouch and drops one set.i actually designed special valet jackets with a big pouch to lessen this problem but it still occurred from time to time, when i had a lost key claim i would immediately and on the spot apologize to the customer and then pay them in cash the cost of replacing the keys/keychain plus cab fare home to get spare keys and cab fare back to their car plus $20 extra plus a bunch of coupons for free valet service at any of our locations. naturally losing a mercedes smartkey sucked since it would be like a $350 payout but thats the cost of doing business.

2. Broken windows would happen from time to time. in the city we would get bums/crackheads/criminals that would target cars in the lot. the lots were brightly lit and fenced and we even had guys patrolling for this yet they would still try and succeed from time to time. i had a specific glass company the we used and what we would do was (apologize first) then clean out the glass from the car, put a piece of adhesive backed plastic over the window and give the customer the card and directions to the glass shop. they would call, make an appoitment and get the glass replaced (usually the following day of the incident). we would pay the company directly so there was no need for the customer to pay and get reimbursed.

3. dings and scratches were much the same as above, though the customer would usually have the option to use their own body shop provided that they would get two estimates. these were handled differently depending on the situation but such claims were very rare (at least for my company) i think we had 3 in three years. usually if the damage was under $1000 bucks we would just pay it out without checking into things much. i think there was one incident where the vehicle owner was trying to scam us ( the damage had large amounts of rust despite that fact that it had not rained and the incident had supposedly happened the day before.) and even then i still think we gave him some money just to be done with the situation.

as i said, the general manner in which i would handle damage claims was to fix things and make the customer happy as quickly as possible. any decent company (at least in my opinion) should really do the same. if your vehicle is damaged the litmus test is going to be whether or not they want to take care of you right away. give the company 1-2 days to get things done first.. if you get alot of "ill call you back" type things then file a police report and complain to the venue owner. often this will get your problem fixed with a slow company. finally if you get no satisfaction then its time to get a lawyer involved.

rpayer

MercPlease

Valet park my @$$.


I NEVER valet...unless it's a life or death situation. :P on a serious note, I always try to avoid valeting..

tgood

I haven't read the posts in this thread really, but its not like we are talking about exotics here. Why not Valet them? Parking on the street creates potentially just as much risk. If something is meant to happen, it will. And besides, a car is just car..

MercPlease

If i pay $100k+ for my cars I dont want someone else parking them. If i park it myself and it gets scratched ill be slightly less pissed off.

dr.skp.ortho

In Australia, my S500 as I optioned it (night view, rear camera etc, distronic etc etc,) cost in Australian dollars $325,000.00

At current exchange rates that is $275,726.00 US Dollars.

Now whether its an exotic or not is a moot point. Its damn expensive in my opinion and hence I will take care where i choose to park it.

Whats foolish to me is someone with such an expensive car and who puts no consideration into where and how they park it.

Chucky300

VERY well said.

And to have to go to dinner - and worry that the valet parker will purposely damage your vehicle for jealousy purposes, or because you did not tip VERY generously ($20 or more?!?!?!) - is rediculous!!!

I'd prefer to park it myself in all cases.

PS - I have not gone back to that restaurant yet! I was really fumed that he told me I was cheap! $10 tip for 2 hours of having my car by the front is NOT cheap.

boylston

This is an interesting topic. I see two issues, the cost of parking and the amount to tip.

In some cases, if the car is held at the door the parking charge is waived. When a hotel charges $35 for two hours of garage parking, maybe a $5 tip is appropriate. But if you can avoid the parking charge, a $30 tip is well worth it.

In talking with valets in the past, they are often "given" several spaces in front of their establishments. This is part of the valet's remuneration. Logically, the person who tips the most is most likely to get one of these preferred spaces. Tip the valet up front for one of these spaces.

Regarding parking in Boston, there are many self park garages that can be used. People use valet for the convenience.

When valeting, at a minimum, walk around the car when you drop it off and walk around it when you pick it up. Some of the valet tickets now have places to note the condition of the car when it is dropped off.

Always keep in mind, you get what you pay for.

Chucky300

All noted.

I can only speak for myself - but the place I went to had free parking - and in my humble opinion, there was no need for Valet. THey use it just to "fancy" up the joint.

When the parking lot is right on the premises and its a 10 - 20 foot walk from the farthest spot to the front door...... There is no need for valet.

Keeping in mind that you get what you pay for - it should not be a feeling of paying a ransom which is what it sometimes feels to be.
I, nor anyone else, should have to PAY MORE to make sure nothing bad happens to the car, ( SCRATCH, DING, DENT, CHIP ) Parking the car a mile away does not make a difference except in terms of time it will take to get it after dinner.

They put the car at the front door to show the driver that they think you are "good enough" to be at the front door and that somehow - your car will NOT get damaged since they will constantly be monitoring it. Thats aboslute Rubbish because of the lack of logic to that statement.
Whether the car is parked here, or there, as long as no one comes up and opens their car door into it - the car will still be fine on the way home.

dr.skp.ortho

In Australia, whist once in a casino i saw a restored convertible ford mustang that was being parked. Now the vehicle was immaculate and obviously well looked after. It had the apperance of belonging to an enthusiast. Now before anyone reacts, the point i am about to make doesnt have anything to do with whether this car is a classic, exotic etc. It was obviously carefully restored and looked after.

I had parked my car myself and was walking to the lift. I saw the valet with the vehicle parked revving the engine repeatedly. Another of his valet coleague was standing about 10 meters away laughing.

Now whilst reving the engine in all likelihood wont cause too much damage i dont think the owner would have appreciated his vehicle being used in such a way. The valet should not have played around with his car. Period.

That little incident told me what I needed to know about valet parking.

MercPlease

My friends car got really damaged when he valeted in downtown s.d.

boylston

Rest assured, the driver's of even the fanciest cars are tipping in order to get the space in front of the door.

Don't think of the valet as a rip off, but a convenience for those too lazy to walk a few blocks.

Chucky300

Hi

I dont think Valet is a rip off... Believe me, when I go to manhattan to a nice place, and theres NO SPOTS anywhere, and the nearest garage is 4 blocks away and will cost $40 for the 2 hours.... a Valet makes your life a lot easier.

But - we can ALL agree that we have our hesitations and reservations of allowing ANYONE drive our cars.... let alone someone maybe the age of 19, who has only "dreamed" about driving some of the exotics that pull up to their post.

Realistically - 8 out of 10 times, there is never a problem and everyone is proffesional - but for those 2 times.... the heartache is tremendous.

If i can park it myself, i prefer it that way.

cfsafs

Trust Me I'm A Professional

Chucky300

LOL exactly. what a post !!!!!

boylston

There is valet parking where I live- no option. I appreciate the convenience but have seen many instances of damage due to carelessness. The key is walking the car when it is dropped off and again when picked up- next day claims never cut it.

The worst case for me was getting the SL delivered from the valet with a flat tire and cracked rim. Fortunately they fixed it.

cfsafs

Dont worry we'll take good care of her.

Carl Lassiter

Just valet and don't worry about it. I valet my car about 5 times/wk and have never had a problem. Sure bad things can happen but you can always sue them despite their worthless little disclaimer on the stub. I'd be royally pissed of but, remember, it's just a car.

As for tipping them $20 or whatever. F-that. I've never done that with any of my cars. $3 is plenty. They'd always park the P-car out front but they did that to make their place look good not to do me a favor and I'm sure its the same with the new S-class.

R&DJim

I valet in the city and the burbs all the time without hesitation and have yet to have a major problem. I typically tip between $2 and $5 unless it's a major holiday.


Though I have heard one pretty good horror story:

My father-inlaw wanted to carry "protection" in his car but wasn't comfortable with the responsibilities and legal red tape of gun ownership in illinois. Instead he used to keep the flare gun from his sailboat in his glovebox. Natually it was only a matter of time before a curious valet at a five-star restaurant would burn his wood-paneled Buick "Estate Wagon" to the ground.