Moto Reviews 53

To call this a "professional company" would be laughable. Working for this company has shown me how scummy this business is and how much of an unfair profit margin they are making. Let me give you some advice, if you see a motorway service with the word "moto" on the sign then please don't bother and just wait out until the next service, as at least you won't have to be left feeling depressed with those.

Stopped at Wetherby towing a caravan. It was just terrible. The signage into the caravan parking area was out of place and we went round the one way system twice. Finally got into the parking area to discover that all the caravan parking bays were full so parked in a coach/ motorhome bay opposite. Had barely stopped in the bay when a man wearing a yellow jacket approached and advised that we would be fined if we stayed where we were. Pointed out that the caravan bays were full - no good. At this point a caravan bay became free so we reversed the rig against the flow of traffic - great fun and finally parked in the now free caravan bay. The fine for incorrectly parking is £100 - so the sign says when you can find it. It's completely invisible unless you search for it. No doubt part of the business plan. Apparently, the car park is run by a sub-contractor to Moto- just absolutely awful - avoid.

Female showers in Ferrybridge, Doncaster and Woodall have all been out of order for well over a month with them having the attitude so what. When Washington was broken and I was unable time wise to move on even thou there are male and female cleaners and I was desperate to get clean I was refused to be allowed to use the males shower. As a female lorry drive myself and others we are still expected to pay the same yet if these were the mens showers they are repaired asap not months later. When they blame supply chain constantly for lack of stock in stores treatment like this is one of the reasons there is a shortage of drivers

This refers to Exeter Services. Used to be very good, but visited yesterday and chaos is an understatement. Queues of cars trying to get into the place. The culprit has to be with the short-sited logistics dept, deciding to put a Costa Drive-Thru at the top of the car park. The people that have forgotten that services are about taking a break from driving and use this facility, cause a tailback that blocks the entrance to the carpark and thus stops access to the main services building. Not only does the main carpark also contain a Costa van, but inside there’s also a Costa cafe, so why do they need a Costa Drive-Thru as well? I used to use these services a lot, but won’t be back and sitting in a queue right back to the roundabout which crawls at a snail’s pace while people buy a coffee without getting out of their cars. Really surprised the other businesses within the services haven’t raised this issue as many cars I saw simply went right around the roundabout (when they could) and left. Ridiculous!!

Probably the worst services I’ve ever been to. Breastfeeding/baby changing area was out of order and there was nowhere as an alternative to change my 6 month old son. Toilets were disgusting so I dread to think what the baby changing would have been like. Very disappointing that they can’t keep somewhere essential like a changing area for babies in service.

Moto-way should change it's name to mafia services or Dick Turpin rip off.
Spend more than 2 hours there and your into £60 fine.
The signs are pooooor, the services are indiferent .
So moto get new signs with Dick Turpin on saying your money if you try to rest there and the £60 goes to £100 if you don't pay fast enough.
Hope you moto go out of business soooooon

Stopped at Moto Chieveley and was lucky enough to come across assistant manager Dan. This man does nothing. Seeing him walk around and not engage with any employee, or lift a finger, shows the culture of this company. Lazy management leads to lazy store managers and therefore falling standards. No wonder it is so dirty and queues are so long. It is a hub of unbothered staff only there to get paid and do as little as possible in the process,

Stopped at Moto Thurrock here for my daily rest. Firstly £37 to park is daylight robbery. Secondly there was no hot water on site so I couldn't have a shower. The staff on site were unhelpful, no notices up saying there was a problem and they just brushed me away. Complained on their website and just had the most arrogant person call me to say I only paid for parking that does not cover showers etc. As a truck driver you get treated badly anyway, these people treat you even worse, couldn't even offer me a refund or some money back. From now on I will avoid MOTO services like the plague, £37 to park a truck and you bring your own bed ffs. These people make mega bucks out of truck drivers and never admit it when they have a problem. I have had issues like no hot water at other services and they just refund the money no question asked.

Location - Wetherby, Yourkshire.
Stopped with the family to lunch and break.
Food not good, cold and very expensive cost for three kids and 2 adults nearly £50, it took ages to get all sorted and fed, short walk for the dog.
Fuel also horrendously expensive cost over £100 to fill up. to put a hat on it we were there 2 hours and 8 minutes and that was a £60 fine!!!!!!! Try to complain and they just ignor you and start heavy pressure court action etc.....not nice people. Next service stop was Tesco Carlisle, food far better and not junk. Fuel cheapest I have seen, people nice, bough fullcart for our holiday home break. Great people I will never stop on the motorway again.

Parking Profiteers
Dear Ms Davis,
It is apparent that you have either not read or not understood the intent of my submission. I have paid the charge and I have stated that in accordance with the advertised policy I was at fault.

My point was that the policy is at fault, an opinion shared on your trust pilot review. The policy is one of rank profiteering at the expense of your customers.

1. Parking charges are excessive as you require £16 for a stay in excess of 2 hours.
2. Penalty charges are excessive as you charge £60 which is massively profitable for the car park operator and I am sure provides excellent profit for Moto.

My stay was approximately 40 mins over 2 hours so I would have been charged £16 being a rate of 40 pence per minute. I can park in central London for much less.
I have been charged £60 for the oversight and this is massively more than the cost of obtaining my details from the DVLA and sending out a letter all of which I am sure is an automated process carried out by relatively cheap computers.

This kind of woeful customer service will be what customers remember about Moto, along with the dirty facilities and the over priced goods and services.

I see from your trust pilot review that Tim is advocating the boycott of Moto and the retailers who populate your sites, I think he is on the right track and will follow his excellent example whilst encouraging all I know to do the same.

If Moto want the respect and custom of the public they need to act responsibly and fairly.

MOTO operates service stations throughout the UK and you should be aware of the parking provisions that are in force on their sites.

I understand that legally you have to be allowed 2 hours worth of free parking but after that the service station operator can charge you for parking. Typically they will charge perhaps £15 for a 24 hour stay. The rationale behind this is that if you stay longer than 2 hours, you will be depriving another paying customer of a parking space and, by extension, you may deprive the franchises who rent business units from Moto, of opportunities to maximise their profits from other visitors to the service station.

Fair enough - So what is my beef?

As a former Approved Driving Instructor I recognised that I needed to stop for a break at one of their service stations and that any attempt to continue my journey without a decent break would be dangerous both to myself and to other road users on a busy motorway.

I have been driving for a good number of years now and have never before had to pay to park at a service station, so it never occured to me that I would need to on this occasion - you dont see pay and display boards prominently sited all around service station car parks as you do in, for example, a council car park.

So when I parked up in the poorly lit car park and, as I was feeling somewhat unwell, went straight into the services, I saw no signs about parking charges or terms and conditions thereof on my way in. Who looks for parking signs when they are feeling nauseous and wanting to head for the toilets a.s.a.p.?

Notwithstanding this, even if I had seen any signage I could not have paid - I have since discovered that the preferred method of payment is either by mobile phone or online with a credit card and I had neither with me. Further, if I could have paid with cash at one of the outlets, again I would have been stumped as I didnt have enough cash to cover the £15 parking charge either.

It should be pointed out that these parking charges are not fines and if any refusal to pay goes to court it will be a civil rather than criminal case. This is because staying over the two hours can only be deemed to be a breach of contract - and that contract is with the service provider (in this case Moto) as they essentially invite you to come on to their land to use the services provided by the franchises.

However, if you go over the defined two hours, Moto (or other service providers) have an arrangement which allows a separate company to pursue you. These companies pay service providers like Moto a weekly fee (possibly £1000 a week) for the right to pursue you for a parking charge.

If you were unaware of the parking restrictions, the first you might know about them is when you receive a letter through your postbox demanding that you pay what seems to be an unregulated charge that is completely disproportionate to the original parking fee.

To put this into context, if you paid the £15 for 24 hours that would work out at 62.5 pence an hour.

However, if you overstayed by an hour (and I didn't), then the parking company would send you a letter telling you that you now owe them £100. That works out at a staggering £1.66 per minute and is more than a 666% rise on the original £15 fee.

To soften the blow, if you agree to pay up early, they will let you off with a £60 charge - which for an hour is £1 per minute ... much more reasonable dont you think?

But at £60 that charge is still a 400% increase on the original £15 as £15 x 400% = £60.

Are these figures justifiable? You tell me.

Of course if you were only over by 30 minutes you would be paying £2 per minute which would be even more galling!

So where are we legally? In 2015 in a landmark case, Barry Beavis challenged one of these parking companies in the Supreme Court. The Supreme Court ruled by a majority that firms could impose a charge for overstaying ‘for the efficient management of the space in the interests of the general body of users’.

Interestingly they went on to say that if the car park firm could charge only a nominal amount – perhaps at the normal rate for parking – then people would routinely overstay and the car park would not be available as it should be.

Essentially what they were saying was that parking companies could impose a punitive charge simply to act as a deterrent.

I would challenge both of these Supreme Court assertions thus:-

Firstly the car park was not even half full when I was there and almost all of the franchises were shut.

So in my situation even though the car park would have been available for the general body of users - they just didn't want to be there!

Even if they did, even if there was a sudden deluge of people frantically rushing to buy fried chicken, burgers, pasties, a cup of coffee and a slice of cake, a sandwich and a magazine or perhaps choosing the "this is not just any healthy option," just in case any threat of the martians landing materialised, they wouldn't have been able to.

Why not? Because the franchises had all shut up shop. So the franchises were never in any danger of losing any profits either.

So much for the general body of users and, so much for the business interests of the franchises as well then!

Secondly, who in their right mind wants to stay a moment longer than they absolutely have to at a service station? What do these worldly wise people in the Supreme Court think that the travelling population wants to do when they pull in?

Put up tents and throw a party? Interrupt the tedium of their journey by performing a sponsored 15 hour marathon conga through the car parking area and petrol station? Crash the place for an all night rave?

It is bad enough that customers face filthy facilities and are duped into buying folding chairs which they will probably never need or use, or are hoodwinked into buying a torch with the power of a million candles (see Rhod Gilbert) ... but to think they will want to stay a moment longer than necessary? Really?

Back to reality .....

As the parking charges appear to be unregulated and entirely disproportionate, a useable proposition might seem to be that, if the parking companies cannot touch anyone who stays for less than two hours, they will monumentally hike up their charges and hit anyone that they possibly can with a massive charge to offset the up front fee (remember the £1000?) that they have to pay to service providers like Moto.

As previously stated I was unwell that night but that will be of no interest to the parking company who (as has been recorded on many websites about this subject), have made it clear that although anybody has a right to appeal, they have no interest in listening to you. Like Shylock they want their pound of flesh - all they want is for you to give them your money.

So what can we mere mortals do about it? It seems clear that Moto are only out to make a fast buck - divesting themselves of responsibility and any costs for parking enforcement, whilst charging another company for the privilege of doing just that - genius!

I know that I would spend at least £60 over a period of a year (and probably more) in at least 8 of the businesses that are listed on the Moto website so, from now on I will boycott all and any of the business chains that have outlets on Moto service stations. I will also boycott any other outlets these brands might have in the high street or retail parks.

That way I will save at the very least a minimum of 8 x £60 = £480 over the year so, even if I pay the £60 fine, I will be £420 better off, simply by (by default) passing the parking charge on to those business chains operating on Moto's turf. Of course if I really want the goods and services I can get them from another brand.

If you dislike this unsavoury business strategy adopted by Moto, why not do the same and vote with your feet! Sure in the short term it might affect the retailers and that might not seem fair but, is what Moto and other service providers like Moto are doing fair to Joe Public?

In case you can't be bothered to look on the Moto website the listed businesses include :-

Marks and Spencer
WH Smiths
Costa
Greggs
Burger King
Krispy Kreme
Arlo's
Harvester
The Bar and Grill
EDC
West Cornwall Pasty Co
BP
KFC
Chow Asian Kitchen
Mexicana
Ecotricity

I can live without them supplying me with their goods and services but to be fair and as a matter of courtesy, I should let the CEOs of these companies know what is happening and will supply them with a link to this review ... they can judge for themselves whether Moto's business strategy (and any adverse publicity that it might generate for their own businesses) might have an impact on their future profits. Who knows, in the spirit of goodwill they might even offer to pay the charge - I won't hold my breath but I will certainly update you all if anything nice happens!

Suffice to say that if enough of us do this (not only boycotting these brands AT the service stations BUT in the high streets and retail parks as well), maybe these high street companies will sit up and take notice. If they start to see their profits fall across their businesses and eventually recognise that these service station outlets are the catalysts, they might then choose not to pursue or renew franchise agreements with companies like Moto.

If this happens service station operators like Moto will, in turn, lose their rental income and their businesses will go into decline. At that point they will have no option but to reverse any poorly thought out strategic business decisions which allow the parking companies to levy unfair and disproportionate charges (remember they are not fines) on unsuspecting motorists or, spiral downwards and eventually go out of business themselves.

If you like this review please feel free to share it with the world!

Now, does anyone fancy a (not Costa) coffee?

Moto Reading S/W poor services and poor hygiene.