If I save one potential customer from the same awful experience I had at Bolt Parking, then it will have been worth the time I spent writing this update.
In short, upon returning to my car at Bolt Parking, I noticed that the driver's seat was reclined all the way -- fully horizontal -- and the seat was pushed all the way back as far as it could go. I'm 5'10" and I couldn't even reach the pedals. This odd driving position was the first red flag. Then I noticed that the odometer was 1 mile higher than when I dropped it off. I could understand a few tenths, in order to find a parking spot, but a full mile? The parking lot just isn't that big. The mileage was the second red flag. Finally, I discovered a large gash in the leather passenger's seat. This was new damage -- I am absolutely certain the seat was intact when I dropped it off. I know this because I've been the sole owner of the car since buying it new in 2006, and I would know if the front seat was torn. Plus, it's my train station commuter car, and I never have front seat passengers, so there's really no way this could've occurred through normal usage.
Anyway, I filled out a damage claim form and sent pictures of the damage to Bolt Parking management. Incredibly, the office manager denied responsibility for the damage, refused to issue a refund, and claimed that "passenger seat damage is completely out of our scope of possibility for damage". Even worse, they told me never to come back to their lot again, and that my name and license plate had been put onto a "no park" list. Not that I would ever consider going back to Bolt anyway, based on the damage they caused, but this is no way to treat a customer -- especially when I've done nothing wrong. Would a restaurant ban a customer who reported a fly in their soup??
To be clear, I don't know how the damage occurred, who was driving the car, how they were using it, or where the car went. I don't have access to Bolt's security camera footage. All I know is that the damage happened while the car was at Bolt, and the damage is not something that would occur as part of the normal/standard operating procedure -- it can only be the result of negligence.
As a lawyer, I am pretty persistent when it comes to emails, so ultimately I was able to convince Bolt management to refund what I paid to park there. I would've preferred for them to cover the damage, of course, but I was willing to let it go if they just made me whole. Water under the bridge and all that. Sure enough, within a few days, I received a credit card refund for $101.84. All set, right? Wrong! In addition to the refund, Bolt charged me a NEW charge of $102.39. Out of nowhere. For no reason. Clearly I hadn't parked there, and I couldn't have done that even if I'd wanted to - remember, they put me on a "no park" list. It feels like they were trying to sneak one past me, thinking I might focus on the refund and not notice the new charge.
I emailed management multiple times alerting them to the erroneous new charge, but they never responded. Ultimately, I disputed the transaction with Amex as a fraudulent charge, and they can deal with Bolt management. That was several months ago, and Bolt still has never reached out to me.
At the end of the day, I have no incentive to lie about damage to the passenger seat of a 16-year-old car that sits at a train station all day. This type of seat damage isn't something you'd expect to happen in a parking lot, but it did, and Bolt tried to gaslight me into believing that there is "no way" anything went wrong. There are plenty of other parking lots besides Bolt -- next time you fly out of LaGuardia, do yourself a favor and park somewhere else. read more