My wife recently delivered our first child at Yale New Haven Hospital after 3 nights of labor. I valet parked the car with LAZ Parking on a Monday night. When LAZ delivered it to us Thursday morning, the tire was partially deflated because of a screw having been run over and being stuck in the tread. A classic denial of liability ensued, with the guy in charge of the desk claiming that he could do nothing without his manager, whom he called to come over from the lot, an entire block away. When his manager, Mr Thomas Kolesar (see the other negative comments, above) had not shown up after 20 minutes, I called Mr Kenny Gallagher, LAZ's head of New Haven operations. Mr Kolesar promptly showed up, said "you know this is not our fault; your car came in with this screw and we sweep our lot every day." When I pointed out to him that his admission that they regularly sweep the lot meant this must be a recurring problem and made it more likely the damage was caused by LAZ, he continued his denial. I then pointed out that the car had been in his possession for three days and if I had run over it on Monday, it would have been completely flat. Same denial. He gave me his card, took my number, and said he would call me the following day. With a wife in extreme discomfort and a newborn baby, I was in no position to wait. Needless to say, no one has called me 3 days later.
A hospital parking facility is not like a mall parking lot; there are patients, many of whom are sick or worse and whose families are tending to them. I find it extremely disappointing that Yale New Haven has decided to contract with a company, LAZ, that simply doesn't care about its customers. I would have loved to have reported that LAZ followed up, that it took care of the tire or helped us get home safely. Alas, none of this happened. read more