Vista Parking
Reviews and Complaints

Fourth time parking at Vista and there were never problems until I picked up the car this last time. Car was parked in the first spot when I arrived. Entire contents of the glove, each side-door, and center console compartments were thrown on the floor. Don't know if anything was stolen. If there was, it was minor. When I brought it to the manager’s attention he didn’t seem surprised, didn’t bother to look at it, and just said that if I wanted to complain, to fill out a complaint form which I did. Never heard back from them. They all either have heroin addictions or I didn’t tip the drivers enough ($6 each way) and this was their retribution. Won’t be using them again.

We have to let everyone know about the damages they inflict to anyone. And to think I have one of their long-time discount cards.

Just made a complaint on another [redacted]ing site about Vista. Keep up the work

The same exact thing happened to me April 6th 2011 when I picked up my car but with far more damaging consequences. Like you the entire inside of my car was in dissarray with items all over the place. Someone had attempted to jimmy open the glove box and left marks all along the bottom of the dash. They failed, but succeeded in damaging the mechanism which also locks out the trunk and other compartments inside the car ( it's a Volvo). This had jammed the locking mechanisms on all these compartments and to cut a long story short it ended up costing me over $450 and two trips to a Volvo dealer to get everyhing repaired. As s of this writing (June 22nd) I am still fighting them for reimbursement of the repair costs, nothing else. They keep insisting that they are not responsible for " valuables" left in the car, but in this case there were no valuables to be stolen and the damage could only have resulted from either leaving the car unlocked in an unsecured lot or it was an inside job by one of their staff. Their lack of interest in accepting responsibility or even a simple apology for what happened is simply appalling. Like you Chuck I had been a repeat customer for several years before this happened. I'll post an update when I have something further to add, but I'm not optimistic Rod

I remember this man; his name is Lou Smith I believe. As I recall our customer service manager Lou Frigano came to me with a complaint and story about one of our managers Curtis. I listened as Lou Frigano told me that a man by the name of Lou smith had called and left an angry voice message in our complaint mail box to the nature of violence from one of managers. Naturally I was interested in hearing the details because this would be the first time we received a complaint of violence at our facility especially about one of managers.

Apparently, one of our new customers who used us for the first time (Lou Smith) wife / kids were returning from their trip. They had just arrived back to Newark Airport De-boarded the plane and made the telephone call to our Shuttle Dispatcher. I guess he didn’t read the Q & A (Questions & Answers) tab at http://www.VistaParking.com because he would have realized that our shuttle vans run “on demand” which means that you call us and we will come get you within 10 minutes at the arriving gates A, B, & C which is up stairs from baggage claim. Also he should have realized that clamming your luggage at Newark Airport usually takes an hour or longer in most cases. So he should have waited until he had claimed his luggage before he made the call to the shuttle dispatcher. I believe Lou Smith said that he was angry at the delay in our shuttle van arriving to pick up him and his family. The early telephone call to our dispatcher would explain why a van would not be waiting for him when he arrived upstairs at the departing gate.

I spoke with our manager Curtis about this and Curtis told me that “Lou Smith called for our shuttle vans several times, was angry and belligerent to him. He was using curse words and racial slurs”. Curtis said he had sent the shuttle van (3) times within the hour and Lou Smith and family were nowhere to be found.
Curtis also told me that when Lou Smith finally arrived to pay his parking balance he wanted us to give him “Free Parking” to make up for his bad experience. Curtis said that he refused.
I believe this is where the story get skewed: Lou Frigano (our Customer Service Manager)who actually spoke with Lou Smith was concerned at first while taking notes on what supposedly happened on that day at Vista Parking facility. Lou Frigano and Lou Smith discussed details such as “Curtis taking a swing at Lou Smith” and four guys surrounding Lou Smith threating him with bodily harm.
Lou Frigano said to me “I was shocked hearing of this complaint because Curtis never had any complaints such as this ever against him”. I have to say I was also shocked hear this story. If you know Curtis like I do you would realize he is not the type of man who instigates a fight. To make a long story even longer, we went to the video tape! Lou Frigano had asked Lou Smith what date and time this whole thing occurred on? Lou provided us with the details. It turns out that we (Me Lou & Tom our president) looked over the video footage and nothing even remotely close to what Lou Smith had described actually took place that day. I guess this a case where video cameras proved to be worth having.
I also found out that Lou Smith called our corporate 30-40 times in one day acting like an 8 year old after he found out that we reviewed the Video and didn’t believe his story or fire Curtis.
I ask the people who have just read this to make their own judgment. Just think about this situation logically, what would Curtis / Vista Parking have gained in threating violence to a customer or covering it up for that matter? Nothing! We would lose 1, 000 times more than a few days of parking.

F.Y.I This is one of many other bogus stories to hit the internet about Vista Parking, so don’t believe everything you read about.

Paul Simari
Marketing Manager
Vista Parking, Inc
50 Olympia Drive
Newark, NJ 07114

Don't park your car at Vista! After getting into an argument with the manager on site (Curtis) after waiting for over a 30 minutes to get picked up, he then came from behind the counter, got into my face and cocked his hand back like he was going to hit me. Luckily for me, another customer came in at that moment, and he quickly went back to behind the counter. The other customer suggested I call the police but I was already late to work, due to them not picking me up when they said they would, so could not afford to do so.

But what I did was call their customer service manager, Lou Frigano. For anyone else who has had issues with this company and would like to speak to him his direct # is [protected]. Unfortunately though, you will be treated just as poorly if not worse by this person. At first, he was very polite and apologetic about what had happened to me and promised to get to the bottom of it. I suggested that he watch the tape (they have cameras in the office) so that he could see exactly what I said happened. He said he would and would call me back.

Well after a week of not hearing from him, I called back and was treated as unprofessionally as it gets. First he told me, that even though he didn't watch the tape, he knows that what I told him didn't happen. And then accused me of being a "scam artist" and a "liar" and hung up on me. After getting over the shock of what just happened, I tried calling back and asking for the president's name and #. Of course, he did not give that to me and hung up on me again. After calling again, he then pretended to put me on hold, while he got the president, which he never did and then hung up again.

I have never dealt with a company as unprofessional in my life. And I can only hope that if they do have a president, this will somehow, reach him and something will be done about this. And I also hope that anyone potential customers who read this, will choose to park elsewhere. There are plenty of other reputable and cheap parking lots at Newark that I trust would never treat their customers like this.

I've worked as a valet while in college (not Vista). Most guys are experienced, courteous and careful with the cars esp. the expensive ones. But the fact that there is a blanket insurance on valets gives some guys the nerve to be macho sporty when taking a customer's car. They do fast maneuvers, turns and quick brakes that they probably would never do had the car been their own. Especially if the car is a sports model. Earnings are almost entirely tips and valets are often overloaded with lots of vehicles come in.

Occassionally damages do happen and the customers often don't notice minor things. No one takes care of your car like you do. If you notice something stolen or damaged, immediately file a (not a complaint alone), but a claim with the company and obtain a written acknowledgement. Insurance should cover all costs.

If you are too concerned, don't have a valet park it. Its something you can do yourself at the cost of a few dollars extra and a few minutes.

-WG

Vista lost our car keys and couldnt care less. We got off a 4.5 hour flight, went to get our car and our keys were missing and our car was left open.

My parents had to drive 70 miles to bring us an extra set of keys to our new car. A new set of these keys is going to cost $165.

So far, Tommy hasnt returned our calls.

Vista Parking are ###s.

My boyfriend and I parked at Vista Parking lot in Newark, NJ and had damage to the roof of the car. Something clearly fell on the roof of the car but no one from the parking lot would admit to knowing why there were dents and scratches on the roof of the car. When we finally did hear back from someone it was the Marketing Manager, Phil Simari. Mr. Simari accused us of trying to file a false complaint and said that he should call the police on us and let them know we were attempting to commit fraud by filing a false complaint. I am filing a complaint with Consumer Affairs as well as the BBB but woulr suggest to all to NEVER park at this valet lot. Please read about other complaints before parking here. I wish I had. They have a number of stories regarding damage to vehicles.

Thomas Wilson, owner of Vista Parking, was arrested in what Bergen county prosecutor, Molinelli, called "the biggest money laundering and illegal gambling scheme in state history."
According to the complaint, Wilson and his brother opened up their check cashing business to members of organized crime, to wash money.
For more details, google "operation jailhouse rock Thomas Wilson"

Hi Alex,

Vista Parking has been doing business at Newark Airport for 25 years. We have a 96% customer return rate which is unheard of in the airport parking industry. What you are seeing are posts from our competition (other parking lots) and some angry customers who chose not to read our company guidelines or practice common sense. We also understand that some of our customers will never be happy with our service no matter how many times they have parked with us and no matter how many years they have been parking with us. The interesting thing about this 4% of our customer base is; they are also the type of customers who will try to get free parking as much as they can by making fraudulent claims. They will bounce from Newark Airport Parking facility to Newark Airport Parking facility trying the same thing over and over again. We are also in an industry where we are targets for insurance fraud. 2% of that same 4% of customers will claim that we scratched their rear bumpers, passenger doors etc.. This has been happening and getting worse over the past 5 years now and since the economy has worsened. It’s a big problem which we are in the process of correcting right now.

As far as loosing keys, yes it happens more than we would like it to. Our parking attendants (the valet guys who park the cars) carry many sets of keys at one time while they are running around parking cars. Once in a while they will leave one set or a group of keys in a vehicle they have just parked. We park 10, 000 vehicles per month, so finding the vehicle in which the lost keys sit is time consuming. It normally takes no longer than 7 days to find the lost keys and return them to their owners!

We instruct you not to leave anything worth value in your vehicle. Our insurance will not cover anything stolen from your vehicle, ”if it’s not there it won’t be stolen”. We have criminals break into our facility and steel cars and rummage through vehicles once in a while even though we have security guards, 12’ high fences, lighting, cameras etc.. They cut holes in our fences and rummage through cars using a “Slim-Jim” or “Master Key” as some thieves call it! They can hit 20-30 cars in one night. Don’t forget we are in Newark NJ!

Our instructions for parking are so simple a 12 year old can follow them. Now that you have made a reservation with us you will need to print you confirmation page, not the credit card receipt you have automatically received and responded to in this email with. Your confirmation page was the page you should have printed directly after making your online reservation. If you didn’t you should go back to our website: http://www.VistParking.com and log in using the email address you entered while making the reservation. Your password was automatically sent to you after you Credit Card was approved for the 1st day of parking. If you forgot your password you can click on the “forgot password button” and another password will be sent to you automatically. The $19.80 you paid is for one (1) day of parking and to hold your parking space. You also paid a reservation fee of $5.00. $14.80 for the parking & $5.00 for the one time reservation fee = $19.80.

From this point on you will drive your vehicle to our address listed below and check in with one of our managers. You will introduce yourself and hand them your keys, we are a valet parking facility, after you hand them your keys they will punch a valet parking ticket with the date and time. The will give you a copy of that valet parking ticket as it has a valet number on it. It also has a telephone number for our Shuttle Van dispatcher for you to call when you arrive back a Newark Airport. Please call our Dispatcher only after you have claimed you luggage as our vans run “on demand” so when you call us we will be there in 10 minutes. Don’t forget that we pick our customers back up at Newark Airport at the departing gates A, B & C which is up stairs from the baggage claim.

After arriving back to Vista Parking from Newark Airport, you will need to present you Confirmation Page and you valet parking ticket to one of our managers upon checkout. This is where he or she will apply any and all discounts. The manger will give you your keys back after you have paid for the numbers of days you have parked with us. Please be aware that the City of Newark imposes a 15% parking tax.

Please contact me with questions or concerns.

Best regards,

Paul Simari
Marketing Manager
Vista Parking, Inc
50 Olympia Drive
Newark, NJ 07114

Tel: [protected]
Fax: [protected]
Email: Paul@VistaParking.com
Web: http://www.VistaParking.com

Damaged our truck as well sometime between 10/01/10 and 10/05/10. we finally went through insurance company as damage was pushing $3K and just wanted to recoup our deductible...I can't believe how they just ignore the customer complaint. Not one return call most of the time the various numbers given just rang & rang.

I also had a terrible experience with Vista - had to take them to court to recover costs incurred there. They did not return calls, voice-mails or e-mails and never processed my claim. I won in court, and the judge said that my case was one of a number he is seeing against Vista -- that there are many, Many, MANY lawsuits in the courts against them currently.

Hi Michael,

I also had a very troubled incident with Vista parking but have not been able to get contact information to the owner, who you say is Tommy Wilson. Would you please provide me with his phone # and emai?

Much appreciated,
Lou

From other complaints it looks like at least once a year someone bothers to complain about some nonsense at this parking lot. Who knows how mny people have similar complaints but dont report them. Save your money and car and maybe Tommy Wilson (owner/manager) will have to work for a living instead of taking vacations all of the time.

Good luck getting any satisfaction for any damage incurred at Vista in Nov/2009. My SUV was damaged in the rear left bumper and tail-light and there was even size 9 sneaker footprints on the left rear panel near the tail-light where someone kicked at it with the bottom of his sneaker. Guess the employee who parked it was upset at backing it into something. When I pointed out the damage when picking up my vehicle I was told that "Tommy Wilson" would contact me to discuss how I could be compensated. Suffice to say, he never returned any of the repeated calls that I made to him even at the 8AM-8:30 Monday call window they imposed.

At least you had someone call you back and you received some money. It appears that the new policy since 2006 is to screw their customers when they damage your vehicle. I will never go back after many years of using Vista. Recommend you stay away or only park there if you don't care if your vehicle is damaged.