Leeds family stranded in Scarborough car park for eight hours in courtesy car nightmare

A Leeds family's seaside trip was completely ruined after a courtesy car failure left them stranded in a garage car park for eight hours.
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Adam Newby, his partner and three young children had been travelling to the beach in Filey on Sunday when a warning light appeared in his courtesy car.

The tyre on the car - provided by Enterprise while Adam's own vehicle was in for repair - had lost pressure, so Adam pulled into a service station on the A64.

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He filled the tyre with temporary foam so that they could get to the nearest garage covered by Enterprise in Scarborough and called the AA breakdown cover number provided.

Adam Newby, his partner and three young children were stranded in a Scarborough car park for eight hoursAdam Newby, his partner and three young children were stranded in a Scarborough car park for eight hours
Adam Newby, his partner and three young children were stranded in a Scarborough car park for eight hours

The Bramley family got to the garage at 4.30pm, but Adam received further bad news - the garage was out of tyres in the size needed.

Stuck in the car park with all their belongings and beach gear, Adam was back on the phone to the AA while the garage staff locked up at 5pm.

Adam was worried for his partner, who has rheumatoid arthritis, and three children, aged four, six and eight.

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The 33-year-old told the Yorkshire Evening Post: "I was told by the AA operative that the only option would be a recovery truck to take the car, along with me and my family, back to Leeds.

"There was a 1.5 hour wait which I said was fine. At around 8pm, we still hadn't heard from the AA and it was starting to get a little dark and the kids were getting restless.

"My six-year-old has autism so he struggles if his routine gets broken and my eldest son gets anxious, he's a real worrier, so he was crying."

Adam says he called the AA again at 8pm and was then told that there were no recovery trucks available. The AA tried to book the family into a nearby hotel, but there were no rooms free.

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"The recovery guy didn’t turn up to collect the car until 11pm," Adam said.

"He took the car and me and my family were left in the cold, dark car park with our bags and beach items until after midnight when we were picked up by a taxi."

Apologising for the family's experience, the AA said in a statement: "We are sorry that the service Mr Newby and his family received at the weekend fell well short of our usual high standards.

"We did our best to keep Mr Newby and his partner informed with updates throughout, and our contact centre agent was open about the delays when the initial call for assistance was made at 4pm.

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"However, we regret that we were unable to reach them as quickly as we would have liked. This was a result of extremely high demand which led to national delays."

The motoring organisation went on to say that they had not been made aware of any welfare issues and an initial offer of a taxi was declined.

It said: "When we attempted to arrange a hotel as an alternative, no accommodation was available which compounded the issue, and so the only remaining option was to take the vehicle into storage and arrange a taxi to take the family home.

"We apologise again that on this occasion we were unable to meet the quality of service that is rightly expected of us. However, I would like to assure you that every effort was made to assist Mr Newby and his family.

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"We have requested that any costs surrounding this are cancelled and we have arranged a gesture of good will."

Responding to the statement's contents, Adam said that he had notified the AA of his partner's condition and the age of his young children.

He has now received compensation from AA and Enterprise.

A spokesperson from Enterprise said: "Customer service is a top priority for Enterprise, and we are extremely disappointed to hear about the problems Mr Newby and his family encountered.

"We have spoken to Mr Newby to offer our apologies and establish the full details of what happened.

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"We are also speaking to our breakdown service provider, the AA, who handled all contact with Mr Newby, to understand where things went wrong and ensure that any lessons are learned.”

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