This whole Valet Parking thing is seriously getting out of hand day after day and the first ones to blame are the companies and restaurants hiring them.
If Zaatar wou Zeit cares that much about its customer service, they should hire their own people to park the cars and fire the “VIP” valet parking company they just hired in ZWZ Kaslik and I suppose elsewhere.
It’s not enough that we have to deal with ever increasing prices [Link1] [Link2], we also have to bare the arrogance and impoliteness of some valet parking guys.
To cut the story short, I passed by ZWZ Kaslik yesterday to meet my brother and there were 3 empty spots in front of it. The Valet guy had put his sign in a way that keeps me from parking properly but I still managed to park the car.
Once I stepped down my vehicle, he came out of nowhere and asked me for the keys (“Badde el mfetee7 blease”). I told him that the car is parked fine, so he answered that it’s not and I HAVE to give him the keys. I still insisted the car is fine and told him I can change it by myself if he wants to and so I did even though he barely moved his sign and kept giving me the looks as if I stole something from him.
Since the ZWZ people apparently read our blog, and since we all love ZWZ despite its insanely expensive man2ouches, I urge them to take action as soon as possible and train their own employees to park the cars or get decent parking space, instead of hiring retired military men to do the job.
Valet Parking should be optional and Valet guys should be well trained and well dressed and the least polite and courteous.
Here’s how valet parkings should look like, anywhere you go and if you think they are too fancy, then maybe ZWZ should not have Valet Parking in the first place. After all, it’s a freaking man2ouche place and not an intercontinental hotel.
i cant agree more! I leave a lot of personal stuff in the car, and i would like to lock it and leave the key with ME, not with a guy who thinks my car is free ride that he can wreck !
Alleluia!
Even Hardee’s has Valet Parking on weekends! lol!
Since when can’t people park on their own?
Last time I was in Lebanon around a month back I passed by ZwZ around 4AM. I thought about giving it to valet but i was like fuck it, already spent a lot that evening and didn’t want to pay valet on top of it. So I drove around 20 meters further and parked at the back of this empty rocky lot. As I walked back to the main road a valet comes up to me and asks for LL5,000. Since I was tipsy I paid him (I wasn’t driving FYI) but once I got into ZwZ it hit me, why did I just pay the vallet guy 5,000LL to park in a empty fucking lot at 4AM in the morning?
that was also at ZwZ kaslik
ZwZ Kasslik is the easiest place to avoid the valet parking douchebags. Just keep driving, make a U-Turn at the roundabout and park on the street behind zwz (which is where the Valets park themselves). There’s a small alleyway that you can take and you’ll be in ZWZ in less than 10 seconds.
Fal2et hala, you can park in the parking (where the hot dog stand is) and pay 2000 LL instead of the 3000 you pay the Valets.
To me, it’s not the price, it’s the peace of mind that my personal stuff are safely locked in my trunk and the keys are with me..
Mustapha,
It’s not about the price at all like you said. I just don’t like giving my car for someone to drive it and mess with my stuff. I just want to be given the choice between parking and giving it to the valet dude.
They should all be abolished. Each and every one of them. They are rude, arrogant, and judge you based on your car…when most of them have a damn “zoo zoo 2ebba” moto! I don’t need you to fucking park my car.. if I couldn’t do it myself I wouldn’t have driven all the way to your damn restaurant, pub, or even supermarket for fuck’s sake!
/rage
THANK YOU!!!
I was at ZWZ sodeco last week for the “launch” of the new branch and as much as I loved the new experience, I was very disappointed to see the VIP Valet guys waiting for me as I stepped out. Not only that, as you said, they allow themselves to be rude and make rude comments. I accidentally dropped 1,000 LL while paying them and he started laughing with his other valet friends saying “la7asa el shaytan”… Seriously? What kind of professional service is that??!!
I tend to go with the “raise hell” rather than “avoid confrontation” kind of solution. Park your car, and when the valet guy insists on taking your keys, tell him you’d like to speak with the ZwZ branch manager. The option “I park my car and keep the keys or you lose my business” should be enough of a hint for the manager to do the right thing. If he doesn’t, then ZwZ are on their final descent to hell, and that should be enough of a sign for you to just stop going there.
Oh and if enough people do that, ZwZ will get the hint that hiring bully-type valets is costing them business.
Yes I hate when the parking if car-free and the way i park would be perfectly fine bas still ma’aaam give me ur keys :S
Haha! My favorite line: If you think they are too fancy, then maybe ZWZ should not have Valet Parking in the first place.
Touche!
I remember one of the old Valet guys at ZwZ was involved in the Bank Byblos robbery in 2002-03-or 04… to think that we gave this bank thief the keys to our car so many times…. LOL
Dear Najib,
Thank you for this blog post and to all those who commented on it. Thanks to you and to some previous comments we received from loyal customers, we will be taking serious action, hoping that these incidents will never occur again.
We apologize to everyone for any inconvenience this might have caused them.
Best Regards,
ZWZ Team
Dear ZWZ team,
I appreciate if you informus on what those serious actions will be.
Dear Najib,
We will surely let you know as soon as the are taken 🙂
Thank you
Great. Thank you.
Dear Najib & Blog Readers,
This is to let you know that on Friday (19/08/11) we had a meeting with the VIP company representatives and we discussed all the issues that are related to the valet parking services (we even printed this blog to show them the post and the comments).
They promised us that they will make sure issues like this one will never happen again.
Hoping that this matter is solved, we always welcome everybody’s feedback, anytime.
Thank you.
ZWZ Team
Dear ZWZ Team,
Friday was a 19 🙂
I allowed myself to fix the date.
Oh sorry 🙂
Thanks for the correction 🙂