Car scratched by Codan security guard at Vieux Mooulin

A friend of mine mailed me his painful experience on his first visit to the shopping Complex, Le Vieux Mooulin (pay careful notice to the name) where security is handled by Codan Security (read the name carefully once again).

He told the story in minute details in a letter addressed to the Codan Security administration. It goes as follows :

Dear Sir,

It is with great disappointment and embarrassment that I am informing you that my first visit to your shopping centre has turned out to be an unacceptable and horrible experience thanks to an ill mannered security guard. In fact on Saturday 28/04/12, I came to your shopping centre approximately around 18:30 and being in the end of month/peak period, I was unable to find a parking slot. I therefore parked my Mercedes-Benz (Registration: XXX, Colour: XXX ) in the ATM area (opposite to food-court main entrance) next to two cars. The security guard (known as P, ) asked me to move my car from that area but given that there were no parking slots available I asked him to give me only 20 mins as I will not be staying for long. The security guard was clearly unhappy as I didn’t obey to his orders. When I went inside the food court, I could clearly see my car from where I was standing and I noted that the security guard walked around my car on the right hand side laying his hand all throughout. He then came inside the building and stood by the main entrance. He looked a little puzzled as he may have realised I clearly saw this action. He gave me sarcastic smile and raised his hand to me giving me a ‘thumbs-up’ signal. I was almost done in about 30 mins and after that I left the shopping centre not realising that the security guard actually SCRATCHED my car. When I reached home (Triolet), I noted that the security guard had scratched almost the entire right hand side of my Mercedes (apparently with a key).

The next day in the morning, I went back to the site and spoke to one of the security guards to see if the security guard was on duty. After speaking to the officer in charge I was told that the name of the security guard is ‘P.’. I therefore made a police statement in the nearby police station. I have to admit, as an unhappy customer I can only react by never coming back to your shopping complex and always stay away from the Codan security guards.

While I have no choice but to spend Rs20,000 to get my paint repaired, I would request you to kindly investigate on this incident and accordingly act on it at your level. This is not an experience deserved by a first time customer. If I do not hear back from you, I will have to consider sharing this awful experience with a newspaper. Trust you can take a timely action from your side and keep me informed accordingly.

It’s important for you to make sure that your security guards are trained to act in an appropriate manner in case a car is incorrectly parked. Given that there were no available parking slots, I could have politely been requested to leave the shopping centre instead of having my car damaged by an ‘untrained and unprofessional’ security guard. I wish to convey my intention to sue this guy to the court as I am not prepared to tolerate this behaviour, especially while he was on duty.

I look forward to hear from you after having viewed the camera surveillance video. ( I do really hope you have a surveillance system in place!)

Please kindly acknowledge that you have received this email.

From a disappointed customer.

Pictures of the scratches :

Later, he mailed me an update when I questioned him about any security cameras in the vicinity:

Yes. There are cameras but they told me my car was out of sight. However, latest update today is that the guy has been interdicted from work until further notice. Most probably the guy will be fired. I am putting a lot of pressure on Codan security.

Should we trust them?

If you read the blog lately, you have probably saw the article where a police officer used a road check as an excuse to get a car lift to his workplace. And now, we have another case where a security guard is intentionally causing damage to a vehicle when the latter is supposed to ensure the security. I am sure that there are more similar cases daily and some people believe that they are allowed to do anything as long as power is in their hands.

I will just give you another example : Bouncers.
They behave as kings in their nightclubs but in real life, they are far behind everyone as many among them are criminals who have been previously imprisoned.

Tomorrow, YOU might be the victim of this system.

Anyone got similar experiences?

 

Update (10th May 2012) :

Codan security’s contract has been terminated at Le Vieux Mooolin complex. Confirmed news –