euro parking at sainsbury's

sally06 · 23 December 2008 at 10:38PM

has anyone heard of this company EPC? they operate at my local sainsbury's. Where they have installed a new camera system. When you enter the car park your reg No appears on a screen. You are given 2 hours free parking and the time you have to leave by is shown on the screen when you enter the car park. If you overstay you are given a 70.00 fine:eek:

I have over stayed a couple of times by about 10/20minutes. I wasn't aware (at the time) that sainsbury's had an external company issuing fines. I didn't take any notice of the signs displayed in yellow throughout the car park. That was until I got chatting to a member of staff in the store who told me that if you overstay they send you a parking fine through the post. They do not operate in the carpark. They get all the info from the cameras:eek: and there was me thinking I'd escaped a fine because I wasn't issued with a ticket on the day. The first time I overstayed was about 3 weeks ago and the last time was last week. I haven't heard from them yet, but the sainsbury's employee assured me I would hear from them as it can take 3+ weeks for them to write to you. He said I could send them a copy of my reciept as evidence that was shopping there, but I have searched the house for them, but I can't find them. I would've kept them If I'd known. Maybe I could give them my nectar card number and they can find the transactions that way? There is no way I want to give this company 140.00 of my hard earned cash for 30minutes parking. How I can I wangle my way out of paying up. Any advice would be gratefully appreciated. TIA

peter_the_piper · 23 December 2008 at 10:59PM

The first thing to remember is that any perceived contract is with the driver. As the cameras cannot show a good enough picture to often tell the sex of a driver let alone actually who the driver is then its normally safe to ignore the invoice which follows. Don't appeal (rarely if ever successful) don't contact them and don't worry. The invoices will get more threatening as will the letters then suddenly stop when they realise you are not going to be intimidated. File all paperwork in a drawer and enjoy your xmas. by the way its not a fine, only the police and councils can do this its merely an invoice asking you for a sum of money.

sally06 · 23 December 2008 at 11:10PM

peter_the_piper wrote: »

The first thing to remember is that any perceived contract is with the driver. As the cameras cannot show a good enough picture to often tell the sex of a driver let alone actually who the driver is then its normally safe to ignore the invoice which follows. Don't appeal (rarely if ever successful) don't contact them and don't worry. The invoices will get more threatening as will the letters then suddenly stop when they realise you are not going to be intimidated. File all paperwork in a drawer and enjoy your xmas. by the way its not a fine, only the police and councils can do this its merely an invoice asking you for a sum of money.

Thanks for the reply:) are you sure the letters will stop if I ignore them? when I spoke to the sainsbury's employee he said if I ignore their letters they will send the bailiffs around:eek: is this true?

Neillgb · 23 December 2008 at 11:20PM

sally06 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply:) are you sure the letters will stop if I ignore them? when I spoke to the sainsbury's employee he said if I ignore their letters they will send the bailiffs around:eek: is this true?

Check through the other similar threads and you will see this is rubbish, they need a county court judgement in their favour before they can even contemplate sending the bailiffs. The sainsbury employee is talking out of his $%£@!!! Don't be intimidated and bullied.

peter_the_piper · 23 December 2008 at 11:25PM

Check the stickies on this forum. Private Parking Companies (PPC) (Martin's Article coming soon) 1) PPC tickets are NOT fines or fixed penalties, they are invoices based on a presumed contract with the driver. 2) When posting, don't mention your vehicle or exact location and most importantly do NOT say who was driving, as PPC trolls do read these boards and may try to use this information against you. 3) PPC charges have been shown to be generally unenforceable in Court, and they hardly ever issue proceedings, despite the threats in their intimidatory letters. 4) Do NOT write to the PPC to 'appeal' the ticket - the appeals process is a complete sham, they just want your money and thus will reject the 'appeal'. 5) If you don't take action on the ticket, the PPC will get the registered keeper's details from the DVLA, for a fee of £2.50. The registered keeper has no liability, since the presumed contract was formed with the driver. And, if you don't tell the PPC who was driving, they don't have a case. 6) Opinions vary on this point, but generally the best advice is to ignore all correspondence they send you, and they will give up after 5 or 6 scary looking letters. PPC cannot send the bailiffs around, In the very unlikely event that they were to take you to court, they would have to win(even less likely) and then you still refuse to pay the court (even more less likely) then the court would send bailiffs around. You've probably more chance of winning first prize on the lottery than them taking anyone to court.

boombap · 28 December 2008 at 2:39PM

If you do get a fine (or 'invoice'

) in the post then I think it might make for an interesting letter to be sent to your local paper. I think the reader's will be very interested to hear about the store's OTT policies and poor customer service.

S.

Mojisola · 28 December 2008 at 2:51PM

sally06 wrote: »

He said I could send them a copy of my reciept as evidence that was shopping there, but I have searched the house for them, but I can't find them. I would've kept them If I'd known. Maybe I could give them my nectar card number and they can find the transactions that way?

Don't give them your card number - they'll just use it to take the fine from you!

Neil_B · 28 December 2008 at 4:57PM

sally06 wrote: »

He said I could send them a copy of my reciept as evidence that was shopping there, but I have searched the house for them, but I can't find them. I would've kept them If I'd known.

You are giving them too much credibility!

patbellanti · 28 October 2009 at 1:39PM

Was this ever resolved? I've just had a euro car parks parking charge notice for parking at sainsbury's without a ticket. I was in a terrible rush at the time and just forgot to get my ticket!! I was however shopping in sainsbury's at the time and have my till receipt as proof. I can't decide whether to just pay up (£30), write a letter and send recipt in the hope they will relent or just ignore the notice. This goes against the grain somewhat as I'm very law abiding as a rule! Any advice gratefully received.

king100 · 28 October 2009 at 6:27PM

patbellanti wrote: »

Was this ever resolved? I've just had a euro car parks parking charge notice for parking at sainsbury's without a ticket. I was in a terrible rush at the time and just forgot to get my ticket!! I was however shopping in sainsbury's at the time and have my till receipt as proof. I can't decide whether to just pay up (£30), write a letter and send recipt in the hope they will relent or just ignore the notice. This goes against the grain somewhat as I'm very law abiding as a rule! Any advice gratefully received.

Can only play if have you have another person to play with

1. Get a folder
2. Each pick a colour - eg black and red.(what the most amount of writing is in)
3. Wait for the letters.
4. File letters in said colour coding
5. Whoever has the most amount of letters in said colour wins.

Could be played on keywords eg take to court, CCJ etc etc

Coupon-mad · 29 October 2009 at 12:13AM

patbellanti wrote: »

Was this ever resolved? I've just had a euro car parks parking charge notice for parking at sainsbury's without a ticket. I was in a terrible rush at the time and just forgot to get my ticket!! I was however shopping in sainsbury's at the time and have my till receipt as proof. I can't decide whether to just pay up (£30), write a letter and send recipt in the hope they will relent or just ignore the notice. This goes against the grain somewhat as I'm very law abiding as a rule! Any advice gratefully received.

I have highlighted in bold above, what you should do.

A relative of mine also had just such a scam ticket a few months ago, we are law-abiding and we are ignoring it too. When we get another threatening letter we just laugh at its unlawfulness and file it, I have read enough on here to know it's a scam.

euro parking at sainsbury's

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