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I got a fine even though I was displaying a valid ticket!
admira
Posts: 2 Newbie
Hi
Only just discovered this forum unfortunately so have written an appeal (which got rejected) and another letter after that which they have ignored.
Now we have received another threatening letter and are unsure what to do next.
Here's our story. Any advice gratefully received:
A few weekends ago, my partner and I parked at Cineworld in Southampton.
We paid for a two hour ticket at 13.53 but returned to our car at 15.30 to find a penalty charge had been issued by PARKFORCE at 14.25 despite the fact the ticket was CLEARLY displayed on the dashboard.
Their appeals procedure states you must explain the reason for your appeal and post them a cheque for £60 anyway. If your appeal is successful they will refund the money. (Yeah right, like I was going to fall for that one).
I copied all tickets and posted a letter and the original ticket (without payment obviously) saying we had not committed any offence as our ticket was displayed.
Unbelievably they wrote back today saying our appeal had been refused and they will not enter into any further correspondence. Their explanation is 'you parked on private land and as such has no connection with Cineworld'. This is despite the fact that the penalty charge notice states we parked on the Cineworld car park.
Confused yet? So are we since we parked right in front of the pay and display machine outside the cinema in the only car park there was!
Our next letter to them said:
Dear Sir or Madam
Thank you for your somewhat incomprehensible reply dated 26th February 2009.
I don’t think you could have read my appeal letter dated 24th February 2009 properly where I clearly explained that I had a valid ticket for the period and car park in which I parked. I also enclosed the original ticket.
Therefore I am ‘appealing’ on the grounds that ‘the contravention did not occur’ since it clearly did not.
If having a valid ticket is not enough reason for a valid appeal then I would like to hear one!
Please send me photographic evidence of the supposed ‘offence’ that you accuse me of. You will not have any since there wasn’t one so please stop wasting my time and money.
I have written to BBC Watchdog to inform them of your efforts to extort money from me illegally.
Regards
They completely ignored my last letter and have sent another one today.
This states the fine is now £85 going up to £135 if not paid within 7 days.
After that they will be taking court action, coming to our house and seizing our posessions, legal costs and interest if they start action against us, a bad debt marker on the address for 6 years etc etc etc.
So. Where do we go from here? My partner is gteting rather worried about it all. I said they are just bullies and am sure they won't waste their time taking us to court as they'd get laughed out. It's just hassle and harassment that we don't need!
The only phone number on the letter is an expensive 0870 automated line so no chance of speaking to a human being.
Only just discovered this forum unfortunately so have written an appeal (which got rejected) and another letter after that which they have ignored.
Now we have received another threatening letter and are unsure what to do next.
Here's our story. Any advice gratefully received:
A few weekends ago, my partner and I parked at Cineworld in Southampton.
We paid for a two hour ticket at 13.53 but returned to our car at 15.30 to find a penalty charge had been issued by PARKFORCE at 14.25 despite the fact the ticket was CLEARLY displayed on the dashboard.
Their appeals procedure states you must explain the reason for your appeal and post them a cheque for £60 anyway. If your appeal is successful they will refund the money. (Yeah right, like I was going to fall for that one).
I copied all tickets and posted a letter and the original ticket (without payment obviously) saying we had not committed any offence as our ticket was displayed.
Unbelievably they wrote back today saying our appeal had been refused and they will not enter into any further correspondence. Their explanation is 'you parked on private land and as such has no connection with Cineworld'. This is despite the fact that the penalty charge notice states we parked on the Cineworld car park.
Confused yet? So are we since we parked right in front of the pay and display machine outside the cinema in the only car park there was!
Our next letter to them said:
Dear Sir or Madam
Thank you for your somewhat incomprehensible reply dated 26th February 2009.
I don’t think you could have read my appeal letter dated 24th February 2009 properly where I clearly explained that I had a valid ticket for the period and car park in which I parked. I also enclosed the original ticket.
Therefore I am ‘appealing’ on the grounds that ‘the contravention did not occur’ since it clearly did not.
If having a valid ticket is not enough reason for a valid appeal then I would like to hear one!
Please send me photographic evidence of the supposed ‘offence’ that you accuse me of. You will not have any since there wasn’t one so please stop wasting my time and money.
I have written to BBC Watchdog to inform them of your efforts to extort money from me illegally.
Regards
They completely ignored my last letter and have sent another one today.
This states the fine is now £85 going up to £135 if not paid within 7 days.
After that they will be taking court action, coming to our house and seizing our posessions, legal costs and interest if they start action against us, a bad debt marker on the address for 6 years etc etc etc.
So. Where do we go from here? My partner is gteting rather worried about it all. I said they are just bullies and am sure they won't waste their time taking us to court as they'd get laughed out. It's just hassle and harassment that we don't need!
The only phone number on the letter is an expensive 0870 automated line so no chance of speaking to a human being.
0
Comments
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You're absolutely right. From now on ignore any correspondence except a court claim (which I can promise won't happen)I said they are just bullies and am sure they won't waste their time taking us to court as they'd get laughed out.0 -
What a pity you didn't visit this forum first, then you wouldn't have wasted your time with those "appeals" - in the case of Private Parking Companies, there is no appeal process, they just want to scam you out of your money, appealing to them is like Jack the Ripper's victims asking not to be cut up.
You haven't got a "fine" at all, it's just an invoice for an alleged breach of contract. If Parkforce were daft enough to make a County Court claim, they would be laughed out, but this company don't have a record of going to court anyway.
Do NOT contact them any further, and do NOT pay them a penny.
They will no doubt send you more letters threatening fire, flood, famine and pestilence, some with red writing, and possibly some from "debt collectors" or bogus solicitors. Keep all these in a drawer, and when they've stopped bothering you, send copies to Watchdog, Trading Standards etc.
Basically this is a mail-based scam; the PPCs know how it works and why it fails - and now you do as well.
I have been providing assistance, including Lay Representation at Court hearings (current score: won 57, lost 14), to defendants in parking cases for over 5 years. I have an LLB (Hons) degree, and have a Graduate Diploma in Civil Litigation from CILEx. However, any advice given on these forums by me is NOT formal legal advice, and I accept no liability for its accuracy.0 -
Ignore them or send them a bill for £100.Not Again0
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A very happy ending for me!
After much searching on web, I found out the name of the company that runs the marina in Southampton and their subsidiary company who run the shopping/cinema complex and employ the cowboy parking company to 'run' their car park.
Much more rooting about and I found the name of the manager so emailed them.
A few days later - V I C T O R Y to the little guy!!
xxxx has passed the email on to me, please ignore the letters as I will ensure that Parkforce stop any action they are taking. I will also carry out on investigation to ensure that this does not happen again. Do you have a contact number which I can call you on when I have a better explanation.
Please accept my apologies that this has happened to you.
Kind regards
Manager
Ocean Village Marina
Marina Developments Limited
It got even better this morning!
Had a grovelling letter of apology from Park Force themselves and better still, just had a phone call from the manager of Ocean Village.
On investigation, she has discovered that Park Force have not been sending any of their appeals letters that they receive on to her which they should have been.
Changes to procedures have been put in place and she is very unhappy with the way they have handled things so will be looking at alternative management companies to run Ocean Village.
There you go - their bad attitude to me has now cost them their contract!
0 -
Well done
xx 0/2013
:beer:0 -
Excellent. Remember the parking crooks are employed by the landowner and are terrified of losing contracts, hence their grovelling.
Remember that all these companies are run like this though. The landowner is still clueless about the appeals process and the unenforceablity of the toytown tickets.
The manager will simply replace Parkfarce with another bunch who won't act any differently.
They'll probably be contacting her right now after reading this thread.0
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