Parking Ticket Appeals successes and failures

Coblcris

Well done sir.

r6owned

last saturday 30th Jan I parked in an unmarked bay at a tesco store in essex at about 12:45 and I was there for about 45 mins.

I have parked in this un-marked bay for many years, with no problem, the bay or area in question is on the end of a set of marked parking bays and probably was not marked as a proper bay as its close to a big over head lamp support. Its also opposite another set of marked parking bays, that run the full extent of the section, unlike this side does... i hope you all following this...!

so anyway i got ticketed by UKPC and with in 3 days they got my address from the DVLA and posted me a charge cert, pay £40 with in 14 days other wise its £70.
I did not notice the ticket stuck to my windscreen until i got home and to say the least i was a little miffed to see it there, as had I noticed I would have gone in the store to complain, as this space, un marked like I said, is big enough for a small car and I think could be considered as a trap, in that its big enough to take a small car, but as the UKPC sign says.. "you may" get a charge for parking in a unmarked bay... like this.
I went back on the sunday and took my own pictures of the "unmarked parking bay" and the UKPC sign.

After some research on the net, it soon became clear that any appeal to UKPC was a waste of time, so i decided to attack tesco's and try to appeal to their better nature on this matter. At the same time, wait for the "charge cert" to arrive in the post.
It arrived tuesday, gosh they don't hang around, and amazing that the dvla can react so quickly to supply the requested data... just an observation...that does not happen wehn you want a new driving license or any other service they provide to us muggles.
So at work the next day I scanned it and blew up the pic of my car that was on the "charge cert".. i printed some copies off and the pic's i took of the area/ "unmarked bay" and e-mailed them to bbc watchdog, tesco and CC'd my local MP.
On my way home that night i went into the store and discussed it (trying to stay cool, which is not my forte normally on these issues) and we went to the area and I explained how I felt it was unfair and he actually agree'd and said he would get it cancelled, which was a result, but i had not thing in writing.

mean while tescos customer services were just batting me away, saying i had to appeal to UKPC, (which I said i would not do because of their dodgy reputation) and I replied stating the local managers name and that he agreed with me. I was a little anxious still as they guy said he would phone me and he had'nt.. eeek! and of course no response to my e-mails.

my contingency plan was to wait until day 12 and pay the £40 as I don't think I could tough it out, life's pretty difficult for me right now in other directions so this would just give me un-necessary worry for paying out £40 and just getting rid of the problem..

well something must have done the trick, because I had another letter from UKPC this morning saying they were cancelling the "charge cert" as a gesture of good will.

A brilliant result i would say and I did not even discuss the matter with UKPC at all.

I did twitter the problem and it went to my FB page as well, not sure of that worth at all, but it does bring the problem to a wider audience.

trisha909

Just a bit of advice a friend of the DVLA told me with parking charges. If its not an official Parking ticket from an official carpark attendant then its not an official charge (In other words the standard yellow electronic type ones can have you). I had a blue and white one a few years back (I i think it was UKPC) and it so happens that i have a friend from the DVLA who knows the score. She said any outside to pay a fee of £10 to get your details. Many companies rely on the fact that it will put the woolies up you for you to just pay it with no questions as they dont like to pay the tenner, I tried my luck, ignored it and heard nothing. You were right to dig your heels in in other words as they have no leg to stand on hence "good will gesture" we have all heard it with PPI

This worked for me but things can change so dont quote me on it!

trisha909

Coupon-mad wrote: »

No. File it and forget about it, just add the rubbish letters to your file as they arrive.

In many cases, the PPCs would probably contend that the motorist was 'parked in the wrong place' or 'parked for too long' or another spurious misdemeanour.

So what? You have committed no offence, done nothing illegal so why on earth would you send your money to an unrelated company who are simply trying their luck?

I could just as easily say you have to pay me a posting charge notice of £60 because you've (technically) posted in the wrong place - as this thread is for reporting SUCCESSES and FAILURES.

Would you pay me?

What if I send you some official-looking pm's pretending I am a solicitor, next month?

No? Good, you get the picture.:T

I would pay you just for that quote!, Brilliant lol

paul02

I received a £45PCN( private), which I ignored. I subsequently received a £90 PCN accompanied with threats. To this I replied I will not pay until matters are clarified in Court. Furthermore, I wrote that until matters were resolved in Court I will regard any further notices of payment as harassment which will be reported to appropriate authority. To this I received a grovelling apology, with matters closed. I subsequently replied that I require compensation. A month later, silence. I will pursue though. Received ticket for"illegal" parking in front of my home, being parked slightly over a white line permitting partial parking on pavement. Having checked signs and white line discovered both were illegal, the sign being wrongly placed and the line not straight, meaning the local council had no case, which I won. Advice: stand up to private companies because they are weak and have little power. Check with camera council signs, they are mostly incorrect since most councils are incompetent and their employees are lazy and not too bright.

Margarita

I won an appeal against a PCN from Waltham Forest. I had gone out to put a visitors parking permit on the car and found a traffic warden standing there already processing the ticket on his machine, but waiting until the exact time had expired to push the button. I argued that he had pushed the button too soon and so had issued the ticket before the time had expired, and that if he had not been standing there I would have put a fresh permit on the car - which I would have been allowed to do. It took the council 5 1/2 months to reply to me when they told me that they had accepted my appeal this time. I suspect that I was let off as much because they were so slow to respond, and knew that the ticket was no longer enforceable rather than my arguements. So if you know that the council is a bit tardy when it comes to processing appeals, and you do think you have been ticketed unjustly, then you have nothing to lose by appealing.

Beat_Tesco

Ok this is my brief story.

Arrive Tesco car park (midlands) at 4.35pm look for empty bay, find one park , pop into store come out 10 mins later ticket on screen. Last Nov.

I had wrongly parked in an invalid bay. Genuine mistake, it was dark and raining, lots of pedestrians about, was more concerned about not hitting anyone than reading a sign.

So I get the ticket, looks like a police ticket, pay now or £70. Had a read of Martins site and thought ok this is a bit unfair but if I write to appeal it confirms that I was the driver and that the fee they pay for my private info to the DVLC is correct. Plus £70 for 10 mins -I dont think so.

So I ignore it, a week later the first letter appears contains threats, I ignore it, another then another, all together they wrote 6 times. The last one said if I pay £56 they will accept that. I didnt.

The letters have stopped so I assume they have given up.

Its a scandel and should be stopped. Incidently I dropped a couple of quid into a collection box for a charity for my error, but I dont see why tesco should know that.

If you get the letters ride the storm, they are just trying to frighten you.

peter_the_piper

Its the law of diminishing returns.
Invoice 50% pay on receipt
reminder another 10% pay
Reminder2 maybe 5% more
Debt collector letter maybe 10% more are panicked
After that it goes down hill and its not worth them chasing.
(My guesstimate figures but you get the idea.)

jetl3on

Thanks to information I found on this thread about appealing the Code 27 Footpath infringement, my PCN was cancelled at the first appeal by Westminister Council and I quote:

"due to an error in processing the PCN"

So thank you. :beer:

Coblcris

Please post the exact appeal text that you submitted.

This will help others.