Disabled Bay Insult!

Little_RAY

Thank you, thank you, thank you!

I've just been trawling the web for other parking charge stories. The company trying to issue the parking charge to me have been named numerous times on one particular consumer advice site! They are reknowned for bullying and sending threatening letters, seemingly mostly illegally!

They are members of the BPA and must have agreed to abide by laws according to the DVLA. I will follow your advice and just ignore them now. The letter I sent said that I would not send any further correspondence unless they addressed the points in my letter to them...which they didn't!!! NOT a big surprise after all I have learnt about them!

Thank you so much for all your advice. I'll let people know what happens from now on. Hopefully my story will serve as a positive example for others...

Little_RAY

bargepole wrote: »

You will also find, if this PPC are members of the BPA, that the association's code of conduct requires them to try and establish who the driver was

I have read through the BPA Code of Conduct and there is nothing I could find which said the nameless private parking company had to discover who the driver was. They do say that clear signage has to be made...but give no advice about disabled parking bays in particular. I would have liked to see some clear guidance in this, but nevermind.

The 14 day cheap payment period is officially over tomorrow (20th Jan), so if I'm going to stay strong and not pay, tomorrow is the day of no return!

Wish me luck! _pale_

milkybars

Best of luck.. you're braver than I am. Do keep us posted though.

sarahg1969

The BPA is a trade association. Nothing more than that. It exists to serve the interests of its members (parking companies) only.

"...the BPA represents, promotes and influences the best interests of the parking and traffic management sectors throughout the UK and Europe. As well as this work, the BPA provides its members with a range of benefits all aimed at helping the professional in their day to day work."

Little_RAY

UPDATE:

Wellllll, I'm suddenly not feeling that brave any more! The 14 day period is more than over so the charge has risen to £70 now, and they have sent me the official looking letter/form to inform me of this. (with several silly mistakes on it - idiots! They have thus far proved to have a bit of a problem writing dates and counting days, in any letters sent to me!)

I've been to see the CAB about this and they couldn't give me any more information than the internet already has. Their only advice was to either let the PPC take me to court, or to pay them the minimum and then sue them for the money to be returned.....Any advice on this?

Should I seek some real legal advice?

Bit scared now, but I'm damned if they're gonna get my money!

sarahg1969

You are lucky the CAB didn't tell you to pay. They usually have no idea about stuff like this.

I don't know what more advice you can want. The whole point of their scam is to scare you into paying. And it's working.

Put it in a drawer and forget about it.

Or pay it if it would make you feel better.

Right now. That will be £50 for my reply to your post. I'll send you a PM with my details. Thanks.

Crabman

Don't worry, stay strong and keep on ignoring, their letters are designed to intimidate. Once they realise you're not going to give in they'll go away and try their luck somewhere else.

bargepole

Little_RAY wrote: »

I've been to see the CAB about this and they couldn't give me any more information than the internet already has. Their only advice was to either let the PPC take me to court, or to pay them the minimum and then sue them for the money to be returned.....Any advice on this?

These so-called advisers at the CAB shouldn't be let loose on the public if this is the best they can come up with.

The whole basis of this PPC scam is that they keep sending you increasingly scary looking letters, with escalating made-up "charges" to frighten you into paying.

The next one will probably have red lettering, or a chequered border to make it look official. They will probably threaten to kidnap your children, kill your cat and rape your goldfish.

Don't waste your money on a solicitor - plenty of free legal advice available on many websites, and the general concensus is: don't pay the scum a penny!

Biker-Budgie

Wow this story is identicle to mine! you didnt park in the merry hill centre multi-storey carpark (oposite the cinema) did you? if so they are doing this on purpose to catch out innocent motorists unwittingly using disabled bays.

I had exactly the same situation, 'the driver' parked in a bay that had no disabled signage around it - 'the driver' has a particular hatred of people abusing the disabled system and doesnt even use the parent/child spaces.

They sent me (the vehicle owner) a UKPC charge notice, i sent off an apeal (i hadnt read this before else i probably wouldnt have bothered).

after 2-3 letter bounced between us they are now threatening me with debt recovery agents, ive told them to whistle for it unless they can provide evidence that I (Vehicle owner) has parked my vehicle in a disabled bay, ive got evidence that the bay isnt marked out (the disabled sign painted on the ground has been blacked out - only visible on close inspection and not if your driving into it). they wont be getting a penny and i will waste as much of their time as possible too just on principle.

What really annoyed me about this is they apear to be using entrapment and guilt to get people to pay imaginary fines, and while they are doing this the genuinely disabled may not be able to park in the bays as they are full of unwitting victims. its nothing short of taking advantage of the public in particular the disabled.

Meepster

Honestly, don't lose any sleep over these letters. Infact, don't even think about the letters. Next time you recieve one, don't open it, just file it away somewhere (I find the bin is the best place). I've had three of these from different companies and they always end up in the same place.

They are all just begging letters, which are basically saying:

"Hi there Mr or Mrs X, we know we have no authority to fine you, as only a court can issue fines, so we are sending you an invoice, which we really hope you will be daft enough to pay. We'll keep sending letters for a few weeks, possibly even a few months, at our expense, probably totalling a couple of pounds. They'll even get more threatening, we'll say we are sending debt collectors round and we are going to take you to court, but that would cost us even more money than we have already lost by writing to you, so we wont. PLEASE pay us, as if you don't, more and more people wont pay us, and then we'll be sending letters out for no reason at all and you wouldn't want us to go out of business would you?

Sincerely

A Scammer"

Or words to that effect anyhows...