PCS from VCS Ltd

imroberts

On Saturday I received a Parking Charge Notice from Vehicle Control Services Ltd. whilst parked legitimately in a Wickes car park. I was parked in a normal parking bay and left the car park within the maximum stay of 2 hours.

The contravention code on the notice states that I was "parked in a restricted area of the car park" however my car was clearly in a bay. I have taken photographs of the location of my car in case further discussion with the company is required.

I spoke to Wickes and they believe that because I didn't go into Wickes IMMEDIATELY upon parking the car park attendants may have issued a ticket. (I went to the bank before I went to Wickes to sort out some money due to the cost of the things I intended to buy).

I have emailed the company as per instructions on the notice and have received a reply stating that they require my full postal address before my appeal will be considered. Naturally I do not wish to provide this information.

Any advice on how I should proceed?

sarahg1969

Read the sticky and all the other threads on here. Then follow the advice, and ignore them.

ipanter

My OH had a ticket from these people once, i seem to remember the ticket had chequered borders down it to try to make it look official. I used this point as one of the reasons why it would not be paid as it is a criminal offence to pretend that the ticket is from an official body when it is not, and i saw the chequers as exactly that.

I wrote VCS a letter to them stating all the reasons why their ticket was unenforcable and i never heard from them again. If you want i can send you a copy of this letter, PM me you e-mail address and i'll send it over.

I think most people on here will advise you to ignore the ticket because it is from a private company.

I think VCS will get your details from the DVLA and try to chase you because other people who were ticked at the same time as the OH recieved follow up letters from VCS. Some paid up, others didn't.

HTH

Ian

I

ipanter

imroberts

I have sent you an e-mail with the letter attached.

I sent the letter as soon as i could after the ticket was issued, and did not wait for them to contact me, and at no point did i give them my address, i only included an e-mail address on the letter i sent them.

imroberts

Many thanks.

Think I will adapt your letter and send it to VCS.

That way should they (foolishly) persue the matter further I will at least have evidence showing that I made attempts to appeal the case.

Good idea sending a letter without your address, like I said when I emailed them they have refused to even discuss the matter with me unless I provide them with my full address. I do not appreciate this type of bullying.

ipanter

my pleasure, feel free to use the letter however you wish.

The reason i guess they want your address from you is so that they don't have to fill in the paperwork and pay the DVLA for it.

I would ask them why they need it when you will provide them with an e-mail address which is a perfectly acceptable method of communication - especially considering that recently i heard that a lawyer (possibly in Oz) served court orders via Facebook!

peter_the_piper

Just think yourself lucky, the b****rds at our wickes just clamp you for about £150.00. Not so easy to do what you should do and thats just ignore them, unless you like to lead them on that is.

sarahg1969

OP, if you think you are made of strong enough stuff to withstand their bullying, by all means correspond with them.

But at least wait till they write to you. Make them spend £2.50 with the DVLA first.

imroberts

ipanter wrote: »

my pleasure, feel free to use the letter however you wish.

The reason i guess they want your address from you is so that they don't have to fill in the paperwork and pay the DVLA for it.

I would ask them why they need it when you will provide them with an e-mail address which is a perfectly acceptable method of communication - especially considering that recently i heard that a lawyer (possibly in Oz) served court orders via Facebook!

Many thanks one again.

One question for you, was your wife in the wrong when she received the PCN?

Asking them why they need my address is a rather fruitless question, any emails sent to them seem to be ignored as they state unless I provide them with my address. Maybe I should setup a PO Box address for them to correspond with me, play them at their own game

sarahg1969

imroberts wrote: »

Maybe I should setup a PO Box address for them to correspond with me, play them at their own game

Maybe you should do nothing until they've spent £2.50 of their own money to obtain the RK's details from the DVLA?

ipanter

imroberts wrote: »

One question for you, was your wife in the wrong when she received the PCN?

Technically she was in the wrong, she had parked in a doctors surgery carpark, that she was neither visiting nor working at.

However she was working in the building next to the doctors surgery, both of their car parks were entered using the same driveway and ofter patients would use her work's car park as an overflow from the doctors car park.

This silent agreement had occurred for a long time and staff at her work would just park in the doctors car park if the staff car park was full of patients cars.

Meanwhile though the council had changed all the local road markings and effectively removed 15 or so on-street parking spaces for residents and replaced them with double yellows. This forced local residents into using local business' car parks.

The doctors surgery had a problem with this so put in place a ticket system from VCS, all they do is send out a book of tickets and tell the staff at the surgery to issue them then send the counterparts back to VCS and let them do the rest.

The surgery and VCS didn't execute it very well though, they didn't inform anyone at the OH's work what they were going to do and they only put up a few paper warning signs in plastic wallets that didn't stand up to the weather at all. I think VCS had sent one proper sign but it was at the other end of the car park so you couldn't see it from where she had parked.

A few of her colleagues also got ticked at the same time, one of them had borrowed his father-in-law's car and so paid up so he didn't get/cause any grief with the in-laws, another one ingnored any letters she was sent and i don't think anything ever came of it. We pre-empted any action they might take with the letter i sent you and we never heard a thing from them. We guessed they got our letter and thought it just isn't worth it and chucked the ticket in the bin.

hth