RingGo Car Park Convenience Charge

billinge

Has anyone noticed the increasing number of car parks using the RingGo service? Railway car parks; Motorway Services;..
You park, phone a (local rate) number and pay automatically by credit or debit card for how long you want.
On top of this parking charge your are also charged if you want an sms confirmation, and a further charge to remind you shortly before your parking is due to expire.

But on top of all this you are charged a further sum, they call a 'Convenience Charge'!

Now who benefits from the convenience?
The customer? Well no, as in most instances they don;t have any option, apart from parking somewhere else! Perhaps I want to pay in an inconvenient way to save the 20p?
The car park owner/RingGo? Surely, as they don't have to install and maintain meters or ticket machines.

So why is this 'Convenience Charge' not part of the parking fee?

I asked RingGo about this, they said the convenience charge was where they made their money, as the parking fee went to the car park owner.

So I believe this 'Convenience Charge' is incorrectly named. Can they do this? It seems like mis-representation to me and monopolous. (is that a word)

What do you think?

BFG_2

Don't pay the 20p, simply don't pay anything at all.

Just ignore any signs etc for parking charges on private land [unless enforced by the police or council].

Not sure where railway stations fit in this...anyone know if they are enforceable??

Coblcris

I would never recommend not paying a parking fee, that would be an offense.
I would wholly recommend not paying the overwhelming majority of the so called Parking Charge Notices issued by private companies. There is a very tiny number of private tickets that are enforceable in my opinion but their occurrence is very very infrequent among the overwhelming number of blatantly unenforceable ones.