euro car parks fine - misunderstanding?

icklemunchkin

on the 25th august at 18:35 bob parked in euro carparks along with his 3 little brothers and a lot of bags.
they were visiting his sister who lived in the apartments overlooking the car park - (which is surrounded by private companies car parks and doesnt have a carpark of its own)

the sign said: something - something = £2.90
something - 19:00 = £2.90
19:00 - 08:00 = £1.90

arriving half an hour before 19:00 but intending to stay overnight until 8am bob paid the full £2.90 and one of the little brothers ran and put the ticket in the car while he grabbed all the bags.

at 07.55am the following day, he returned to move the car and found a ticket. no wardens to be seen, for not having moved before 19:00 the previous night!

what else was he supposed to do?

was he supposed to of waited in his car for 30 mins until after 19:00?
he obviously had no intention of paying £2.90 for 23 mins, but there is no option if you are staying in the apartments, or if you arrived at 18:37 and were heading into town nearby? would you have needed to wait until 19:00 before you could buy your ticket?

what is the best thing to do now?

the ticket did say expires at 19:00 but he hadnt seen that because his little brother had grabbed the ticket and done it for him.

£70 for a genuine mistake seems very unfair, but im really confudes at to whats best to do now. does he have a case to appeal? or does it simply boil down to "he should have made sure he checked the expiry time."

but then what about the limbo area where if you arrive before the next time period you get fined - even though you've paid more than the time period you needed!

mega confused and first time bob has had a parking charge notice

any advice would be greatly appreciated

thank you!

bargepole

icklemunchkin wrote: »

£70 for a genuine mistake seems very unfair, but im really confudes at to whats best to do now. does he have a case to appeal? or does it simply boil down to "he should have made sure he checked the expiry time.

Have a read of Martin's article and the hundreds of other posts on here - you'll soon realise that:

• Private companies have no power to fine anyone
• There is no appeal - they won't want to turn down profit
• The whole thing is a scam, they send threatening letters to try to scare you
• Ignore all letters, never contact them, never pay them a penny
• They could never win a court case, as you paid for parking

Then get on with your life.

icklemunchkin

thanks for the quick reply!

id had a read of the other forums and threads but i just wasnt sure if bobs case was a valid one or not.

i guess given he did buy a full value ticket and wasnt trying to scam them out of anything then there really isnt much more (bar going back at 19:00) he could have done.

thank you

icklemunchkin

oh wait - so is eurocarparks definitley a private company then???

trisontana

icklemunchkin wrote: »

oh wait - so is eurocarparks definitley a private company then???

Of course they are. This is their website.