Morrisons / Euro Car Parks

Saddlers444

I recently had cause to park my Company Car on Morrisons car park in Brentford, unaware of their 2 hour time restriction imposed. I parked up, wentt shopping in the town centre then returned to the Morrisons store and did a half hour shop. I live in the West Midlands and there are three large Morrisons stores who do not impose any such restrictions. I have spoken to the Brentford Store deputy manager who advises me there are 7 signs around the car park area - no penalty notice was stuck to my windscreen so todays letter was the first I had heard about it.

Is the advice given by the experts on this site to still ignore the £70 notice I have received from Euro Car parks as I do feel a little embarrassed that my employer will receive future notices as the vehicle is registered to the Limited Company - not me as an individual.

Any due replies may well be printed off to show my employer so please keep them clean!

HO87

Yes, absolutely. This is little more than a mail scam.

Do nothing
Make no phone calls
Write no letters
In particular, make no admissions whatsoever
You will receive a number of letters threatening all sorts of doom - ignore and get on with your life.
One thing you can do is to tell Morrisons you won't be darkening their doors ever again.

McKneff

Yes, ignore, ignore, ignore,
These people are scammers and their 'fines' are not fines they are unenforceable invoices.
They are not authorised to issue fines, only councils and courts/police can issue fines.

They will send more letters, demands etc. They will say we may take you to court. They have no intentions of taking you to court.
Apart from anything else, its the driver these people can only aim at and you are not compelled to give them the name of the driver so just smile smugly and file all the correspondence in a drawer, they will eventually stop when they realise that they are not going to scare you into paying.

The PepiPoo website is always worth a look.

Alx*27

See signature:

Coblcris

The issue to address is the Company, sadly many are not familiar with the methods of Private Parking Companies.

Coupon-mad

Coblcris wrote: »

The issue to address is the Company, sadly many are not familiar with the methods of Private Parking Companies.

Yes, agreed. Maybe the Fleet Manager would believe this from Fleet News.co.uk:

http://www.fleetnews.co.uk/news/story/Question-private-parking-fines-fleets-urged/50211

QUOTE
Fleet managers facing fines from private parking companies should question their legitimacy, according to an appeals specialist.

One fleet manager, who did not want to be named, described the system as a “scam” after facing a £100 fine for exceeding the hour limit in a car park by 40 minutes.
“This is going on everywhere and you’ve got ask yourself how many companies are paying these tickets without challenging them,” he said.
QUOTE


Saddlers444 why not print off the linked article and our responses, including, of course, the example letters illustrated in the link in Alx*27's signature - so they can see what rubbish they will get before ECP crawl back under their stone.

Fleet Managers need to be educated about this scam. Dealing with these fake fines costs Companies time and money (even though they may get the driver to pay) and they may lose the goodwill of their employees as well. It's important they understand this isn't a real fine.

IMHO, what Fleet Managers should do is either have a file for such rubbish and just ignore them all. Or have a standard denial response to be sent 2nd class, stating 'any alleged contract would only be with the driver so any debt is denied and disputed by us. Any further correspondence or contact from you or your agents will be treated as harassment and may result in a counter-claim' (or words to that effect that do not name the driver, that's up to the PPC to prove).

HTH, now stop worrying about this scam, Saddlers444. Happy Christmas!

diagor

Saddlers444 wrote: »

I recently had cause to park my Company Car on Morrisons car park in Brentford, unaware of their 2 hour time restriction imposed. I parked up, wentt shopping in the town centre then returned to the Morrisons store and did a half hour shop. I live in the West Midlands and there are three large Morrisons stores who do not impose any such restrictions. I have spoken to the Brentford Store deputy manager who advises me there are 7 signs around the car park area - no penalty notice was stuck to my windscreen so todays letter was the first I had heard about it.

Is the advice given by the experts on this site to still ignore the £70 notice I have received from Euro Car parks as I do feel a little embarrassed that my employer will receive future notices as the vehicle is registered to the Limited Company - not me as an individual.

Any due replies may well be printed off to show my employer so please keep them clean!

I have now received my 2nd letter wanting £90 but it says that if I do not pay within 28 days they will forward to a debt collection agency. Any advice!!

peter_the_piper

Please have a read of all the many posts on here about very similar invoices. The recurring theme is to Ignore.
The advice here does not change. Continue to tell your employer this.

Dublindel

Yes IGNORE ALL. Unless you enjoy messing with them as I do, I phone them and argue with them purley for the fun of it. My standard letter that I send has, so far, stopped them in thier tracks, They have never responded again to me after that. I know they can do nothing and as scammers I like to mess with their day. keep your money or burn it but dont give it to them

Coupon-mad

diagor wrote: »

I have now received my 2nd letter wanting £90 but it says that if I do not pay within 28 days they will forward to a debt collection agency. Any advice!!

Doesn't matter who the PPC is, they tend to follow the same well-trodden path of standard letters designed to frighten you.

By way of illustration, here is a pictogram of the letterchain by Euro Car Parks:

http://www.violetmount.com/scam.jpg

This is the letter chain which originally shown by Alx*27 in his signature in an earlier post (thanks!). Once you've read this link you'll KNOW in advance when you've reached the 'end of scam'. It's nothing to panic about at all, it's not a fine and Debt Collectors are not bailiffs.

Both Alx*27 and myself have had Euro Car Parks tickets, and ignored them.

diagor

Does this not paying apply in Scotland