Playing detective for a Q-Park "warning"

Hannah_10

I was rushed to hospital the other night because the doctor thought I was going to loose my baby. I am 7 months pregnant. Thankfully I am ok, so is baby and I'm still pregnant.

"A person I know" followed the ambulance to the hospital, got a car park entry ticket on the way in and parked in the 30 minute bays outside the building I was in so they could be with me. (This was in the dead of the night, with no one around who would otherwise have wanted access to those bays, visiting hours being long since over.) There wasn't a point in the next few hours where the person could have left my side to move the car, there was a genune life/death emergency going on! They left the hospital, still in the dead of night, to find they had recieved a "warning" from the 24hour Q-park vultures. :mad:

"The person" wont tell me any more about it, or show me the ticket. "The person" thinks they are sparing me worry by doing so but in reality I am more bothered by what I don't understand than what I can see clearly!

Anyone have any idea what this warning might be and what it means? Anyone got a scanned copy of a Q-Park warning they can show me please? (Identifiers removed of course). Or can anyone shed any light on what this is about?

taffy056

The important thing here is that you and the baby are okay, bet you are looking forward to be a mam

In regards to the ticket your friend got, please tell them to completely ignore it, the scam letters from bogus debt collectors and solicitors, these tickets are not enforceable in law, and should not be paid!

The only tickets your friend must deal with are from councils or the police.

Best of luck with the baby, mine is 8 weeks today

Sir_Roger_deLodger

Not heard of Q Park before, but if they are hanging around hospitals preying on the sick they are obviously just another parasite PPC who can be safely ignored.

taffy056

I have just seen their website, they have pay and display car parks across the country, and charge £2.10 for 2 hours parking at the hospital, a tax on the sick and their visitors.

Anyway they are just a private parking company and should be completely ignored op, they are running a scam and your friend does not owe them a penny.

Fergie76

taffy056 wrote: »

I have just seen their website, they have pay and display car parks across the country, and charge £2.10 for 2 hours parking at the hospital, a tax on the sick and their visitors.

Anyway they are just a private parking company and should be completely ignored op, they are running a scam and your friend does not owe them a penny.

Parking charges at my local hospital are extortionate:

Time Period New Charges from 1 May 2009 0-45 mins Free, 45 mins - 2 hrs £2.20, 2 - 3 hrs £3.30, 3 - 4 hrs £4.40, 4 - 6 hrs £6.60, 6 - 8 hrs £8.00, No charge 9pm - 7am.

I spent plenty time, up there in the last couple of years and spent a fortune, just wish I knew then, what I know now.

Prior to the change in parking prices last year it was £2.30 for 4 hours and £3.00 for all day.

Hannah_10

Fergie they're more generous to you than us, as we even have to pay in the dead of night. :mad:

I will have a look for thier website, it never occured to me they'd have one (it's true about getting less clever when preggers lol).

anewman

Here's a video for your friend http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAIcdi9niHA

taffy056

In wales all hospital parking is free for visitors and patients, staff have their own parking and that is free also, as I said any charge is a tax on the ill and visitors, what's worse public bodies like hospitals and uni's are using these scam companies up and down the country knowing its a con.

anewman

taffy056 wrote: »

what's worse public bodies like hospitals and uni's are using these scam companies up and down the country knowing its a con.

Sadly I don't think they do know it's a con. They either perceive a problem with parking or see an opportunity to make some money, and take what the PPC says in their marketing/selling at face value. A PPC wouldn't be doing any business with a University or Hospital if they started out by telling the truth and the law of the land for what it actually is.

The same can happen in any sales/advertising. To some people life is all about money and getting people to part with it and they'll spin any lie just to get their hands on it.

And even though a University may well have a big law department it is unlikely they will have been consulted when a PPC was brought in, and in fact students and lecturers in the law department probably have a good laugh at the University's expense if they themselves get one, and probably get the same treatment as anyone else when they try to tell the University of the legal status of the charges.

Hannah_10

OMG:eek:

For Q-Park Terms and Conditions of business please click here

If you read the .pdf that opens it says under point 9.

We reserve the right to move any vehicle within a Q-Park carpark by driving or other means...

It goes on to say they can take them onto the public highway if they want, for "the more efficient arrangement of parking facilities" amongst other reasons.

Whoa there! :eek:

If a vehicle needs moving then the police and fire brigade are well qualified to do so. In a real emergency they would do so too. So what the parking vultures are saying is they claim the right to play with your toys in your absence, out on the roads, without there being any need for it whatsoever (because if really needed the emergency services would) :mad: :mad: :mad:

Now this angers me and I have a tatty car, but what about when I still rode superbikes? How many times have I parked a high powered bike in that carpark? How would I know they hadn't been messing with it? :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad: :mad:

How dare they!!!

peter_the_piper

Removing a vehicle by driving is theft. To do so they would have to break into the car, also an offence. Moving it by lifting is at best lawful so why would they want to commit at least 2 illegalities. At least if they moved it onto a single/double yellow line you would have a letout from a council ticket, taken without consent.