Parking Penalty in a private car park

Raymond_Pepper

Parking Charge Notice

I visited Mcdonalds at Gatwick Airport, purchased a Burger Meal and drinks and eat it in their restaurant. Apparently there is atime limit on how long you can stay, which is one hour. I was not aware of this and stayed 19mins longer, I was reading the paper and finishing my coffee.
2 weeks later I received a "Parking Charge Notice" from a Company called MET Parking Services stating that i must pay £100 for over staying my time, this is reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days.
The letter also mentions failure to pay will result in a debt collection agency to collect any sum due and also County Court Judgement.
I appealed by letter stating I was not aware of any signs re time limit and there were no signs displayed on entry on the day I used the car park.
The penalty of £100 is unreasonable for overstaying by 19mins especially as I had spent approx £8 on a meal and drinks in their restaurant.
Should I pay the £50 discount your advice would be appreciated by 30 September the deadline
Also should I write to McDonalds Head Office

trisontana

If you have read the other post on the forum you should have realised that you do not have to pay this charge. From now on do not contact the parking company and ignore all correspondence from them. As for the "appeals" process, it's one big sham. it's not intendant and it's in the company's financial interest to refuse all such appeals.

For further reassurance please see this Watchdog Clip.

Coupon-mad

The Watchdog legal expert's bogus ticket example was, let me think...oh yes it was MET parking with a camera in a McDonalds Car park. Sounds like a game of Cluedo - or snap!

Have you looked at the forums threads here and found the complete pictorial preview of the not-so-scary letters MET send out in liaison with their pet 'debt collector'? If not then have a good look now and laugh when the rest of the letter-chain rolls out:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/....php?t=2214803

And finally, how about seeing how common your thread is, did you know the entire board is full of people like you ignoring this scam? All these threads on this next link below are about private tickets (apart from the odd Council case) and every single person is ignoring a series of letters, which isn't too hard to do. It's just like deleting a series of phishing emails.

Read some other threads, you'll see nowt happens, no CCJ, no effect on your credit rating:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...play.php?f=163

Have a read of threads, watch the Watchdog clip. You get that it's all a scam now I hope? Spread the word, make sure your friends and family are NEVER taken in by such a scam.

And yes, do get angry about his mob and their protection racket. Do complain to McDonalds Head Office, the more complaints about this con the better. You will be fobbed off but there must come a point when the final straw of complaints will break the camel's back and make them re-think the bad effect on their reputation.

AlexisV

Ignore. It's a scam.

Just ignore the junkmail you'll receive and they'll go away eventually.

County Court Judgement? Ha! No chance!