Tell your tales of problems with private parking providers

moneysavingjane

This is not really my story... but my boyfriends...

He works in Kingston town centre and managed to get a permit in a private gated car park near games workshop. One day several months back he clumsily put the permit in the window and went off to work... only to find on his lunch break that his car had been clamped by the private parking firm for not clearly displaying the permit. It was upside-down but clear to see. He was ordered to pay £250 to release the clamp. As this was a private car park and it was their rules, stated on the permit... and he needed his car.. he paid the fine.

It still makes me angry thinking about it, very unjust. Disgusts me that this is allowed to go on. Hoping for change with this investigation, although we know the £250 is lost.

taffy056

moneysavingjane wrote: »

This is not really my story... but my boyfriends...

He works in Kingston town centre and managed to get a permit in a private gated car park near games workshop. One day several months back he clumsily put the permit in the window and went off to work... only to find on his lunch break that his car had been clamped by the private parking firm for not clearly displaying the permit. It was upside-down but clear to see. He was ordered to pay £250 to release the clamp. As this was a private car park and it was their rules, stated on the permit... and he needed his car.. he paid the fine.

It still makes me angry thinking about it, very unjust. Disgusts me that this is allowed to go on. Hoping for change with this investigation, although we know the £250 is lost.

He should take the landowner and clamper to the small claims, as long as he has kept all receipts his permit and so on, also if he has paid by card he should try doing a chargeback on the card saying he paid under duress, though its probably to late for that tack.

peter_the_piper

moneysavingjane wrote: »

This is not really my story... but my boyfriends...

He works in Kingston town centre and managed to get a permit in a private gated car park near games workshop. One day several months back he clumsily put the permit in the window and went off to work... only to find on his lunch break that his car had been clamped by the private parking firm for not clearly displaying the permit. It was upside-down but clear to see. He was ordered to pay £250 to release the clamp. As this was a private car park and it was their rules, stated on the permit... and he needed his car.. he paid the fine.

It still makes me angry thinking about it, very unjust. Disgusts me that this is allowed to go on. Hoping for change with this investigation, although we know the £250 is lost.

Gather all the details, payment slip, signs etc and post onto pepipoo.com, they will guide you through all the hoops to get your money back.When you do demand he buys you a new handbag for saving all his money.

jashe

camngnp223 wrote: »

Their letters are actually quite threatening: for example, they make it sound as though an unfavourable county court judgement with many hundreds of pounds of associated costs is a sure thing. These guys really are villains! They really should be stopped from disregarding communication and from being so overtly and inappropriately threatening.
Cam

I had a similar problem a few years back with Euro Car Parks and luckily found The Consumer Action Group online who give great advice on how to deal with unfair/unlawful tickets. Unfortunately you are not allowed to post links on here but just search for them online and go to the Parking / Traffic Offences Forum. There are 2 threads on 'Private Parking - template letters' 1)if you have already written to them or 2) if you have not contacted them yet.

I wrote a series of letters to them eventaully threatening them under Section 40 of the Administration of Justice Act 1970 and Protection From Harassment Act 1997.
The letters and harassment stopped instantly!

peter_the_piper

Why bother sending letters and wasting stamps when a good old "Ignore" does the trick much more cheaply.

SplanK

Well I got a result today..
I got incontact with Bolton Arena - they re-checked their records and confirmed that there was a "clerical error" and that the letters are sent out automaticly.
They have not put a stop on the PCN - but advised that, as its an automatic process that I could still be getting letters for a further 4 weeks!!!! I have just been told to ignore them

bennybops

Just to share an experiance of this company. I actually applied for an operations managers role with this company, no I am not selling my soul to the devil, i just wanted a job ! They use a recuriter in the first instance so you dont know who the company is...I wonder why!!! At the second stage you know who they are...so what to you do google them..naturally. OMG how many complaints can you see. Regardless I was happy to go through the process...mortgage payments beckoning.

So you arrive in Chorley Lancashire to the usual new office suite, all very polite staff. First interview was with the CEO and exisiting operations manager ( I wonder why he is leaving). If you have seen the "office" or "candid camera" then you would not even be near this experiance... :mad:very aggressive approach to an interview but each to their own. The second stage, if you are lucky, is to be profile tested aka Myers Briggs type..nothing unusual here! Then you get the third interview in which you meet the previous two and the sales director. Opening gambit was that they wanted to break you ..make you cry. The sales director "Ben" slaps his feet on the desk, his shirt is unbuttoned to his naval and trys to play a chavvy gangster:o why to much sky tv Ben, so ok some of the questioning was challenging as you would expect. Ben trys to get you to mentally breakdown in a perverse manner, he probably gets bullied off his wife:rotfl: and had his skipping rope stolen a few times at school. Come on Ben get a life its clear you are a muppet just admit it, you are better than that. Its clear that this is an intollerable testosterone den where they shower praise in a demi god way on Mr. McKerney the CEO who revels and glorifies in it.:jI wonder if he has picked up on that "Ben" wants his job??? its clear from the body language and false god praise. The company thrives on aggression and yes the "debt collectors" are in the same building, in fact the lower floor. Strangely I do have respect for Mr. McKerney, yes the company may be "dubious" but in the second interview he was the only measured one out of the three, he listened to the answers and questioned appropriately he has also built up a "sucsessful business" yes questionable but some of me admires this, would I take the same route ...no but fair credit to him in getting a busines model where Aldi, B&Q etc give him sites.

You could not write a book on the interview practices here and the recruitment consultant should have taken a wide berth, I have spoken to three people who when through the same process and they were stunned! No its not sour grapes as I gained a more sensible job elsewhere after a long period of unemployment so I dont know if I would have got the job or not but hey I thought it best to give a bit of background:D

peter_the_piper

Thanks for the insight Benny. No wonder the "attendants" ticket you for every small infringement.

nige1365

went on holiday parked in leeds/bradford long stay car park when i returned my car had been hit by another car i complained to staff they said its a police matter reported it to police next day phone call sayiing they was't prepared to look at cctv footage got back in touch with airport parking staff who was not very helpfull after 10 phone calls and emails somebody said they would look into it just recieved an email saying there is no cctv footage in that part of car park but in your contract with them it clearly says secure parking with cctv has any body had any thing like this happen to them any ideas what i can do now.

taney

Sharing my story;

My vehicle was clamped whilst parked at Warwick road, President Hotel Car park on 18/10/2010 and had to pay fine of £150 .I have used this car park twice in the last month and the ticketing machine was not working so that day I presumed that it is still out of order so didn’t check, which I agree that was my mistake. However, when I went to the shop which was just across the road, I was told by the sales person that it has been recently fixed so I straight away came back to pay at the machine which didn’t take me more than couple of minutes. When I reached the car park the security person was taking the clamp out of his van. I explained the situation to him and requested him that since you haven’t yet clamped it and I have come to pay the fees so kindly don’t clamp it as I am happy to pay the fees, however, he didn’t listen to my plea and clamped the car in front of me and even informed the office afterwards. I have got a pedestrian and shop’s sales person as a witness to the whole situation who are happy to give a statement regarding the whole situation
Don't know where do I stand in this situation...thinking it to take it to court...what do u ppl suggest?