Private Parking Fine (My First)

Helston_2

Seeking advice on the ticket I received on the 25/06/2011. I bought a two hour ticket in the Maritime Musuem Car Park, Falmouth. I then put the ticket in the car, got the two kids out and went shopping in the town. When I came back I was very surprised to notice a ticket on the windscreen. I saw the attendant and showed him the ticket which was still within the time limit and explained what had happened, he said I should appeal. I did this thinking in no way they would carry on with their actions. They have and I am now upto the £80 mark which I have refused to pay.

I have requested all the pictures that they have took and does not show where the ticket eventually landed. I know it says pay and display in the windscreen but if they would have looked hard enough they would have seen it pay and displayed on the seat! I am extremely angry with what was a genuine mistake and the fact that I did pay for the ticket.

What should I do next, ignore all further correspondance or continue to refuse to pay?

trisontana

Just ignore them and refuse to pay. it's as simple as that. By the way, this is not a "fine", it's an unenforceable invoice.

Could you please tell us the name of this parking company?

sb2_2

As long as it is private and not council backed, they cannot do anything.

Its essentially the same as me sending you an invoice right now. You can pay it if you want but you have no obligation to.

Refuse to pay and ignore them. If you are unsure if its private of not, call the local council and ask them about the ticket and if it has anything to do with them.

As trisontana asked, can you name the company as it could help other in the same situation and might be able to look up the company to help.

AlexisV

Ignore. You don't see Tesco sending you threatening letters if you can't find your receipt after buying a pint of milk. What's the difference?

cajef

Careful, there are two car parks there and although they are adjacent to each other and you can actually drive through one to the other, one is council owned and the other is patrolled by our old friends Armtrac, OP who issued the ticket?

Helston_2

Good evening and thanks for the replies. The company is Armtrac Security Services, based in Exeter. It was the car park closest to the mini roundabout cajef. I will post the letters on the other thread as soon as I figure out how to do such a thing!

HO87

Ah yes Armtrac, my ansome. Plenty of threads concerning them. Have a look at pepipoo too for the latest on a couple of court cases running at Truro.

Helston_2

Received a letter with more photos of my car. They withheld more than half of these when I originally asked for them. The letter describes that I entered into a contract when I bought the ticket and failed to display the ticket. There is no arguement that I actually paid for it. I get a liitle carried away with these things as I get so angry, therefore I phoned them and told them that I am not paying and due to the fact that the ticket was bought and I showed it to the parking attendant within the time limit. Really angers me. Wife worried that it will go to court as they have decided to bypass the debt recovery department and go straight to their legal team.

Coupon-mad

Helston wrote: »

Received a letter with more photos of my car. They withheld more than half of these when I originally asked for them. The letter describes that I entered into a contract when I bought the ticket and failed to display the ticket. There is no arguement that I actually paid for it. I get a liitle carried away with these things as I get so angry, therefore I phoned them and told them that I am not paying and due to the fact that the ticket was bought and I showed it to the parking attendant within the time limit. Really angers me. Wife worried that it will go to court as they have decided to bypass the debt recovery department and go straight to their legal team.

Their 'legal team'! Are you really believing that! :rotfl:

Check out the top sticky thread on this board 'PPC letters, what to expect' and you will find nothing has been bypassed. I predict you will now get the standard letter-chain which sometimes uses debt collector headed notepaper and sometimes 'solicitor' headed notepaper (but the latter version comes from...the debt collector as well, pretending to be a solicitor!).

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

Also check out another top info thread, 'welcome, please read before posting' and show your wife the Watchdog youtube link. The solicitor on Watchdog knows his stuff, he is Tim Cary who specialises in the subject, among other legal matters. And the bogus 'PCN' he is holding in his hands also has pretty pictures of a car on it - so what?

99.99% of PPCs never, ever go to court, their modus operandi is to rely on threats. I am just an ordinary, law-abiding wife and Mum and I had a fake ticket 3 years ago, laughed at the letter-chain and of course nothing happened as I didn't fall for the scam. And in the very, very rare cases that power-mad PPCs try to take to Court they lose almost every time. Here's a properly defended case in Small claims where the PPC lost this week:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3414489

Do stop replying to them though, they are winding you up and are not worthy of response. It's as useful as angrily replying to a phishing emailer.

Direct your anger in a serious complaint letter to the retailer/occupier where you were parked, for allowing a practice akin to a protection racket to take place in their car park. Wait a month or two before doing this - send them a few of the letter-chain threatograms you receive, to show them what is being sent out to their visitors and customers (retailers/occupiers have no idea in many cases, they just the PPC hype that they can 'police' the car park for free). Complain to Museum Manager in writing once you have collected some threatograms, but don't 'appeal' or ask for the 'ticket' to be rescinded (it's fake so relax about the 'ticket' and concentrate on the dubious threatening practices of the PPC)!

AlexisV

The letter describes that I entered into a contract when I bought the ticket and failed to display the ticket.

Established contract law says that the remedy for your alleged breach of contract is to put the injured party in the same position as if the breach hadn't occurred. By you not displaying it they have suffered zero loss. How could they ever suffer loss?

£80 amounts to an unenforceable contractual penalty.

esmerobbo

Their legal team! They carry out the legal work between making the tea going for the sandwiches and brushing the Portakabin out!!

They are full of scary phrases and terms to try and intimidate people don't let them worry you.