Morrisons Car park in Scotland

Ronson77

Hi in august I returned to my car and found the standard "official looking" care park ticket on the drivers door window. As this was a supermarket car park in Scotland where trespass is not illegal I was advised to ignore it totally. (by the way I was also displaying a blue disabled badge in my windscreen)

I did ignore it but then got a letter through the post from Parking Collection Services saying the amount now due was being raised to £80 and threatening to pass the debt to a debt recovery agency if they did not receive payment. i did nothing

This morning I received a letter which clearly showed through the window envelope that it was from debt recoveryplus.co.uk addressed to me saying payment must be sent to within 7 days. Both companies share the same registered office address 78 York street London WiH iDP and share the same credit licence number but both operate from aston Under Lyne.

Ignoring the fact or otherwise as to whether I owe the money or not I believe receiving this letter by post clearly showing that it has come from a debt recovery agency should not be allowed. My postman for example could not have failed to see the company name when looking at the address he was delivering the letter to and that slurs my name and reputation.

How can they get away with this potentially libelous inference? Debt collection agencies can no longer turn up with big print of the side of their vans saying debt recovery (or can they?) yet this company has done the same thing by telling my gossiping postman that he is delivering a letter from a debt company to me.

Can I complain?

AlexisV

You're much more likely to get somewhere based on the wording and design of the letters. Fancy scanning them in, with sensitive details blanked?

Sirdan

Yes you can complain (not sure it will do any good though).

The Office of Fair Trading guidelines on debt collection define Unfair Business Practices (Chapter 2)

Under the Sub Heading :Physical/psychological harassment

it says : -

"acting in a way likely to be publicly embarrassing to the debtor either
deliberately or through lack of care, for example, by not putting
correspondence in a sealed envelope and putting it through a letterbox,
thereby running the risk that it could be read by third parties.

(My bold)

vax2002

All they want is you to take the bait, dont do it, IGNORE and stop letting them get at you.

Retire

Write or email the head of Morrisons saying you will never shop there again if the ticket is not cancelled.

I have done this a couple of times and had the so called penalty cancelled.

I also followed through on my threat to never shop there again after my second so called penalty charge.