Please help! - Crazy Clamping charges..

London_Jim

Hi,

I need a little help with this, as I'm not too clued up on the whole situation.

Basically, last night I went to visit a friend who was staying in the Travelodge in Croydon. The intention was to only visit him briefly to drop a few things off.

I parked in what I assumed was the Travelodge carpark - I even made sure I parked under a massive Travelodge sign. Whilst there were some signs, many were different, and made no clear and obvious reference to the car park not being owned by Travelodge.

Anyways, after about half an hour, I returned to my car, to find it had been clamped. I called the number to get it removed - the guy on the phone wasn't helpful, nor did he contact the clamper to get him to return - he told me to find him. As it happens, he was milling about further down the street.

I was told I had to pay £200 to get it unclamped (£125 for the clamp, £75 parking fine), despite parking after 9pm in an empty carpark. The clamper also admitted the company get a lot on fines from this location as people are unaware or confused by the conflicting signs.

I've done some googling, and come across a site which says the Road Traffic Act 2001 states that the PCN (Parking fine) must be issued and fixed to the car before it can be clamped. It also makes reference to a 15 minute grace period.

Is this true? The notice of my car being clamped was issued at 21:23, and the notice of the PCN 21:24 - clearly, the PCN was issued after the clamping, and there was no 15 minute grace period.

Further to this, my recipet was issued at 21:54 - given my 10 - 15 minute call to the company, the wait for the driver to turn up and finish eating his kebab, to take my money, and then unclamp it, I would argue there was no grace period at all.

Do I have a case here?

Thanks,

trisontana

Is this car-park owned by the council and are the clampers acting on their behalf. Or is is private land and nothing to do with the council?

JimmyTheWig

How did you pay?

London_Jim

I don't know, to be honest. I would assume it is private land, although there was nothing obvious to suggest it, so it could well be council controlled.

I paid by cash as I didn't want to give my card info out, although from reading a few websites that looks like a bad move.
What really gets me is the cost - £200 for a few mintues at night when the car park was empty!

peter_the_piper

You will find it useful to have pics of where you parked, any signs, any signs visible from your car space. Post on pepipoo.com. The only way you could get your money back is to sue the clamper and the landowner/lessee together so any info you can get will be useful. See the stickies on the other site for how to post. Google street view would also help.

esmerobbo

Looks like its been going on for a while a couple of reviewers here caught out!

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g504167-d626696-r53439503-Travelodge_Croydon_Central_Hotel-Croydon_Surrey_England.html

You would think the reception staff would warn customers!!

A bit of googling brings up a few incidents!

London_Jim

I did take a photo on my phone of the guys license plate (not sure why, I panicked!) and also of my car directly under the Travelodge sign.
Now I've read up a little on this, I want to go back, at night, and take more pictures of some of the signs...or lack of.

Thanks esmrobbo for the links - considering that so many other people have been stung by this place, could I argue based on the unclear nature of the signage - parking next to the entrance and under the huge blue illuminated sign for travelodge, why would anyone think the car park is not for them?

Has any one had any experiance with PCS (Parking Control Services?)

Driver8

Go to www.pepipoo.com and say what you have said here on there. Read the links on how to post pics up on there and put up a picture of the ticket front and back and if possible take pics of the signs.

There are some very knowledgable people on there.

peter_the_piper

esmerobbo wrote: »

Looks like its been going on for a while a couple of reviewers here caught out!

http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserReviews-g504167-d626696-r53439503-Travelodge_Croydon_Central_Hotel-Croydon_Surrey_England.html

You would think the reception staff would warn customers!!

A bit of googling brings up a few incidents!

Wonder if reception get a cut?

Hadeon

Lord_Jim - Unfortunately there are no on-site parking facilities available whatsoever at the Croydon Central Travelodge.
Whatever car-park you parked in is certainly not connected to them in any way, although granted that their 'large-sign' you refer to within that car-park would tend to give users the reasonable impression that it is.

I'm sorry that you've fallen victim to the clamping scammers & hope that with the help of 'Pepipoo', as already advised, you may be able to resolve the issue.