wrongly given private parking ticket by MET parking services

April5138

Hi everyone, I'm looking for a bit of advice after receiving a parking fine from MET for allegedly parking in a McDonalds car park all day - I did no such thing!

Basically I used the McDs drive thru on this Saturday morning for breakfast and in the evening with a friend for dinner. At no time did I park up! I liturally drove round the drive thru facility and left.

About a week after I received a letter from Met Parking stating I owed them £100 (£50 if paid in 2 weeks) for parking in this car park all day. They showed two pictures of my car entering at 7.49am (my first visit) and leaving at 4.58pm (my second visit).

I immediately rang MET's customer services, a lady told me to write in the appeal section all that I had said and someone would look at the CCTV footage. I done this thinking all would be ok.

Now Saturday just gone I received another letter saying they had the pictures of my car going in and out at the times stated as before and I would have to provide proof for an investigation to be opened or else pay up. Well of course I did not keep the receipts from McDonalds so I asked a friend to put in writing that I had been with her for much of the day with my car outside her house and that we drove together to the McDs that evening. She also put her contact details. I too wrote saying how unfair this was that they had not even bothered to check the CCTV footage etc etc.

So I posted that off and am waiting to see what happens.

I'm quite worried that they are just not going to check the footage, what can I do if they come back to me again saying I must pay?? This is horrible, I wouldn't mind if I had done it!!

Has anyone else experienced this or have any advice for me on what my next steps should be?

Thank you

April x

MichaelCR

Ohh for the love of god...

PPC - Private Parking Charge, This is not a FINE, Please do not refer to it as a FINE it is mealy an unenforceable invoice.

MET Parking - Private Parking Company, No Authority to issue Fines, Penalties, Or anything that has any Legal/Lawful Standing. In fact they only issue a Private Parking charge, Which is basically bog roll, In fact, I'd file such crap under B for Bin.

The only two bodies in the united kingdom that can issue a 'Fine' or 'Penalty' are the Police, And 'Local Council Authority', In which case by law you have to answer to.

As for your post, There is no such thing as an appeal process, There is no external body that processes appeals, So why would they write off your chance to pay them £60 ?

Why you've even bothered communicating with them is beyond me, If a Nigerian scammer emailed you asking you for money would you reply ? Of course not.

Simple Advice...

IGNORE.
IGNORE.
IGNORE.
IGNORE.
IGNORE.

P.s not being patronizing, But could you have not of read the various thousands of threads on these forums where the only advice given is to ignore, even the sticky's at the top of the forum have this advice...

Coupon-mad

Seconded.

Welcome to MSE April but I cannot understand why you think it's a parking fine and why on earth you responded to the scam. Especially when the info is clear on our sticky threads - you could even just Google 'private parking ticket' and you would have learnt that it's a con.

The Watchdog clip was even all about a MET fake PCN in a MCDonalds car park, what more info do you need! The clip is on one of our sticky threads 'welcome, please read before posting' near the top of the forum. Click on the blue link at the top of this page (the one I mention in my signature). Then you will see the sticky threads at the top.

All you have to do is ignore their scamograms; letters which are shown in clear pictures on our top sticky 'PPC letters, what to expect'.

'MET customer services' my @rse!! :rotfl:

bromsgrovebarry

This is so common its laughable. The dodgy technology employed by these scammers could never be used as evidence in court. That is why all you will receive is a series of empty threats. I deliberately visit some car parks twice in a day if I am going past just so I can get a Mickey Mouse invoice.

April5138

bromsgrovebarry wrote: »

This is so common its laughable. The dodgy technology employed by these scammers could never be used as evidence in court. That is why all you will receive is a series of empty threats. I deliberately visit some car parks twice in a day if I am going past just so I can get a Mickey Mouse invoice.

Thanks for your reply, so do you think I should just ignore them from now on and eventually they will stop sending me letters? I wish I had looked this up sooner and not responded in the first place, I've only ever got council parking tickets so presumed this as legitimate!!

trisontana

Just look upon the letters they send you as just another sort of junk mail.

bondy_lad

yes,,,simply ,,ignore absolutely everything from and related to these scammers,,,they want your money,, do not give it to them.full stop.despite idol threats,,ignoreeeeeee.theydont do court,as they know they will lose hands down every time.relax,chill,feet up,glass of wine.

bromsgrovebarry

Please ignore these scammers. Nothing will happen apart from receiving a load of comical threats. Its just like having a child threatening to blow your head off with a toy gun. Contacting this scum only encourages them. Having said that, I often ignore my own advice and send an irate letter threatening all kinds of menaces just because I love winding up scammers. Pathetic I know, but its harmless fun.

Kite2010

Hopefully that is another repeat customer that McDonalds have lost.

Ignore Met, they are useless, the technology they use in the cameras is rubbish

The_Slithy_Tove

April5138 wrote: »

do you think I should just ignore them from now on and eventually they will stop sending me letters?

Yes.

If you feel it worth it, it would be useful to have a word with the manager of said McD's, and pointing out to him how the parking company they emply is harrassing their customers and putting them off from going there, as they are clearly misusing the system, and have no interest whatsoever in enforcing reasonable parking measures. Tell him he has lost a customer, and don't take any b******t from him about how it's nothing to do with him.

April5138

The_Slithy_Tove wrote: »

Yes.

If you feel it worth it, it would be useful to have a word with the manager of said McD's, and pointing out to him how the parking company they emply is harrassing their customers and putting them off from going there, as they are clearly misusing the system, and have no interest whatsoever in enforcing reasonable parking measures. Tell him he has lost a customer, and don't take any b******t from him about how it's nothing to do with him.

I think I will do that, McDs should know that they have now lost my custom due to this - I'd be scared to use that drive thru again anyway in case I got another fine (sorry invoice) !!

Thanks for your advice, I feel better about the whole situation now. I will just ignore all further correspondence from them.