Parking Eye - My Story (sofar)

robredz

Anything they put in their invoice/threatograms is carp, so just ignore the muppets, and have a good day, secure in the knowledge that they have wasted £2.50 plus postage, on a phishing expedition. You wouldn't reply to a Nigerian 419er offering the world, these are no different.

give_them_FA

Actually, I am getting the impression that our friend rafraf03 is very much more than holding his own here. His missus may not be quite so strong but he deffo don't look like being about to part with any of his hard-earned to scamming scumbags! Am I right?

rafraf03

give_them_FA wrote: »

Actually, I am getting the impression that our friend rafraf03 is very much more than holding his own here. His missus may not be quite so strong but he deffo don't look like being about to part with any of his hard-earned to scamming scumbags! Am I right?

Absolutely! And may I point that this is not about the money, but a question of principle: using underhand tactics to prey on the un-informed at best or vulnerable at worst is not something I appreciate.

I have already told quite a few (inteligent and educated) people who weren't aware that these invoices weren't enforcable in a court of law and appreciate this valuable information.

I am also hoping that telling my story might help other. I can see (by looking at Mrs rafraf03) that this whole process is not easy to go through: receiving a debt collector's letter is not something you want if you spend a lot of effort keeping your record clean!!!

That's basically it!

Thanks for reading by the way

gregg91

I find myself in the same boat, just had my second letter from them the day before the "reduced amount" is supposed to be paid.

I was parked in a retail car park in my university town for 2 hours 16 minutes on a 2 hour limit, & got a nice scary letter with a picture of my car, aha.

I'm so glad I had a look on here & saw all the forums, as my instant reaction when I got it was to "appeal" & play the "ohhhh but i'm a poor student & it was only 16 minutes, please forgive me!" card. Felt a little stupid after reading all the posts all over the net, didn't do it though!

I read somewhere else about a guy who replied to all their letters acknowledging that he was the registered keeper of the car but telling them to take it up with the driver. I wonder if that is a better approach, or is it just better to ignore them? Just looking for some reassurance I suppose, since it is D-Day for paying my reduced "Parking Charge Notice", hahaha.

vax2002

The pundits on here are some of the country's foremost experts in the private parking ticket defence.
If the advice is to IGNORE, that is because that is the magic bullet that beats them every time.
There is no better way.
Trust us "!

give_them_FA

Well, there is "advanced" whereby you can set them up to face a harassment charge; but vax is right, "ignore" is the default setting which is easiest (and cheapest) to follow and achieves the desired result.

give_them_FA

Oh, and Gregg, had you been silly enough to make the reduced payment, all you would have had was a letter back saying "thanks for your payment but it was too late, can we have the rest now".

It's a scam within a scam, really.

gregg91

Yeah I imagine so!

I suppose that's how people fall for it though, I was only googling for grounds to appeal when I found out about it being a scam.

So yeah, thanks for you help

Looking forward to my next nice threatening letter now..!

rafraf03

Hi All,

It's been a while and quite a lot has happened.
Since my last update, we received a further letter from Dreaded (the debt collector ). Then, they decided to step it up and cold called us! As I was at work, Mrs rafraf picked up the phone and discussion went something like this:"

Mrs R: Hello
Dreaded: Hello, is this Mrs R?
Mrs R: Yes?
Dreaded: Can you please confirm the first line of your address?
Mrs R: Errm, who am I speaking too?
Dreaded: This is Dreaded
Mrs R: Never heard of you. And since you are calling me, you must have my details.
Dreaded: errrm yes of course: are you still living at [our address]?
Mrs R: Yes
Dreaded: Have you received a letter from us recently?
Mrs R: I don't think so (Note that up until now, we don't know what he/she rings about...)
Dreaded: Ok, we'll send you another one.

Now I don't believe we received anything further until this morning, when we received a letter from a law firm (let's call them Scaremonger LLC). They tell us that Private Eye has contacted us repeatedly (well yes I would go as far as saying harrassed us...). And for the scaremongering part, they say that PE May (woooo) instruct them to recover the amount (that has yet again increased by the way) via a county court.

From what I've read in here, I haven't seen PE go as far as that. A bit unnerving, but I'll soldier on!

Till next time !

Coupon-mad

The top thread shows you pics of the letters used by these companies, including the 'solicitor letters'. Your letter will be on the top thread - there is no need to hide the name here as we know the letter chains and hopefully so should you by now. You are ready for and able to predict each letter I hope?

Also that thread tells you about cases where the debt collector phones and how to have fun with them. Or you shoud just tell them to stop contacting you as the alleged debt is denied and this continued unsolicited pestering is a criminal offence, namely harassment, and you will sue them for damages.

Phone down.