Parking Eye - My Story (sofar)

D-Fend

Sorry to drag this thread up again, but had a parking notice from these clowns the other day. I did overstay by a few minutes in a local retail outlet but honestly never realised there was a limit. Must admit it stressed me out at first, but having found this forum I feel fine about it and a lot of the replies on here have made me chuckle and laugh about it.

Am quite content to keep ignoring any more letters from Barking Eye, but what does worry me is that a previous poster has mentioned phone calls. I'm ex-directory but can they still get my number from the DVLA? Letters is one thing, but I don't want me or Mrs D-Fend being harrassed over the phone. And what would be my best course of action if I do actually recieve a stamped court order?

Honestly, it's not about the money. It appears they're a bunch of leeches who prey on vulnerable people and it winds me up something rotten.

One last thing. If these companies are such scammers then why do supermarkets, retail outlets, etc etc, put them in charge of 'running' their car parks?

as5606

Because they install the kit for free and then make money off mugs like us. Supermarkets get what they want and it costs them nothing.

Mine have gone away now

fisherjim

D-Fend wrote: »

One last thing. If these companies are such scammers then why do supermarkets, retail outlets, etc etc, put them in charge of 'running' their car parks?

Why do you hold supermarkets in such high regard, the very people that pass off horse meat as beef, the same companies that regularly appear on consumer watch programmes for scamming customers with multi-buy special offers that are actually more expensive!
Or sale items that were increased in price before they dropped them back down again.
When I received a PCN at a retail park I went straight into Currys to complain, their staff told me "They will chase you for the money, they own the car park you will have to pay up or else" what utter BS.
I think they are all the same as each other when it comes to making money, sorry please don't be so naive.

D-Fend

fisherjim wrote: »

Why do you hold supermarkets in such high regard, the very people that pass off horse meat as beef, the same companies that regularly appear on consumer watch programmes for scamming customers with multi-buy special offers that are actually more expensive!

I think they are all the same as each other when it comes to making money, sorry please don't be so naive.

I don't hold supermarkets in high regard and I'm not being naive. The point I was trying to make (obviously not very well) was why are legalised cowboys like Parking Eye allowed to get away with what they do by the powers that be?

Guys_Dad

D-Fend wrote: »

I don't hold supermarkets in high regard and I'm not being naive. The point I was trying to make (obviously not very well) was why are legalised cowboys like Parking Eye allowed to get away with what they do by the powers that be?

Because what they are doing is not illegal per se.

fisherjim

D-Fend wrote: »

I don't hold supermarkets in high regard and I'm not being naive. The point I was trying to make (obviously not very well) was why are legalised cowboys like Parking Eye allowed to get away with what they do by the powers that be?

Sorry did not mean to offend you, I keep asking myself the same question everyday and it just winds me up (as you can see)!:mad:

Coupon-mad

D-Fend wrote: »

I don't hold supermarkets in high regard and I'm not being naive. The point I was trying to make (obviously not very well) was why are legalised cowboys like Parking Eye allowed to get away with what they do by the powers that be?

It goes like this:

Supermarket Head Office thinks 'we need someone to make sure the disabled bays in our car parks are not abused'. OR they are opening a new store where the planning consent is conditional upon them having 'parking enforcement' (very common I think).

So Supermarket Head Office contacts the BPA or some firms directly. And the PPC chap turns up in a suit, with the spiel, a bit like a double glazing salesman auditioning for The Apprentice! And the icing on the cake for the Supermarket is when they hear 'PPC Suit' say 'we can do that for free' or even 'we can give you a cut of the profits' or sometimes 'we can make you look good by giving a tiny % to your chosen charity'. And look, we are very professional, we are BPA members, we have a website and signs and all!

Great, thinks Supermarket Head Office, 'you're on!' And they believe that they have got a free contract with a legit company (because the PPC is a member of the BPA and can show their accreditation). And they believe that the firm are involved in 'parking management' and will look after their disabled bays (and Parent & Child = rubbish pointless gimmick bays too). In short, the Supermarkets have been fooled into thinking this is a service they need, they shake hands with the rat and he's in.

In reality, the PPC only cares about money but they never show their true colours to the Supermarket. Parking management is never on the agenda and nor is disability law, they have no clue and just bung up some signs which breach the Equality Act among other things.

in reality the Supermarket has taken on a protection racket where the victims will be their most vulnerable customers, or those with more money than sense. Whichever it is, those customers are going to feel stung and may never return! And in fact, the BPA is not a regulator, just a members' club which the PPCs pay to join and which acts purely in the intersts of those members, to maximise their profits out of the pockets of Supermarket customers. But astonishingly, Supermarkets have not yet realised this at all, none of it - they even believe that these scammers can fine people and have swallowed the whole spiel about Blue Badges being needed in disabled bays (wrong) and that the PPC will issue valid 'charges' (wrong) and that it's a good thing to 'police' the use of the car park with cameras or a goon in a high vis jacket (wrong). They have no idea about the customers they are losing to this scam nor do they know about the threatograms that follow a fake PCN either.

Complaints should be flooding in to Store Managers across the Country and to their Head Offices, pointing out the harassment and threatening letters that these companies use against the customers.

Enough complaints and the PPCs would be out the door because there is no reason why most stores could not simply oversee these bays themselves - and if they did they'd do a darn better job and would have a customer service viewpoint that no PPC can ever have. Look at the trouble a Supermarket can get into, in trying to get out of a contract with Parking Eye once they've let them in. Somerfield realised what was happening to their customers but the protection racket was set in stone because some idiots at Head Office had shaken hands with a PPC rat:

Parking Eye/Somerfield judgment

I share your anger!




P.S. In the phone calls cases (rare) it is NOT the DVLA that gives out that info. They sell the name and address only (bad enough of course). But debt collectors can trawl some credit files and they can find phone numbers recorded by your Bank or any other lender for example, as part of your customer info. That's how scammers like Roxburghe get phone numbers.

D-Fend

fisherjim wrote: »

Sorry did not mean to offend you, I keep asking myself the same question everyday and it just winds me up (as you can see)!:mad:

No worries fisherjim, no offence taken. I appreciate all of the comments, opinions and advice, but remember I'm a newbie so you have to be very nice to me ;-).

To be honest I guess I am naive when it comes to not being able to understand why parasites like Parking Eye are allowed to get away with preying on vulnerable people (I prefer the word vulnerable to gullible). I would've probably coughed up to them just to get them off my back were it not for the advice I've found on this forum. It would've been hassle and stress I could do without but now I'm calm about it, so I can understand why others fall victim to this scam.

Like you I get extremely wound up about it. Others on here have stated the way these firms operate is perfectly legal, yet words like 'harassment' and 'threatening' seem to crop up fairly often.

HO87

Hi D-Fend

Your assessment isn't far off the mark. The essential problem is that many of us naturally tend to put "moral" and "legal" together and inevitably blur the two. When describing the actions of PPC's as a whole as "legal" that is a judgement based solely on legal definitions and contains no moral assessment whatsoever.

It may be legal for a company to make its profit from the so-called wrong-doing of others but is it moral - especially when there is no incentive for them to deter or prevent the same wrong-doing when to do so would be the easiest - and cost effective - thing for them to do? Indeed, it is the legal duty of intending claimants at court to minimise their loss at every stage. Don't see much evidence of PPC's doing that. In fact quite the contrary.

loopylulu123

Just wondering what your story is so far, I'm in the same boat and have so far ignored . Cheers :-)