Parkingeye ticket after wife taken to hospital

Donethat_2

My wife recently collapsed near a Morrison's shop car park. An Ambulance had to be called and she was taken to hospital.

The car she had been driving had, not unsurprisingly, been left in the car park. I went to collect it after having spent sometime with my wife in hospital ensuring she was going to be ok. The car was not the priority at that particular moment.

Parkingeye issued a ticket, fair enough they weren't to know. I did write to them explaining in detail the situation. They did not except this and want more evidence. I have now suggested that they check with the local Ambulance station and East Surrey Hospital. I have also informed them I won't be paying their charge and that if they wish to take it to court I would be happy to present our case.

Do these companies have to be quite so insensitive?

Donethat

ChrisEvanson

If you had read up on here before writing in, you would have known that the best advice is to ignore any demands, don't contact them, don't appeal, don't do anything. This involves no effort on your part, apart from opening their 3 letters and having the resolve to stick to your guns.

Ranger8

Ignore it !

bargepole

Donethat wrote: »

... Do these companies have to be quite so insensitive? ...

Yes they do - all they are interested in is getting the cash out of your pocket and into theirs.

Don't bother communicating with them any more, you are taking this far too seriously. They have given you a meaningless and unenforceable invoice, and anyway PE have never been known to chance their arm in court.

Hope your wife is OK now, btw.

retireby50

Donethat wrote: »

Do these companies have to be quite so insensitive?

Given the normal behaviour of private parking companies not rejecting your appeal outright and actually asking for evidence is showing a (relatively) high degree of sensitivity.....;)

Or perhaps they just need 100% proof of who the driver was!

Ignore, then sue for harassment or go to the press......

Half_way

complain to morrisons, state that you wont be paying the charge as the amount is a penalty charge/fine and prvate companys have no right to issue fines/penaltys.
Wait for more letters to arrive, tell morrisons that if they do not stop / do not instruct thier agents for whose actions they ( morrisons) are liable for you will be taking action against them (in the small claims court) for harrasment by one of their contractors/agents, as they (Morisons) are liable for the actions of thier agents, in this case parking eye

you may also want to get the local paper invovled as well, and make sure that you tell them that the charges are ilegal as private companies can not issue fines/penaltys, and it may also be worth mentioning the recent VCS court case.

andrew-the-cat

Ignore it, don't appeal, there is no appeals process. They don't care what happened to your wife, they just want your money. The only way that these companies ever cancel their parking charges in such circumstances is if they are brought to the attention of the media, eg newspapers.

give_them_FA

Yes this sounds like a good story for the local press. Newspapers (particularly local ones) are not very clued up about these companies so see if you can persuade them that they are just scammers... you could direct them here...

Certainly do not have any more truck with the idiots at P.E. You could also raise merry hell with Morrisons asking why they tolerate a company like this in the car park..

As has been said, Parking Eye will attempt to scam you but if you were hoping for a court case, you will have to be the one who sues THEM, as that is the only way it will happen.

Donethat_2

Wow Thanks for all the support.

Sadly I didn't come here before responding originally. They have had my final response now.

Anything else will be ignored.

My wife is on the mend though it will be a little while yet before she's back up to speed.

vax2002

Balls to parking eye, ignore the impersonation of authority scam and any silly letters they send pretending to be solicitors and debt collectors and put the time in to caring for what really matters, your wife.

give_them_FA

It's OK. Like most of their victims, you assumed that a glossy presentation meant you were dealing with a reputable company. Now you know you are not.

Never pay any private parking tickets no matter what. And tell your friends.