G24 Parking charge

elliep_2

Hi. I stayed in a local retail car park for longer than I should, the delay was caused by an extended wait at blood donors before I was able to donate. I was aware that I had overstayed the official time but thought I'd got away with it until a letter detailing a 'contractual parking charge'. It includes photographs of my car on the way in and out of the car park.

I've been charged £70, with a reduction to £50 if I pay within 14 days. This seems very high.

I accept that I did overstay my allowed time in the car park, and I don't even have the 'proper' reason of shopping in their stores but the charge seems exorbitant.

The advice on here seems to be to ignore it. Is that the best thing to do in my circumstances? if I do this then how long will it take before they stop sending me demands?
Is there any risk that I could end up paying more than £70? i.e. for court costs if they take me to court for it?

I'd like it sorted out amicably and quickly if possible, without me paying a massive bill. If I was to send them a cheque (for say £10) explaining the circumstances and offering the cheque as 'full and final settlement' and saying that by banking the cheque I will take that as their agreement that it is full and final settlement and nothing further is owed then would they be likely to accept that? Has anyone tried anything similar with them?

I do accept that I was in the wrong to overstay my welcome in the car park, but I don't accept that it is reasonable to charge £70 (or £50) for a 25 min overstay in a huge car park that was mostly empty on a Friday morning. I don't mind paying a more reasonable amount to make it all go away, but I don't want to offer that if it'll just make things worse.

Thank you so much for your help, sorry for the long post.

taffy056

You don't owe them anything, it was a free car park as its a retail park ? And any offer beyond £0.00 is to much. They will send their usual templated letters that you can just ignore, and they will get a debt collector with no powers at all to write to you asking for increased amounts of money. Eventually it will go down to £0.00 owed as they will realise you are not falling for the scam.

Well done on giving blood by the way

Lone_Ranger_2

ok firstly, stop worrying. Don't contect them it's a waste of time. Nothing will happen. You will get threatening letters but you just need to keep ignoring them. Read the threads on here, you will see there is nothing to fear from these robbers. You haven't done anything wrong and no one will take you to court.

Me 'n Tonto will sort them out for you.

elliep_2

Yes the car park is free. It's supposed to be free for 2 hours but on the paperwork I've been sent it says 3 hours / 180min. I stayed aprox 25 min over that.

I don't like the idea of getting lots of threatening letters, even if they don't have any actual legal weight to them.

How long is it likely to take for the company to decide they're not going to get any money out of me?

Is it possible that if they do pursue legal action I'll end up having to pay more than the £70 charge?

Thank you so much for your help

Coupon-mad

G24 never, ever do Court so stop worrying about this scam and ignore it. You will not be paying anything at all!

There is absolutely no point whatsoever in trying to offer them a smaller amount and why would you? Why pay a scammer? Every newbie here 'would like it sorted out amicably and quickly if possible' but that doesn't happen with a protection racket like this. A standard reply would arrive saying 'we have carefully considered your appeal but it has been unsuccessful' (even though there is no appeal).

And in writing to them you will have been gullible enough to have given them your details and indicated to them that you are taking their scam seriously - just what they want, falling into their hands and they will think 'oh, we've hooked one, just a few more letters and she will cave in'! Would you engage in responses to emails from a Nigerian Prince who told you that you had won the lottery or had inherited money from an unknown person? NOPE, you would delete the emails with a chuckle at the extortion attempt.

Same scam here only instead of a series of emails it's a series of misleading letters to ignore, that's ALL! The only difference is that because it LOOKS a bit like a parking ticket and the scammers have been allowed to be there by a reputable shop, you think there just might be something in it.

Wrong. IT'S STILL A SCAM.

They don't own the land and they cannot 'offer the parking' as such either, so they have made no loss and could not win even if they did ever suddenly have a rush of blood to the head and actually try Court.

The most that will happen is some junk mail letters that you can ignore.
No private parking company (PPC) can actually issue a real fine or penalty. Please read on...

We have so much info on here to help you understand and be ready for the letters. One click & you see all current threads here, most of which are about the 'fake PCN' scam.

Third from the top, click on 'PPC letters & threats'.

1. Watch the Watchdog clip on there, and then

2. scroll down to the pics of your fave PPC's threatograms, then

3. Play a nice game of snap with each matching templated threatogram, then

4. Tell your friends & family, colleagues, strangers, everyone! about the fake PCN scam so they never pay one.

You will know what we mean about this being a SCAM, and you will get confidence when you've seen the letters & watched the Watchdog clip.

ManxRed

elliep wrote: »

Yes the car park is free. It's supposed to be free for 2 hours but on the paperwork I've been sent it says 3 hours / 180min. I stayed aprox 25 min over that.

I don't like the idea of getting lots of threatening letters, even if they don't have any actual legal weight to them.

How long is it likely to take for the company to decide they're not going to get any money out of me?

Is it possible that if they do pursue legal action I'll end up having to pay more than the £70 charge?

Thank you so much for your help

I won't lie, you would end up paying £70 plus the court claim fee plus a few quid additional expenses, possibly £100.

However, there is more chance of me winning the lottery next weekend.

1. G24 don't ever do court to my knowledge, so you'd be the first ever.

2. Legally they don't have a leg to stand on, and they know it. There are at least three cast iron defence points in law that would win it for you comfortably (this is why they don't do court, because they know this).

3. If you submitted a defence (and we'd help you prepare it) you'd win, easily.

Relax, these jokers won't risk court, and risk exposing their tickets as completely legally unenforceable. Hundreds of people on this forum have followed this advice for years and have lived to tell the tale.

elliep_2

Thank you everyone, especially ManxRed. I'll just totally ignore it then and if it does for some unknown reason get to court I'll let you lovely people help prepare my defence and we'll prove why nobody should ever pay.

Thank you for calming me and giving me the quiet resolve that I'll need to ignore the letter and the others that will surely follow.

SodG24

Note my username

My car has received two fake PCNs from G24. The first time I got the full set of letters ( 4 or 5 if memory serves me correctly ) and the second time they gave up after the second letter. G24 are toothless and cowards - I've challenged them on here a number of times to contact me about their scam ( I even posted my mobile number ) and every time ....... complete silence !!!!! This group of scammers even break the contracts they sign up to with people like Nominet and also illegally avoid paying VAT. Just ignore them - they'll go away ( and hopefully go bust ).

Kaz110_2

So glad I found this forum. Received one of these letters over the weekend after leaving my car on a Sports Direct Car Park to visit another shop after staff recommended it when they didn't have what I needed in store.

Will just file the letter and plan what I can spend the money on instead!

A big thank you to everyone on this post and the forum for putting my mind at ease.

ManxRed

Another satisfied customer! Don't forget to tell everyone you know, knowledge is power!

vax2002

IF they ever do send court papers we will supply you more than a defence, for they will be paying you £1500 for harassment at the same hearing.
The defence we supply will strike out any claim in 10 seconds but they will be unable to strike out the harassment counter claim.
So I would say, will they take you to court ? I would hope so, it will pay for you a holiday.