Apcoa and roxburghe

paul5959

I agree withHalf_way, I did send a letter to the Public Relations Manager at EMA and sent acopy of my letter to my MP to let him know of this harassment thinking he wouldmaybe make political gain of it, but no, he got in touch with the airport andthey promised to stop the action, and they did.

Coupon-mad

Well done for taking operfectly reasonable but strong action to get this harassment stopped! Also your complaint will have raised the issue as a potential problem with EMA Managers which is a good thing, maybe they will take a closer look at the whole fake PCN threats if they get enough complaints.

Half_way

paul5959 wrote: »

I agree withHalf_way, I did send a letter to the Public Relations Manager at EMA and sent acopy of my letter to my MP to let him know of this harassment thinking he wouldmaybe make political gain of it, but no, he got in touch with the airport andthey promised to stop the action, and they did.

Again well done But will the airport do anything to make sure that nobody else gets harrased/made to feel like they should pay good money afeter bad?
The only real solution would be to remove APCOA from the site.

As for people dropping off/stopping in the worng place there are a few options open:
Have the airport roads adopted by North West Leicestershire district council, so it can be properly policed
Re-instate the free drop off area, you used to get 15 minutes free, they stopped it because of so called "abuse" ( or after being fed some clap trap from a PPC)
The old system was quite simple and effective upon entering the drop offf/short stay car park you got a ticket at the entrance, upon leaving you put your ticket into a machine and if you were 15 minutes or under the charge was zero, you then went back to your car, and at the exit you put the ticket in the slot and the barier would lift.
I(f you were over 15 minutes then there was a small reasonable ( but not cheap) fee to pay.
but alas they scrapped this after the system was apparently abused.

taffy056

How can you abuse that system ? It was changed probably on the insistence of the ppc as they couldn't really issue illegal penalties on a pay on exit system. We all know that the problems only start when the scammers turn up. I was in Milford Haven Tesco today, it was busy but no ppc and it was running just dandy, saw no reason to have a scammer there. So a busy car park running fine without a scammer in sight.

mackyboy_2

paul5959 wrote: »

On Saturday 14th April 2012 I flew out of East Midlands Airport. I was dropped off in a side street close to the terminal building and returned on 25th being picked up at the same point, a safe area I have used for several years without a problem. We were driven and collected by a relative.

On my return home I was faced with a parking enforcement notice demanding £100.00 with a 50pc discount if I paid within 14days and a similar notice 10 days later.

I then went onto several forums only to discover that I wasn't on my own and that many law abiding travellers were experiencing the same problems, many were scared as to what would become of them. I am reliably informed that the airport was private land and therefore I hadbroken no laws. So, on what I saw as good advice both from the forums and legal professionals known to me, ignored the notices. But the problem didn't go away.

Oh no! on 13th August I returned from a few days away to discover 2 Parking Enforcement Notices from Roxburghe Debt Collectors each demanding £100 plus £48 totalling £148 on each account with no explanation as to how this figure was arrived at. Since then I am having phone calls every day. I told the caller not to ring again as I considered it harassment and I would report it as such to the appropriate authority, the caller informed me that once a day was not harassment and that they would proceed to take legal action against me.

Having taken the matter up unofficially with amember of staff at East Midlands Airport, I was informed that APCOA had been tasked with the roll of improving road safety on the site, but as I see it,road safety was not an issue, on the contrary the car was in a safe area, furthermore you have to stop the car and get out of it in order to read the notice. Then it's not that clear.

The car used to obtain photographic evidence has been seen and photographed several times in the exact spot just to catch unwary drivers pulling up and stopping where I am alleged to have stopped, so APCOA are not by any stretch of the imagination improving road safety on the airport roads, but infact, neglecting it by just parking up hour after hour. I wonder if these cowboys were wheel clampers before it was outlawed?

I have 2 points to make.

1. Is EMA making so much money out of the traveling public that they are using scare tactics by proxy to deter people from using the airport?

2. Is it beyond the scope that at least one member of this forum do something about these unprincipledcompanies, who I am told are under investigation over its tactics

Paul5959 age 74 trying to enjoy a well earned retirement

Hi did you pay this and if so, did you get a refund, and if not - would you like one?

mackyboy_2

Hi, I would like to know if anyone on this forum who has paid any enforcement charge at east Midlands Airport has ever received any type of refund or compensation? Thanks

ManxRed

I doubt it. Once you pay its pretty much game over.

I've seen some examples where someone has paid this in respect of parking in a retail store and they've sent such strong complaints to the retailer that they have coughed up a refund, but its rare, and in the instance of an airport I can't see the airport owner particularly caring about refunding anyone.

The parking company certainly won't.

Half_way

you could try writing to the airport, but as above once paid its pretty much game over.
On the plus side at least you now know about the private parking industry so you shouldnt get stung again, and make sure that you tell your freinds/family etc etc so they are PPC aware as well.

The only way to get a refund would be if your vehie was a hire/lease car and the lease company took the money from yuor account as a fine/penalty.

Coupon-mad

mackyboy wrote: »

Hi, I would like to know if anyone on this forum who has paid any enforcement charge at east Midlands Airport has ever received any type of refund or compensation? Thanks

Only if they made a successful small claim - same as any clampers ever were, they don't do refunds.