CP Plus - Is it a scam or shall I pay?

QuackingGamer

At the end of September I went off into London to go to a games exhibition. Had a great time and just as I got onto the Motorway I thought I would pop into Heston Services for a quick Cuppa tea before the long journey home. I do wish I hadn't gone now.

As I got out the car and locked it I had realised I had just locked my keys in the car, biggest mistake of my life. I went around Heston services asking for help on what I could do, no one had a clue I think they just wanted to rely on me calling the AA. Thanks. Anyways I got on the phone to my Dad and he kindly decided to come up and help me get into my car.

It was about 10-30 minutes till my time was up on the parking staying time. I rang up the parking company and started with the Automatic Paying option basicly putting your card info into your phone and it kept getting declined so I got put through to a real person. I had told him that I had locked my keys in my car and I wasn't going to be very long just an extra hour or so and he said that would be fine and I wouldn't have to pay.

Anyways a few weeks later I received a letter in the post from CP Plus saying that I had a fine of £90 for staying in Heston Services for too long. Now either there asking for money for the sake of it or that guy I spoke to on the phone didn't note down of my accident.

What shall I do next? Shall I just ignore them or just pay the fee? I have seen other posts on this forum about CP Plus and there letters and too basicly ignore them but I received a second letter today with the red writing and yes it is starting to scare me. Do you think it would be worth ringing them to tell them about my incident?

trisontana

Just ignore these clowns. Why are you scared of red writing? It just shows they have colour printer. That's all.

ManxRed

Its a scam, ignore all the letters, eventually they'll give up and leave you alone.

Don't contact them, it marks you out for even more attention than if you ignore them.

Kite2010

Ignore them, you tried to pay using the worlds idiotic payment system, the chances of them taking you to court is the same as QPR winning the premiership this year.

little_woman

Its not a scam, but a system to stop people from abusing the parking facilities. I look after some flats, and when we have a problem with illegal parking I use the same system and will take any "repeat" offenders to court as its now the only option as I can no longer use clampers.

I wouldn't ring them, but write a letter with an explanation. Send it registered post, and they should write back and cancel the parking ticket. You have reasonale grounds for exceeding the parking time limits. My mother used to do it all the time when she used to park at Lidls & Aldi! It was not unusual for her to take over 2 hours to shop there and she was always getting notices. A simple letter used to get them to agree to cancel it.

trisontana

Please tell what law those people are breaking when they "park illegally"? And how many people have you actually taken to court?

The_Slithy_Tove

little_woman wrote: »

Its not a scam, but a system to stop people from abusing the parking facilities. I look after some flats, and when we have a problem with illegal parking I use the same system and will take any "repeat" offenders to court as its now the only option as I can no longer use clampers.

If you use words like illegal, you will get precisely nowhere. What law has been broken? And you got your quotation marks around the wrong word. What "offence" has been committed?

If you take people to court (well, you can't, unless you're the landowner), you can only claim for losses amounting from the trespass - how much is that?

BASFORDLAD

Little Women

please post up the claims you have made in the county court and the judgements you have secured

taffy056

little_woman wrote: »

Its not a scam, but a system to stop people from abusing the parking facilities. I look after some flats, and when we have a problem with illegal parking I use the same system and will take any "repeat" offenders to court as its now the only option as I can no longer use clampers.

I wouldn't ring them, but write a letter with an explanation. Send it registered post, and they should write back and cancel the parking ticket. You have reasonale grounds for exceeding the parking time limits. My mother used to do it all the time when she used to park at Lidls & Aldi! It was not unusual for her to take over 2 hours to shop there and she was always getting notices. A simple letter used to get them to agree to cancel it.

Sorry but the only part of this that is illegal is the demand for payment that this company is making. If you actually did research on this you'll see how illegal this and other private parking companies act. To start you off on your education just google any of these

hrmc v vcs
parking eye v somerfield
vcs v ibbotson

Come back afterwards with what you've learned

HardWorker2010_2

CP Plus are SCAMMERS.

I have ignored their letters many times.

They give up and try to scam someonelse.

little_woman

The block of flats (2 floors only) have hard standing in front of the property which is for disabled access to the flats. Each flat has one parking space in the rear, and 3 spaces for visitors. The flats stand in their own land (in a village of 1,500 properties), but opposite the local shopts/restuarants. From time to time cars are parked in front of the building and left overnight, by people using the restuarants, and unable to drive home due to drinking too much. This is also directly in front of the ground floor flats front windows (which are at ground level). Also from time to time we find people who do not live in the flats park SORN cars in the parking spaces without permission.

Do you have a drive way next to your house, or a garage with hard standing out side? If I drove my car and parked it on your driveway or on the hard standing infront of your garage, wouldn't you consider that I was parking illegally?