Amtrac Security

VickyEJT

Hi all.
I have had 2 parking tickets from Amtrac Security in less than a month.
This is in the Trevithick car park behind Argos in Camborne, Cornwall. It's privately owed.
First one was because they had changed the sign from being "free all day with blue badge" to "max stay 3 hours", which was not clearly shown etc.. I did the bad thing and wrote to them. But am going to ignore now as they won't accept that they changed the sign without notice to anybody. And didn't have a chance to take pictures of the before/after of the sign.
The second one was because this new sign (it was doing the 2 hours free thing, which ended on the 1st Nov, so they have a grotty blue sign in place now, instead of the nice looking 2 hours free one) says "blue badge holders free, badge and time badge must be displayed". Now my issue is, one would assume that would mean free all day? It does not apparently, hence another stupid ticket. I looked on the BPA website and they don't seem to be registered there.
Anywho, I'm going to ignore this one, but have managed to take some pictures of the sign this time.
What I wanted to know was who makes the sign for the car park?
The owner or Amtrac? And who can I complain to about the sign? As I'm guessing quite a few disabled people will probably have been issued tickets and will probably pay willy-nilly.
Thanks
Vicky

taffy056

Just ignore thm as these invoices are speculative and they are scammers. Doesn't make any difference who makes the sign but it would be somebody like this Bonco Signs Ltd

RENEGADE_2

Hello Vicky
You can attribute the artwork to the parking company but the final cut is also approved by the landowner. It's a joint scheme, and the supposed "collection agencies" that may later get involved are also in on the scam. Nothing to complain about - just help spread the word that the whole thing is fake, and make sure nobody pays or even replies to those pigs.

Coupon-mad

VickyEJT wrote: »

I have had 2 parking tickets from Amtrac Security in less than a month.
This is in the Trevithick car park behind Argos in Camborne, Cornwall. It's privately owed.
First one was because they had changed the sign from being "free all day with blue badge" to "max stay 3 hours", which was not clearly shown etc.. I did the bad thing and wrote to them.

But am going to ignore now as they won't accept that they changed the sign without notice to anybody. And didn't have a chance to take pictures of the before/after of the sign.
The second one was because this new sign (it was doing the 2 hours free thing, which ended on the 1st Nov, so they have a grotty blue sign in place now, instead of the nice looking 2 hours free one) says "blue badge holders free, badge and time badge must be displayed". Now my issue is, one would assume that would mean free all day? It does not apparently, hence another stupid ticket. I looked on the BPA website and they don't seem to be registered there.

Doesn't make them have any authority but they are current BPA AOS members:

http://www.britishparking.co.uk/AOS-Members

''KBT Cornwall t/as Armtrac Security Services & MBC Parking Solutions''

Ignoring them is OK, but I should tell you that I think they are a PPC who do occasionally try a rare Small Claim, if they think you are a pushover. So just ignore their letters now you have stated your case, and 99.9% of cases will just result in the usual junk mail linked in the 'PPC letter chains' sticky thread. Look at it now for letter previews, it's currently 5th from top of the forum.

VickyEJT wrote: »

What I wanted to know was who makes the sign for the car park?

Armtrac provide the signs after discussion with the landowner.

VickyEJT wrote: »

And who can I complain to about the sign? As I'm guessing quite a few disabled people will probably have been issued tickets and will probably pay willy-nilly.

You could send copies of the correspondence to your MP (why not?!) and Trading Standards at the local Council (by snail mail is best because any phone calls & emails to 'Trading Standards' go to a national 'Consumer fob-off centre'). And the local press as well. And the landowner of course. Do NOT bother for one minute with the useless Citizen's Advice Bureau as they have biased/uninformed advice on their system about private parking tickets (going back to when a PPC owner had influence there as an 'adviser' I understand).

And you could report the signage flaws to the BPA too as they are only a Trade Body but can invoke sanctions. Also to the DVLA - send them both a copy of the sign and the tickets and state you feel that this signage doesn't meet the requirements in the BPA Code.

Email, with pictures, making it clear this is your own ticket and where the car park is:

[EMAIL="mike.butler@dvla.gsi.co.uk"]mike.butler@dvla.gsi.co.uk[/EMAIL]

We have all reported PPCs to him and some action has been taken. It's always good for a newbie to send a genuine individual complaint from an email addy the DVLA haven't got marked down as an 'angry MSEer'.

Don't panic if the letters you receive from Armtrac and their debt collectors are just the usual threatograms shown in the sticky.

Please could you update this thread with anonymised photos/scans of the fake PCNs and the letters you get as we do need to know whether Armtrac have amended the usual threatograms in the light of the Protection of Freedoms Act. Need to see what the small print says as there may be breaches to report!

You will need to break the links before posting them in a reply here whilst you are a newbie. Just put a gap after the 'http' and then post your reply here so we can see the tickets (cover personal refs) and also please show us your signage picture with a broken link too.

Were both incidents actually in October?