parking charge notice - for over free time

baby2013

I am new to this site, however i need some help and guidance.

I have just received a parking notice from Town and City Parking dated 28/12/12 which I received on 2/1/13 for parking my car in the in the Windmill shopping Centre-Smethwick. The notice states my car was parked 13 minutes over the 3 hour Over Free Time. on 14/12/12. between 17:05 - 20:18, and notice states I have a charge of £70 to pay within 28 days or pay £40 by 4/1/13. ( I only received the notice on 2/1/13) and no consideration has been taking in to account of the festive postal period.

I am 8 and half months pregnant and shopping takes longer than expected for me, however on the day in question i was shopping in ASDA and had a funny turn where staff on ASDA came to my aid as I needed to sit down for a few moment before returning to my car.

They have issued photo evidence of my car entering and leaving the sites, I am worried and stressed that I have to pay this hefty fine for choosing to shop at the centre car park and over staying by 13 minutes. please advise if I should appeal against this/ or pay fee. of £40 which i do not have ( MAY I STATE THAT THERE WAS NO TICKET NOTICE LEFT ON MY CAR REGARDING THIS) please advise.

tospig

Do not pay and there is no need to appeal. simply ignore the meaningless invoice asking for your money.

Your situation is no different from every other private parking company (PPC) ticket, and a quick search of this forum will tell you all you need to know.

There really is nothing to worry about.

atilla

Get yourself back to the store befoe baby arrives and demand to see the manager and show him the nonsense you received and have him cancel the silly ticket and apologise.

But do not contact TCP, just ignore them.

HappyMJ

baby2013 wrote: »

I am new to this site, however i need some help and guidance.

I have just received a parking notice from Town and City Parking dated 28/12/12 which I received on 2/1/13 for parking my car in the in the Windmill shopping Centre-Smethwick. The notice states my car was parked 13 minutes over the 3 hour Over Free Time. on 14/12/12. between 17:05 - 20:18, and notice states I have a charge of £70 to pay within 28 days or pay £40 by 4/1/13. ( I only received the notice on 2/1/13) and no consideration has been taking in to account of the festive postal period.

I am 8 and half months pregnant and shopping takes longer than expected for me, however on the day in question i was shopping in ASDA and had a funny turn where staff on ASDA came to my aid as I needed to sit down for a few moment before returning to my car.

They have issued photo evidence of my car entering and leaving the sites, I am worried and stressed that I have to pay this hefty fine for choosing to shop at the centre car park and over staying by 13 minutes. please advise if I should appeal against this/ or pay fee. of £40 which i do not have ( MAY I STATE THAT THERE WAS NO TICKET NOTICE LEFT ON MY CAR REGARDING THIS) please advise.

Stop worrying...There is nothing to be concerned about.

You WILL get some much more threatening letters from solicitors, debt collection companies all threatening really bad things to you such as court etc. It is very important that you ignore everything and do NOT be tempted to pay anything ever.

If in the very very unlikely event you get a letter from an actual court then scan it and post a copy on here (after editing the picture to remove your details). You have a better chance at winning the lottery.

Fergie76

Surely this another case of TCP/SMART Parking/DVLA breaching the DPA as TCP ceased to exist after 3 Dec 12, no?

Bingomania

I've never posted on the boards before, but I have also just received this type of 'Notice' for an 'alleged breach of advertised terms and conditions' from Town and City Parking Ltd. They claim that a vehicle of which I am the registered keeper was involved in a contravention for being 'Over Free Time'.

Many years ago I received a proper council 'Penalty Charge Notice' and my first impression of this 'Parking Charge Notice' is that it looks very official and legal. It also seems to be written in a way to pressurise the recipient into making a quick payment in order to avoid a larger charge being levied.

This thing has really made my blood boil. I have read lots of info here on MSE, on the consumeractiongroup.co.uk site and also a few threads on the pepipoo.com site.

The standard advice seems to be to ignore these things, although I notice the CAG site has a little pop-up for every instance of the word ignore that suggests :

If you are considering ignoring a letter from a private parking company demanding money for some alleged parking incident - you should understand that this may not be the best course of action. The best thing to do will be to reply with a brief letter denying that any money is owed at all.
Ask the PPC if they have authority from their client to bring any legal action against you and are they entitled to bring a legal action in their own name.
Finally tell them that depending on their answers, you may be willing to consider their demand but you require a breakdown of the figure they are demanding and an explanation as to how the sum claimed represents their administrative costs.
If you reply to the PPC in this way, they will then understand that you are up for a fight, that you know your rights and that there will be no chance of an easy default victory if they decide to take you to court.
Write only once and then do not respond to any other demand unless they reply to you in full.

My ideal solution would be to write to them once denying any responsibility for their suggested charge and for them to notify me in writing that the matter was closed. However, I wonder if doing that sort of thing is as some folks have suggested like biting down on their fishing hook or even poking a bees nest?

Perhaps I should ask BASFORDLAD what he wrote in his letter in October?

BASFORDLAD wrote: »

I got a parking charge notice on the 1st of October

Wrote a letter advising why i wouldn't be paying and got a letter today saying they had noted my points and have canceled the invoice!!

Are the templates from CAG still well suited for post October 'alleged breaches'?

Would really appreciate some constructive advice. Thanks

Coupon-mad

atilla wrote: »

Get yourself back to the store befoe baby arrives and demand to see the manager and show him the nonsense you received and have him cancel the silly ticket and apologise.

But do not contact TCP, just ignore them.

Absolutely this! There will aso be an incident report about your collapse, baby2013, or there should be.

Complain in person, take in the piece of fake PCN rubbish plus your receipt to show the time of your visit so they can recall the incident. INSIST the Manager gets this threatening piece of rubbish cancelled immediately, right now, no excuses from him/her. And if they say the car park is owned by the Council and it's nothing to do with them, ASDA are WRONG/LYING. This is their liability and it's harassment by their agent. And as you will see when you read up on this, TCP do not even exist any more.

See this thread from today on pepipoo forums:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=75641

I am SchoolRunMum over there and tried to show the OP of that thread what they should be doing = COMPLAINING. Sadly that OP has wussed out & decided to take the 'ignore' option which is a shame. Have a look at the other two threads I linked there in post #2 which is the sort of action to take here IMHO.

And in your case, baby2013, this sort of treatment of a pregant customer JUST IS NOT ON is it? Complain to ASDA Head Office and the STore Manager personally - does he really want to lose a lucrative customer (families with young children are among the biggest spenders as he/she will know).

Coupon-mad

Bingomania wrote: »

My ideal solution would be to write to them once denying any responsibility for their suggested charge and for them to notify me in writing that the matter was closed. However, I wonder if doing that sort of thing is as some folks have suggested like biting down on their fishing hook or even poking a bees nest?

Perhaps I should ask BASFORDLAD what he wrote in his letter in October?

Are the templates from CAG still well suited for post October 'alleged breaches'?

Would really appreciate some constructive advice. Thanks

No, I can't vouch for CAG templates...can't stand CAG and their useless pop-ups and dodgy advice on this subject. Templates indeed!

Instead, see the (much more useful site) pepipoo links I have already provided above Particularly the links within that pepipoo thread that take you to 2 others). Send a pm to atilla if you want as he posts here too and he will help you to formulate a complaint (he wants more complaints to go into ASDA right now!!):

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4360565

ManxRed

Writing back is something to do if you really know what you are doing and want to play with them. It will encourage them to pester you even more than ignoring them. There is also a risk that you might write something that they could try and use against you if you are not well-versed in composing letters regarding private parking and civil law.

Basfordlad knows what he's doing by the way!

I would still recommend that you ignore.

The only other scenario where you might write is if the car is a company/hire/lease vehicle, or if the Registered Keeper is of a nervous disposition. Let us know if this is the case.

nilrem_2

atilla wrote: »

Get yourself back to the store befoe baby arrives and demand to see the manager and show him the nonsense you received and have him cancel the silly ticket and apologise.

But do not contact TCP, just ignore them.

Absolutely agree 100%

khearn

I have received a similar letters for parking 6 minutes over a free 30 minutes in a small parking area. I didn't see the sign when I parked, but apparently it is there.

I received the letter before Christmas and just wasn't around to sort it out. The charge of £100 is reduced to £50 if within 14 days, which I thought was today, but was actually 14 days from the date on their letter which works out as 3 days ago - so I have missed that. All the forums say ignore it, but the new law that came in last October makes me think I should pay.

Any advice? Really don't want to pay £100!