G24 and CCS Collect

dpooley85

Hi all, just need some advice to put my wifes mind at rest. Shes a worrier and i'm not and told her to ignore a parking notice she got from g24 over a month ago. I read all the relevant forums and the overall feeling was to ignore it as it is not enforceable and just hope you are silly enough to pay up.

My wife drops me off and picks me up from the same retail park every monday and when we got the ticket it only showed her entering in the morning and leaving in the evening. Clearly a wind up and fixing by g24 to generate revenue. I have stuck to my guns and refuse to pay them and have ignored the notices so far as they are apparently not enforceable but now have a debt collection letter from ccs collect to either pay up or they 'may' takle further action.

Any help or advice appreciated.

SodG24

G24 are absolute scum !!!! Note my username - I've ignored two sets of invoices from them

Let's list a set of facts about this almost criminal company :

1. They break BPA rules as they don't offer a 40% discount for early payment. Their charges are £95 reduced to £75 - not even close to 40%.

2. They avoid paying VAT yet they offer a VATable service. Look at your original invoice - no VAT breakdown. So they are cheating you and I the taxpayers out of money.

3. They broke their contract with Nominet ( the people who manage UK domain names ). When you register a domain name as a company you have to give a proper postal address not a PO Box. G24 gave a PO Box. When challenged by Nominet they gave a false address. It was only after a threat to have g24.co.uk suspended that they provided a proper address.

4. They don't answer complaints ( that said nor do the BPA who are in bed with these criminals ).

Scum, scum and scum who are easily ignored and never do court.

Coupon-mad

dpooley85 wrote: »

Hi all, just need some advice to put my wifes mind at rest. Shes a worrier and i'm not and told her to ignore a parking notice she got from g24 over a month ago. I read all the relevant forums and the overall feeling was to ignore it as it is not enforceable and just hope you are silly enough to pay up.

My wife drops me off and picks me up from the same retail park every monday and when we got the ticket it only showed her entering in the morning and leaving in the evening. Clearly a wind up and fixing by g24 to generate revenue. I have stuck to my guns and refuse to pay them and have ignored the notices so far as they are apparently not enforceable but now have a debt collection letter from ccs collect to either pay up or they 'may' takle further action.

Any help or advice appreciated.

Sit her down to read these replies. Like all the other posters on this board, she has a fake PCN.

The whole scam of fake PCNs relies firstly on people's ignorance of the fact that a random private company can't fine anyone, and secondly on their natural fear of parking tickets and the escalating costs/bailiff scenario. So PPCs copy the look of a real parking ticket and - hey presto! - the cash rolls in from victims who know no better.

This is not a penalty at all. It's rubbish, there are no bailiffs letters, just debt collector standard template threatograms (all hot air, we can tell you this for certain).

Tick off the threatening letters as you get them, here.

Watchdog clip with expert Solicitor's opinion here.

Barrister's opinion on a legal Q&A website here.

Recent Auto Express article here.

The letters are actually quite funny when they arrive at the address of someone who knows it's all hogwash and not a real parking ticket at all.

My 18 year old niece has EIGHT fake PCNs so far and laughs & texts me every time she gets one. She is just a new driver, a teenager, and she knows this is all a con like a series of phishing emails.

Ignore them, it's perfectly safe, nothing happens except the letters.

Just to let your wife know we know what we are talking about, we also have posters here -and on pepipoo forums as well - who collect fake PCNs for fun and to cost the scammers money.

I would happily collect more fake PCNs than the 2 that I already have for Supermarket overstays (more than an hour overstays, both times when shopping at busy times). Plus I have a nice collection of amusing/alarmist debt collector letters which I carry in my handbag to show friends & colleagues if the subject crops up! :rotfl:

The_Slithy_Tove

dpooley85 wrote: »

My wife drops me off and picks me up from the same retail park every monday and when we got the ticket it only showed her entering in the morning and leaving in the evening. Clearly a wind up and fixing by g24 to generate revenue.

Absolutely! So easy to leave the software on its default settings which will do this, rather than fixing it. It's clearly a deliberate act, we see such occurrences so often.

Over on Pepipoo, the user Gan has a short, sweet appeal for such events: http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?s=&showtopic=76361&view=findpost&p=780157

Somehow or other I managed to visit a G24 mis-managed car park twice yesterday, and definitely did not return within their 1-hour no-return limit. I now await their fake charge, so I can have some fun.

Fergie76

The_Slithy_Tove wrote: »

Absolutely! So easy to leave the software on its default settings which will do this, rather than fixing it. It's clearly a deliberate act, we see such occurrences so often.

The authorities should take this kind of incident more seriously, as this to me us fraud and misrepresentation.

If I done it in any other circumstance, I'm sure plod would be me at my door asking a few questions.

dpooley85

Hi all, thanks for all your replies so far, it told her it was nothing to worry about as i could easily print a ticket and stick on to random cars in the street and the ticket we had is unenforceable. Also its for £50 and not worth taking someone to court for that.

sapper0

Dear All. My wife received a CPCN from G24 in November after we over stayed the 3hrs limit by 20 minutes at Meadowhall Retail Park one evening on a visit to Cineworld. Having read all the forum posts on these blaggers we have studiously ignored all correspondance. We have just received a Yellow headed Notice of Intended Action from CCS dated the 1st, it didn't arrive until the 7th, giving us until the 8th to pay up. I fully intend to ignore this as well but my wife is getting a bit concerned about a baliff turning up on the door step. Can you give us some reassurance please that we are doing the right thing in treating these vermin with the contempt they deserve and ignoring them. Thanks

Coupon-mad

sapper0 wrote: »

Dear All. My wife received a CPCN from G24 in November after we over stayed the 3hrs limit by 20 minutes at Meadowhall Retail Park one evening on a visit to Cineworld. Having read all the forum posts on these blaggers we have studiously ignored all correspondance.

We have just received a Yellow headed Notice of Intended Action from CCS dated the 1st, it didn't arrive until the 7th, giving us until the 8th to pay up. I fully intend to ignore this as well but my wife is getting a bit concerned about a baliff turning up on the door step. Can you give us some reassurance please that we are doing the right thing in treating these vermin with the contempt they deserve and ignoring them. Thanks

Tick off the threatening letters as you get them, here. Is it similar to this one?

http://i32.tinypic.com/34o3s7r.jpg

Getting a letter from a debt collector firm CANNOT then suddenly progress to a bailiff or anyone on the doorstep! Doorstep collections are only in cases where there's a credit agreement with a running agreement to make payments, such as with a catalogue where you make the collections to a local agent. This is not that situation as I am sure you never signed any credit agreement to this bunch!

And bailiffs are a different animal (and I use the word deliberately)! Court bailiffs can only come knocking - like in the programme 'The Sheriffs are Coming' after a Court Order/Warrant has been isued, after someone has lost in a Court and they have STILL not paid after losing in Court. Yours is not that situation either (and it won't be because G24 have never tried Court and would lose if they tried).

This old but updated (and still useful) pepipoo info thread should help:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=24362

HTH

Sandypan

Hi, hope I am posting this in the right place, please advice.
Drove on to carpark in Birmingham 2 weeks ago and dropped niece off, waited 26 minutes for her and drove off car park without buying ticket - thought I was being money saving but after 5 minutes thought ought to get ticket but had no change so didn't want to leave car to get change incase I got ticket!
Yesterday got 'parking charge notice' from VCS (Vehicle controls service ltd PO box 4777 Sheffield £60 if pay within 28 days.
What should I do? I realise now I was at fault but could do without having to pay £60!

Guys_Dad

Sandypan wrote: »

Hi, hope I am posting this in the right place, please advice.
Drove on to carpark in Birmingham 2 weeks ago and dropped niece off, waited 26 minutes for her and drove off car park without buying ticket - thought I was being money saving but after 5 minutes thought ought to get ticket but had no change so didn't want to leave car to get change incase I got ticket!
Yesterday got 'parking charge notice' from VCS (Vehicle controls service ltd PO box 4777 Sheffield £60 if pay within 28 days.
What should I do? I realise now I was at fault but could do without having to pay £60!

From your post, it reads that you were in a Pay and Display car park, stayed for 26 minutes and left without paying for the "service" you received. That equates to getting on a bus, travelling a short distance and not buying a ticket i.e you didn't pay for a service you used. Not an honest start!

Having said that, the draconian charges that these PPCs try to levy are all out of proportion to the original charges or the losses that the landholder suffers. It is this latter matter that has people on here advising either IGNORE the PPN or appeal through POPLA.

The former is easy to do, read other threads and you will see you get a letter chain from the PPC, solicitors and debt collectors. A very high percentage then give up. However, to be balanced, a minute number do result in court papers being issued and some of these cases do get to court.

The other route is to appeal through POPLA. To win there, you need a decent defence. "I though I could get away with it" is not a decent defence. You would need to show that either the PPC had no landholder rights or that their signage was deficient, or the PPC failed to supply you with a POPLA code if you appealed to them and were rejected.

There is a wealth of information on every page of this forum and some time spent looking there will provide you with your options.

Finally, if you wish to extend your post, please start a new thread where specific answers to any points you raise may be answered.

Stroma

Sandypan wrote: »

Hi, hope I am posting this in the right place, please advice.
Drove on to carpark in Birmingham 2 weeks ago and dropped niece off, waited 26 minutes for her and drove off car park without buying ticket - thought I was being money saving but after 5 minutes thought ought to get ticket but had no change so didn't want to leave car to get change incase I got ticket!
Yesterday got 'parking charge notice' from VCS (Vehicle controls service ltd PO box 4777 Sheffield £60 if pay within 28 days.
What should I do? I realise now I was at fault but could do without having to pay £60!

If you want further advice beyond what has posted above, please create your own dedicated thread below
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163