PCM Nightmare!

jserafi

Hi there

On 14th December 2012 I was leaving for a holiday and drove my car from the underground parking facility at my housing development and parked it for a few minutes in the emergency access bay to load some cases into the car as it was impractical to carry the cases down the narrow access stairs to the underground parking. This emergency access bay is RARELY used (Thank God!) and all day every day of every week there are often cars and work vans, etc parked in it. There are signs displayed by PCM saying nobody is permitted to park there without a permit but no private residents have, or have ever been issued with one. On the date mentioned above a man pulled up, took a photo of my car and issued me with a parking ticket. I told him I was loading cases into the car from my flat and was only pulled up for a few minutes and that the car would not be left unattended for any length of time and that if there was an emergency i would be able to remove my vehicle within seconds (though the chances were very very slim). He even took a look in my car and could see the cases I was loading in and I asked him how I was supposed to practically load four or five large cases into my car via the access stairs to the underground car park by myself when I could make life easier for myself by choosing to bring my vehicle up for a few MINUTES outside my flat on my PRIVATE land? He said it was not his problem and why should be let me off when he was booking others? His attitude was terrible and he was so rude.

In March I received a letter asking me to pay £60. I ignored it. Then a second telling me it was now £100. I ignored it. Last week a third telling me if I ignored it it would be passed to debt collection agencies and I would risk a court summons.

Everybody Is giving me different advice...mostly to continue ignoring. The neighbour said his son was issued one too and be has ignored all letters and apparently they have gone away now. Really not sure what to do...

Any advice greatly appreciated please? Thanks!

edward123

Who is giving you different advice? And what advice?

Basically, you are taking PCM far too seriously! Keep ignoring and it will eventually end. Its that simple. Do not let empty threats from PCM of debt collectors and court panic you into paying. It won't come to that and you are safe to ignore and enjoy your life! Read a few posts on here and see that this works.

Umkomaas

The only papers you should NOT ignore are official stamped Court papers typically sent to you from Northampton. The chances of receiving these are extremely remote, but should that happen, get back and revive this thread of yours and help will be readily available to develop a robust and winnable defence.

As I said, highly unlikely event, so please relax and just collect and continue ignoring the parking charge detritus that may drop through your letterbox in the coming weeks/months. Whatever - DO NOT FEEL INTIMIDATED TO PAY.

Coupon-mad

Thirded, carry on ignoring. You are probably just getting the usual letter chain from Roxburghe/Graham White or Debt Recovery Plus/Zenith?

Ignoring the letters is no biggie - and despite the threats on the letters, PCM have never tried Court because they used to be clampers and collected CCJs against them instead. Letter chains under various PPC headings here, just tick 'em off one by one:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2329119

The only letter to take seriously would be real small claim papers from Northampton Court (would be obvious) which you'd have to respond to and could get a defence from pepipoo as discussed on this thread, where 3 bigger PPCs are trying it on:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4573229

Even those cases won't end up in a hearing IMHO as they are well defended; those PPCs are after undefended cases. And PCM are highly unlikely to even try that.

The only different advice you may have seen is to appeal and use POPLA but you've missed that chance as you never appealed in the first place. We do actually advise appealing so next time the idiot gives you a fake PCN, come back for help with that - reason being, it costs the PPC £27 plus VAT to fund a POPLA decision that they will lose if the appeal is strongly worded (with forum help).

jserafi

Thank you so much for your helpful advice and for confirming the course of action I already planned to do - ignore! I have received conflicting advice from reading other forums although admitted,y 95% of what I hear and is said to me does involve ignoring the letters. I shall await the next episode and then come back to this thread with details if necessary. Many thanks again!

rew37

These clowns can be safely ignored. PCM staff can barely tie their own shoelaces, so in the highly unlikely event they try court this will be very easy to defend!

jserafi

The next thing are threatening is debt collectors telling me i will incur all their fees, etc and risk a CCJ..I'm assuming this comes before court?

Coupon-mad

No there will be no Court, no CCJ, and 'debt collection' means...junk mail! And then...more junk mail!

You will get the usual letter chain from Roxburghe/Graham White or Debt Recovery Plus/Zenith.

Letter chains under various PPC headings here, just tick 'em off one by one once you know which letter-chain you can look forward to; when the first threatogram (non PCM) arrives you'll know which debt collector it is and can then find the whole chain here!

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/2329119

Ignoring the letters is no biggie - and despite the threats on the letters, PCM have never tried Court because they used to be clampers and collected CCJs against them instead.

jserafi

Hi, as predicted i have received a letter from NEWLYN Debt Collection Ltd requesting £154 (the original fine was £60). I have so far followed the advice in this forum - to ignore all correspondence and now i have this today.

The letter states

"We have been instructed by PCM to recover the outstanding parking charge notice, which remains unpaid. Do not ignore this letter. Further action maybe taken at considerable cost to you if that debt is not cleared. In order to clear this debt and avoid further action being taken you need to contact us on 01604 625130 as a matter of urgency with your proposals to clear the outstanding amounts"

"DO NOT IGNORE THIS LETTER"

it's all very threatening - can anybody please help? I would be lying if i said i did not feel anxious about it.

Thanks

FatAndy

"Further action MAY be taken".

You MAY win £20m on the Lottery this weekend.

There's about an equal chance of either of these happening.

Just ask yourself why they're saying further action "may" be taken and not further action "will" be taken, and more to point if there's any sort of action they can take why aren't they already taking it?

Stroma

They are just useless scamming scumbag debt collectors with absolutely no powers to enforce anything. All they do is write templated letters, that means all the letters are pre-printed then they just add your name to it, then post it out, that is it! They can be considered like Nigerian kings asking you for your bank details. Just ignore them!