Euro Car Parks Fine Advice

shianatika

Hello all,

I'm looking for some advice please, I've read the guide but I'm still a little unsure where I stand.

I recently parked in Staples car park in Worcester for apparently 67 min, they have written to tell me that I exceeded the free parking time by 17 minutes and I therefore have a parking charge of £70 (or £40 in the next 14 days). They have provided me with a picture of my reg plate and the alleged entry and exit times.

I am almost certain that the signs in the car park allowed 90 minutes and if it is 50 minutes now (I need to go and check) it must be a very recent change.

I don't seem to tick any of the boxes in the guide and have read different advice in different places e.g. ignore/write to the retail company/appeal to POPLA.

I am a little confused by the best course of action and would appreciate any advice.

Thank you

Coupon-mad

Of course the POPLA tick box 'I am not liable for the parking charge' applies to you as it does to EVERY fake PCN case. Read this:

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co...e-in-your.html

That link explains that POPLA will consider ANY grounds of appeal of course.

By 'the guide' do you mean the fairly useless MSE Parking Guide? None of us look at or recommend that at all, it's misleading and not up to date. Stay on the forum here for live advice instead. Posters are here to help every day.

So first things first, what happened then when you complained to the Store Manager of Staples and demanded that they make this agent stop harassing you with unsolicited demands for money? As you would do of course when sent a fake parking ticket out of the blue from a parking agent just for shopping! Or is there more than one retailer on site? Complain in writing to the Retail Park Managing Agent or the landowner themselves then (easily Googled).

shianatika

Thanks for the reply and information, I did mean the guide here, I'll check the link thanks. There are multiple retailers on the site although it is called the staples car park in the letter, I will try and find the correct person to contact regarding this. I'm not sure if it helps my argument but I went down to check that the signs said 50 minutes and not 90 and found that the 90 on the signs had been covered with a sticker saying 50, exactly when this was done I am unsure but it must have been fairly recently, nothing else on the signs changed so it was somewhat of a stealth tactic.

Stroma

They were obviously not scamming enough people with the 90 minute lark, so have cut it to 50 minutes , I mean you must have time to visit multiple retailers in that stupendous amount of time. Find the owner of the site and complain about only being given this amount of time to visit 10 or so shops. Chances are they know nothing about the change.

And Euro to date don't do court so are easily ignored, but if you want to ensure that they don't in future try appealing with our help to popla, just send them a soft appeal like this, and once you have the popla code come back for help






Name
Address

Date

Dear Scammers,

In regards to the invoice received with ref number xxxxxx dated xxxxxx, the keeper denies all liability to your company, if you reject this challenge the keeper requires within 35 days a popla verification code for them to appeal independently, per Version 2 of the BPA Code of Practice.

The keeper has nothing further to add, and will not respond to any correspondence from your company unless it contains the popla code. If you wish to find out why the keeper rejects all liability, pay the £27 plus vat to popla to find out

The challenge will be deemed accepted if there is no popla code on any rejection that you supply within the timeframe stipulated above.

Yours Faithfully

Your name (printed)

shianatika

Just to clarify the best course of action (apart from ignore) would be to contact the store manager first, then euro car parks as above?

I'm struggling to find the contact details for the retail park owner or the name of the staples manager so do you think a letter addressed to the "Store Manager" of staples suffice?

Also in the staples letter should I go into details about the stickers on the sign, hint at taking this to the local paper (which I might do) or just simply say it was unsolicited etc

Many thanks for the help

Stroma

You should always complain to the retailer or service provider always. You can normally pick up who the owners of the retail park by googling the name. But you could try the retailers themselves, just pop an email to each of them asking for it. Or maybe try the local council planning section, they will probably have applied for permission to do something there. You can find a lot of this on their website

Coupon-mad

shianatika wrote: »

Just to clarify the best course of action (apart from ignore) would be to contact the store manager first, then euro car parks as above?

I'm struggling to find the contact details for the retail park owner or the name of the staples manager so do you think a letter addressed to the "Store Manager" of staples suffice?

Also in the staples letter should I go into details about the stickers on the sign, hint at taking this to the local paper (which I might do) or just simply say it was unsolicited etc

Many thanks for the help

As you've said it's a retail park then you can try Staples Store Manager but I don't hold out much hope as the scammers would have most likely been engaged by the Managing Agent of the owner. You could go in person to complain about this sneaky, unpublicised change to parking time (be assertive) and if he/she genuinely has no phone number to ring to cancel it, instead ask the Staples Manager who can, say you'd like the address of the Managing Agent for the site.

Did you Google the name of the Centre and look for old local newspaper articles - they ALWAYS mention who owns the place, because often the whole article is written as a result of a press release by the owner bragging about all the retailers signed up. Definitely worth a couple of hours digging because the Centre Operator should be getting these complaints. Clearly 50 mins is nothing for anyone who wants to use more than one store - and it is actually illegal to impose the same parking time on any disabled or infirm/elderly customers (anyone with long-term medical condition which affects their daily life needs an adjustment of time under the Equality Act 2010).

You could also ring the Council, ask for the Planning Dept and ask an Enforcement Officer, very politely, if they are aware that the free parking time for customers there has been changed without notice to customers? And can they please check if 90 minutes was in fact a condition of the planning consent (say you realise it's privately owned but wonder if the owners have breached the original Consent). That is worth trying, which worked in the Aldi Portslade case:

http://www.theargus.co.uk/news/9031524.Aldi_fined_for_breaking_law_on_parking_charges_at_Portslade_store/

Costs nothing except some time, to do a bit of digging to get ammunition to stop this scam for others as well as getting your fake PCN cancelled.





P.S. I may have found it, is it Shrub Hill Retail Park?

http://www.localstore.co.uk/store/546000/shrub-hill-retail-park/worcester/

http://completelyretail.co.uk/media/scheme/3522/CR_RW_3522_Shrub_Hill_Retail_Park_Worcester_brochure_1.pdf

Is that the one? Edgerley Simpson Howe are the agent for the owner then, and that leaflet at the end gives contact phone numbers except that Jason has left (Googled him in seconds!) but Andy is still there:

http://www.eshp.com/agency/overview/index.html


:D:D:D:D

If this were me I would actually check if they've breached Planning Consent with the Planning Dept with a phone call to the Council on Monday morning first.

Could be fun! If it's this retail park then why not join pepipoo and send a pm to this poster in exactly the same boat (unless this is also you!):

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=79870&st=0&gopid=829822&#entry829822

HTH

Coupon-mad

If it is Shrub Hill then it's managed by Savills now, who will cancel the stupid fake PCN - like this person has managed with a quick adamant phone call:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=79870

HTH

fido23146947

My son borrowed my car and overstayed the 50 minutes. As a regular user of the Shrub Hill Retail Park he didn't realize the time limit had been reduced. On checking the current signs (they are new) the 50 minute limit wording is quite small and can easily be missed. What is annoying is that it seems it is now law that as registered keeper I have to pay if he doesn't. Thanks for all the comments I'll try appealing and see what happens.

Guys_Dad

fido23146947 wrote: »

My son borrowed my car and overstayed the 50 minutes. As a regular user of the Shrub Hill Retail Park he didn't realize the time limit had been reduced. On checking the current signs (they are new) the 50 minute limit wording is quite small and can easily be missed. What is annoying is that it seems it is now law that as registered keeper I have to pay if he doesn't. Thanks for all the comments I'll try appealing and see what happens.

Please repost this as your own thread and we can help without confusing the current one.

Also, don't make an appeal without getting more advice here first. For example, I would appeal including the fact that you require to see the application to the Council for the reduction in the allowed free parking time. And I would check with the council as well.

But, like they say, to hear more, please start your own thread.

Coupon-mad

fido23146947 wrote: »

My son borrowed my car and overstayed the 50 minutes. As a regular user of the Shrub Hill Retail Park he didn't realize the time limit had been reduced. On checking the current signs (they are new) the 50 minute limit wording is quite small and can easily be missed. What is annoying is that it seems it is now law that as registered keeper I have to pay if he doesn't. Thanks for all the comments I'll try appealing and see what happens.

It's not annoying because you won't be paying if you win on appeal with our help.