Successful complaints about private parking tickets - how to get them cancelled!

bestfootie

Another success post:-

I received a ticket from parking in a hospital car park that I knew I would arrive, I knew I would fight, and I knew I'd win. Here's the letter I sent to:- PALS, copying in MP and Parkingeye :-

Dear Sirs

Ref:- 

VRN:- 

Date of Event:- 4 May 2022

I was shocked to receive a Parking Charge Notice dated 20 May 2022 from your parking agents Parkingeye at Barnet Hospital (Parkingeye are in cc, as well as my MP).

As a preliminary matter, I bring your attention to the new Private Parking Code of Practice that sets out the requirements that private parking operators like Parkingeye must follow when enforcing parking restrictions in England, Scotland and Wales. (please see: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/private-parking-code-of-practice).

Parkingeye are demanding payment of £100 (£60 if paid within 14 days). This itself is in breach of these rules which state, inter alia:-

- caps parking charges outside London to £50 for lower rate breaches and £70 for higher rate breaches;

- bans additional charges for pseudo 'debt recovery'; and

- requires clear signage and payment methods that work, including by cash and other methods.

The BPA, of which Parkingeye is a member, has already told its members it should start applying the new rules straight away. This behaviour can immediately be seen as in breach.

The alleged park of the vehicle is for 54 minutes.

On the day in question, the driver of the vehicle had an urgent appointment at the hospital. The driver/patient arrived just before the allotted appointment time, and then left the hospital very soon afterwards. 

The driver then attempted to pay for parking using two different machines at the hospital entrance (please see attached 'Photos.pdf'). The payment machine outside stated that 'payments can be made by via the credit/debit card machine which is located in the main entrance foyer'. The payment time that the driver visited the machine in order to pay can clearly be seen in the image.

The driver followed the directions of the sign to the machine inside to pay by card. However, the driver was met by the attached signage on Royal Free heading paper that read:- 'please note:- due to circumstances beyond our control, we are currently unable to accept card payments for parking...please accept our apologies for any inconvenience this may cause.'

The driver does not carry cash and having read the signage has informed me that he intended to pay by card but was not given the ability to do so by machine. While the driver accepts the apologies for the inconvenience, he does not accept being charged for the hospital / Parkingeye's incompetence to sort out their own parking practices. 

The driver spoke with a member of staff of Parkingeye, ********, who was wandering around in the carpark. He seemed equally miffed as to how this could be the case. Mr **** advised that payment should be made via the app on a mobile phone. The driver explained that that was not essential as the payment method and that further, the app adds on a 20p charge which the driver was not willing to pay. At the time the driver was willing to pay the £2 that was stated as the charge for the time spent, though the driver was not willing to pay £2.20 for the same, effectively being penalised by Barnet Hospital / Parkingeye's own incompetence, via a 10% surcharge on stated tariffs.

The PCN has arrived as a complete surprise and has caused considerable distress to the driver who is in need of regular and urgent care at the Hospital. It is particularly unjust as the driver was only too willing to pay any parking tariff due, and were thwarted from being able to do so through no fault of their own at two different parking machines. The £100 charge these cowboys are attempting to extort is out of all proportion to any parking tariff that would have been due for the time actually parked in the carpark and breaches the Code cited above.

Please would you therefore contact Parkingeye to get this PCN rescinded with immediate effect.

You will also wish to note the negative perception this sharp practice and use of this company to enforce parking conditions has caused. It has made the patient very reluctant to use the hospital in future.

If this is not immediately rescinded by Parkingeye I will report this to the BPA within seven days along with my evidence.

Please let me know if you need any more information to support this request, and I would be grateful for confirmation that you have asked Parkingeye to rescind the PCN.

Many thanks.

------

The response from Parkingeye was:-

Good Morning,

 

Thank you for your recent email.

 

We can confirm that this Parking Charge has been cancelled and there is no outstanding payment due on this account.

 

Kind Regards,

ParkingeyeTeam

t: 01772 450970 | m:

e info@parkingeye.co.uk | w: parkingeye.co.uk

Coupon-mad

Very good!

Could you please show those images of the broken machine (with the time/date printed on the pics) as loads of people might come here later with similar issues at the Royal Free/Barnet.

bestfootie

Of course! Here you go. I hope this helps people.

dizzyblonde2015

Strand Street Car Park, Whitehaven

I Park Services Ltd send out the PCN's but the land is leased to I Park Smart Ltd.

The Land is owned by "BEC".  I phoned BEC and asked if they still owned the land that was being used as a Car Park on Strand Street, Whitehaven, they confirmed that they did still own the land. I explained briefly that I had an issue regarding the Car park that was being operated on the land they owned and asked for the CEO/Managers name and email address.

I sent an email to the Manager explaining (as brief as I could) my unpleasant situation and asked if they could help with getting the "unfair" PCN revoked. The Guy who I contacted was absolutely brilliant and as you can see from the attached "Notice of Discontinuance" it was sorted within 24hrs.    

Happy is an understatement.

I hope this helps others see that Land Owner intervention could put a stop to a PCN escalating to court proceedings and a lot of stress.

The link below takes you to my disscusion thread on the forum

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6352968/pdt-machine-took-payment-but-didnt-print-ticket/p3

pogofish

Another success from Scotland.

A friend had an ANPR ticket from Group Nexus (CP Plus?) and I pointed them at the Newbies Sticky, where they followed the Scottish advice to send the first appeal as-is.  Except they also added a paragraph about not having been sent an initial letter.

Within a week, Group Nexus came back to them, having cancelled the ticket.

EP456

We received a PCN from Parkingeye for “parking” for 2 hours and 16 minutes at Booths in Windermere.  The maximum free parking time is 2 hours.  We were in fact charging our EV.  I emailed Booths and explained this, and they have cancelled the fine.

Umkomaas

EP456 said:

We received a PCN from Parkingeye for “parking” for 2 hours and 16 minutes at Booths in Windermere.  The maximum free parking time is 2 hours.  We were in fact charging our EV.  I emailed Booths and explained this, and they have cancelled the fine.

Generic ANPR systems are wholly inadequate and unsuitable anywhere near EV charging areas. I think the BPA were trying to get to grips with this in their recent ParkEx bunfight.  What the outcome was doesn't seem to have been broadcast (maybe it was 'carry on chaps', there'll be plenty of mugs who won't fight and pay up, just cancel charges without question for those appealing EV charge point tickets!). 

Let's see.

Poesklap

Recently called the McDonald's head office, who gave me the email address for the specific restaurant. Got a reply the next dat confirming they'd cancelled the fine for overstaying.

Umkomaas

Poesklap said:

Recently called the McDonald's head office, who gave me the email address for the specific restaurant. Got a reply the next dat confirming they'd cancelled the fine for overstaying.

Wow, that's some result - well done because McDs aren't usually very helpful. Maybe we should try this as future advice. 

@Poesklap - could you share the McDs HQ phone number you used please?

Poesklap

Umkomaas said:

Poesklap said:

Recently called the McDonald's head office, who gave me the email address for the specific restaurant. Got a reply the next dat confirming they'd cancelled the fine for overstaying.

Wow, that's some result - well done because McDs aren't usually very helpful. Maybe we should try this as future advice. 

@Poesklap - could you share the McDs HQ phone number you used please?

No problem, I googled it and found this one: 0345 606 0321