Parking Eye - Still Best Practice to Ignore?

Piemaster

jeanraffio wrote: »

Ok, another update - the ticket has now formally been re-issued to the driver of the vehicle at the time. So now the true appeal process has started.

A soft appeal shall be written to PE, requesting a POPLA code if (when) this fails. Given the certainty of the appeal to PE failing, should I concentrate my efforts on the POPLA appeal and getting hold of the code?

Don't fret about getting hold of the code. The clock only starts from when the code is issued, so the longer they take to give you your code, the longer you have to appeal. And if they fail to give you your code when they reject your appeal then that is another string to your eventual POPLA appeal under "not following their own appeals procedure" or "being deliberately obstructive".

So, in short, jump through the hoops of the inevitably futile soft appeal, but be happy rather than worried if they fail to give you a POPLA code.

jeanraffio

How's this for my soft appeal?

Dear Sirs

PCN Number: XXXXXXXXX
Vehicle Registration: XXXXXXXX

I am writing to officially appeal against the above noted parking charge.

Specifically, on the following grounds:

1) The signage on the relevant car park was not prominent enough and at no time was it communicated clearly (either in store or on the car park itself) of the restrictions imposed. Additionally, I do not believe that the signs are fully BPA compliant.

2) The sum noted is not in any way a 'genuine pre-estimation of loss'.

3) There was not any time a contract between the driver and ParkingEye Ltd. The driver did not see any contractual information upon entering the car park (see point 1)), and as such no contract was ever entered into.

I therefore demand that you cancel the PCN immediately. If you do not wish to do so, in line with BPA requirements, please send me a POPLA code in order to launch an independent appeal.

Yours faithfully

Anything else I should mention / leave out?

Hovite_2

jeanraffio wrote: »

Ok, another update - the ticket has now formally been re-issued to the driver of the vehicle at the time. So now the true appeal process has started.

A soft appeal shall be written to PE, requesting a POPLA code if (when) this fails. Given the certainty of the appeal to PE failing, should I concentrate my efforts on the POPLA appeal and getting hold of the code?

No word from Morrisons direct, and no further updates from BPA and the DVLA.

Pssst .... you might want to give Morrisons a firm reminder - here's the CEO's email address - [EMAIL="dalton.philips@morrisonsplc.co.uk"]dalton.philips@morrisonsplc.co.uk[/EMAIL]

Coupon-mad

jeanraffio wrote: »

How's this for my soft appeal?

Dear Sirs

PCN Number: XXXXXXXXX
Vehicle Registration: XXXXXXXX

I am writing to officially appeal against the above noted parking charge.

Specifically, on the following grounds:

1) The signage on the relevant car park was not prominent enough and at no time was it communicated clearly (either in store or on the car park itself) of the restrictions imposed. Additionally, I do not believe that the signs are fully BPA compliant.

2) The sum noted is not in any way a 'genuine pre-estimation of loss'.

3) There was not any time a contract between the driver and ParkingEye Ltd. The driver did not see any contractual information upon entering the car park (see point 1)), and as such no contract was ever entered into.

I therefore demand that you cancel the PCN immediately. If you do not wish to do so, in line with BPA requirements, please send me a POPLA code in order to launch an independent appeal.

Yours faithfully

Anything else I should mention / leave out?

Perfect. :T

jeanraffio

Great - after more pressure on Morrisons yesterday, Dalton Phillips has passed on my complaint to "Customer Services" who are investigating with ParkingEye. Let's see how this one pans out...

jeanraffio

Ok, just thought I would provide a small update on this one. Appeal was sent online on 18th October, but nothing as of yet has been received from PE. How long should they take to turn my soft appeal down and send me my POPLA code?

Complaint is still with Morrisons and it's been 5 days days so will be chasing that one up - for reference, this was their response:

Good Morning XXXXXX

Thank you for contacting our Chief Executive, Dalton Philips, who has asked me to respond to you on his behalf.

I was sorry to learn that you have received a parking fine whilst shopping in our Edgbaston store, and also of your dissatisfaction with the correspondence you have received from Parking Eye. Please accept my sincere apologies for this.

I am currently looking into this matter with my relevant colleagues and will come back to you as soon as I can. In the meantime I would thank you for your patience.

Kind regards,
Pam Reynolds
Customer Services Department
Wm Morrison Supermarkets PLC

trisontana

Naughty Pam calling it a "fine".

jeanraffio

trisontana wrote: »

Naughty Pam calling it a "fine".

Yes I noticed that too - can only assume a lack of awareness, though this will no doubt form part of the appeal to Morrisons *if* this is turned down (decision made on basis of misunderstanding).

zzzLazyDaisy

jeanraffio wrote: »

We have an update on this one!

After sending the letters off as noted above, it only took 24 hours for ParkingEye to see that they were in fact in the wrong and they had misinterpreted the law for their own financial gain. I received the following letter this morning.

>
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How they can send those original, incorrect letters is beyond me - surely this is illegal, extorting money through a 'fine' for an incident that never legally happened and passing off legislation in whichever way they please to achieve it.

What they are doing is not 'illegal' (as in it is not a criminal offence).

But it IS a breach of the solicitor's code of conduct set out in the Principles contained in the SRA handbook which all solicitors and solicitor's practices are bound to comply with (PE's 'legal lepartment' is a solicitor's practice for these purposes).

There is a steady stream of complaints going in to SRA about PE's legal department and the way in which it is dealing with these cases. Now that the matter is closed as far as the RK is concerned, I strongly suggest that you make a formal complaint to SRA since it is very clear that the letter received by the RK is a standard letter (we have seen it many times before, and advised people to complain many times before) so it was not an isolated error. The more people who complain, the more likely it is that the SRA will investgate their practices.

You can find details about how to complain here

http://www.sra.org.uk/consumers/problems/report-solicitor.page#how-report-sra

Basically what you need to do is to give an outline of what happened, state that you believe that PE's legal department and their supervising solicitor, [Text removed by MSE Forum Team], are allowing their duties to the court and the law society to be compromised by their employer/client, and are behaving unethically and not in a way in which the public are entitled to expect from a solicitor. Enclose copies of the 4 letters from you identifying the driver to them agreeing to notify the driver, with a brief para outlining your complaint (their deliberate misinterpretation of the law for their own ends, contained in a standard template letter to you which indicates that this is an established policy).

Daisy

EDIT - but DON'T take your eye off the driver's time limits for appealing to PE/POPLA in the meantime!

jeanraffio

Interesting Daisy - I didn't realize that this avenue was open to me to put a complaint through the SRA regarding their practices. It does make sense to though, as it will add to the statistics and be treated as a complaint. Good idea, I'll be onto this one and add it to the pending BPA and DVLA complaints I have ongoing.