Defence against ParkingEye sent; Landowner just replied now but not very helpful.

Coupon-mad

jsmcardiac wrote: »

Yes I submitted a defence based on threads / advice from here and pepipoo. I could post it here or pm it to you if you want. I thought I raised valid points. It is due on the 5th of Oct so I thought we better get a move on and submit it to court. I sent it last week.

Whilst I was preparing the defence, I also sent a complaint letter to the retailer, who initially said they would send it forward to the landowner. What he actually did was got in touch with parkingeye, who said it was too late to cancel the court claim. He then gave me the name of the landowner and he did not have any more details about them. I found their email address on google and sent a complaint letter to them -- hoping they would ask parkingeye to cancel the court claim.

I have not got receipts as they were in March. But I have bank statements to prove we bought a load of stuff from 3 out 4 retailers at the park.

The signs were small and up high. Of course when you come back and investigate you would realise that there are a lot of them but if you are unfamiliar with the place and have 2 children in tow, the signs will not catch your attention.

I don't know how to go forward from this. This past month has been so stressfull along with other issues. We've come this far and would like to fight this. But now it is just so tempting to just pay off the claim to get rid of the problems and sleepless nights. Please please can someone advise what to do next?

Any update? Got it cancelled by the retail managers yet by loudly complaining? Do update your thread. Help is out there, see this to help with your case, I do hope you haven't folded.

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/do-you-have-court-hearing-with.html

A lot has happened with PE small claims in recent weeks, read the blogs there.

jsmcardiac

Since I last posted there had been lots of very stressful events in our household occurred and unfortunately I didn't have a chance to update our case. I was really close to giving up but I tried my best to follow the advice from here.

I emailed all the CEOs of the stores in the retail park including the local MP. One of the stores offered help and sent a letter to parkingeye as well as the MP. No one has gone back to me for an update.

Meanwhile, I was sent a defence from parkingeye-- about 3x as extensive as our one, and quoting several references to court cases. Also it stated in the end that my defence was a generic copy of those who dont want to pay parking fines. They really think are easy targets. They also stated they were not interested in mediation service, which we wanted prior to the court hearing.

Just yesterday, we received a notice from the court regarding the date of the court hearing and that we were entitled to free mediation service to try and resolve the case before the hearing. We have not filled up the form for this and would require some advice please.

Also today we received another letter from parkingeye saying that they now realise we were genuine customers of the retail park but because we ignored the letters, they are now not cancelling the charge and they want me to pay the £55 fee for the court charges, on top of the £155 they are claiming for. They say they sent us 4 correspondence. We never received them. Just the court claim. So i still doubt wether they really sent this or not. But of course i cannot prove this, and neither can they.

Now, we are just planning to get back to parkingeye with a letter saying we never received any correspondence, because if we had, we would have sent complaint letters earlier. Any other advice would be appreciated. With the situation we are in at the moment, we cannot afford any of these happening. We are barely keeping our heads above water. These are really hard times for us, and this stress is something we really can do without.

Thank you in advance for any advice or recommendations. Much appreciated.

trisontana

Parking Eye are really low-lifes aren't they?

Redx

maybe somebody like parking prankster will help you with your case or knows somebody who can help you ? says so on his blog and I am sure he will be interested in this

just a thought

Coupon-mad

I am not experienced in personally stepping in with court cases myself but I know a man or two who is! Please send me a pm with the court hearing date, the court location (please, so we can identify your case and help you - don't send it to any new posters though!). And please send me in the pm, your defence wording (I don't need PE's letters, we've seen them all before including the Without Prejudice 'offer' that many people say 'no deal!' to as well!). I need to see your wording even if you weren't overly confident with it.

Also send a pm to the Parking Prankster as per the link I already gave you - there's good advice coming your way if you are quick and proactive in getting this together.

kirkbyinfurnesslad_2

Do you not mean they are willing to settle for £55 rather then being on top.....?

Coupon-mad

Just thought, I would take a copy of the £55 letter to the Store manager who was willing to try to help you and point out that PE are willing to cancel but are asking for £55, which you have researched and found that they sometimes settle for as low as £30 (which is true, we know)...but you can't afford it and are too vulnerable to negotiate...please, please can they ring PE to negotiate on your behalf to cancel it without cost?

See what the Store says now they will know PE have said they will drop it! maybe the Store Manager will cover it or give you vouchers to the same amount, as an apology for all the harassment...

jsmcardiac

kirkbyinfurnesslad wrote: »

Do you not mean they are willing to settle for £55 rather then being on top.....?

They want the £55 on top of the £155 fine.

jsmcardiac

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Just thought, I would take a copy of the £55 letter to the Store manager who was willing to try to help you and point out that PE are willing to cancel but are asking for £55, which you have researched and found that they sometimes settle for as low as £30 (which is true, we know)...but you can't afford it and are too vulnerable to negotiate...please, please can they ring PE to negotiate on your behalf to cancel it without cost?

See what the Store says now they will know PE have said they will drop it! maybe the Store Manager will cover it or give you vouchers to the same amount, as an apology for all the harassment...[

ParkingEye actually wanted me to pay this fee plus their parking fine of £155. But I will get back to the person who emailed me (representing the CEO) and they be able to negotiate. Thank you so much for your suggestion.

Hot_Bring

jsmcardiac wrote: »

They want the £55 on top of the £155 fine.

You might want to re-read the letter - PE normally offer the £55 costs as a get out clause - i.e without any of the original "charge".