WARNING : Car Park Scammers UKPC at Vastern Court Retail Park, Reading

Stroma

There are bad eggs in every business in the world, don't tarnish everyone with the same brush. I was speaking to a parking employee the other day who was in a car park local to me. He was an older chap who didn't ticket me despite not paying a ticket to go into a shop and get the pound back through the counter.

He was nice enough and works part time to supplement his pension. He really didn't know the legalities around this, he just picked up his wages and didn't earn commission , well at least that's what he told me. Though I hate the ppcs with a passion I recognise that we really need to target the right people, and that is the direction of parking companies.

MothballsWallet

peter_the_piper wrote: »

I did not think that Aldi used a scammer like UKPC, they only use better class scammers like Parking Eye.

Wait, there's more than one class of scammer?

I thought there was just one called "lowest of the low of all lifeforms, lower even than a bacterium"...

Guys_Dad

MothballsWallet wrote: »

Wait, there's more than one class of scammer?

I thought there was just one called "lowest of the low of all lifeforms, lower even than a bacterium"...

There certainly are degrees of scammers. The publican lowlife who has dodgy signs and leaps on you at first sight of any transgression. The old bod up North who employs a pretty lass to helpfully give motorists an unexpired portion of ticket in a car park where you have to put your reg no. in.

Then you have tough cookies like PE who are the most litigious but who will cancel a ticket for genuine shoppers.

So they may all be scammers in our terminology, but how they pursue their scams are certainly different.

prowla

tykesi wrote: »

As well as this – it’s hardly the guy in the car park’s fault. He’s most likely on minimum wage trying to scrape a living to get him and his family by. We might not agree with his choice of career but physically intimidating him is a pretty low thing to do if you ask me and makes you no better than the scum who run the operation he’s working for.

You might be angry but you’re coming a cross as an ignorant bully here! Try focussing your efforts on the big guys if you want to vent your anger rather than picking on the easiest option.

I disagree - he is actively involved in extorting money from people.

You might as well argue that it's not fair to send thieves to jail as they're only doing it to put food on the table.

Stroma

prowla wrote: »

I disagree - he is actively involved in extorting money from people.

You might as well argue that it's not fair to send thieves to jail as they're only doing it to put food on the table.

Your analogy doesn't work, it's a criminal offence to thieve ! This is a civil case unless some illegality is involved. Also while we don't like the parking companies and their tactics they are not extorting money as that is illegal.

They are taking money for breach of contract (mostly), they are not breaking the law by someone paying these charges, they are just exploiting people's lack of knowledge in this area.

And certainly most of their employees at the level we see them are not doing anything illegal as in extorting, most are just doing a job that we dislike, and equally they probably dislike as well.

gouldmeister

Stroma wrote: »

Your analogy doesn't work, it's a criminal offence to thieve ! This is a civil case unless some illegality is involved. Also while we don't like the parking companies and their tactics they are not extorting money as that is illegal.

They are taking money for breach of contract (mostly), they are not breaking the law by someone paying these charges, they are just exploiting people's lack of knowledge in this area.

And certainly most of their employees at the level we see them are not doing anything illegal as in extorting, most are just doing a job that we dislike, and equally they probably dislike as well.

I disagree there - when they try and charge you £90 for a leaving the site of a free car park - this is a breach of contract and as such the landowner can claim for losses incurred- there are no losses incurred which the PPC's are well aware of - is that not extortion?
Or how about a DCA sending a notice of intended court action on behalf of a creditor if a sum of £160 is not paid - over 10 days after the original charge has been cancelled and confirmed as such by that self-same creditor?
Is that not extortion?

Ans surely if these guys are on minimum wage they would understand better than most how potentially traumatic it could be for someone to be hounded for an unjustly levied amount of money which they can ill afford to part with.

Stroma

Ok point me to the legislation where it makes this a criminal offence, as in illegal! Don't give me the fact that paying for an alleged breach of contract , or that a debt collector is actually acting illegally for trying to collect an alleged debt not originated from them.

This is what they do for a myriad of companies, collecting for parking companies is no different than collecting for any other industry. If they break guidelines they are not acting illegally but probably unlawfully, there is a distinct difference between the two.

As for people being hounded, that is not the person on the grounds fault, that is down to the company involved!

Kite2010

I think this is the car-park which tried to give me a ticket for walking off site...

...would be hard for them to do so as my car at the time was sat in my driveway as I came up to Reading by train and walked to the retail park area.

Umkomaas

Kite2010 wrote: »

I think this is the car-park which tried to give me a ticket for walking off site...

...would be hard for them to do so as my car at the time was sat in my driveway as I came up to Reading by train and walked to the retail park area.

Did they try to stick it on your forehead?

Kite2010

The car-park monkey tried to say something like "if you leave I will have to give your car a ticket"

I said "go ahead, good luck finding it" and carried on (had a train to catch)