Parking Eye Parking Charge Notice

DanDrage

Hi,

My mum has received a parking charge notice for overstaying the 3 hour maximum free stay limit - she was there for 4 hours and 39 minutes but she was shopping for the whole time and has receipts from three stores spread over the duration of her stay. (She spent over two hours in Toys R Us browsing and shopping for my daughters 2nd birthday!).

Can somebody please advise what course of action we should take next? I've read a very helpful post by Umkomaas which advises contacting the store managers to get the parking charge cancelled but he/she also mentions starting a new thread for advice so that's what I have done first.

To clarify the details - (1) She did overstay the 3 hour limit but she was shopping the entire time (2) The incident took place in England (3) She lives in England (4) The car is owned by my mum - it is not a lease/hire car or company vehicle (4) She's over 18!

Thanks in advance for any advice given.

Dan.

Umkomaas

Right Dan. First thing, please remove the details of the retail park from your opening post (use edit button below it) as PE monitor the forum and can identify posters via such information.

Approaching the stores really can deliver early (and easy) dividends and PE are (paradoxically) the most responsive to retailer cancellation demands. In the same vein, you could simply send a letter to PE with copies of receipts and/or redacted bank or credit card statements proving you were shopping on the day at the retail outlets served by that car park, and ask them to cancel the ticket - again this approach has worked.

Another point, is your mum affected by any health/physical issues that might cause her to be a little slow in her feet? This can be important if it is the case.

I don't know which previous post(s) of mine you have read, but I have produced a 'Walk Through' of the process. If you haven't already seen it, I'm reproducing it below. Come back if you need further help/advice.

A WALK THROUGH THE PROCESS

Firstly, you don't have to pay the charge, it is not a fine, it is not a penalty, it is a speculative invoice from a Private Parking Company that has no statutory authority. However, you will need to go through a few hoops to get rid of it.

The first thing you MUST do is to start to understand what all this stuff is about. The only way to do this is to spend a day or so reading this forum - the most recent threads, say from the past month. If you see the advice 'IGNORE' you MUST ignore it. Ignoring a Parking Charge Notice will bring you months of fun and games that I can assure you, you don't want to be dealing with.

In a nutshell this is the process you will need to follow.

1. Read recent threads.

2. If the parking incident was at a retail park/shop go back to the store the Parking Charge Notice relates to and see THE manager, complain about a genuine customer being harassed and ask that they cancel the ticket. Show him/her any receipts for the day in question. If they are unable to do this ask for the name and address of the MD/CEO, as you will now write to them (and DO it!).

3. If it was a general car parking facility you need to find out who the landowner is (Google search) and send off a letter of complaint to them.

4. If you have receipts for the day (or bank/credit card statements) proving purchases, send (redacted) copies of them to PPC with covering letter stating you were a customer on the day, and shopping at their principal's establishment was the only cause of any overstay.

5. If 2, 3 or 4 above don't work, then you're into the more formal stuff.

6. If it was a windscreen ticket, do not contact the PPC at this point, you must wait for the 'Notice to Keeper' (NtK) to arrive. This should be no sooner than 28 days after the incident and no later than 56 days after it. Theses dates are very important, and you must retain all tickets and letters you receive.

7. If it was an ANPR camera incident and the first correspondence you've received is the NtK, this needs to be received within 14 days of the incident; as above, dates very important, retain all paperwork.

8. Once you receive the NtK the process below will need to be followed.

9. Soft appeal to the PPC (you'll understand this when you start reading the threads).

10. Likely rejection, so in your soft appeal you ask that a POPLA code be given to you if your soft appeal is rejected.

11. Lots more reading about POPLA Appeals (read the 'sticky' at the top of the forum index 'POPLA Decisions', especially the last couple of months' reports of victories - it will give you a good idea of which points win at POPLA).

12. Draft POPLA Appeal and let us see it for further advice before submission.

13. Send to POPLA.

14. Await POPLA (positive) result with PCN cancelled - we're running at 100% success rate on the forum. A POPLA decision is binding on the PPC, but (in the event of an unlikely loss), not binding on you.

---

Please confirm a couple of things (if they are not already contained in your opening post)

a. Was the incident, and do you live, in England or Wales?
b. Is the car a lease/hire or company vehicle (important as the process will be slightly different and you will need to act quickly)?
c. Are you under 18?

---

Now - final, but IMPORTANT points.

* Never say who might or might not have been the driver on the day - there is no obligation on you to do so (some PPCs will ask you to name the driver/motorist before they can deal with your appeal - DO NOT comply with their wishes). In any correspondence with the PPC, always refer to the driver in the third person, never say 'I didn't see the signs' or 'my wife didn't see the signs', you say 'the driver didn't see the signs'.

* Always be aware of any deadlines, PPCs impose them (but most of these are challengeable), but if they are reasonable do keep to them. The important one is the POPLA deadline - strictly 28 days from the date the rejection letter containing the POPLA verification code is sent to you by the PPC. Miss it and you miss the one golden opportunity you have to totally kill this charge. I cannot stress that enough.

Sorry this is a bit long, but it does more or less cover most bases.

Coupon-mad

DanDrage wrote: »

Hi,

My mum has received a parking charge notice at St James Retail Park in Northampton for overstaying the 3 hour maximum free stay limit - she was there for 4 hours and 39 minutes but she was shopping for the whole time and has receipts from three stores spread over the duration of her stay. (She spent over two hours in Toys R Us browsing and shopping for my daughters 2nd birthday!).

Can somebody please advise what course of action we should take next? I've read a very helpful post by Umkomaas which advises contacting the store managers to get the parking charge cancelled but he/she also mentions starting a new thread for advice so that's what I have done first.

To clarify the details - (1) She did overstay the 3 hour limit but she was shopping the entire time (2) The incident took place in England (3) She lives in England (4) The car is owned by my mum - it is not a lease/hire car or company vehicle (4) She's over 18!

Thanks in advance for any advice given.

Dan.

Just to show you how these complaints do work, read some links on this thread below. I think I included a ToysRUs one among the many PE cases which was at the 'Roaring Meg Retail Park Stevenage':

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4766249

Read a few links there, any retail park ones to learn how quickly these can be quashed - twitter and facebook complaints work a treat, so do personal complaints to Store Managers!!

DanDrage

Just a quick update - I've spoken with a couple of managers at the store in question and they have helpfully agreed to email a response stating using the "valued loyal customer" argument. My question now is whether to contact Parking Eye to explain what is going on or should I just leave it and see what happens next??

Coupon-mad

If you have not yet emailed a challenge to PE then YES, do so online, mentioning that their spurious 'charge' is not a genuine pre-estimate of any loss and that the registered keeper (you) have complained to the Store Managers who require this ticket to be cancelled. Do not imply who was driving.

DanDrage

Just wanted to post a happy outcome and to thank all those involved with giving advice.

I contacted the store manager to complain and appealed on the parking eye website attaching receipts proving that the stores were shopped in and I received the following email this morning:

Reference: Parking Charge Notice - *******/********

Dear Sir / Madam,

We refer to the Parking Charge incurred on ** October 2013 at ******, at ****************** car park.

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

Kind Regards,
ParkingEye Team


Thanks again to Umkomaas and Coupon-mad for the advice!

jeanraffio

Do you know if PE cancelled it based on the receipts or whether one of the store managers got it cancelled?

Umkomaas

jeanraffio wrote: »

Do you know if PE cancelled it based on the receipts or whether one of the store managers got it cancelled?

I'd be interested in that too - it will help develop the picture, and be useful to advise others on too.

Well done Dan, glad we could help you, and thanks for feeding back to us, it helps keep us motivated to help others :T

DanDrage

I'm not sure whether it was the appeal to Parking Eye or the input of the store managers which did the trick I'm afraid.

I was told by one of the store managers that they have regular (I think weekly) meetings with a 'local Parking Eye co-ordinator' (I can't remember the exact phrase that he used) to discuss parking charges and that the store have been able to get parking charges cancelled if they relate to a bonafide shopper. The store manager did mention that they wouldn't be able to help if I'd only spent a small amount in the store (he said "if you've only spent £1 or something") which I thought was quite interesting/unfair!

My discussion with the manager was all done over the phone - I called and explained the situation and gave him transaction number from the till receipt - he asked for the name of the shopper but I told him that it didn't matter and just to refer to me as the registered keeper of the vehicle which he thought was a bit strange and said it might hold up the process up but I told him not to worry about it and just to proceed as I requested.

I then appealed on the Parkingeye website stating that I'd discussed with the store managers and that they agreed the charge should be cancelled and that they would be contacting them to arrange it. I attached scanned copies of the till receipts and about a week later I received that email saying the parking charge was cancelled.

Hope this extra info helps.

jeanraffio

Great - it's just that PE, for all it's faults, seem to be very fair on cancelling charges if you can prove you were a genuine shopper at the time (scanned receipts etc).

looks like we'll never know, also looks like the manager wasn't all that clued up (and the thing about only spending a pound, what is that supposed to mean?) but a good result none the less.

4consumerrights

DanDrage wrote: »

I'm not sure whether it was the appeal to Parking Eye or the input of the store managers which did the trick I'm afraid.

I was told by one of the store managers that they have regular (I think weekly) meetings with a 'local Parking Eye co-ordinator' (I can't remember the exact phrase that he used) to discuss parking charges and that the store have been able to get parking charges cancelled if they relate to a bonafide shopper. The store manager did mention that they wouldn't be able to help if I'd only spent a small amount in the store (he said "if you've only spent £1 or something") which I thought was quite interesting/unfair!

HAHA - The stores now appear to discriminate by spending amounts what constitutes a customer ...... or could it be ...... many landowners/retailers receive a percentage rebate amount from the parking charge notices received (freely admitted on some PPC's websites) and so the stores decide if customers spend more than what they would get back as a rebate for the charge they will then instruct PPC to cancel ...:)