Received Claim form from CC for parking charge notice

powerlady

I am starting this new thread - just worked out how to do this so sorry for hijacking anyone else's threads!!


2.7.13, I was caught on camera leaving a retail park covered by Private EYE. 15.7.13 received my reminder to pay £100 or discounted to £60 if paid within 14 days. I did nothing with either of these because I was at the time at the housing office across the road and my appointment overran because they were trying to get me temporary accommodation.


I received no further correspondence from PE until until 19th December when I received a CC claim from Northampton and countersigned by PE solicitor - it was dated 17th December.


I did pop into Matalan on the date in question but paid cash for a small item which I no longer have the receipt.


I have replied to the CC claim and asked for an extension to 28 days.
Any help please; I cannot afford to pay this and Northampton is miles from where I live to go and defend this case. Anybody think I have any mitigating circumstances. I think the whole process is intimidating and the timing of this latest correspondence designed to put even more pressure to pay.

Redx

please read the sticky threads for more help on this, you can also ask for the court case to be transferred to your local court, so no need to visit northampton

have you tried asking parking-prankster for help or advice as per his blog ?

ps:- its PARKING EYE , not private eye (private eye is a magazine edited by Ian Hislop)

powerlady

Apologies for the mistake Parking EYE!!

powerlady

What is a sticky thread and how do I found out where it is??

Stroma

The home page of the parking forum has all the sticky threads at the top
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163

Redx

they are above these member threads , and there is the NEWBIES - READ THIS FIRST one, and the LBCCC one

I cannot advise you on actual court case paperwork, but am sure there will be respondents who can do so , but it seems you clock has been ticking for a while, as the 28 days started from the date you sorted out the extension, or something like that, so time is of the essence, as is getting it moved to a court near you

Coupon-mad

Matalan?

As well as reading the 'NEWBIES READ THIS FIRST' and 'LBCCC fightback' sticky threads, you should also read the 'Successful Complaints about PPCs' sticky thread where you also seem to have so far completely missed the links showing Matalan stepping in to cancel for people even without receipts. And loads of those are AFTER PE have issued court papers but of course only when people are proactive and assertive (and polite) with a strong customer complaint to the right person at the stores or retail park.

If you haven't read the stickies as basic research, then how are you going to learn how to defend this? We can't and won't be able to talk you through the entire process from scratch, you need to research & learn from all the other information already here and on other forums. In the 'WELCOME' sticky (surely you have at least read that when registering?) there are two links you would need as well 'Advice, Small Claims & PPCs' and 'List of PPC Court cases' (non exhaustive) which you will need to cite if you are to put a defence.

You already had a new thread created by Crabman but you've missed that as well.

How on earth did you let it get to court stage without you at least looking at current forum advice? You could have easily appealed and used any address for the reply. Most people lose in court v PE and yours isn't boding well so far, sorry, there's definitely a necessary level of attention to detail, and ability to research information needed that we haven't seen from you yet.

Hope I am wrong, please prove me wrong as I hate ParkingEye. Hope you can get it cancelled by complaining if not by winning at a hearing. Court hearings are not even held at Northampton AND there is no 'extension to 28 days' from now - but you haven't even read threads to learn that yet, which is what makes me think you'd be a pushover if facing PE's solicitor in court (sorry but that's the impression). The 28 days has already started ticking from the day you were served with the Court papers and any hearing would be at your local court of course, which you would know if you'd read any other PE court claim threads.

Where do we start to help you have a chance, apart from encouraging a complaint to Matalan as well as Aldi?

I usually suggest newbies with a PE court claim go to pepipoo and please, DO NOT JUST POST THERE. You must do your research (if you can't hack it then you may as well fold and make an offer to PE in writing) as well as defending it online to prevent losing by default. This is not about whether you can afford it or not, and the defence is not about 'what happened' nor about the charge being unfair/high. Read at least a dozen pages back on the pepipoo forum, clicking on every single ParkingEye thread title which uses words like 'MCOL/Northampton/court/claim'. Read every case and all the advice already given, read it as if it's advice given to you, and use it:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=60

Please post again when you have done your research and tried the Matalan/Aldi complaint, which is not just a matter of speaking to some teenager or jobsworth at the CS desk. This may even be the same Retail park as the one in the 'Complaints' sticky with the helpful Matalan Manager, but who knows, as you haven't read anything much here (or on pepipoo) yet? Please do let us know what help you need after researching your defence and complaining.






P.S. Rhetorical question posted in frustration, sorry, feel like I have to vent and I am sorry of the above was harsh/tough advice! Why is most of our posting here telling people to read the flippin' sticky threads they should have already read??! Not sure why I bother with starting sticky threads sometimes, & collating all the recent complaints successes if no-one learns from them?

Stroma

Coupon-mad wrote: »

P.S. Rhetorical question posted in frustration, sorry, feel like I have to vent! Why is most of our posting here telling people to read the flippin' sticky threads they should have already read??! Not sure why I bother with starting sticky threads sometimes, & collating all the recent complaints successes if no-one learns from them?

No idea, but one could be that people post first then read later

Coupon-mad

So far the most powerful thing about the OP is her username, I so hope I am wrong about the outcome here. Annoyingly, PE must laugh all the way to the bank when people ignore them then don't research anything and get mullered in court. Even though it costs PE money to take people to court, it's another one for their website every time someone loses.

The_Deep

Why is most of our posting here telling people to read the flippin' sticky threads they should have already read??!

Because most people are stupid. That is why there is such a huge level of debt in this country, people buying stuff they do not need with money they have not got.

If you need any proof browse some of the debt sub-for a on MSE.

Stroma

I wouldn't say people are stupid en masse, but people's circumstances can change suddenly, like a death in the family, a divorce or a job loss. You can't really account for. So for example if you have a large mortgage you can't pay people try other avenues like loans and credit cards etc

But on this situation google has a lot to do with it, as people go straight onto threads, some will heed the requests and create a new thread, then some say why don't you read the sticky threads? Well the answer to that could be is that they never were asked.

The point being is that some latitude is supposed be given to 'Newbies' so they are not driven from the site, I'm sorry calling people stupid is more than likely to drive someone from here than almost anything else.