23 minute overstay with Parking Eye

ampersand

Do nothing playgoer.

Yes, we've all been at the theatre, so to speak, this morning.
Unfortunately, curtain came down early, but ramifications.....now, they're the sequel.
It IS very, very serious.

If you want, have a persistent annoying reminder email on tap to send and re-send to pe.

Any further correspondence which is NOT that w/d has this:

HOW DARE YOU SEND THIS, when - you have already cancelled/I am awaiting agreed cancellation - of this demand for money, agreed in my presence[location , mgrss] 13/03/2014 and reiterated later that same day.
You are now guilty of harrassment and will be reported to the relevant authorities.
#
Do subscribe as a regular playgoer to that other and PP's blog for today's doings.
Hope you are enjoying an altogether sunnier day today.

ColliesCarer

Hi PG,

If it were me then I'd
Draft a covering letter saying that it is your understanding that this PCN xxxxxxxxx has now been cancelled at the request of blah blah and you require confirmation of this by return and send this 1st class with proof of posting.

Update your late appeal letter with the advice Ampersand gave you in an earlier post about when you want them to respond (due to your unavailability in April).

Then if they don't respond by say 20/3 - lodge the appeal anyway and chase up the shop manager and PE for the cancellation.

But hang fire for input from some of the more knowledgeable ones on here - in case they have a better suggestion.


Oooops sorry was drafting - hadn't seen Ampersand's reply -who is one of the much more knowledgeable ones I mentioned - apols

ampersand

Ça va CC - I was deliberately not being mild for pg.
I'd phone mgrss today, secure her understanding of pe timeframe, email popla:
appeals@popla.org.uk and enquiries@popla.org.uk
- saying pcn cancelled, awaiting hard copy confirmation from pe, absent from UK[dates], therefore neither in a position, nor responsible for chasing.

ColliesCarer

I'm good thanks & - hope you are too

OP not at POPLA stage yet but was planning to put in a late appeal to the parking company - but then manager at a store on retail park has requested PE to cancel.

ampersand

Yes CC, which is why I suggested these pre-emptive strikes, so that they find a home if necessary. Shouldn't be though.

ColliesCarer

Sorry & - bit slow today.

Good thinking Batman :-)

playgoer

Just seen an item on BBC News about a guy called - I think - Barrie Segal - who was talking about his experience with one of our dear parking friends at Macdonald's. MacDo's had cancelled his charge, but he seemed prepared to have his day in court and was very articulate about whawt he would want from such a day. I think it's good that this made the news. If it comes on again I'll record it. Did anyone else see it?
Sorry not to have posted my update about my trip to the retail park on Thursday yet, had a bit of trouble getting online, and also been busy.

ColliesCarer

Hi PG
No didn't catch that - will watch out for it tonight - sounds interesting
Let us know how you go getting confirmation of that cancellation
Atb
CC

playgoer

OK, here it is – my Thursday odyssey. I approached threemanagers. The first one (who got the charge cancelled, if that happens!) toldme the retail park is owned by a company; she wouldn’t give me their details,but offered to phone Parking Eye to get the charge cancelled. I was able toshow her a credit card printout to prove that I’d bought something at herstore, though I don’t know if this swung the deal or not. I then went toStarbuck’s; the manageress there was incredibly sympathetic, and said that theyget complaints all the time but are powerless to deal with them as it’s not upto them to deal with cancellations. She confided that she’d tried to contactParking Eye, but couldn’t get past the automated payment/ appeal response. “Ihaven’t got a number for them,” she said. “I have,” I said, and gave it to her!She was so grateful; I felt really sorry for her having to field all thecomplaints. In fact, she kept me there for quite a while, letting it all out,despite the fact they were getting busy. She said they lose customers over thisand are very frustrated by it; she would like to see some kind of systemwhereby a customer can get a ticket from a machine which is then cancelled whenthey make a purchase. I left her with a bit more ammo than she’d had before, atleast. She also said that one of their customers is “taking PE to court” overhis PCN.

Lastly I went to Marks and Spencer. The under-manager wasnot only sympathetic but dug out the name of the landowners. However, he toosaid it was out of his remit to ring PE himself. I got the impression thateither they don’t know they can do that, or they’re afraid of going over thehead of the landowners – either that or they all have poker faces. Butobviously they can do it. Once the charge is definitely cancelled and I havethe written proof, I’ll go back to these people and show them that they can doit, and suggest they consult the manageress of the first store!

On my way back to the car I stopped and spoke to threerandomly chosen couples, all retired, who were getting into or leaving theircars, because I had a gut feeling that I wasn’t the only one who didn’t thinkthe notices were visible, and didn’t know about the 3 hour waitingtime.(Leaving aside the fact that PE shouldn’t be doing this anyway). Only one ofthem knew, but his wife – the driver – didn’t. None of the others had a clue,and all of them immediately turned around looking for the notices, which theycouldn’t see. They also didn’t know there were cameras! We discovered togetherthe reason why I hadn’t seen any signs- it’s perfectly possible to drive intothe park, get out of your car, and walk to the first shop without seeing anotice, as they have their backs to you around the perimeter, while those thatare facing are a long way off and impossible to read without binoculars. This confirmsfor me that PE doesn’t give a fig about whether or not customers actually seethe notices, which makes their guff about “this is a contract” even morehogwash than it already is. If they actually gave a toss, they’d at least makesure you could see the information! As one shopper said to me, “if it’s rainingand you have an umbrella up, there’s no way you could see them.” I took lots ofpix. Several people said that the notices were new; if you’re a regularshopper, then you wouldn’t think to look for them.



I realise that none of this is technically necessary (andprobably wouldn’t be successful, initially at least, as these parking guys haveno compassion) for an appeal against a PCN, as they can be defeated on other grounds.But I think it speaks volumes about the relationship between the landowner andthe shoppers, and about the offhand (to put it politely) nature of PE’sattitude towards the effectiveness of their notices. A large number of thepeople using the retail park were retired, and might reasonably take longerover their shopping, or want to relax over a cuppa; others seemed to be busymothers of young children (ditto). I came away having met a lot of frustratedpeople trying to keep customers happy, and a lot of really nice concernedshoppers who had had no idea how they were being treated, and who didn’t likewhat they learned. I also came away with the strong feeling that greed rules!But what’s new?

Redx

by the way, to avoid the formatting errors from word, copy and paste into notepad first, and save it in notepad txt format , then copy and paste from NOTEPAD onto here

it really is that simple