Met Parking Services parking charge notice at McDonalds Healthrow

rookiethegooner

I have just received a Parking charge notice regarding my car being parked in a McDonalds car park near Heathrow. I have checked and the driver at the time was in McDonalds the whole time the car was parked there and spent money in there. This can be proved by card statements.

The letter states the car was parked for 76 minutes and the limited free stay period is 60 minutes so it is 16 minutes over. To add the car park was probably a quarter full at the time so nobody was being denied a free parking space in this 16 minutes and it was parked correctly within a parking space. There was no option to pay and display.

They are trying to charge me as the registered keeper £50 if i pay up before the 22/5/14 or £100 after this date.

I'm guessing its a case of appealing and refuse to pay as to charge £100 for 16 minutes parking is slightly steep when the driver was in the restaurant the whole time.

I was planning to base my letter on the template appeal letter from
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822

Nodding_Donkey

you've got to realise that genuine customers clog up the car park and the Private Hire drivers haven't got anywhere to wait for free

On a serious note: Just send the template appeal from the Newbies thread that you linked. What actually happened on the day doesn't matter.

prosnap

I've beaten Met at McDonalds .... Lots on here have.


I doubt they will even put up a defence at POPLA.

rookiethegooner

I got a reply from McDonalds which was next to useless they more or less said thats the rules you get charged for staying too long even though i had explained the circumstances to them.

Then I just checked on http://www.metreview.com and where it says amount owed which previously said £50 it now says £0.00 so it seems they may of dropped the charge, it would of been nice of them to actually let me know though

Dee140157

Did you send in appeal to MET about the PCN. If not and you haven't actually hear it has been cancelled, I would be inclined to do it anyway just in case. I don't know how reliable the details are when you are logging on.

Well done though if it has been cancelled.

rookiethegooner

Hi yeah i had appealed it to MET and whilst had no official reply from MET yet it still shows that i owe them £0.00 so it seems like it has been cancelled.

Also I had emailed McDonalds twice to explain as they had not replied to my first email in over a week and was hoping they might see sense and realise the flaws in the systems in place especially as i explained the circumstances.

No such luck I received 2 almost identical replies one was an email and one a letter in the post, i had to read through both to spot tiny differences as they have have basically just sent me a copy and pasted template letter saying i had broke the rules and therefore i get a parking charge. The letter did state i had right of appeal however whilst the email did not say this.

The main difference was that the person replying was different so looks like the read the first sentence saw parking charge and just copy and pasted a template reply

Umkomaas

Then I just checked on http://www.metreview.com and where it says amount owed which previously said £50 it now says £0.00 so it seems they may of dropped the charge, it would of been nice of them to actually let me know though

Make sure you take a screen capture and save it until such time as you get any cancellation letter.

Coupon-mad

Not sure why posters keep sending emails & complaints to McDonalds centrally when the 'Successful complaints about PPCs' sticky (thread near the top, linked in Crabman's 'Parking board sticky threads') specifically advises only to take the matter up with the local Manager. We know already on here that McDonalds head office are useless but that McD's Managers in shops cancel these every week, without breaking into a sweat. Loads of linked successful examples in post #2 of the sticky thread, all about MET cases, there to be followed locally. If you find it's not cancelled, go in or phone and speak to the Manager and don't leave/put the phone down until he/she has agreed to get MET to cancel it like Managers do every week at McDs all over England/Wales.

rookiethegooner

MET sent me a letter in the end and dropped the case and apologised also not been back to Mcdonalds since as thier response was very poor

Umkomaas

Thanks for the update, and well done on the result.

For the cost of a couple of stamps (or better for free if you have the email addy's) write to McD's HO, and the 'restaurant' you visited to tell them exactly why you won't be back!

The principal is the real target to get at; they supply the lifeblood for the parasite to suck!

Herts_J

I received a parking demand from Met Parking Services claiming that I had been in a McDonalds car park for over 2 hours. I obtained the CCTV footage from the McDonalds restaurant, which showed I had entered the car park, bought a drink, left the car park in my car 20 minutes later, then returned to the same car park after about another hour, brought another drink and left after 20 minutes. The footage clearly shows my car leaving and returning. This is bordering on criminality.