Meteor Train Station ticket - I can't contact them

Coupon-mad

Gords wrote: »

Would someone be able to offer me some advice please?

Yep - you already found the most recent advice on this subject in louloukoi16's thread - there's not much more to add, I gave her loads of links to see this for what it is.

decimus

I had the exact same situation a few years ago. The ticket had fallen into the foot well.

On the basis they are pursuing you for breach of contract ( else if it is criminal they won't get the "penalty" paid to them - it will go to the court ) I would make the argument that you are not in breach of contract - you did display the ticket but it fell off.

It is clearly unreasonable to expect you to stand by your car all day in case a ticket falls off - if they try to take it further I would argue the 1977 unfair contract terms act applies - moreover - what's their actual loss? Nothing - you have paid for a ticket.

I had a few exchanges the PPC and then they stopped.

Good luck

Gords

OK, thanks everyone ... but what is my next step? Who do I communicate with? Do I just send the "template" letter or a "personal" one stating the fact that I had a ticket which fell into the foot well?

Should I send a letter to Meteor, or the Debt Recovery lot - or both? Or others?

Coupon-mad

Same as you will find advised on louloukoi16's thread and anon45's advice in the pepipoo thread. No-one tells her to write to DRP, why would you write to middle-men debt collectors except to tell them to 'do one'? It's more about complaining to the BPA, the TOC and Passenger Focus, Trading Standards.

And see this similar thread and links to some ideas about a letter and what to do, there are several people currently ignoring or complaining about this misleading rubbish:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4920000

And you haven't said who sent you the latest letter you mention, was it from Meteor, or DRP, or "PCN Debt Recovery and Prosecution Service"?

Finally, did the original PCN mention POFA 2012? If it did then it was mis-issued (the DVLA's term) and falls within a similar complaint as successfully pursued by prjohnsonnn against MET at railway stations. This link may be one where you can see similarities and how to step up complaints (this took prjohnsonnn months to achieve):

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=90450

HTH

decimus

i would write to debt recovery firm to explain that you are in dispute the meteor and that there is no debt to recover. If they keep hassling you write again explaining that their behaviour is criminal harassment and you will contact the police if they continue. Send copies to the home addresses of the directors of the company if possible ( you can get their details from companies house ).

Second , write to meteor to state you believe you are not in breach of contract as you fulfilled your side of the contract in good faith. Explain to them that if they wish to continue to pursue you the must start county court proceedings against you with 14 days of the date of the letter. If they fail to do that then they guilty of harassment too.

This country has had the rule of law for 1,000 years , if you have a claim against someone it is settled in a court not through threatening and aggressive demands.

Coupon-mad

decimus wrote: »

i would write to debt recovery firm to explain that you are in dispute the meteor and that there is no debt to recover. If they keep hassling you write again explaining that their behaviour is criminal harassment and you will contact the police if they continue. Send copies to the home addresses of the directors of the company if possible ( you can get their details from companies house ).

Second , write to meteor to state you believe you are not in breach of contract as you fulfilled your side of the contract in good faith. Explain to them that if they wish to continue to pursue you the must start county court proceedings against you with 14 days of the date of the letter. If they fail to do that then they guilty of harassment too.

This country has had the rule of law for 1,000 years , if you have a claim against someone it is settled in a court not through threatening and aggressive demands.

The above would be correct if it were a fake PCN where the PPC wasn't alleging byelaws apply and bleating about Magistrates' Court (not County Court). These cases are a bit different from the norm and the only risk is if the TOC decide to lay this before maggy's court before the six months is up - then these posters would have to turn up at a hearing and show that there was no Penalty Charge issued at all and that they have complained to the relevant bodies about this deception. So far, from all other threads we've seen on here and on pepipoo, Southern do NOT follow these up to Court and so, after 6 months, it's safe to ignore the usual dirge; the letter chain of drivel from a debt collector. That's why anon45 on pepipoo is keen to tell people to calm down and ignore these, as they will blow out like a damp squib.

But this sort of situation seriously misleads people and muddies the waters - hence why I suggest complaints to the BPA and DVLA and Trading Standards, as well as the TOC and to Passenger Focus because this isn't on!

Bottom line IMHO = if a PPC issues something called a 'parking charge notice' and they are a BPA AOS member, the way forward for them is ONLY to follow the BPA CoP and then to offer POPLA, not to let the TOC pretend it was in fact a 'penalty charge' all along. What really gives it away is that the 'offence' in byelaw 14 is a strict interpretation of a certain issue about failure to pay for a P&D ticket - and yet Meteor issue these pretend byelaws tickets for ANY OLD unrelated reason. Basically, on the mere excuse that the car park happens to be at a railway station, they are deliberately sidestepping POPLA and IMHO they are using/abusing the clout of a scary TOC letter threatening Magistrates Court, for a PCN which should have followed the normal process to POPLA.

Stroma

I would say that they are being fraudulent in the way they are handling this, and the fact that hundreds of people had refunds only shows that they know this is going on, and still going on! This IMO is criminal, how can the dvla sell this company our data when they haven't sorted out the problem?

I think it's time to find out exactly what's going on at meteor and these TOCs , the dvla has to have records on what is going on, so a FOI request is going to be going in about this situation.

Coupon-mad

Yep but don't forget it's MET who were ordered to issue refunds about a different way of misleading the public. In this case it's Meteor - equally misleading though IMHO.

Stroma

Oh yeah I'm getting my cowboys mixed up, still this is worthy of going after them as we are only seeing the tip of the iceberg here.

Gords

I have just received a whole load (well a few!) "read" message replies, although it looks like it failed! Why do they bother putting an email address on their ticket if they don't actually receive / take notice of emails sent to them (them = Meteor)?!

The "ticket" was stuck to the windscreen, then the next two letters were from "PCN Debt Recovery and Prosecution Service" in Portsmouth.

I cannot see any mention of "POFA 2012".


So, do I write to Meteor (via post, just proof of postage), or another organisation? Do I use the / a template letter found here? Does it matter that I had a ticket but that it just wasn't visible (fell in to foot well)?