Parking Charge Notice from Civel Enforement Ltd

goldmask

I worked in an institute, and one of our invited speaker stayed in a hotel for three nights (my institute booked and hotel and paid for his stay). On the morning he left, I drove to the hotel to deliver a piece of his luggages which he left in my car the other night. He was out for a walk at that time, so I waited for about 10 minutes until he came back. I gave him the luggage and then left the hotel. Yesterday, I received a ticket of 100 pounds for parking in the hotel car park for 22 minutes from Civil Enforcement Ltd. I called the hotel reception this morning. The receptionist denied that the car park belonged to the hotel (it's in the same building, just outside the gate of the hotel) and said that I need to deal with Civil Enforcement Ltd directly. Apparently there is a 15 minutes free parking limit (no clear sign in the car park or in the hotel, I asked my wife to take some photos today), and I parked slightly longer than that. I insisted her to give me the email address of her manager. I also found the email address of their sales manager on Tripadvisor. I am planning to write to both to complain about the parking ticket. I want to check with you guys what arguments I should use in my email. Can anyone kindly find me a template of letter to the manager of the hotel or supermarket?

I also want to know what is the chance that I will succeed if I choose to appeal to POPLA (if the hotel managers refuse to help). I am worried that I am not a guest of the hotel, so POPLA will refuse my appeal on that ground. My boss agreed to reimburse the parking charge if I can not solve it by myself. But I feel that this is the trick hotel and Civil Enforcement Ltd use to fill their pockets. I will fight them if I have a fair chance to win.

Any advices will be greatly appreciated.

Hot_Bring

Continue to complain to the hotel - it's highly unlikely they don't own the car park.

At the same time appeal to CEL using the template in the Newbies sticky thread.

If it comes to POPLA you WILL win if you follow the advice in the Newbies thread and get your appeal checked here first. Remember, you'll be appealing on contract law NOT what has happened.

goldmask

Hot_Bring wrote: »

Continue to complain to the hotel - it's highly unlikely they don't own the car park.

At the same time appeal to CEL using the template in the Newbies sticky thread.

If it comes to POPLA you WILL win if you follow the advice in the Newbies thread and get your appeal checked here first. Remember, you'll be appealing on contract law NOT what has happened.

I understand that when I appeal to Civil Enforcements and POPLA, I should not admit that I was the driver. But when I complain to the hotel managers, I will have to admit I was the driver. Will this hurt my chance to win later?

bod1467

No. The hotel are very unlikely to pass any such info on to CEL (other than to tell them to cancel the PCN).

arabesque_101

Dear Hotel Manager.

I am employed by xxx Institute. The Institute regularly invites speakers at our events to stay at your hotel, in fact you are currently our preferred hotel. Most recently a speaker named xxx xxxx stayed for 3 nights (the institute booked the hotel and paid for his stay). On the morning he left, my staff member and I drove to the hotel to deliver a piece of his luggage which he left in our car the other night. He was out for a walk at that time, so we waited for about 10 minutes until he came back. We gave him the luggage and then left the hotel. Our vehicle incurred a parking charge for this.

If we had been a guest at the hotel, I have no doubt we would have found suitable parking and parked appropriately and gone to our rooms. But because my staff member and I were not staying there, but rather helping organise a guest staying in your hotel, we simply waited in the car.

Since all we were doing was helping facilitate a customer of yours, I would ask that you assist us in having this charge withdrawn by contacting Civil Enforcement Limited on our behalf. In the event you do not own the car park, please advise me who does. Please do not refer me to Civil Enforcement Limited, we tried calling them and they were not co-operative at all.

(I used "we" to avoid admitting who was driving).

goldmask

arabesque_101 wrote: »

Dear Hotel Manager.

I am employed by xxx Institute. We regularly have invite speakers at our events stay at your hotel, in fact you are currently our preferred hotel. Most recently a speaker named xxx xxxx stayed for 3 nights (the institute booked the hotel and paid for his stay). On the morning he left, my staff member and I drove to the hotel to deliver a piece of his luggage which he left in our car the other night. He was out for a walk at that time, so we waited for about 10 minutes until he came back. We gave him the luggage and then left the hotel. Our vehicle incurred a parking charge for this.

If we had been a guest at the hotel, I have no doubt we would have found suitable legal parking and parked appropriately and gone to our rooms. But because my staff member and I were not staying there, but rather helping organise a guest staying in your hotel, we simply waited in the car.

Since all we were doing was helping facilitate a customer of yours, I would ask that you assist us in having this charge withdrawn. In the event you do not own the car park, please advise me who does. Please do not refer me to Civil Enforcement Limited, we tried calling them and they were not co-operative at all.

(notice how I didn't say who was driving).

That's clever. Thanks a lot. I used your version, and added "Otherwise I will consider to share my experience on the travel websites and other social networks to alert other people who might use your car park for genuine purposes".

I got reply from their sales manager immediately. She asked for a photocopy of my ticket and promised to forward it to her general manager. But at the end of her email, she said "I am not sure trying to blackmail is the way forward. " Come on, I am not asking for a million pounds by inventing a fake story. I am just asking to have a parking ticket cacelled.

arabesque_101

Sharing your experiences is not blackmail. If you had said you would withdraw your Institutes business from the hotel, maybe that might be blackmail, but you didn't say that.

goldmask

arabesque_101 wrote: »

Sharing your experiences is not blackmail. If you had said you would withdraw your Institutes business from the hotel, maybe that might be blackmail, but you didn't say that.

I will definitely tell our secretary not to use this hotel any more. It's usual for me to pick up the visitor from the hotel for a dinner or drink during their visit. I don't want to tell my guests that I have to park my car two street blocks away because the hotel has hired some morons to guard their car park.

Hot_Bring

goldmask wrote: »

That's clever. Thanks a lot. I used your version, and added "Otherwise I will consider to share my experience on the travel websites and other social networks to alert other people who might use your car park for genuine purposes".

I got reply from their sales manager immediately. She asked for a photocopy of my ticket and promised to forward it to her general manager. But at the end of her email, she said "I am not sure trying to blackmail is the way forward. " Come on, I am not asking for a million pounds by inventing a fake story. I am just asking to have a parking ticket cacelled.

Oh dear, does the Sales Manager not understand that taking your custom elsewhere unless they sort the issue is blackmail .... as well as consumer choice !

Coupon-mad

I would reply to the Hotel and say never mind accusations of blackmail - they should look more closely at their chosen parking firm. Allowing a practice akin to a Protection Racket by a notorious, out of control and litigious parking company is not conducive to good customer relations and repeat custom. And you would just suggest their Management team might like to learn something about how out of control CEL are in 2014 in terms of them currently suing Co-op genuine customers left right and centre. A quick Google of the words 'Civil Enforcement Co-op Court' would be worth their while...they may be able to get out before it happens to them and their customers. The Co-op is currently trying to hush up the fact that they are having to pay off CEL at £150 a time to stop all the court cases against their (ex) customers.

goldmask

Coupon-mad wrote: »

I would reply to the Hotel and say never mind accusations of blackmail - they should look more closely at their chosen parking firm. Allowing a practice akin to a Protection Racket by a notorious, out of control and litigious parking company is not conducive to good customer relations and repeat custom. And you would just suggest their Management team might like to learn something about how out of control CEL are in 2014 in terms of them currently suing Co-op genuine customers left right and centre. A quick Google of the words 'Civil Enforcement Co-op Court' would be worth their while...they may be able to get out before it happens to them and their customers. The Co-op is currently trying to hush up the fact that they are having to pay off CEL at £150 a time to stop all the court cases against their (ex) customers.

Thanks a lot for your advice. I have sent them the charge notice and the booking information for our guest. I mentioned since we paid for our guest's room, we are also their customer. I have the right to complain if I am unhappy with their service. I also have the right to tell my story somewhere else, if they don't want to listen to it.