[solved] G24 PCN at Homebase car park + question

FunnyMunny

A friend went to Homebase and "overstayed" the 90 minutes allowed by about an hour. The ANPR system cought her and issued a £100 parking charge notice through the post (£60 if paid within two weeks). How ridiculous to get penalized for giving a shop your custom!

She showed me the G24 letter, just received, so I said that I'd dealt with two scam parking tickets similar to this in my residents car park (see my thread) and won. I then advised her to go to the store and have the manager cancel it. She did that the same day whereupon the manager apologized, disappeared into his office for 5 minutes and got it cancelled immediately.

She didn't get anything in writing to confirm it though which would have been reassuring to have, but the manager said to get back to him if she ever hears from them again (she wrote his name down). Note that she had actually bought something from Homebase further justifying her visit during that time and has kept the receipt.

However she is worried that G24 might still decide to come after her anyway and without proof of cancellation will have an uphill struggle to fight them, especially if that manager is no longer there. I advised her that while it's theoretically possible they could still pursue her (I explained they don't know who the driver is) the chance of this happening is remote since it's been cancelled on their system, not to worry about it and cross that bridge if it comes to it (I'll deal with it) and that G24 will lose, but that's not her style unfortunately. I even promised to pay the invoice should I somehow lose, so she has nothing at all to fear, but still she worries.

I also have a friend who is a manager at a retail store with similar parking arrangements, so I discussed this with him. He confirmed that he's cancelled several PCNs without any problems or comebacks from drivers and has never given written confirmation, so I really think she's worrying about nothing and should forget about it, but it's good practice to keep all the paperwork for several months as evidence after something like this.

Incredibly, she wanted to contact G24 to check that the PCN had really been cancelled. I strongly advised her not to contact them, since they are cowboys like the rest of these private parking companies and may well use this fear to pretend that the invoice has not been cancelled and try to extort the money from her with the usual threatening / intimidating template letters they use on everyone.

Still she's worried about this and insisted that I try to find out if anyone has had parking companies hound them after the ticket has been cancelled and especially if they've lost, hence this post (which will fuel her paranoia even more, of course). Anyone?

Fruitcake

You are a good friend.

What she has received is not a fine but a speculative invoice. The advice on this website is, do not pay, do not ignore, do not reveal who was driving.


If she is still worried she should go back to the store and ask for something in writing to say that the store has cancelled the parking charge. Keeping the receipt for her purchase is really good.


Unfortunately the parking companies prey on people like your friend and as a precaution she needs to appeal the parking charge notice unless and until she gets written confirmation from G24 using the template letter in the NEWBIES thread. Since you have done this before perhaps you could do it on her behalf. This needs to be done straight away in case G24 pursue this.


eta


I have just had a look at your other thread so I think the best thing is for you to take charge and deal with this on behalf of your friend. You obviously know what you are doing.

FunnyMunny

I do trust that the ticket has been cancelled, so surely filing an appeal / contesting this speculative invoice would only open things up again with G24? I don't think this is wise and could lead to a lot of unnecessary hassle.

Also, the manager said to come back to him if she hears from them again. Homebase have an obvious interest in not letting a customer feel p'eed off for shopping with them and will ensure that it's cancelled and stays cancelled.

I may have a good idea of what I'm doing now, but believe me I was stressed out at the time and had no idea how to fight it until you guys helped me out! :beer:

Umkomaas

Why don't you email the manager on your friend's behalf (use a new throwaway Google email address with gobbledygook user name if you wish), thanking him for his intervention in getting this charge cancelled and just ask, for the record, if he'd be good enough to quickly confirm this with a short reply to the email.

Doesn't cause him too much effort to put 'Confirmed, charge cancelled' then hit the 'send' button. Job done.

FunnyMunny

Umkomaas wrote: »

Why don't you email the manager on your friend's behalf (use a new throwaway Google email address with gobbledygook user name if you wish), thanking him for his intervention in getting this charge cancelled and just ask, for the record, if he'd be good enough to quickly confirm this with a short reply to the email.

Doesn't cause him too much effort to put 'Confirmed, charge cancelled' then hit the 'send' button. Job done.

That's not a bad idea. Of course, I'd have to get the email address of the manager first, but it's doable.

Umkomaas

Ring the store and ask! If they want to know what it's about, just say you've received great assistance from one of the staff and you wanted to pass on your thanks and appreciation for outstanding customer service! Tell them you've always found everyone so helpful at that Homebase store - I'm pretty sure they wouldn't want to spoil that record by being the first one to be unhelpful.

FunnyMunny

Nice, good idea.

Stroma

I would still send an appeal to them with the point that < name > Homebase Store Manager who is their principle and landowner has cancelled this invoice on whatever date it was, and you are only sending this appeal as a courtesy. And use the rest of coupons wording.

FunnyMunny

Yeah, I'm not sure about that, to be honest. If the manager said the ticket was cancelled, then he would have gotten confirmation in some way of it and I can't see G24 continuing with it. Contacting G24 for any reason could make it seem like an opportunity for them to try and get the money, as I mentioned in my OP.

Stroma

Well it's your invoice, but I've been advising on here for quite sometime , the almost 8k posts has been solely on this forum. In all that time I've seen what g24 and others do. If you believe you know better so be it! But I offer the benefit of experience of this,, I've only seen it several thousand times.

Best of luck !

FunnyMunny

Ok thanks Stroma, point taken and I'll give it some thought.