Parking Eye Charges - Small claims - Mediation issued

Frisky_frogs

Hi guys,

Tried reading through the FAQ section but was confused a little, I'm looking for a little help if possible!

Back in July this year, my partner and I visited a Morrison's out of town, we over stayed by 37 Minutes. We'd chosen to do a little shopping and take a short walk around the area, coming back to the Morrison to do our little shopping, due to the actual store and having a young child (6-7 months at the time) who needed feeding, we were quite stuck as to where to go... The Morrison's didn't have an inbuilt Cafe, so we had to purchase our food, and feed our child in the car on the car-park (I'm certainly not feeding my child as the car is moving...)

A few weeks later, we receive a charge from parking eye, my partner checked on-line, and unfortunately read the posts from 2010, and happened to miss the part about ignoring the charges and they'll go away. Now we're at the stage where Parking eye are attempting to take it through the small claims court, and issuing a mediation.

We've contacted the courts to acknowledge the claim, and filed a defence.

Prior to this, my partner has called the Morrison's store, and they actually have a member of staff dedicated to dealing with Parking Eye charges, who on 4 separate occasions have specifically stated that they'd deal with Parking eye and have the charges removed.

Today, again we've received a letter from parking eye, with a "Directions Questionnaire, Small Claims Track" enclosed. We've spoken to Morrison's again, who this time have placed the blame on us, and stated we shouldn't have left it this long, and that it's our fault for reading on the internet in the first place, the gentleman we spoke to said it's not his staff's fault. It just so happens that they also, don't record calls either so we have no opportunity to use those calls as evidence.

The only evidence I can obtain, is the call logs from my landlines and mobile providers.

What's my next step, is there anything letter wise I can send to these people or the courts? I'd be more then happy to pay for this if it was a genuine overstay, but feeding my child seemed far more important then the "Supposed" money that Parking Eye would lose from the space being occupied (Of which, more then half the car park was empty, so no money was lost except the £1 for an extended ticket...


Reading over the original claim form, it states that a POPLA Appeal is not possible if you've already appealed via Parking Eye, I'm not certain but I believe my partner may have already attempted this route once we'd received the court letters...

EDIT - Reading over the letters and discussing with my partner, it appears that the questionnaire is in fact a copy, she'd ignored this too, as at the time of previously receiving it, she'd spoken to Morrison's and they'd said not to worry, they'd deal with it, and to ignore the letter, so we are now past the possible chance of having the case handled at a local court.

The_Deep

Do not agree to mediation, and if you do offer to compensate them for their losses, £1 for parking and £10 for their time.

Mediation is not about fairness, it is about compromise, anything more than £11 is capitulation.

The_Slithy_Tove

But they didn't lose £1, they lost zero. And if they spent £10, £100, or £1000 chasing a loss of zero, then that's their problem. Go to mediation if you must, but as the OP's position should be that PE are owed nothing, then it's unlikely to succeed.

[However, on a more pragmatic level, PE are known to settle for as little as £25, so may be worth starting down that route if the lottery of court is too risky.]

4consumerrights

Frisky_frogs wrote: »

Hi guys,

Tried reading through the FAQ section but was confused a little, I'm looking for a little help if possible!

Back in July this year, my partner and I visited a Morrison's out of town, we over stayed by 37 Minutes. We'd chosen to do a little shopping and take a short walk around the area, coming back to the Morrison to do our little shopping, due to the actual store and having a young child (6-7 months at the time) who needed feeding, we were quite stuck as to where to go... The Morrison's didn't have an inbuilt Cafe, so we had to purchase our food, and feed our child in the car on the car-park (I'm certainly not feeding my child as the car is moving...)

A few weeks later, we receive a charge from parking eye, my partner checked on-line, and unfortunately read the posts from 2010, and happened to miss the part about ignoring the charges and they'll go away. Now we're at the stage where Parking eye are attempting to take it through the small claims court, and issuing a mediation.

We've contacted the courts to acknowledge the claim, and filed a defence.

Prior to this, my partner has called the Morrison's store, and they actually have a member of staff dedicated to dealing with Parking Eye charges, who on 4 separate occasions have specifically stated that they'd deal with Parking eye and have the charges removed.

Today, again we've received a letter from parking eye, with a "Directions Questionnaire, Small Claims Track" enclosed. We've spoken to Morrison's again, who this time have placed the blame on us, and stated we shouldn't have left it this long, and that it's our fault for reading on the internet in the first place, the gentleman we spoke to said it's not his staff's fault. It just so happens that they also, don't record calls either so we have no opportunity to use those calls as evidence.

The only evidence I can obtain, is the call logs from my landlines and mobile providers.

What's my next step, is there anything letter wise I can send to these people or the courts? I'd be more then happy to pay for this if it was a genuine overstay, but feeding my child seemed far more important then the "Supposed" money that Parking Eye would lose from the space being occupied (Of which, more then half the car park was empty, so no money was lost except the £1 for an extended ticket...


Reading over the original claim form, it states that a POPLA Appeal is not possible if you've already appealed via Parking Eye, I'm not certain but I believe my partner may have already attempted this route once we'd received the court letters...

EDIT - Reading over the letters and discussing with my partner, it appears that the questionnaire is in fact a copy, she'd ignored this too, as at the time of previously receiving it, she'd spoken to Morrison's and they'd said not to worry, they'd deal with it, and to ignore the letter, so we are now past the possible chance of having the case handled at a local court.

Oh dear this seems a mess and full of contradictions...


Can you post us up a copy of the defence submitted please and confirm that you have just received the directions questionnaire? or not.

The_Deep

The_Slithy_Tove wrote: »

But they didn't lose £1, they lost zero.

Are you sure?

... so no money was lost except the £1 for an extended ticket...

Coupon-mad

Today, again we've received a letter from parking eye, with a "Directions Questionnaire, Small Claims Track" enclosed

That's their completed copy of their DQ. Where is yours...don't tell me she's ignored the court and not bothered to fill in her DQ? How to fill out your DQ is in this post #5 of the newbies thread:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showpost.php?p=64350600&postcount=5

How to fill out forms for the Court is in the first blue link 'Advice'. All the rest is relevant to you too, ALL about defence, and about writing to the local court to ask if the claim can be stayed for the outcome of PE v Beavis.

We've contacted the courts to acknowledge the claim, and filed a defence.

What did this defence say? Please don't tell us she wrote about what happened and no real defence, nothing about there being no loss, nothing researched at all about PE v Beavis or anything whatsoever looked up on any forum first, to see how to defend a PE claim? Did no-one even Google 'ParkingEye court claim defence' (or similar) & find the Prankster's Guide to defending a PE small claim? It is one of the links in the Newbies thread I have already shown you above. And no DQ filled out yet even though she got that from the Court? She may be late sending it but urgently fill out the DQ as per the link I have already given you then separately, a week later maybe, write to the local court asking for a stay, again already fully covered there in the link.

Unless you can get the claim stayed, PE will eat you up for dinner in court at this rate, with no defence, not filling in court forms and not appearing to have found out about the Beavis case.