Are there any rules on this?

sacha28

Sorry to post (again!), probably on the wrong forum but can't think where else it can go!!

So today I had a letter from the company that's in charge of staff parking at my place of work and I feel a little bit miffed to say the least!

Permits were renewed in September, monthly payments due to begin 6th October (£30 per month for the privilege ). I noticed payment hadn't gone out in October, spoke to company and they said there was a problem with their new system and it should be up and running in time for November payment to be taken.......fast forward to now and the letter I, along with hundreds of other staff members, have received a letter stating that their system is now up and running and, as we are all 3 months in arrears, the monthly payment has gone up to £50 as they have had to place payments over 9 months instead of 12.

My personal feeling on this is that it's their equipment that has failed and is therefore not the fault of staff members who signed up to pay monthly in good faith. £50 is far harder to swallow that £30, we're (like many other staff members) living hand to mouth as it is and this is going to hit us.

I suspect they know full well they have us over a barrel as the transport links are terrible in the county....the park and ride that serves my place of work closes at 7.30pm (last bus at 7.15pm) and most shifts end 8/8.30pm, most buses that run to outer areas of the county finish before this or are 2 hourly at best and you end up waiting until gone 10pm for the last bus (not fun if your shift the next day starts at 8am) so I am totally reliant on my permit (I live a 20 minute drive from my work).

Asking on behalf of myself and angered/upset colleagues......can they just suddenly lump us with this increased monthly amount or can we somehow get them to honour the original monthly amount as it was their error?

Sorry it's long, I wanted to give as much info and pre-empt any questions

Time_to_face_the_music

There is something wrong with their maths.

£30 per month is £360 p.a., paid over 9 months this should be £40 per month not £50!

Slithery

As the October, November and December payments didn't get taken out then surely you still have the extra £90 in your account to cover this.

Also their maths doesn't make sense. If the original agreement was for 12 x £30 then that totals £360 p/a. Splitting this over 9 payments instead of 12 should mean 9 x £40 or is there something I'm missing?

FireWyrm

But they dont seem to have changed the price? Rightly, or wrongly, you are required to pay £30 a month for parking and this costs £360 a year. Presumably, you have been parking at the office for the previous months? If you have, then you have been using the service, but it has taken them until now to sort payment out. In all honesty, you and your colleagues knowing that you would have to pay eventually, should have been simply putting the money aside for the previous months in anticipation. I dont see how the parking administrators have acted inappropriately. You are just being asked to pay over 9 months rather than 12.

sacha28

I agree their maths is off, we have questioned how they came to this!

Yes we have been using the car park, we have no choice due to the transport links in the county, but they have been repeatedly asked when their system was going to up and running. I don't understand how a large company cannot have a system in place and working when they knew for months that people are going to choose to pay this way. They were taking renewal applications for 8 weeks before it went live, surely that's enough time to get it sorted?

It's not even a question of putting the money aside for the 3 months, they have still increased the monthly payment by 40%, an amount of which most people can ill afford, and this is their error that they have failed to put right, despite many requests from staff, for over 3 months.

I guess I wouldn't be so annoyed if it was my fault and I just hadn't bothered to pay for those months but I noticed, requested it be sorted and it wasn't.

FireWyrm

sacha28 wrote: »

It's not even a question of putting the money aside for the 3 months, they have still increased the monthly payment by 40%, an amount of which most people can ill afford, and this is their error that they have failed to put right, despite many requests from staff, for over 3 months.

It wasnt wrong in the first place. You and your colleagues should have been putting the money aside for the last 3 months and then it simply wouldnt have mattered.

sacha28 wrote: »

I guess I wouldn't be so annoyed if it was my fault and I just hadn't bothered to pay for those months but I noticed, requested it be sorted and it wasn't.

It is your fault. You have said you 'noticed' and you still did not take steps to deal with the situation preferring to spend the money on other things instead. I think you were hoping you could get out of paying somehow and claim it was all their fault in order to do so. It doesnt wash. The service was used by you and your colleagues for free for the last 3 months, but you knew that eventually, the bill would have to be settled. Time to pay up. You will have to find the money, or stop using the service effective immediately.

sacha28

Wow fyreworm, NY not working out as you hoped?? That was quite harsh.

It isn't my fault that they couldn't get the system sorted, I noticed and asked them when it would get sorted and was met with indifference. FYI I didn't 'choose' to spend it on other things, my family have taken a huge paycut of £10k pa when we moved here so we are struggling and the money has been put to use buying essentials. We are not a family that lives beyond our means, we don't have a social life AT ALL, and we have had some pretty rotten luck since we moved which has put a huge strain on our finances.

My OH was unable to find a job where we moved so had to commute, costing £200 pm, but has now found a job here starting Monday but our childcare costs are pretty big in relation to income. We don't qualify for tax credits as we are just over the threshold.....in actual fact I believe you commented on a thread I started on the benefits board so you are aware of our appalling situation as it stands now so I am quite surprised of your choice of words.

I wasn't asking if I should've put money aside, I was asking if it was acceptable for a company to put people in more financial hardship due to an error on their part.

glentoran99

sacha28 wrote: »

Wow fyreworm, NY not working out as you hoped?? That was quite harsh.

It isn't my fault that they couldn't get the system sorted, I noticed and asked them when it would get sorted and was met with indifference. FYI I didn't 'choose' to spend it on other things, my family have taken a huge paycut of £10k pa when we moved here so we are struggling and the money has been put to use buying essentials. We are not a family that lives beyond our means, we don't have a social life AT ALL, and we have had some pretty rotten luck since we moved which has put a huge strain on our finances.

My OH was unable to find a job where we moved so had to commute, costing £200 pm, but has now found a job here starting Monday but our childcare costs are pretty big in relation to income. We don't qualify for tax credits as we are just over the threshold.....in actual fact I believe you commented on a thread I started on the benefits board so you are aware of our appalling situation as it stands now so I am quite surprised of your choice of words.

I wasn't asking if I should've put money aside, I was asking if it was acceptable for a company to put people in more financial hardship due to an error on their part.

what would you have done if they had been taking the money?

they were always going to want paid for the parking eventually, system up or down,

sacha28

glentoran99 wrote: »

what would you have done if they had been taking the money?

It was budgeted for. When I checked the account on the 8th and saw it hadn't gone out I phoned, they said the system wasn't up and running but would be for November. I then bought coal and logs for the fire (we were going to go to a local woods to see what we could find) as this is our only form of heating. Same happened in November, we had budgeted for the permit but not for logs as we were going to go log hunting and when it didn't go out we bought logs. They then said they were doing 'everything we can' to sort the problem for December. In December, when payment didn't go out I bought a heater for my ds's bedroom as the heat from the log burner doesn't seem to reach his room. Then the letter arrived.

We are living on the breadline at the moment, every penny is accounted for, so things wouldn't have been any different if it had been going out (we have since found out that taking logs from woodland is illegal )

katsu

I Don't see how they are making you suffer in that if you'd saved the £30 for the months they didn't take it you would be able to use it in the remaining months.

I also don't think they are doing anything wrong. Maybe they think it is kinder to not ask for the lump sum in one go?

Time_to_face_the_music

I think the approach to take on this is their faulty maths and/or unjustified price increase and you should all stand together using previous correspondence to state you are prepared to pay the £40 per month but not £50.

A couple of other things, is there any local on road/off road parking you could use instead? If everyone started doing this and not using the car parking, you may find the company changed their approach.

Re the fire wood, have you tried Freecycle, Gumtree or even ebay? If you are able to collect, there is often lots of free wood available.

TTFTM x