Should you appeal alone? (prev. Parking Cowboys are cowboys too it turns out...)

StaffsSW

MSE is not interested in the activities of other people, as long as it does nothing to detract visitors or affiliate click throughs from this site. Whether that isparkingcowboys.co.uk, privateparkingappeals.co.uk, or even "localbargainfinder.com"

For some time Martin Lewis was happy to promote a product, on here, on TV, on radio, and there was no problem with me nor anyone else mentioning it and linking to it. Soon enough, he plagiarised the idea, plugged it to everyone on his mailing list, and any subsequent mention of the original site was threatened with the ban-hammer.

MSE as a business has only ever been, and will only ever be interested and protective of it's own needs and revenue. Can somebody remind me what financial or legal qualifications ML actually has?

4consumerrights

CENSTE wrote: »

I have the evening succumbed to paying DRP £149 for an unpaid parking charge but this is not the point of the Thread so all the de-facto Mod's please hang fire on the Newbie charges

This was originally received due to a failure to display a Blue Badge when my wife and her mother went shopping. Following a good read of this forum amongst others I appealed purely from the principle of why should a legitimate BB holder be held ransom simply for a regrettable mistake. This appeal was rejected with a POPLA code received at which point I was a little lost on my next step so again whilst on this very forum I came across Parking Cowboys ..... and now the reason for the Thread.

I was told for a nominal fee, £18, they would help support me and with the very high success rate in over-turning PCN I was sold, after all £18 is a lot better than the £100 I was now looking at. I paid up, was emailed my receipts and sat back with a sense of relief that was now in the hands of some professionals.

After one week passed with no contact from Parking Cowboys I visited their website and emailed them politely asking for an update. Still nothing .... not even an annoying automated response which I would have been glad of as this would have at least meant my email was going somewhere.

After a further 3 weeks, still nothing .... and then .... rattle .... you guessed it my first formal demand for payment from DRP. I ignored the obvious ominous over-tones and fired off another email to Parking Cowboys, this time more professional than polite. Still nothing

I have been holding off paying whilst i awaited the outcome of the Beavis ruling which sadly led me to believe that I now had no option .... so full circle to my intro and payment was made

This experience has left me disappointed.
Disappointed at exorbitant fees for a legitimate right to park in a disabled bay.
Disappointed by the Beavis ruling.
But disappointed most of all in myself for falling for what seems to be a scam on of all places a Martin Lewis trusted website.

For a lot of people £18 is a lot of money however I guess for some it's all in a days work

Thanks for nothing Parking Cowboys :T:T:T:T:T

If the OP is/was a customer then I would strongly suggest that they email this post to us together with a copy of their automatic response they would have received from Parking Cowboys, together with a their PayPal receipt for verification and the matter can be investigated further.

I would also re-iterate that MSE Parking Forum is not affiliated with either Parking Cowboys, other forums or other outside resources for assistance such as Parking Prankster, Pepipoo, CAG, BMPA etc......

However the OP does not appear to have researched the forum very well based on the first appeal submitted or the fact that they paid a debt collector.

I look forward to the OP's email directly and naturally if no service was provided for any reason then their £18.00 will be refunded in full. We do require details of correspondence before submitting any appeal at any stage.

4consumerrights

I am bouncing this thread back up to give the OP another chance to see it and contact us directly. ...

So far nothing.

CENSTE

4consumerrights ..... I am having issues with links on my response as keeps stating that as new poster all links have to be removed. I have done this but keeps denying me, which is very frustrating believe me. I will keep trying ....

Quentin

If you want to post links, then you can get round the censor by replacing http with hxxp


Though the contact asked for above is email!


(Do you now accept that it isn't Parking Cowboys who have let you down?)

CENSTE

Firstly I somehow feel as though I should be apologising to those who responded immediately, however one will not be forthcoming. The only reason I did not respond was that due to these instant puerile and unhelpful comments any response would have been a negative on my side rather than addressing my reason for posting. I have only checked this post to see if any helpful comments had come through because as a new poster I had failed to click the thread subscription so received no email alerts on the conversation.

Moving on to the more important matter, I would like to thank those who have picked up on the actual point of my thread, namely I paid for a service to support me which I found through clicking links via this forum. My issue is with the failure in that lack of service despite paying for it and was never an attack on a forum. A concept I find very alien, how do you attack a forum?!?!

I fully accept that I may have on retrospect, given the strong updates from posters, paid DPR much too early however having never been in the situation where I receive debt letters and following the Beavis case my natural caution was to pay, but as I stated in my original post that was never the point here!

In response to 4consumerights I have PM you and more than happy to provide all documentation namely the automated response I received on raising my query with PPA [Yes I was incorrect in my original post however the link, as correctly shown earlier in this thread was called Parking Cowboys so apologies for this minor misnomer] along with a copy of the PayPal receipt plus anything else you think would help?

As can be seen from the automated response the line “…We aim to provide a response within 3 working days of making your application and payment, but this may be longer at busy times. If you have any concerns, please email info&privateparkingappeals.co.uk including the enquiry details below….” …is the one that has got my ire. I have had no contact in the timeframes quoted and despite emailing on multiple occasions to this email address I have had not a single response since August!

I would obviously welcome any support here and appreciate the gracious offer.

I have one final question and please only respond if you have anything of value to offer and I mean this with most respect but is it now possible for me to pursue this PCN now I have paid it or have I closed that door now?

I would like to close this response by again pointing out that irrespective of the volume of post (totally arbitrary given a large number of responses from some members is simply "read the newbie thread") or my join date (I joined so I could post looking for support but regularly read the forums and website as do many others) this in no way implies that I am a 'spy' or that something erroneous is in play. It is disappointing that the one and only time I reach out for help this is the initial reaction of many members, which I am sure will put others off from their first post in future.

enfield_freddy

"Moving on to the more important matter, I would like to thank those who have picked up on the actual point of my thread, namely I paid for a service to support me which I found through clicking links via this forum. My issue is with the failure in that lack of service despite paying for it and was never an attack on a forum. A concept I find very alien, how do you attack a forum?!?!




can you post that link? , I have NOT spotted a endorsed link on MSE with contact address for the company you are calling cowboys , and took £18 off you and failed to do anything




the link please?

Quentin

The "link" to Parking Cowboys is in the newbies thread. (#1)


Parking Cowboys has direct links to the appeal company that has let the OP down

enfield_freddy

so a link to an alternate site for help was given , just like pepipoo and cag , if the site had an advert for gold at 6 shillings a ton , and it was a con , could MSE be held responsible?

4consumerrights

@ CENSTE

I have sent you a private message