Smart Parking ltd and debt collection letter

Tracy82

Desperately after some help! I received a demand for payment letter today for a parking charge notice. This is the first I have heard about any parking charge, and obviously I immediately rang the company who sent the letter. They were rude and extremely unhelpful, even had the first person terminate the call! They said that it is too late to dispute the parking charge as the parking charge date is 02-01-16, event though the letter is dated 09-02-16. They sent all previous correspondence to my previous address!

The car is in my husbands name, who is a serving member of the forces and is currently overseas for 4 months, not due back until end of May. The debt collection company said that I cant dispute anything anyway as the vehicle is not in my name, though when j examined my husband was unable to deal with this whilst away and ha I f very limited phone calls and Internet, they basically said it was tough and I needed to pay £160 today to stop further action from being taken against us!

As for the parking ticket in question, I recal vividly the day we parked there...my husband was due to leave and had ran into sports direct in Darlington to collect a parcel and pick up some sports wear ready for taking away with him. I remained in the car as I have a son with autism who does not cope well with the chaos of a busy shop like that one, and my youngest daughter had chicken pox so I couldn't have taken her in either. We were not there very long (long enough with three children in the car though 😄) and I waited in the car the whole time.

The reason for the ticket stated that we had overstayed our paid time. We didn't but a ticket as we remained in the car and were so quick. This may be wrong of us, but it wasn't made clear that this was unaceptable and to be honest I didn't think anything of it at the time.

So now I am in a position where my husband is away, they say I can't appeal or dispute this fine and legal action will be taken against me if I do not pay it immediately! Where do I stand with this? I'd really appreciate any advice as I am a just about getting by day to day looking after three young children on my own whilst my husband is away, and I could really do without the added stress of this hanging over me! Please help! 😔

The

Redx

IGNORE DRP, they are powerless , NEVER EVER PHONE THEM UP

read this similar thread, and the advice contained inside it

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5410562

and

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5410152

do not phone those idiots up again , they will telll you the sun is purple if it meant they could bamboozle you into paying out some money

empty threats at the moment

ps:- it says legal action MAY be taken against the keeper

or that they will recommend that the CREDITOR (not so smart) should take legal action

it definitely does not say they will take legal action, because they cant

read this and listen to the song I just linked on the last page

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5035663

and please sign this Beavis petition and get as many army wives and personnel, plus family and friends to sign it too

https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/111925

Ralph-y

first ....

welcome to the forum .........

while you await further guidance please read through the newbies thread .......

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822

AND DO NOT CONTACT THE PPC OR THE DEBT CRAWLER AGAIN .....

what did you day to them ? did you say you where driving ?

who is the PPC?

where was this dastardly deed committed?

Ralph:cool:

Quentin

You can ignore the debt collector, so don't ring them again!

Coupon-mad

This is the first I have heard about any parking charge, and obviously I immediately rang the company who sent the letter.

Why do people do this? It's a dumb debt collector where there is no 'debt' at all. But what did you think they'd say?

Should have Googled them first. IGNORE THEM. They can't start a court claim nor can they send the boys round. These are not bailiffs.

What you can do is (of course) complain to the Retail Park and ask them to step in and cancel it because you feel bombarded by threats. Say it was just a matter of your OH collecting some pre-ordered items which constitutes loading and none of you had any idea about any restrictive parking terms because any signs are high and it was bad weather/bad light/winter. say you have been put off ever returning to the shops on this site, despite the fact your children like Sports Direct/add other shops here...

And if the Retail Park agents/landowner do not cancel?

Well OBVIOUSLY carry on ignoring this trashy letter chain. That's what the 'NEWBIES PLEASE READ THESE FAQS FIRST' tells you at the top of this forum that you've rushed to post on without reading what's here for you already (always read the top 'sticky' info threads on a forum first).

Redx

Ralph-y wrote: »

first ....

welcome to the forum .........

while you await further guidance please read through the newbies thread .......

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822

AND DO NOT CONTACT THE PPC OR THE DEBT CRAWLER AGAIN .....

what did you day to them ? did you say you where driving ?

who is the PPC?

where was this dastardly deed committed?

Ralph:cool:

its not so SMART parking, says so in the thread title

this lady needs to sit down, chill out, count to 10 and read that toilet paper properly, then put it away and forget about it and any subsequent letters from DRP/ZENITH/ZZPS or any other dubious debt collector sc*mbags

lady, come back only if not so SMART try a court claim in the 6 years following the date of the "incident", against the KEEPER

nothing else you can do so stop worrying about it and get on with your life helping out the countrys finest who do a more worthwhile job than the t*ssers at DRP

if I had my way I would send "the boys from Hereford" round to DRP headquarters and show them some not so english justice !!

Coupon-mad

Smart Parking have never tried Court (and would not choose as their first attempt, if they decided break the habit of a lifetime, a single PCN!) and DRPlus can't commence court proceedings because they aren't solicitors. They are merely a call centre of computerised letter-senders.

Ralph-y

would you believe that I re read the OP's post twice looking for the PPC :mad:

OK off to spec-savers

Ralph:cool:

Tracy82

Hi, I just said the car is in my husbands name and he is away serving overseas, I said I wanted to dispute the charge and they said I couldnt. I didn't give them many details at all as they wouldn't give me a hence I speak, they were very rude and continually interupted me and spoke over me. I didn't say who was driving.

I am off to read the links posted above in the hope that I can get as much advice as possible for dealing with this. It's very daunting to get a demandetter like this out of the blue, it has really got me quite panicked!

Tracy82

What does PPC stand for? I can't see that anywhere on the letter-sorry if this seems a stupid question!

Quentin

Tracy82 wrote: »

I am off to read the links posted above in the hope that I can get as much advice as possible for dealing with this. It's very daunting to get a demandetter like this out of the blue, it has really got me quite panicked!

Calm down.


Since you came here we have all explained that you can ignore them!


And you have been told how unlikely you are going to get a court claim over this!


PPC = Private Parking Company


See #2 in the newbies thread for the meanings of the abbreviations used:


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822