ParkingEye - Letter Before County Court Claim - Pride Park Derby

SMASH3R

Umkomaas wrote: »

You could check its current status by visiting the PE website and go as if to pay the PCN by entering the required details (obviously don't press the 'Pay Now' button). It will show if it has already been cancelled.

Thanks, a very good suggestion. I have been doing this, but as-of-yet (only three days in), it is still showing as valid. Although forgive my scepticisism PE and restaurant concerned, but this should have happened weeks ago if the restaurant phoned to cancel the charge. Not filling me with confidence. I outlined this to the Duty Manager, but this was not in the slightest tugging on his heart strings i.e. he clearly didn't give a rats £#*!

Umkomaas wrote: »

In terms of getting something 'in writing' from the restaurant, why don't you email the person who agreed the cancellation, thank them for intervening, put in a brief synopsis of your understanding of what you discussed and agreed and ask if they could quickly confirm by email return that they share that understanding.

When the restaurant stated that they always refuse to email ParkingEye (they will only ever telephone them), and that they will therefore not 'cc' me in on this email, I really pressed the point about getting some sort of other written confirmation from them so that I could present the Restaurant's wishes as evidence should it get to Court, particularly as PE have obviously started the first required step to take Court action. I said I was happy to draft something, or that they could easily reply to my email confirming this. The restaurant Deputy Manager stated that they never give out written information and that they never get involved with any legal proceedings, and they would not be providing anything whatever in writing that stated that they wanted the charge cancelled. It's pretty good customer service; it's encouraged me to book a meal there for all my friends and family next week. NOT!

Half_way

Is it possible to have the manager attend court?
It may even be worth putting a claim in against the manager himself/herself for their unreasonable behavior.

SMASH3R

The 'charge' is still showing as payable on the ParkingEye website.
I contacts the restaurant today, and this time I was able to speak with the General Manager of the restaurant. I explained the situation (including the charge still being valid), and the GM also said that they do not email PE and have no form to do so. I explained that PE provide all land owners/licence holders on the Pride Park land with a copy of a 'claim cancellation form', and that this should be completed, and emailed to [EMAIL="parking@parkingeye.co.uk"]parking@parkingeye.co.uk[/EMAIL]. This was not refuted by the GM and the point was dodged, but they again stated that 'this would not go to court', and that they would personally contact PE and ask for the charge to be cancelled. I got a call back from the GM an hour or so later, confirming that it will 'definately be cancelled', however, I have been told this time that it will be cancelled within two weeks. Previously, I have always been told it would be cancelled within 7 days.

Personally, I'm expecting this to progress further with the local County Court. I guess I should start looking for information from the land registry etc to confirm who the actual landowner is, so I can review the aspect of whether PE can bring a legitimate claim.

Another point:
When the LBCCC is signed with a squiggle, and it printed 'ParkingEye Legal Department', does this comply with the Practice Direction for Pre-Action before Court?

Thank you.

Coupon-mad

Another point:
When the LBCCC is signed with a squiggle, and it printed 'ParkingEye Legal Department', does this comply with the Practice Direction for Pre-Action before Court?

Yes that is OK. A named person does not have to sign a LBCCC.

if I were you I would email PE's enforcement team again with that update, outright INSISTING the matter is confirmed as on hold for 3 weeks while the restaurant act to cancel it and (cheeky this bit!) can they please supply the restaurant with a User Manual and cancellation forms as they do not appear to know the rights of consumers nor the procedure to cancel.

SMASH3R

I've kept pushing this with ParkingEye and with the Restaurant, who must have been totally sick of me in the end.

Anyway, the result is that the charge disappeared from the PE website about a week ago, and then today, we have received an email (from enforcement@parkingeye) replying to my email as outlined in post #2, stating that:

"we can confirm on further review, this matter has now been closed; our records have now been updated in relation to this claim"

My advice to anyone in this situation is robustly push back on PE at every opportunity using the very helpful advice on these forums, and ABSOLUTELY do not let the land owner/occupier off this easily. Keep pushing the land owner/occupier, and keep calling and emailing them (don't call the PPC though, only email the PPC). Escalate up to the senior person responsible for the site/store/restaurant, and keep the pressure on. Just like most motorists will cough up the cash at the mere threat of hassle from PPCs, I suspect a large number of site owners will eventually role over (i.e. actually help you as a genuine customer) if you make it clear that as long as the PPC that is working for them is continuing to hassle you, you will continue to hassle the site owner to do the morally right thing. Don't be fobbed off by 'we couldn't possibly help; you have to take this up with the PPC". Keep pressure on the site owner - they CAN help if they really want to. Those that don't help are basically saying don't believe what we say in public, we actually don't care about our customers when it comes to the crunch. Keep providing a robust defence to the PPC.

Good luck everyone!

:j:beer::j:beer::j

Coupon-mad

My advice to anyone in this situation is robustly push back on PE at every opportunity using the very helpful advice on these forums, and ABSOLUTELY do not let the land owner/occupier off this easily.

Great advice - and a fantastic example that ParkingEye LBCCCs are a final chance to really rattle some cages/provide evidence of patronage (sharpish, to avoid court proceedings!).

I learned a couple of years back that LBCCCs from ParkingEye do NOT inevitably proceed to court papers and you can certainly achieve this if a landowner's cage gets rattled enough.