Private Parking Final Notice

tiredmouse

Hello, I'm looking for a bit of advice and it seems like this is the place to come.

The other day, to my horror, I received a Final Notice letter in the post from G24 claiming I owe them £100 for overstaying my welcome in their Wickes car park. Apparently I should have received a first letter giving me the chance to appeal or to pay a reduced amount, but I never did.

This car park is never full, so there is really no parking problem to control. And it seems the cameras and signs have only been erected within the last few months to a year. I have never know this car park to be controlled and as such, pulled up and parked without noticing anything different. I checked Google Street View and in April 2015 (the last recorded photos) there were no cameras or signs.

Myself and my partner have spent a lot of money with Wickes over the years and on this occasion we were shopping for a kitchen and some book shelves. We bought the bookshelves and left, but it appears we were 20 minutes too late. However, the car park was in no way bursting!

I have since emailed Wickes customer service with a copy of the letter and a copy of my bank statement showing the book shelf purchase, and explaining that I find £100 very unreasonable when we were genuinely unaware we were now parking under contract. But I guess this is only our word against the cameras/notices. I'm still waiting for a response (if I get one), so I visited the store today, hoping to speak with the manager. Unfortunately he was unavailable, so I was told by the assistant that it's just one of those things... I am doubtful whether the manager would do anything anyway. I asked the lad how long the cameras had been up and he said about a couple of months, but couldn't be sure.

So, I'm not sure what to do now, as I have apparently missed my time to appeal and I'm doubtful Wickes are going to side with me. And I realise I cannot just ignore it, like I've been hearing was once the case. And I don't know whether I should be contacting G24 to say I didn't receive this first letter.

Why can't these parking firms have the lovely idea of suggesting you make a charity donation rather than paying them an unreasonable amount for causing no harm to anyone?

Any advise would be greatly appreciated.

Carthesis

Send an appeal off to G24 by post. Inform them you never received the original NtK. Ask them to provide a copy along with proof of postage so you can determine if the assumption of service 2 days following posting is valid, and to see if that notice would have arrived within the mandatory 14-day period in the first place.

Keep a copy of the letter.

Then see what happens. If they don't provide a copy, then write to them again in response and inform them that you will be treating their first letter as an NtK and as such, it's outside the mandatory period.

In the meantime, keep on at Wickes. If you can't speak to the store manager, go above him. If the email to CS doesn't work, go above them. It's trivial to find out the CEO email address of UK companies - google it - and inform him of the situation and insist he involves himself (or herself, or whoever).

tiredmouse

Many thanks, Carthesis, this is much appreciated. I shall do as you suggest; right away!

Fruitcake

The advice from Carthesis is spot in. In addition, take the bookshelves back to Wickes, ask to see the manager and say you cannot now afford them unless he/she gets the charge cancelled. Tell the manager you can't afford the new kitchen either for the same reason.

The_Deep

That is right, use the possible purchase of a new kitchen as a bargaining chip.

tiredmouse

Managed to speak with the manager... he was having none of it, as we hadn't had a proper appointment with the kitchen designer that he could have used as evidence. So, I've written this for G24...

Dear G24 Ltd,
RE: Contractual Parking Notice - XXXXXX
I have recently received a Final Notice letter from yourselves, claiming that my car overstayed its welcome at your Wickes car park in Inverness, on September 24th this year.
Apparently, as keeper of the vehicle, I was meant to receive a letter prior to this allowing me the chance to appeal or to pay a reduced amount. This letter was never received, so I am obviously alarmed. Please could you send me a copy of this first letter and proof of postage?
As I did not receive the first letter, I feel I have valid mitigating circumstances to make a representation forthwith and trust you will accept this.

Yours Faithfully,
(squiggle)


Any good?

Thank you all, btw

tiredmouse

Btw, I'm in Scotland. Does that make a difference?

fisherjim

tiredmouse wrote: »

Btw, I'm in Scotland. Does that make a difference?

Makes all the difference ignore them and certainly don't let them know who was driving!

Umkomaas

Don't start any form of correspondence with them. They will recognise you as 'worried' (especially in Scotland, where the 'IGNORE' advice is unequivocal) and will pile further pressure on you in the hope you crack, and pay up.

They deal with this stuff every day of the week; and if you start getting involved in any kind of mitigation dialogue, they'll blow you out in bubbles.

Nothing you could possibly say, particularly of a mitigating nature, would ever for one moment get this cancelled.

tiredmouse

Thank you.

Question - if none of the private parking charges are enforcable in Scotland, why are there so many eyes everywhere?

Umkomaas

Because people are still prepared to be hoodwinked by the 'official' look of the paperwork, swallow the accusation that they've done something 'wrong' and pay up to 'get out of trouble', to get this monkey off their back quickly and are seduced by the 40% discount offer with a tight timescale attached to it.

Still enough fools for PPCs to fatten their bellies each day. Even canny Scots are taken in in sufficient numbers!