Minster Baywatch parking fine.

AndrewD1867

Hi,

To explain the situation....

Myself and my wife went to work had been rushing a great deal getting or toddler to childminder, running late for work etc. Got to the car park usually at this point I pay the parking charge over my mobile ringgo app. However on this specific day given the circumstances I forgot.

Later in the day when I realised what I'd done I expected to receive a fine but paid an all day charge anyway in the hope that would cover the hours we'd been in the car park.

However this hasn't been sufficient and we've now had a letter demanding £160 before 19.12.16.
It states we were given chance to pay the fine at £60 then £100 but as we've not it's now reached £160.

I can honestly say this is the first letter we've had. As I was quite aware of my error that day I've been expecting something and wanted to pay at the earliest stage to pay the minimum. This is the first letter we've had. Now to my horror we're in this current situation as described.
I will be ringing tomorrow offering to pay the £60.

What would you advise?

fisherjim

AndrewD1867 wrote: »

Hi,

To explain the situation....

Myself and my wife went to work had been rushing a great deal getting or toddler to childminder, running late for work etc. Got to the car park usually at this point I pay the parking charge over my mobile ringgo app. However on this specific day given the circumstances I forgot.

Later in the day when I realised what I'd done I expected to receive a fine but paid an all day charge anyway in the hope that would cover the hours we'd been in the car park.

However this hasn't been sufficient and we've now had a letter demanding £160 before 19.12.16.
It states we were given chance to pay the fine at £60 then £100 but as we've not it's now reached £160.

I can honestly say this is the first letter we've had. As I was quite aware of my error that day I've been expecting something and wanted to pay at the earliest stage to pay the minimum. This is the first letter we've had. Now to my horror we're in this current situation as described.
I will be ringing tomorrow offering to pay the £60.

What would you advise?

Stop don't ring anyone that's not a good idea at all, they will not accept £60 you are not dealing with reasonable honest people!

If you have a demand for £160 It will be at debt collectors stage surely (who should be ignored) you seem to be panicking and not reading things properly, no letters you have received for example have called it a "fine" have they?

Read the newbies thread on here before you do anything, or you will be dropping yourself in it!

salmosalaris

don't phone anybody
please confirm who the letter demanding £160 is from
was your "all day parking" payment accepted by Ringo ? If so their case is dodgier than Donald Trump's hairstyle .

AndrewD1867

Thanks for the comments, may have fallen at the first hurdle by calling them number on the letter on my lunch. Though I gave them the reg they wouldn't discuss the case with me as the car is registered to my wife.

AndrewD1867

The letter with the 'Demand for payment of unpaid charge' is from Minster Baywatch not a debt collection firm.

The payment is made via ringgo was accepted though as I say this was late in the afternoon when I realised I'd forgotten to pay via the app astore usual though technically before leaving the car I'd paid for 12 hrs parking.

AndrewD1867

The letter states.......

We have recently written to you regarding charge ref 123456789. We note that despite our attempts to encourage you to satisfy the notice, both at the lower amount of 60 which was valid for 14 days of the date of the aforementioned letter and then the higher amount of 100 which was valid for a further 14 days, giving you 28days in which to satisfy the notice, no payment has been received and no arrangement to pay has been agreed.
(As in my original post we never received the first 2 letters they state were sent)

As such this notice has now been passed to our internal collections team, this has resulted in an additional charge of 55 being applied bringing the total liability on this notice to 155.00

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW
You need to pay the amount of 155, no later than 19.12.16. You can do this via our website minsterbaywatch or by phoning our team on tel number 01904 612277 who will be able to discuss available payment options with you.

WHAT IF YOU DON'T PAY WHAT YOU OWE
In accordance with schedule 4 of the protection of Freedoms Act 2012, you are liable for this charge as such if you have not agreed a payment schedule with us by 19.12.16 we will not be able to prevent further action being taken against you.

Please be aware if payment is not received by the aforementioned date the charge will be passed to an external debt collection or our solicitors to recover any amount outstanding.

Coupon-mad

(As in my original post we never received the first 2 letters they state were sent)

So treat this as the first letter - Notice to Keeper - and send the usual appeal template (blue writing in the NEWBIES thread at the top of this forum) in your wife's name as keeper (NO NOT IN YOURS!) as per the NEWBIES thread. Start by saying that this was the first letter received and as such, this is an appeal.

Put your wife's name and address (matching the PCN recipient info) as appellant. The reason why is explained in the FAQS - do not imply who was driving but the letter can and should state that she was not. It should also state that no postal or windscreen PCN was ever received.

Come back when she gets a response and stop phoning them and thinking about paying!

fisherjim

Remember you are dealing with scammers, I wouldn't put it past them to have never sent the first two letters so they can increase their scam charges.

I'm sure this use of a dreamt up "internal collections department" is another way of stumping up their profits and threats, but they do not list debt collection as one of their services, and they can only try to claim the parking charge amount on the signs in the car park.

The BPA (to which they belong) set the maximum they can charge, and in my view this is a scam to circumvent their COP!

I would complain to the BPA too.

Also the maximum debit charge fee is now set to 0.2% the maximum credit card fee is 0.3% these Muppets are imposing 4.0% which is now illegal and should be reported to trading standards.

Just to show how devious they are I put in a fictitious reference number and a charge of £1 it has given me a payment screen of £1.04 to pay!

It just shows what a devious money grabbing lot these are.

beamerguy

As fisherjim says, it's a scam.

What internal collections team ???? They mean it was passed to another desk in their office.
I wonder if their signs clearly state that the charge will increase by £55 due to their "internal collections team"
This is a rubbish statement by Minster Baywatch and should be reported to the BPA as the max ticket charge is £100

Show this letter to Trading Standards with the suggestion they are trying to extort money from you.

Of course if they pass it to an "external collection team" that is a so called debt collector, you can ignore them even though they will add their own fee to add to the scam.
There are very few debt collectors who operate in this huge parking scam because they know they are wasting their time.

The same applies to solicitors and here is one who lost big time for Minster Baywatch, infact they lose for many parking companies.
They are called Gladstones who are known as incompetent at the best of times.

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/search?q=minster+baywatch

Regarding the 4% card charge, you should be reporting this to both Mastercard and Visa who take very seriously abuse my merchants

AndrewD1867

Apologies I'd read the newbies thread before posting but couldn't find a letter etc for my circumstances. Links seem to go to details of successful appeals etc. But I basically couldn't find a standard template, apologies for clogging up the page

I've complied:-

I am writing to you appeal regarding ref: 99999999
On the day you highlight 25/10/2016 prior to leaving the car park there had been purchased a parking session for 12 hours for my car. I had stayed within the car park less than 12 hours, this purchase was accepted by the ringgo app therefore I feel this charge should be cancelled.
Additionally you state prior to the letter in my possession dated 05/12/2016 that two letters were sent prior to this with lower charges. I can categorically state that no prior letters have been received and the only letter I have ever had from yourselves is the current one I refer to. Therefore I consider this letter in my possession to be the first correspondence from yourselves
Given my above points I request that the charge be cancelled and I request proof of postage of any previous correspondence to myself.

Umkomaas

You've blown at least two toes off there buddy with that appeal. That's why there is a ready made template appeal for you to copy and paste located in post #1 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky. And for ease of finding, it's there in glorious technicolor - blue text.