PCN Asda - Gladstone

Enigma80

We've received a letter today from Gladstones about paying £140 within 14 days (acting on behalf of DRP/Smart Parking Ltd.

The parking charge notice occured some years back in an Asda car park. It's a retail park with an indoor market, large Asda and number of other stores (Iceland, shoe store, phone shop, boots, matalan etc).

My wife an I were there shopping and had to feed the children in between shopping. We ate in the Asda restaurant and fed our new born, 5yr old there too as well as all the usual baby stuff like nappy changes etc.

We popped into a couple of other shops in the retail park and then left. We received a letter Parking Charge Notice sometime later and called the local Asda store who offered no support, as well as the owner of the carpark (Asda staff gave us the number). We tried calling on a number of occasions and never got through to anyone. So we simply followed advice at the time and ignored all letters.

Today we received the Gladstone letter requesting us to pay £140 or face going to court.

What are the next steps? Will this result in going to court? What are the chances of us winning if it does?

twhitehousescat

well this will be a first for Smart if they go to court

unless its marked as a letter before action (county court) treat it like a begging letter , http://www.bmpa.eu/companydata/Smart_Parking.html

what do you do with beggers or letters they send , if by email , mark as spam , if by royal mail , use as spare bog roll

Fruitcake

Enigma80 wrote: »

What are the next steps?

Will this result in going to court?

What are the chances of us winning if it does?

Wait to see if you get an MCOL or LBC/LBCCC.

Nobody knows.

Very good as long as you follow the advice here.

When did the alleged event take place? The scammers have six years to try court so that will tell you how long you will have to wait this out.

Not so Smart have been kicked out of most Asda stores and been replaced with parking lie. I wonder if this is the scammers making a last gasp effort to make money from their old sites.

Redx

never heard of not so SMART using Gladstones or trying court either, but they did lose the ASDA contract last year !

read this if its a debt letter

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

if its a real LBC from Gladstones , treat it as an LBC and respond

and yes it could mean a court case is issued, actually going to court, thats a different matter depending if they proceed further with a court case once it has commenced

so it may not get to a court in front of a judge, but GLADSTONES do like to charge clients by issuing court claims and shoddy paperwork

court is a lottery, nobody can tell you the odds of winning or not, it all depands on the judge , the paperwork, the work put in by both sides (or not)

anyone who gives you an answer to that last question is a fool

Enigma80

Thanks for the responses all!

I've attached a photo of the letter that we received today, it was just this letter and no forms or anything else:

https://ibb.co/hG0uOv

I just got off the phone to Asda customer services who basically had the same attitude they had back then, but this time added insult to injury. So basically they said they couldn't do anything now as it's gotten to this late stage, if I'd had gone to the store earlier they'd have sorted it for me. At this point I kind of went mental in my head (calm on the outside). I politely asked her if she'd listened to a word I'd said (one of the first things I told her was that we asked the store for help as soon as we got the PCN but they refused to assist).... Still said the same stuff, they can't help and repeatedly said we should have gone to the store for help straight away. I got tired and thanked her to end the pointless call.

Redx

that is a DRP letter , not a gladstones letter (there is a big difference)

see who it says to contact

look at the address given for gladstones, is that their CURRENT address ? NO

its DRP writing using old GLADSTONES headed notepaper , so bog paper

put a written complaint in on the ASDA main website , getting a reference number (trouble ticket)

get them to support you (in writing , not phone calls , you have no evidence with phone calls in a court case)

start a paper trail , and compare your DRP letters to those at the BMPA helpdesk

if you ever get a real letter from GLADSTONES , SMART , or any other legal entity , come back

but not if DRP sent it using lies and subterfuge to bamboozle you

Enigma80

Redx wrote: »

that is a DRP letter , not a gladstones letter (there is a big difference)

see who it says to contact

look at the address given for gladstones, is that their CURRENT address ? NO

its DRP writing using old GLADSTONES headed notepaper , so bog paper

put a written complaint in on the ASDA main website , getting a reference number (trouble ticket)

get them to support you (in writing , not phone calls , you have no evidence with phone calls in a court case)

start a paper trail , and compare your DRP letetrs to those at the BMPA helpdesk

if you ever get a real letter from GLADSTONES , SMART , or any other legal entity , come back

but not if DRP sent it using lies and subtefuge to bamboozle you

So I can ignore this letter completely?

Half_way

Enigma80 wrote: »

So I can ignore this letter completely?

Are you still within range of the ASDA?
there may be an Equality act issue at play with a new born in tow you should contact ASDA and instruct them that they must cancel.
They will probably say its nothing to do with them. You need to remind them that Smart parking were their agents at the time, and as such ASDA are jointly and severely liable for the actions of their agents and you are taking advice on if they have breached the Equality act as you had a new born.
If they still wont budge, ask for the manager and try again, if still no luck ask for the managers name/address and leave your name and address behind give them some time ( ie 14 days) to contact you to resolve this issue or you may commence legal proceedings against them for harassment and/or a breach of the Equality act as a result of the actions of their agents

Redx

put an official complaint on the ASDA website , in writing , raising a reference number (its their LEEDS head office) - get them to back you in any future court case, since SMART lost the asda contract last year (we have already seen similar issues when CEL lost the CO-OP contract)

Lamilad

Half_way wrote: »

Are you still within range of the ASDA?
there may be an Equality act issue at play with a new born in tow you should contact ASDA and instruct them that they must cancel.
They will probably say its nothing to do with them. You need to remind them that Smart parking were their agents at the time, and as such ASDA are jointly and severely liable for the actions of their agents and you are taking advice on if they have breached the Equality act as you had a new born.
If they still wont budge, ask for the manager and try again, if still no luck ask for the managers name/address and leave your name and address behind give them some time ( ie 14 days) to contact you to resolve this issue or you may commence legal proceedings against them for harassment and/or a breach of the Equality act as a result of the actions of their agents

I would definitely do as HW suggests but go a step further, as a friend of mine did (successfully) recently.

Email sean.clarke@asda.co.uk (the CEO) and tell him your story. Lay it on thick - mother struggling with a baby, you are a regular/loyal customer, spend £££s in their stores. You trusted Asda to be the right choice for your family's shopping needs.

You were using the car park as an Asda customer at the time therefore they have a duty of care to their customers to ensure you are not abused/ taken advantage of.

This has been extremely stressful for you - panic, sleepless nights, anxiety etc. You should not have to be put through this just because you were shopping and spending your hard earned in their store.

You are in this position because you were THEIR customer they cannot shrug their shoulders now and tell you it's not their problem.... It IS their problem and you ain't going anywhere til it's sorted...

Don't be polite like you were on the phone, be angry but not offensive. Good luck!

Coupon-mad

No-one here pays Smart Parking or DRPlus, but it would be easier to keep up here, if newbies would read what is already here each week, the forum is too busy for the same threads again and again:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5603599

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5603729

That's just two of several from today. Here's one from last month that any newbie could have found by searching the forum:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5578274

Sit tight. Smart Parking have never sued anyone and can't hold a registered keeper liable, so NEVER say who was driving.