Feel Good Friday Post

GavHTFC

So it's Friday and I feel like we might all need a feel-good PCN cancellation post before the weekend.

I don't post on here much, I focus on the Facebook group Fight Your Private Parking Invoice, but I would like to share this story far and wide.

So on December 7th (wow I really have left this a while!) My fiancee went to work as normal and parked in her usual car park just round the corner from her building in Bradford, managed by CPM (one of the well-known IPC bottom-feeders), before paying through the Parkonomy app. After work she then came back to the dreaded bright yellow ticket on her car from a CPM warden - oh no, wait, it said UKCPS on it!

Always a good start, and even better, although not a reason for cancellation, is that her 1.0L Kia Picanto had been marked down as a Citroën! In broad daylight! Cracking on though, the time of observation had been marked down as 15:58 to 15:5?, there is actually no number in that last box, and let's not forget that she had actually paid for her parking, despite parking "Without a valid permit/ticket or authority".

Naturally a very angry and upset fiancee came back home to me - how could they do this to someone who has paid and parked correctly? Being uninitiated though, it took a lot of explaining from me as to why "ringing them up and explaining what happened" or "just paying it and not using that car park again" were terrible ideas. It took me a good couple of days to get through to her that she hadn't done anything wrong and shouldn't have to pay it!

We all know the mindset though - 'I don't know what I did wrong, but I've got this ticket so I must have done something wrong'.

That same evening I drove to the same site with her in tow to take photos of the signs, which had been put up by both CPM and UKCPS, which of course causes confusion to motorists and renders all such invoices invalid. Sure enough, there on the UKCPS sign were the words "Parking is permitted for vehicles displaying a valid pay & display ticket...blah blah blah...or when car park users pay via the Parkonomy prepay portal and register their vehicle".

Even after seeing this she was convinced she must have done something wrong! I made sure to "borrow" the windscreen ticket and keep it on my desk at work, just in case she decided to pay it at any point - you can't pay something you don't have the reference for!

After expending a huge amount of effort convincing her that a) she had done nothing wrong, b) these people prey on the uninitiated, and c) I know how to deal with these people, I finally wrote to UKCPS armed with her booking confirmation email, Parkonomy invoice and their own signage (she insisted I wrote to them so her dad, the registered keeper, didn't get any letters, even though they were also banned at this point from accessing DVLA data, but anyway).

I made clear in no uncertain terms that for starters I was neither driver nor keeper, that I was writing only on behalf of the driver, that they were under absolutely no circumstances to make contact with the driver or keeper, lest they face a claim for harassment (she did however insist that I give them her details - still not sure why), and that we would not engage with the IAS for obvious reasons.

Well, the letter came back and started off with those 2 beautiful words: PCN CANCELLED.

Better be careful in future though, because apparently it was a "one time gesture of goodwill and will not be repeated on future occasions." A parking company talking about goodwill :rotfl:

It's also quite clear they didn't pay that much attention because "UCKPS can only address the factual issues of where and how you parked." Either that or it's just their template cancellation letter that gets dusted off once a year.

Needless to say, she doesn't use that car park any more, she cracked on and took her employer up on what they'd offered her when she first started working for them: a permit for their own car park.

So in conclusion, for anyone who has received one of these tickets even when you've done nothing even a tiny bit wrong: do not let these people convince you that you owe them money, when all basic logic dictates you owe them nothing.

The_Deep

Why not invoice them for the stress they have caused as a gesture of goodwill?

GavHTFC

I had it all ready just in case they didn't cancel - part of me was even hoping they wouldn't!

jonnyjonny

Which address did you use for UK CPM? The appeals address or their office address? Or did you send an email?

Umkomaas

jonnyjonny wrote: »

Which address did you use for UK CPM? The appeals address or their office address? Or did you send an email?

None of the above!

I finally wrote to UKCPS

Fruitcake

Well done on getting this scam ticket cancelled, and also on convincing your fiance that this was a scam that shouldn't be paid.

Do you have much success on your fakebook efforts? I joined the parking tickets my @rse fakebook group but I don't bother with it much these days. There is just so much rubbish posted there by people saying ignore, or 'phone them up and tell them you aren't going to pay, or write "rejected" on the invoice and send it back, and far too much FOTL bollards.

Getting through to the majority of the people who post that rubbish is like trying to push a pile of poo up a mountain. My sanitary shredder does a better job of doing that by the way.

Umkomaas

Getting through to the majority of the people who post that rubbish is like trying to push a pile of poo up a mountain. My sanitary shredder does a better job of doing that by the way.

A bit too much detail this early in the day Fruity! :rotfl:

GavHTFC

Fruitcake wrote: »

Do you have much success on your fakebook efforts? I joined the parking tickets my @rse fakebook group but I don't bother with it much these days.

Oh on the group I'm in we often have a good laugh at Mr Morris's expense! We will often find ourselves picking up the pieces though when people find us after having first been to PTMA and landing themselves with court papers and even default judgements. :mad: