Finland - anyone experience this?

Tiredtraveller

Hello MSE forum

I am wondering if anyone can help or has experience of this?

Went to beautiful Finland for 1 week's Kayaking in July - had a long journey, collected rental car, went to book into hotel and after a quick cuppa went to the nearest Supermarket. We needed supplies for our kayak holiday.
We parked in the supermarket - spotted some signs we did not really understand - but got the gist of it - '2 hour limit'. It was a Sunday and the car park was 2/3rds empty but understand supermarkets are looking for shoppers not cars clogging up their car parks.

We were inside 35 mins tops but came out to find a small, yellow, rolled up paper, resting on the bonnet - it turns out it was a parking fine issued by Parkkipate.fi - all cars in Finland have to use and set a, 'Parking Clock' when parking - even in Supermarkets! We did not know this - innocent mistake on our part.

We have apologised to Parkkipate.fi (? Seems to be a private company) - have provided evidence that we could not possibly have stayed over the two hours permitted (hotel check in time and time stamped till receipt) but Parkkipate.fi, don't seem to care less.

Apparently by parking in the supermarket car park we entered into an agreement that we would abide by their rules (nothing in English available to read - so had no idea) - they are fining us 60 euros for not setting our parking clock before we left our car to shop. They do not care that we were only in the car park for 35 minutes.

I do understand that we were in a foreign country and we read up as best we could about rules and regs regarding driving; Finland seems to use English as the Lingua Franca - so, it would be no big deal for Parkkipate.fi, to have posted signage in English, advising shoppers to set their clock before leaving their cars.

Parkkipate insist that we broke their contract - even though we did not understand what the signs meant - they don't seem to care that we did not understand and do not care that we have provided evidence that we could not have been longer than two hours (surely, the whole purpose of their services, is to look after the supermarket chains interests).

Parkkipate have said we must pay or they will take us to court.
Parkkipate website is all in Finnish - I have tried to find, 'Fair Trade associations', in Finland, to discuss this further and appeal; although the site is brilliant and explains very well in english, there are no contact forms in english, so - it is nigh on impossible to communicate without spending money on a translation service.
Parkkipate.fi, have foreign drivers over a barrel.

We are back in the UK; Parkkipate can contact the hire company to find out who was driving the car (and charge us an admin fee for doing so).

So - I am looking for some advise - can we stick to our honest explanation and refuse to pay....and be, 'taken to court'? Or do forum users advise we pay and so join the hoards of foreign drivers who are being fleeced by this unreasonable company?
Thanks for your time and trouble.

Tiredtraveller

Half_way

check your hire terms very carefully, it would be helpful if you could post them up here, either via a link, or the exact precise wording in full.

Tiredtraveller

Hi Half_Way

We did read it over - Apparently we are responsible for all our possible speeding fines, parking fines etc etc.
It seems Parkkipate is within its rights to contact the Car Hire Company to find out who the car was driven by - guessing Finnish law is more sympathetic to such companies.
Thanks for your response.

Half_way

The key word is "fine"
quick look on Google shows that in finland, private parking is very different to municipal parking. so this could be very similar to here, where a charge notice will have been issued as opposed to a municipal fine.

again exact wording of agreement is required, and if you have it the ticket.
Do not under any circumstances try and guess the drivers name

Robin9

It might be worth contacting the British Embassy in Finland

nosferatu1001

No way a Finnish court would entertain a claim against a UK resident without some extra hoops being jumped through.

Tiredtraveller

Hi to MSE Forum users - just to update everyone - we have had our parking fine rescinded.

We wrote to the Supermarket CEO and the Finnish Tourist Board in Helsinki, expressing our dismay at the heavy handed way the regulations were applied.
We were advised this morning that the ticket was cancelled which pleased us no end - we had not deliberately set out to ignore the Supermarket car park rules, we just did not know about them.
There were no explanation of the rules posted anywhere that we could see.
The use of, "implied, user agreement, to abide by all regulations if you chose to use the car park" is very, "sneaky or cunning behavior that is technically within the rules of the law but borders on being unethical".

So - would be travellers to Finland - don't forget to set your parking clock (usually fixed to windscreen of hire cars) or else you may be expected to pay 60 euros for the convenience of using a supermarket car park.

Finland is beautiful - we would recommend visiting this country to everyone.

Umkomaas

Well done on getting that rescinded by the supermarket. There are many over here who could take a leaf out of their book. Glad it's sorted.

And there was me thumbing through international legal documents on extradition treaties between the UK and Finland, as I thought we might end up having to help you on that front! :rotfl: