Minster Baywatch

janeyjane444

On the night of Saturday 9th December, I was travelling home from Swindon when I started to feel unwell !!!8211; I suffer from Vertigo attacks which cause me to feel light headed and unwell. Some attacks last for a few minutes, others last for hours. As I was entering the town of Lechlade I pulled over in to the car park !!!8211; the Cotswold Riverside Car Park. It was just after 4pm, it was pitch black and there were no other cars in the car park. I parked my car, took my medication for my condition, drank some water, and shut my eyes for around 20 minutes. At no point did I leave my vehicle. Luckily this was a minor attack and I felt well enough to drive myself home, rather than have to call my husband to come and get me, as I have had to do a few times in the past. It was only on leaving the car park that I became aware that there was a camera, but thought that this was for security reasons.

On 14th December, I received a notice from Minster Baywatch to tell me that I had not paid the parking fee. It gave me the option to appeal against this, which I did, stating the above reason. This was done on their website and therefore I have no proof of the email.

I heard nothing back, so assumed that they had accepted my reason.

On 24th January, I received further correspondence from Minster Baywatch to say that as I had not responded to their earlier letter. So I once again went on to their website to try and plead my case again. I was unable to do this as it said that I had already logged my appeal.

On 22nd February I received another letter demanding payment. On this occasion I emailed the company (enquiries@minsterbaywatch.co.uk) to say that I had responded to each and every letter, but that I had not received any correspondence back. On the 28th February, whilst I was on my way to Australia, they emailed back to say that they had responded to my initial appeal and therefore the charge still stood. As I was out of the country my work colleague replied to them to tell them that I would be back on 18th March and could they forward the aforementioned email to my work email address. They replied saying that they were unable to do this but could re-send a copy of the appeal, which I now have copies of.

The letter sent on 20th December, basically did not address my appeal, did not take in to account that I have a medical condition, which I told them I was happy for them to take up with my Doctor, all it said was I drove in to the car park, did not buy a ticket, and therefore I have to pay.

When I returned from my holiday, I immediately addressed this matter and tried to contact Minster Baywatch by telephone. It is impossible to speak to anyone at Minster Baywatch, however hard you try !!!8211; so that was most unhelpful. So I had to resort to more emailing. I hit another brick wall because by the time I got back from holiday, and despite them being made aware that I was out of the country, they had handed the matter over to their solicitors.

I therefore tried to get some support from POPLA, but the woman there would not listen to me at all because it was over 14 days, despite me explaining the situation of not having received the original emails and being on holiday for 3 weeks!

In my despair I then tried to call the solicitors, Gladstones, but it is also impossible to speak to anyone there. This is just a simple way of getting people so stressed out that they just give up and pay. Which is what I did. I followed the instructions on the Gladstones website and paid £100.00 on my credit card, which is clearly showing on my credit card statement on 26th March. I did this, not because I felt I should, but because I did not wish to incur further costs.

I have tried to bring my case to the attention of Watchdog, but have never received a reply.

So you can imagine my shock to now have in my possession a letter dated 20th June threatening to take me to court for the unpaid fine. So I once again played the game, went on to their website, registered my details following their instructions. They gave me a password to use: H10iEw5iJe8hoaeW2hN3F8QaTG4p1ZJyrrVKBlhPM6A= which I entered, very carefully only to be told that it was incorrect (hardly surprising)!

I completed the simply form asking me why I contested the fine, to which I replied that, I had paid the fine and provided photographic evidence of my credit card statement.

The stress of having to deal with this is bringing on daily vertigo attacks, although minor ones, and not being able to talk to a human being to get this resolved is a total nightmare.

I!!!8217;m 100% positive that these firms purposely make it impossible to resolve just so people like me just give up !!!8211; and I!!!8217;m an intelligent person, so goodness know how someone who was elderly or with learning difficulties would deal with something like this.

20th July 2018 !!!8211; I!!!8217;ve just received an email from Gladstone Brooks acknowledging that I have in fact paid my £100 fine but that I now owe a further £60! I have written back to tell them that I do not owe them anything as I paid what was due at the time (despite not wanting to pay it, but paying it so that I did not incur any further costs) and telling them that further costs were only incurred due to their incompetence, and therefore not my responsibility.

Why won!!!8217;t these people just go away and leave me alone? Is it because I paid the first fine, that they see me as a weak target now? Should I just ignore anything further? I don!!!8217;t want to end up with a CCJ as I have never had anything like that before in my life.

Ralph-y

hi, and welcome to the forum .... what a sad story ... wish you had found us earlier ...


"Is it because I paid the first fine, that they see me as a weak target now?"


sadly yes ....


I will give you some reading and a few videos to watch ... this should help you a little ....


https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-02-02/debates/CC84AF5E-AC6E-4E14-81B1-066E6A892807/Parking(CodeOfPractice)Bill

and slightly longe,r the committee stage

https://www.parliamentlive.tv/Event/Index/d5550515-cce9-4185-83ec-754dadb7524a

''Rip-offs from car park Cowboys must stop''; unfair treatment; signage deliberately confusing to ensure a PCN is issued; ''years of abuse by rogue parking companies''; bloodsuckers; ''the current system of regulation is hopeless, like putting Dracula in charge of the blood-bank''; extortionate fines; rogue operators; ''sense of injustice''; unfair charges and notices; wilfully misleading; signage is a deliberate act to deceive or mislead; ''confusing signs are often deliberate, to trap innocent drivers''; unreasonable; a curse; harassing; operating in a disgusting way; appeals service is no guarantee of a fair hearing; loathed; outrageous scam; dodgy practice; outrageous abuse; unscrupulous practices; ''the British Parking Association is as much use as a multi-storey car park in the Gobi desert''; and finally, by way of unanimous conclusion: ''we need to crack down on these rogue companies. They are an absolute disgrace to this country. Ordinary motorists and ordinary residents should not have to put up with this''.

These are the exact words used, so you should quote them to your MP in a complaint and ask him/her to contact Sir Greg Knight MP if he wants further information about this scam.




the forum guide / newbies thread is here .... you will be past many of the points but it is well worth a read ...


https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822/newbies-private-parking-ticket-old-or-new-read-these-faqs-first-thankyouhttp://


so .... do nothing yet re the scammers (Hansard) Gladstones ... unless forum elders suggest otherwise unless you receive a letter before court. .... write to your MP......


be strong and good luck


Ralph:cool:

Umkomaas

I don't want to end up with a CCJ as I have never had anything like that before in my life.

Read this ..... and stop worrying about a CCJ.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5849106/the-ccj-myth-and-threats-and-lies-told-by-debt-collectors-and-ppcs-exposed

Stop phoning any of the skanks, they're not there to help you.

just received an email from Gladstone Brooks

Surely not Gladstone Brooks? Different outfit to the usual solicitors used by parking companies.

In regard to the £60, you're just going to have to bide your time to see if they will issue a court claim for this. My guess (but I can't guarantee it) is that they won't. They will probably rely on irritating you with debt collector letters (totally ignorable, they have no legal powers) over the next few months.

!!!8217;

Please switch off your 'Smart Punctuation' on your iPhone/iPad to avoid the littering of your posts with !!!!8217; and the like, as every apostrophe and some other punctuations convert to exclamation marks and numbers.

It will remove anything similar from any future posts you make, but unfortunately copy and pastes of other people's inputs will still carry the fault and will need to be tidied manually.

Go to 'Settings' > 'General' > 'Keyboard' > 'Smart Punctuation' and flick the switch off.

Switching off seems to have no detrimental affect on any other use of the keyboard.

Coupon-mad

janeyjane444 wrote: »

20th July 2018 I've just received an email from Gladstone Brooks

No you haven't. You've been watching too many TV adverts.

This is just a simple way of getting people so stressed out that they just give up and pay. Which is what I did. I followed the instructions on the Gladstones website and paid £100.00 on my credit card, which is clearly showing on my credit card statement on 26th March. I did this, not because I felt I should, but because I did not wish to incur further costs.

Arrrrrrggghhhh...sooo frustrating and disappointing to read, from someone we want to help.

WHY would you do that rather than just Google the scam first and come here earlier?

They now have you on a mugs list, which is why they are harassing you for more money.

Ignore them and come back if they try a small claim, it is defendable (no risk, no CCJ as long as court papers are not ignored) and you should never have paid them a penny.

See this for what it is, an ''outrageous scam'' already outed in Parliament in February:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5787731/parking-code-of-practice-bill-passed-by-mps

https://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41