Harassment AFTER alleged cancellation

IanDMcC

Can someone help me please? I visited a McDonald's restaurant in Nottingham toward the end of May this year. I was with a group and were decided to have more food/coffee etc. and noticed that due to waiting as they were busy we would outstay our car park time. We asked the manager at the time to deal with this. She tried but could not get M.E.T. to answer their phones. She was busy and said it's okay to park, I'll deal with it later - I believe she tried. Subsequently I got a 'Parking Charge Notification' and appealed with the relevant information including the manger's name, date, time etc. The appeal was rejected. I contacted McDonald's who EVENTUALLY told me they'll deal with it, again. They told me, several days later, this was finished. The letters from M.E.T. continued and got more threatening. I asked McDonald's to intervene AGAIN, they said they had and it was finished. Yesterday 25/08/2018 I got a letter from Debt Recovery whoever, advising me I now owe £160 and they've taken over the debt so are taking me to court, and they showed evidence of their probable success, to recover this money plus costs. I asked McDonald's to intervene AGAIN which they tell me they did and this is finished, again. The stress from this harassment has been incredible and to be honest I don't believe this is yet over and I've had no apologies either. Can I take action for compensation against any/all of these companies?

Thanks for any advice.

Ian

Fruitcake

Debt collectors have no powers to do anything except send you poor quality bog paper. They certainly can't take you to court.

Have you got proof of PCN cancellation in writing from MdD's? If not, you must get it.

Complain to the BPA and DVLA that you are being harassed even though the landowner/landholder has confirmed that the charge has been cancelled.

Please also complain to your MP and the caf! location's MP as well if different, about this unregulated scam.

These are some of the comments made by the MPs in Parliament concerning the unregulated parking industry (Feb 2018):

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

''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.

IanDMcC

Thanks, yes I have proof of everything stated. Three of the group that I was a party to and parked that day are police officers! The manager's name at the time, her confirming she tried to cancel, subsequent emails from McDonald's stating it was stopped are all documented yet a letter threatening further action still arrived yesterday. I'm distraught as these people are relentless and pay no heed to anything but their objectives - to extort money from honest citizens.

Thanks again.

System

Get the others to chip in and issue a claim for that and the misuse of personal data. You can do it for one of you as a test case or for all of you as a group.

Losing would cost £100 without costs or £200 with costs. More upside if you win. Not much to risk and puts you in control of the process.

Fruitcake

Might complaints from the BIB/GIB to MPs carry a little more weight than the average voter?

fisherjim

You are dealing with scammers who are as you have discovered only after your money, they try to do this by wearing you down, lying and any method they can.



Debt collectors are one of the tools in their kit that are on a no win no fee contract, there is no debt (unless a judge says so) and they haven't taken it over.


Debt collectors cannot therefore take you to court and I doubt that their letter actually say that does it?


These are your extremely slim odds (especially in your scenario) of MET taking court action:


http://www.parkingappeals.info/companydata/MET_Parking_Services.html

Redx

a BPA complaint with copies of all paperwork and a brief timeline of events (like you put here) should mean they will get it stopped

an MP complaint is also a good idea , especially if you tell them about this proposed bill

https://services.parliament.uk/bills/2017-19/parkingcodeofpractice.html

and a court case in the small claims court for several hundred pounds may also be the way forward, if you can hack it

NeilCr

Redx wrote: »

and a court case in the small claims court for several hundred pounds may also be the way forward, if you can hack it

It might be but as the OP has been incredibly stressed by this so far it might not be worth the effect on their health by dragging it out for another few months or so.

The advice to complain to the BPA with the paperwork (as you and Fruitcake said Redx) seems good to me. Once BPA have quashed it a threat of legal action to MET might result in some form of payment, I wouldn't hold my breath on that, mind you!

Coupon-mad

I like IamEmanresu's idea and really encourage the OP to send a LBC for, say, £500 for harassment (like in Ferguson v British Gas) aggravated by data breach in allowing a debt collector to continue to threaten the recipient and process the registered keeper's DVLA-fed data illegally.

Hope you know NOT to phone DRP, and not to actually take them seriously, and that they cannot start a court claim?

But you can... v MET.

IanDMcC

Is there any way of attaching scanned documents or pictures of them on here? I can assure you the letter they have sent is very explicit about a potential court case and evidencing, as a threat, the success involving Supreme Court decision about parking charges on the Supreme Court website document No uksc-2015-0116

So whether they can can't take me to court themselves the threat is clear and there.

I remain the only one of a group as stated that has been given one of these and have no idea why the others haven't been given a notice which makes no sense to me at all. I haven't responded to any threats since appealing the original 'charge' and have no intentions of doing so either.As far as I'm concerned though, this is still on-going and so remains hanging over my head.

Thas for your respnses - I will try to get through the to sort out my next action.

beamerguy

IanDMcC wrote: »

Is there any way of attaching scanned documents or pictures of them on here? I can assure you the letter they have sent is very explicit about a potential court case and evidencing, as a threat, the success involving Supreme Court decision about parking charges on the Supreme Court website document No uksc-2015-0116

So whether they can can't take me to court themselves the threat is clear and there.

I remain the only one of a group as stated that has been given one of these and have no idea why the others haven't been given a notice which makes no sense to me at all. I haven't responded to any threats since appealing the original 'charge' and have no intentions of doing so either.As far as I'm concerned though, this is still on-going and so remains hanging over my head.

Thas for your respnses - I will try to get through the to sort out my next action.

MET are serious idiots. The supreme court/beavis has no
bearing on your case whatsoever.

"BEAVIS v PARKING EYE in the Supreme Court
Often, these powerless debt collectors make reference
to the Parking Eye/Supreme court case ? They seem to
think that this is the key for them to extort money from
you.
Barry Beavis took Parking Eye to court because he claimed
the charges were unfair. The court said they were ... and
that was it. So unless you are claiming that the charge
was unfair, the Supreme court decision has no bearing
on you and it's yet more rubbish that debt crawlers use"