Saba / ZZPS parking charge notice

Sabah8r

Hello,

Firstly, apologies for the length of this message but I hope it will help explain and may be useful for others later.

I would be grateful for some advice for a friend who is having some trouble with Saba parking / ZZPS. My friend has read the newbie threads and googled extensively but one detail of the case doesn’t fit and may be significant. That is, they have kind of revealed who the driver was on the day of the alleged offence. Here are details of the case:

26th June - My friend parks at train station car park operated by SABA. My friend either forgets to buy a ticket or the app, which they normally use, does not work. In any event, my friend accidentally doesn’t have a ticket. My friend had bought tickets for every other day that week and countless times before (they park there regularly to get to work). It was an honest mistake and I think any reasonable company would see that.

13th July - my friend receives Penalty Charge Notice from ZZPS who are charged with collecting £100 as a penalty for this oversight. Charge reduced to £60 if paid within 14 days. Letter contains photo of their car entering and exiting the car park.

16th July - my friend writes to ZZPS (without realising they’re just a debt collector) to explain all of the above and ask if they could pay the original amount of £8.10 for service received on the day.

17th July - ZZPS reply that the penalty charge is correct and must be paid...appeal rejected.

17th July - my friend writes to Danny Nolan (Contact Centre Manager at Saba) to complain that the appeal was rejected. My friend was hoping that the company would be reasonable with a regular customer who clearly made an honest mistake. My friend suggested that their system might alert regular customers, via the app, if it notices the car in the car park with no ticket bought.

20th July - Danny Nolan replies to say that the appeal was rejected correctly. Apparently Saba incur losses when they issue the Penalty Charge Notices. Danny mentioned that they’re trialling a system which will ask customers if they want to buy a ticket when they see the registered car in the car park.

23rd August - my friend receives chaser letter from ZZPS informing that the charge is now £170 due to addition of a £70 administration fee.

28th August - my friend receives email from ZZPS asking for ‘urgent contact’.

My friend is asking the following questions and would be grateful for any advice:

1. Does the fact that they have admitted making the mistake (forgetting to buy ticket or app failure) mean that they should just pay now or should they start writing monthly second class letters to Saba asking questions until 6 months elapses (completely ignoring ZZPS)? The reason they revealed the driver info. is because they assumed the parking company would be reasonable. Years ago they forgot to display a weekly season ticket at the same car park and the company waived the penalty. I guess this was in the days before Saba... A lot of the FAQ advice is based on not revealing the driver and this really why I’m writing - I cannot find anything matches my friend’s case.
2. My friend knows they made a mistake and would like to pay for the services received. They wouldn’t mind paying a reasonable extra amount but find £100 or even £60 to be unreasonable. How likely is it that a court would side with my friend since they did fail to buy a ticket?
3. My friend is willing to completely ignore all contact from ZZPS or solicitors but has some concern that the bill will keep going up by £70 with every letter. They’ve read that ZZPS cannot take them to court and it would have to be Saba. If it ends up in court then what is the likely exposure? Will they have to pay the original £100 and would there be other court costs (any idea how much court costs might be)? Would any of ZZPSs admin costs be payable.

It’s a point of principle really but my friend would prefer to avoid costs getting out of hand.

Many thanks,

SABAh8r

Fruitcake

Your friend should ignore the debt collectors, and indeed anything and everything else if Railway Byelaws apply at the car park in question unless SABA proceed further.

Come back here if that happens.

ZZPS have no powers to do anything.

The whole thing will time out at six months if byelaws apply, so that is the first thing to ascertain.

Your friend should read up on other SABA threads, and also complain to their MP about this unregulated scam.

pogofish

Newbies Sticky Post 1 2:2 covers your case completely and Post Four covers ZZPS completely - so we don’t have to keep doing it again and again and again and again...!

Sabah8r

Thx Fruitcake.
Thx Pogofish. I’m not sure I can see anything that covers this exact situation with the driver having been identified. The references to the posts aren’t really clear either. Don’t worry though, my mistake.

waamo

Sabah8r wrote: »

Thx Fruitcake.
Thx Pogofish. I’m not sure I can see anything that covers this exact situation with the driver having been identified. The references to the posts aren’t really clear either. Don’t worry though, my mistake.

It's not uncommon for the driver to be revealed. Your "unique" situation has been asked about earlier today.

Just sit it out until the 6 months are up.

Coupon-mad

Over half the posters on this board, ad infinitum, have already blabbed about driving.