ECP PCN at Matalan Warrington

TrivialT

Read Section 13... two minimum grace periods of 10 mins. 20 total, driver stayed 24 mins and 22 sec according to their ANPR but interestingly the PCN does not state that we over stayed but that we were parked longer than the maximum period allowed.

TrivialT

Ralph-y wrote: »

who did you speak to at Matalan ? customer services ? the manager?


you should all so email Matalan CEO to complain.


Ralph:cool:

I have his postal address but don't know how to find his email address. Phoned the store and got email address for manager and customer services, at their head office. Emailed both, got reply from CS.

TrivialT

hxxps://photos.app.goo.gl/6kVhMs6Wgeo3UidL9

second attempt at sharing some photos

TrivialT

Here's my letter. Would appreciate any last input before I send it. Thanks again.

You issued me with a parking ticket on 22/11/2019 but I believe it was unfairly and unlawfully issued. I decline your invitation to name the driver, which is not required of me as the keeper of the vehicle. I will not be paying your demand for payment for the following reasons:

• The alleged contravention did not occur
Quite simply, the APRN got it wrong and the vehicle was not parked inappropriately at the time the ticket was issued. This is due to the fact the vehicle was not parked for longer than the maximum period allowed.

• There was insufficient signage
The car park in question has no clear signage to explain what the relevant parking restrictions are. This means no contract can be formed with the landowner and all tickets are issued illegally. Please see attached evidence, photographs taken at the entrance to the store and in the area the vehicle was parked, I have gathered as proof. These clearly show no signage was present stating a parking charge of any sort is payable on this car park.

• The charge is disproportionate and not commercially justifiable
The amount you have charged is not based upon any commercially justifiable loss to your company or the landowner.

In my case, the £85 charge you are asking for far exceeds the cost to the landowner for allegedly parking for longer than the maximum period allowed, on a car park which has no hourly charge. I therefore feel the charge you have asked for is excessive.

• The notice to keeper is incorrect
The Notice to Keeper failed to meet the obligations of Schedule 4 of the POFA Act 2012.

If you choose to pursue me please be aware that I will not enter into any correspondence and this will be the only letter you will receive from me until you answer the specific points raised in my letter.

Yours faithfully,

TrivialT

These are the images I intend to submit as evidence...

hxxps://photos.app.goo.gl/Db7SLmFyeNyaErw26

Fruitcake

TrivialT wrote: »

Here's my letter. Would appreciate any last input before I send it. Thanks again.

Oh gawd, is that the dreadful appeal letter from the "official" MSE parking page? The information there should be wiped from the face of the earth.
The regulars here have complained many times about it, but nothing ever gets done.

Use the template in blue text from post one of the NEWBIES, unedited, from the keeper.

TrivialT

Re PCN number:

I dispute your 'parking charge', as the keeper of the vehicle. I deny any liability or contractual agreement and I will be making a formal complaint about your predatory conduct to your client landowner and to my MP.

There will be no admissions as to who was driving and no assumptions can be drawn. Since your PCN is a vague template, I require ALL photos taken and an explanation of the allegation and your evidence, i.e.:

- If the allegation concerns a PDT machine, the data supplied in response to this appeal must include the record of payments made - showing partial VRNs - and an explanation of the reason for the PCN, because your Notice does not explain it.

- If the allegation involves an alleged overstay of minutes, your evidence must include the actual grace period agreed by the landowner. If you fail to evidence the actual grace period that applies at this site or suggest that only one period applies, this will be disregarded as an attempt to mislead. In the absence of evidence, it will be reasonably taken to be a minimum of twenty minutes (ten on arrival and ten after parking time) in accordance with the official BPA article by Kelvin Reynolds about 'observation periods' on arrival being additional and separate to a 'grace period' at the end.

- in all cases, you must include a close up actual photograph of the sign you contend was at the location on the material date.

Formal note:
Should you later pursue this charge by way of litigation, note that service of any legal documents by email is expressly disallowed and you are not entitled to assume that the data in this dispute/appeal remains the current address for service in the future.

Yours faithfully,

Ah, this. Thanks.

Concerned about the 20 mins in this, as the ANPR implies the driver was there for 24 mins and 22 secs! Should I still send as is?

TrivialT

Sent the following follow up to Matalan CS:

Good afternoon

I would like to escalate this complaint further and so will be writing a separate email to both Mr Jason Hargreaves, CEO and Mr Shane Quigley, Chief Customer Officer. Please can you confirm that their email addresses are hargreaves_j at matalan.co.uk and quigley_s at matalan.co.uk respectively.

Whilst I appreciate that the car park may be privately owned, my investigation into unfair parking charges leads me to believe that many parking charges can be cancelled by the Retailer or Landowner contacting the parking charge company directly. In this case, that would be Euro Car Parks. I have linked many such instances at the bottom of this email from companies who clearly value the customer experience of visiting their stores. As you can see, there are many instances of stores using their influence in such matters.

Furthermore, here are a few examples of where Matalan's own intervention has resulted in parking charges being cancelled:
LINKS REMOVED

Whilst I have followed Euro Car Parks appeal process and am awaiting their response, I have found their predatory approach very unsettling and it is leaving me with money worries on the run up to Christmas. I am appealing to you one last time before gathering up the clothes we bought, which were to be Christmas presents, and returning them to the store for a full refund. As previously stated, we simply cannot afford to pay this parking charge and keep the clothes. The appeal process will take too long to resolve this before Christmas and therefore you are leaving us with little choice. The offer of a £10 voucher, in the circumstances, is an insult.

I do not think it is unreasonable to spend over 2 hours shopping with children when buying over £200 worth of clothes. I would also like to know the grace periods agreed with the parking company. If you cannot provide these then please give me the details of the Landowner so that I can pursue the matter further.

I will not let this rest. I will email Mr Jason Hargreaves and Mr Shane Quigley, Jo Platt (my MP), Warrington MPs Helen Jones and Faisal Rashid, the Warrington Guardian and Cheshire Live. I will also continue to post to social media about my experiences. All I wanted was to have a pleasant shopping experience at your Warrington store. This is turning into a protracted nightmare.

I would appreciate a timely response to this email and would once again hope that you may want to retain us as loyal customers.

Yours sincerely

Fruitcake

You will need to include the PCN number and possibly your VRN.

Leave out the names of the MPs as you don't currently have one, but say instead you will be complaining to whoever is elected as your MP.

Include the comments in red from post 1 of the NEWBIES that our MPs made in open parliament about this unregulated scam. Please do use the words underlined.

If you get earholed by a prospective candidate, ask them what they are going to do about the scam that is affecting 9 million people a year and rising.
The scammers lied to parliament in 2012 when they told the government allowing keeper's to be liable would reduce the load on UK courts. Instead it has gone from under a thousand parking cases per year to tens upon tens of thousands.
Suggest that your vote and that of your family and friends could be influenced by their answer.

As for grace periods, one of them does not give a definitive time other than a minimum of ten minutes because some people might take five minutes but others might take longer.
In your case the driver needed longer because one of the passengers was on crutches. In addition, there are a lot more people around at this time of year so finding a space takes longer than usual.

Have a look at what the judge said here,

parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2014/03/waiting-for-space-is-not-parking.html

ANPR scameras have been banned by the UK Government for monitoring council and local authority car parks, but unregulated scameras use the flaws generated to issue unfair charges.

Le_Kirk

Your links made live ........... again: -
https://photos.app.goo.gl/6kVhMs6Wgeo3UidL9
https://photos.app.goo.gl/Db7SLmFyeNyaErw26