ZZPS hound a dying man and say they'll only stop if they see a death certificate

MalMonroe

The OP, though, was about a hospital parking fine. How did we the public allow this kind of thing to happen? I mean, why do we have to pay for parking at our hospitals now? We never had to in 'the olden days'. And yet we all pay up without a murmur. (I include myself, yes.) Well, maybe not without a murmur but certainly without protest.

How much does the NHS collect from parking fees because the hospital car parks in my city are not owned by the NHS, they are owned by private parking companies. And the parking fees are rising. Pre-covid, a young relative was in hospital and visiting hours were 12 per day, every day. That was a very expensive 10 days. Nothing would have stopped me visiting every single day for many hours a day but why should we have to pay?

I guess the NHS must get a share but I do think the government needs to invest more into the NHS anyway and it's stressful enough having to visit a hospital for whatever reason, without having to worry about paying parking fees and/or whether you've overstayed your welcome because your appointment ran over time or the consultant was delayed or something was discovered that needed further treatment or you fainted (once I did) or for whatever other reason. 

It's time we all got together and started complaining about things like this that are costing people their lives and also shortening the lives of seriously ill people.

It truly is heartbreaking and so very petty when everything has to come down to one thing and that thing is money.

KeithP

MalMonroe said:

How much does the NHS collect from parking fees because the hospital car parks in my city are not owned by the NHS, they are owned by private parking companies.

I guess the NHS must get a share...

Of course I don't know which city you are in but I think you'll find that by far the vast majority of NHS hospital car parks in the UK are owned by an NHS Trust.

The NHS Trust usually brings in a contractor to manage car parking on the site, but the NHS keeps all the initial income and usually allows the parking contractor to keep any proceeds from alleged breaches of contract by the motorist.

Can you not see that that introduces a financial incentive for the parking company to, rather than manage parking, to trick the motorist into forking out £100s of pounds?

MalMonroe said:

It's time we all got together and started complaining about things like this that are costing people their lives and also shortening the lives of seriously ill people.

Parliament passed The Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 in March 2019.

We are now waiting for the Civil Servants to finalise the Code of Practice.
@Coupon-mad will be along shortly to tell you how you can help with that.

Coupon-mad

I think you'll find very few of them "specialise" in parking ticket debt recovery.  

You would be surprised.  They both do.  And these firms remain completely unregulated by the FCA, use misleading words and misleading company names without having to adhere to any rules at all. 

And they add £60 on top of parking charges, which is more than is legally recoverable but they don't tell their victims on the phone, any of that.

The horrific firms we are talking about here are ZZPS and Trustpilot reviews about Debt Recovery Plus. 

The former are a notorious company set up by someone whose previous firm was refused a credit/collections licence renewal by the Office of Fair Trading and declared 'unfit'.  Now he is in charge of ZZPS, who 'specialise' in 'PCN debt recovery' (i.e. money that is not actually owed, flowing from the rogue parking industry).  This is neither real debt, nor real debt collection

The latter, DRP, are well-known for the same and whilst they don't exclusively deal in PCN debt recovery, they certainly 'specialise' in it.

As do:

UCS
TNC
BW Legal
Gladstones
ADR Legal
PP Legal

and loads more. 

Do you think those last two are legal firms?  Nope, they are not and nor are they an 'ADR'.

Horrific unregulated bullies and not the sort of regulated debt you are talking about.

Coupon-mad

KeithP said:

MalMonroe said:

It's time we all got together and started complaining about things like this that are costing people their lives and also shortening the lives of seriously ill people.

Parliament passed The Parking (Code of Practice) Act 2019 in March 2019.

We are now waiting for the Civil Servants to finalise the Code of Practice.
@Coupon-mad will be along shortly to tell you how you can help with that.

Yes, we all need to be alert and ready with evidence.  The MHCLG like evidence, not opinion.

We all need to show evidence to inform the Government what is really happening and why £100 is not OK. Please do us and yourself (and the driving public) a favour and stick around on this forum every week - at least for the Summer - to ensure you see when the Government publish and open the final Technical Consultation.

We will be talking about it and the public will have about 4 weeks we think, to tell the MHCLG what you think about the level of parking charges, that the MHCLG has admirably decided already will start at £50 (50% discount) and not £100:

Outcome of 2020 Consultation:

https://www.gov.uk/government/consultations/parking-code-enforcement-framework/outcome/parking-code-enforcement-framework-consultation-response

Planned Summer 2021 additional Public Consultation:

https://www.gov.uk/government/news/government-to-open-technical-consultation-on-fairer-parking-charges

It's not open yet but please keep check here to see when it is. 

We need real people like you to counter the spamming that happened last time from the industry.

PLEASE COME BACK EVERY WEEK OR TWO SO YOU DON'T MISS IT.

Sandtree

Coupon-mad said:

I think you'll find very few of them "specialise" in parking ticket debt recovery.  

You would be surprised.  They both do.  

Again you are listing COMPANIES whereas the message you are quoting is about the front line staff on national minimum wage. Where's the list of the head hunted parking ticket debt recovery call centre agents on NMW if you say that I'd be surprised that  they do both.

Your crying over stories of contact centre agents being rude etc @coupon-mad is about people being rude to people and whilst we should all show common courtesy to each other as already highlighted you are looking at the stories with exceptionally tinted glasses and totally ignoring what the day to day working life of someone who's forced to do such jobs (obv talking economically normally)  is like. Does it excuse it? But how many tears are you shedding for the agents that get daily threats of violence or rape just for doing a crappy job they have no choice over?

Timeouts

Sandtree said:

Coupon-mad said:

I think you'll find very few of them "specialise" in parking ticket debt recovery.  

You would be surprised.  They both do.  

Again you are listing COMPANIES whereas the message you are quoting is about the front line staff on national minimum wage. Where's the list of the head hunted parking ticket debt recovery call centre agents on NMW if you say that I'd be surprised that  they do both.

Your crying over stories of contact centre agents being rude etc @coupon-mad is about people being rude to people and whilst we should all show common courtesy to each other as already highlighted you are looking at the stories with exceptionally tinted glasses and totally ignoring what the day to day working life of someone who's forced to do such jobs (obv talking economically normally)  is like. Does it excuse it? But how many tears are you shedding for the agents that get daily threats of violence or rape just for doing a crappy job they have no choice over?

There is never an excuse for threats in any industry. It happens all over, pubs, shops etc.

Saying they have no choice is simply not true. Right now there is a massive surplus of job vacancies and plenty of choices.   As they say "if the water is too hot, get out" ?

The money thugs in the parking industry attack our amazing nurses and are hell bent on suing them and the goal is a CCJ ... that's just one example of the thuggery that ges on

Shed tears for these wild animals .... don't think so

However, I think you need to prove this for yourself   ..... go and get yourself a parking ticket, don't pay it and se what hapens next.   You then might be shedding tears for yourself

Snakes_Belly

I have to say that my only experience of actually speaking to a representative of a debt collection company was quite positive.

It was before my parking ticket and I received a letter regarding an amount that was outstanding on a utility bill. The company had not adjusted my bill with the correct meter reading and I had advised them of this several times but had not been sent an adjusted bill. 

I told the representative that the bill was disputed. They were billing me based on the previous occupants (a family) usage when the house was unoccupied. The representative said that he would refer back to the company as a disputed bill. I complained to the Ombudsman and it was sorted out and they had to pay compensation.

Tried the same with DRP (by letter) and told them that the claim was disputed and to refer back to Excel and I still received a rainforest of letters for which they added on £60.00. They even used another company that was part of the same set up just to intimidate me. Those letters gave the impression that the debt had been sold.

There are rules under the FCA regarding disputed claims however the companies like DRP are unregulated.

As I mentioned for many people who receive parking claims it is not about affordability. It's about the principle and it is futile to try to chase the claim.       

D_P_Dance

I am a landlord and a couple of years ago I started receiving letters addressed to  a person whom neither I nor my previous tenant had ever heard of.  Eventually I received letters form five companies for various debts, including non payment of a penalty fare.. 

Four of the companies whom I 'phoned were polite and helpful, including Marstons, .  only one, a company well known on here, was not. 

Snakes_Belly

There is also the point at which the claim becomes a debt. This was a matter that was up for comment in the consultation. The general consensus from the people who made genuine comments was that it should only be a debt when a court judgment has been given.  

The very earliest should be after the single appeal providing that the single appeal is on a judgmental decision and not criteria based so that mitigating circumstances are taken into account. 

I do have some reservation about how fair the single appeals service will be. 

Snakes_Belly

"Saying they have no choice is simply not true. Right now there is a massive surplus of job vacancies and plenty of choices.   As they say "if the water is too hot, get out" ?"

There are crying out for people in the hospitality industry. "Ready to order sir, madam".