Horizon Parking 😡

Linzi73

Oh man alive, I am going around in circles here.
Any advice or a link to a suitable template letter would be appreciated 

Long story short (ish)! 

I parked on Sainsbury's car park in Blackpool to attend a meeting at the council next door. 
I intended to get some shopping, lunch and browse on my way back. 

The meeting overran and I did indeed enter the store to grab a sandwich then saw the time and thought I'd best go quickly 

I went to the car park in a rush and forgot to input my reg. Never done that before 

There was a member of staff stood by the car park doors who could have asked me to put my reg in but he didn't. He watched me walk past and into the car park right in front of him. 

Anyhoo... Along comes a letter from Horizon 

I appealed. 
They turned it down 
I appealed again, and have unequivocally on all communications offered to pay the car park fee and half of the amount. 
They have not provided me with popla 12 digit number.
They say they have but I argued that I have not had it and discovered this on trying to appeal to popla!!

I have no evidence of this  code number for popla as everything has been done via Horizon website not via email.

I rang them. 
They were no use. Woman on the phone said she could see the popla code on an email???
I have an email to say I had a new message on their website. No popla code

I have emailed Sainsbury's who are no use. 
Have said "it's up to you as a motorist to see and read the signage"

I said no signage stood out to me as being different and I had not been to the store in my car for almost a year 

I had not seen anything different that stood out to me 

I have never forgotten to input my reg number before 
I was in such a rush I completely forgot but they will not accept a part payment and payment of what I owe as a goodwill gesture. 

My last communication with Horizon was that they can take me to court because they have not acted fairly in not providing the popla code number 

They didn't give a !!!!!! 

Sainsbury's don't care. 
Won't divulge who owns the land either. 

So now I have exhausted every avenue. 
I do not know what to do. 
I would be happy to recompense Sainsbury's for what I owe for parking (in reality probably £3)
And I would pay £20 as a gesture of goodwill

They have now put this up to £70

They are absolutely useless and Sainsbury's response has shocked me tbh. 

I've hit a wall... Literally and figuratively!!! 

Thanks in advance 
Linzi 

Le_Kirk

At the moment, they allege you owe them £70 but that is just a speculative invoice.  You owe it when a judge says so.  You could try an approach to the BPA that their member (Horizon) have failed to furnish a POPLA code.  Seems that they offered you a £20 get out due to a "keying error" which is in the code of practice. It might have been prudent to accept this offer; if it gets to a hearing, the judge might think so too.  You could try the CEO of Sainsbury's and see how hard they are prepared to fight for your continued custom.  Alternatively you sit back and wait for the inevitable debt collector letters (take no action) and then the LBC and N1 claim form and fight it in court with a solid defence (template available in the NEWBIE sticky) and a well crafted witness statement.

Linzi73

Sorry I'm confused by your response. 

 "offered you a £20 get out due to a "keying error" which is in the code of practice. It might have been prudent to accept this offer; if it gets to a hearing, the judge might think so too."

They didn't offer me this and I have not stated that they did so I don't understand what you mean by this? 

As stated.. I have been in touch with Sainsbury's. 
I emailed the Head office customer service and the CEO has just resigned so this was passed to his acting in charge person 
I have stated their response 

Le_Kirk

Linzi73 said:

Sorry I'm confused by your response. 

 "offered you a £20 get out due to a "keying error" which is in the code of practice. It might have been prudent to accept this offer; if it gets to a hearing, the judge might think so too."

They didn't offer me this and I have not stated that they did so I don't understand what you mean by this? 

As stated.. I have been in touch with Sainsbury's. 
I emailed the Head office customer service and the CEO has just resigned so this was passed to his acting in charge person 
I have stated their response 

Sorry, I misread your post.  It was you that offered the £20.  That goes in your favour then as you tried to sort it without need of court claim.  There is a section in the Code of Practice referring to keying errors, which could also be taken to relate to failing or forgetting to input the VRM into their terminal, that offers a free pass if it is a minor keying error or a £20 payment for a major keying error.

Linzi73

Excellent thankyou for clarifying. I have stated this on all communication with them to reiterate that I wasn't trying to duck out of it or pay nothing as it was my oversight
I will read the code of practice and find this section to which you refer 

KeithP

I fear you have made this so much more difficult for yourself.

By phoning a parking company, I bet they now know who the driver was - something they didn't know until then.

D_P_Dance

Have you complained to your MP?

Linzi73

@KeithP I realise this after doing what I thought was the right thing to do and then remembering this forum only recently and reading the advice in newbies etc.
🙄

[Deleted User]

Well you had me at your 2nd and 3rd words, that's speaking my language 😊👍
Good luck with this 🙏

Linzi73

@[Deleted User]... I think I'm gonna fake my own death and send them a certificate on their !!!!!! website of my supposed demise 😂

[Deleted User]

@Linzi73 😁😆😂