Parking stories in the News/media

Half_way

Double Dip, McDonalds and Leicester again

https://www.leicestermercury.co.uk/news/local-news/mcdonalds-customer-asked-wait-car-8169292

Every double dip should be treated as a data protection/GDPR breach with the landowner/car park owner being made to face the music

patient_dream

patient_dream said:

As above, re Twyford parking

Just up the road so will go and have a look

So, I went to Twyford, London Road.  Twyford is a village  but could not find Twyford House, asked lots of locals but nobody knew, one chap said it was behind a Waitrose and that there were a lot of parking problems.

Waitrose do not have parking scammers but still, nobody knew where Twyford House was ?   

I tried STREETVIEW and that was odd, typed in "london road twyford berkshire RG10"  and the result came up as Evesham ???

Anyway, Wokingham Council, a Tory council, already have big problems with parking and last year, Theresa May was door knocking with a petition against the council for their stupidity.

I will find out tomorrow and report back here, hopefully with pictures of ANPR on a council property

patient_dream

RE: Henley Standard article by Coupon

The reason this was difficult to find was that the newspaper stated ..
TWYFORD HOUSE, London Road, Twyford.

It is 12 Wargrave Road which a service road behind London Road
There is an alley way to London Road but this is the car park

Here is the Street view
https://www.instantstreetview.com/@51.478066,-0.867191,67.8h,8.57p,1z,5YAY3sDd8TNVIDwmb34_hw

There is no obvious entry sign or visible ANPR

Savvytrier

https://www.itv.com/news/wales/2022-08-01/parking-app-warning-after-woman-scammed-out-of-hundreds

I'm in a good mind to email the dvla/dept for transport and ask that as the dvla is an official authority,  so before they release drivers details they should at least give the company like parking eye a check code to give the registered keeper to prove its genuine..

Like the sharing your driving licence information they currently use?

Because in my opinion, releasing your details to these companies is wrong..

The letters should state , 

To the registered keeper of Austin allegro (reg number )

1 dvla Street
Parking house 
Scamshire
Dv12 3cd

Offence : parking for a nanosecond outside mcdonalds etc

If you are the registered keeper of Austin allegro (reg number) , please use (dvla code) to check your details are correct/pay/contact/discuss etc etc

Yours insincerely 

Parking moneymakers

**you go to dvla website enter the code , and it will show the 'parking company' have requested your address information due to a parking charge notice and the date **

So surely the dvla releasing all your personal details like this is wrong, the letters sent are unrecorded and give valuable information if in the wrong hands?

Personally the dvla should only release your address to these parking firms? Initially it should be address of keeper, for the parking company to send a reminder notice to pay etc and then after say 60 days have passed after no contact , they can obtain keepers name for court action?

With the current system the dvla have tied your name and address to a car as the registered keeper,  this information is only available otherwise to the police without prior consent .. we know how these parking companies have links to other agencies , bailiffs etc..how do we know they process our private data properly, and our data isn't shared with other debt agencies in the process? For example if you owed another debt elsewhere, like council tax etc they have your details on file 🙄  which leads me to..


Another point is how can you be threatened with court action when no letters are sent by recorded delivery? How is it fair to say you received any letters ? How was you definitely aware of the impending ccj..
How do we know our personal data is safe and secure during processing by these companies?

Are their staff criminal record bureau checked or data vetted for handling sensitive data?

Another point to prove is surely there should always be a physical way to pay on site,  cash or card? This should be the first option available to us as the consumer? And if there is no way to pay on site then the original amount should be asked for first in any initial correspondence by the parking company as a reminder of inital fees owed..

I personally think that by putting a sign up with a website or telephone number to pay:

Is a presumption that you as the consumer:
Have a working mobile phone or other device that has signal immediately to hand to pay this ?

Have the ability to take a note or photograph of the details to pay later on?

And what if you have eyesight problems? Learning difficulties etc?

Leaves everyone open to fraud..its very cheap now for criminals to get a peice of vinyl printed,  stick over the top of parking signs, and have the money sent elsewhere .., a week later remove the vinyl, easy weeks work!

Finally to put it into context,  imagine this ..
You are at an airport/ferry terminal .. you see an empty bench and sit down for a minute , whilst sat down you see a sign saying sitting down fees apply £2.. website or call to pay..pull out your phone and it's dead ..so you get up and leave..now imagine if some days later you received a letter with your name address and face pic on from bench seat Ltd, requiring £40 penalty charge ..they contacted the passport office and got your details to issue the notice.. this would cause an outcry ..why is it the same with our vehicle details ?

KeithP

Savvytrier said:

I'm in a good mind to email the dvla/dept for transport and ask that as the dvla is an official authority,  so before they release drivers details they should at least give the company like parking eye a check code to give the registered keeper to prove its genuine..

<<< snip the rest >>>

Haven't you posted that before?

Snakes_Belly

Coupon-mad said:

Here you go, Excel Parking Services Ltd named and shamed for having a parking fee machine that they admit wasn't synch'd to transmit any payment/VRM data.

This was at Broomhill rooftop car park in case it crops up here.

Apparently, they were taking money from drivers then issuing £100 PCNs  and £170 'rape and pillage' (scary red writing) demands, until a driver reportedly sussed what was going on and a newspaper reported them to the DVLA:
https://www.thestar.co.uk/business/fury-as-excel-parking-admits-sending-letters-demanding-ps100-from-innocent-drivers-in-sheffield-4032438

"It is the third case this year where The Star has helped readers. Earlier this month, Excel apologised and paid Claire Blank £60 after an ‘administrative error’ at Berkeley Precinct on Ecclesall Road. And in January it cancelled a £170 demand sent to Louise Povey for failing to pay quickly enough, also at Berkeley Precinct."

Excel apparently reckon offering to donate a poxy sixty quid to charity makes it all OK:
"...once the issue was identified we cancelled the parking charge. Our investigations also identified that some other parking charges had been issued as a result of the data issue and these were also cancelled and the recipients notified accordingly. We have also further reviewed our processes and quality checks in order to mitigate future incidents of this nature."

SOME?!

Some other parking charges?

If the machine wasn't sending data then every single driver who used it got a poxy PCN.  Likely hundreds...(no doubt half of them paid by scared victims and careless lease firms).

How about not skimping by using the typical PPC second hand, twenty year old crappy machines?

"...once the issue was identified we cancelled the parking charge. Our investigations also identified that some other parking charges had been issued as a result of the data issue and these were also cancelled and the recipients notified accordingly. We have also further reviewed our processes and quality checks in order to mitigate future incidents of this nature."

Why haven't Excel conducted an investigation into what was happening in Lichfield instead of sending out bailiffs to a vulnerable lady in her eighties and not even allowing her the time to contact a relative?

There is obviously something wrong with their systems and yet they have failed to investigate this. Should be losing their access to DVLA records.

patient_dream

Snakes_Belly said:

Coupon-mad said:

Here you go, Excel Parking Services Ltd named and shamed for having a parking fee machine that they admit wasn't synch'd to transmit any payment/VRM data.

This was at Broomhill rooftop car park in case it crops up here.

Apparently, they were taking money from drivers then issuing £100 PCNs  and £170 'rape and pillage' (scary red writing) demands, until a driver reportedly sussed what was going on and a newspaper reported them to the DVLA:
https://www.thestar.co.uk/business/fury-as-excel-parking-admits-sending-letters-demanding-ps100-from-innocent-drivers-in-sheffield-4032438

"It is the third case this year where The Star has helped readers. Earlier this month, Excel apologised and paid Claire Blank £60 after an ‘administrative error’ at Berkeley Precinct on Ecclesall Road. And in January it cancelled a £170 demand sent to Louise Povey for failing to pay quickly enough, also at Berkeley Precinct."

Excel apparently reckon offering to donate a poxy sixty quid to charity makes it all OK:
"...once the issue was identified we cancelled the parking charge. Our investigations also identified that some other parking charges had been issued as a result of the data issue and these were also cancelled and the recipients notified accordingly. We have also further reviewed our processes and quality checks in order to mitigate future incidents of this nature."

SOME?!

Some other parking charges?

If the machine wasn't sending data then every single driver who used it got a poxy PCN.  Likely hundreds...(no doubt half of them paid by scared victims and careless lease firms).

How about not skimping by using the typical PPC second hand, twenty year old crappy machines?

"...once the issue was identified we cancelled the parking charge. Our investigations also identified that some other parking charges had been issued as a result of the data issue and these were also cancelled and the recipients notified accordingly. We have also further reviewed our processes and quality checks in order to mitigate future incidents of this nature."

Why haven't Excel conducted an investigation into what was happening in Lichfield instead of sending out bailiffs to a vulnerable lady in her eighties and not even allowing her the time to contact a relative?

There is obviously something wrong with their systems and yet they have failed to investigate this. Should be losing their access to DVLA records.

As said before, until a full investigation into the SRS group is done either by the DVLA or police, or both ..access to the DVLA should be terminated. 

Coupon-mad

Thought you'd all like to see how @bargepole of this forum parish responded to this article by Will Hurley:

https://www.transportxtra.com/publications/parking-review/news/72754/parking-on-private-land-it-s-time-to-face-facts


Here's bargepole's reply setting the record straight:

https://www.transportxtra.com/publications/parking-review/news/72922/private-parking-sector-is-in-a-spin

The draft Impact Assessment and the final Public Consultation is expected this Spring (within weeks).

Coupon-mad

A Home Bargains shopper who spent more than £300 in store has vowed never to return after he was slapped with a £100 parking fine.

https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/news/23331192.home-bargains-stanley-customer-furious-100-parking-fine/

Andrew Bradley and wife Amy racked up a £317 bill for their pre-Christmas shopping haul at the Home Bargains store in Stanley, County Durham as they stocked up and bought presents on December 21.

“It was four days before Christmas so it was really busy and we couldn’t get around the store in that time. We must have spent about 20 minutes in the queue for the tills.  After New Year we got a letter in the post with a £100 fine for being parked too long. It’s so unfair – we’d only been in the store, it’s not as if we parked there and went somewhere else.

A Parking Charge Notice sent to Andrew’s home said he had been parked at the store for two hours and two minutes.

He queried the penalty charge at the store but was told to contact ParkingEye, the firm responsible for running the car park.  The parking company lowered his fine to £20 which he paid on January 31.

Andrew says: “They shouldn’t be able to do this. In these hard times when everyone’s worried about their bills and no one needs the stress of these parking tickets.  My wife has had a major operation so can’t move as quickly or help pack the bags. There’s lots of vulnerable people who’d struggle.  I will never go back to Home Bargains after this.”

After being contacted by the Echo, Parking Eye has agreed to refund Andrew’s fine.

Quelle surprise.  Lift that carpet and sweep the dust riiight under it, eh?

patient_dream

RE: WILL HURLEY
The man is in no position to preach, scammers do not have a voice. He is only CEO by default after the Davies -- Hurley scam was exposed by the Parking Prankster ?

And still Davies AKA Gladstones wastes the courts time trying to extort money as a result of the scam IAS.. why these two money scammers are not behind bars is beyond me.

Hopefully David's response will button the mouth of Hurley

PARKING EYE ?
We all remember the 4 stooges at the select committee with the CEO of Parking Eye
That was a farce and it's got worse with PE now imitating the worst of the parking industry
But thank you Parking Eye for your continued desire to prove to government that you and the others are simply not fit for purpose