POPLA refused, ParkingEye PCN for Hilton Hotel.

fivestarsamz

Le_Kirk said:

fivestarsamz said:

Dear Sir/Madam,

I am writing to you regarding a Parking Charge Notice (PCN) that I received from your agents, ParkingEye.

The PCN number is XXXXXXXXX

The incident refers to the time where the driver of the vehicle, who is a minicab (private hire) driver was visiting the Hampton by Hilton Hotel in London Stansted Airport to pick up a passenger, who was also your customer, for one of his jobs. The driver did not park the vehicle within any of the dedicated parking space (attributed delineated by white lines) and was waiting in the car for the passenger to come from your hotel. The driver only stayed within the car park for 14 minutes (which is a normal amount of time for a minicab/taxi driver to wait for) and they were not aware of any payment required for this short length of a time, as the signs were not clear enough. I have attached a redacted job sheet to prove my case.  

I must mention that dropping off or picking up is not parking as defined by the judge, His Honour Judge J Harris QC, in the appeal case of Laura Jopson vs Homeguard Securities, and ParkingEye are fully aware of this. ANPR Camera do not record parking time, and only record the time of arrival and departure from the location site, and therefore it cannot determine the difference between a parking event and a hotel drop-off/pick-up. This is one of the reasons why ANPR systems are prohibited by the UK Government for monitoring council car parks, but unregulated private parking companies use ANPR because the system flaws generate income.

ParkinEye are demanding a payment of £100 which is incredibly extortionate and disappointing to see that a reputable hotel, such as yourself, is allowing such an atrocious scam to happen under their name. This is indeed driving away many minicab/taxi drivers from the site. This PCN is causing distress to myself and the driver who is being demanded required to pay a lot more than what he had earned for that job. In hindsight, it would have been more beneficial for him to not pick up your passengers customers and do this job.

This a complete completely unfair demand by your agents, ParkingEye, and I would appreciate for you to tell instructing your agents to cancel the PCN. The driver would like to resolve this situation and would offer £20 to settle the case, which I require the Hilton to make this offer to ParkingEye on my behalf, in the event that your agent continues to refuse to cancel the charge. Hilton should be aware that the face fact that this case has gone through POPLA does not prevent ParkingEye from cancelling PCNs for more robust and customer-orientated landowners who have insisted, including other hotels, as reported online several times. Surely, ParkingEye can reconsider, as a gesture of goodwill if nothing else, or this case will go to the press to warn other taxi drivers and delivery drivers to boycott this location.

I hope we can resolve this case without any further escalation. I look forward to hearing a reply from you.

Kind regards,

Some suggestions above.  Are you writing as the driver or the registered keeper, as you letter is confusing; it seems to start off as driver and then finishes as RK.  The letter starts quite rightly as "Dear Sir/Madam" and it should finish with "yours faithfully", NOT kind regards; are you really feeling kindly towards the hotel?

Thank you for that. I had already sent the email before i had read your reply. That is my bad, i should have waited but I do appreciate your time. I need to send another one anyway as I got a response saying I need to send an email to a different email. I will wait for suggestions this time but to answer your questions:

I am writing as the registered keeper.. so i will correct the letter to reflect that.

And I certainly am not feeling very kindly towards the hotel, so I will keep that in mind. 


So the response I got from Executive Customer Relations (aka Executive Escalations team) is that they will share the case to the hotel directly to deal with it. Full response in the spoiler bar:

Hello xxxx,

Thank you for reaching out to Chris Nassetta regarding the parking fines your received while at the Hampton by Hilton Hotel London Stansted Airport. I am happy to assist and address your concerns on his behalf.

I am sorry to learn of your unfortunate experience at the hotel. I appreciate the situation must be frustrating and please be assured our teams will do what they can to assist you. 

As this matter regards a parking fine from your time at the hotel, I have shared your case with the hotel as we require the them to handle it directly. Please allow the team 3 working days to review and respond.

Once again, thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.

In the meantime, I am at your disposal should you require any further assistance.

Kind regards,

XXX
Executive Ambassador

And then two hours later I got an email from the stansted hotel saying that I need to contact a collegue with the parking fine and and the guest details:

Hello xxxx,

First of all, thank you for contacting our guest assistance team regarding this matter. I just would like to apologise for any inconvience caused by this matter.

I have copied by colleague in who deals with parking fines. if you could just possibly contact her regarding this matter with a copy of the parking fine the date of stay guest name on the booking.  The email that needs to be contacted is GSA2@HBHSTANSTED.COM

Kind Regards 

xxxxxx
Duty Manager

I will respond to them with a similar email as before with the requested items. 

Lets see how it goes. 

fivestarsamz

Here is the response they gave: 

Good afternoon,

Thank you for your email regarding a parking fine that has been issued at Hampton by Hilton whilst collecting a customer. I have again been in contact with Parking eye regarding the matter and have been advised that as this fine has been referred to POPLA the hotel is unable to request that the fine be removed. The vehicle was parked onsite for 14 minutes and the registration was not logged with reception. There is clear signage located at the entrance barrier and throughout the car park that states each vehicle that passes through the security barrier needs to be registered with reception. We are unable to request that Parking Eye accept a payment of £20.00, unfortunately they are an independent company and Hampton by Hilton is unable to instruct them to lower their charges. I have also confirmed that the hotel had no customer registered under the name provided.

Kindest regards 

Do i have any hopes?

Coupon-mad

Yes of course.  You defend in court.