Parkingeye threatening court action. Do I pay up?

auntybeebee

Hi there,

I drove a date to the cinema back in May. We were late for the film so when we arrived, the cinema assistant ushered us straight through into the cinema without pointing out the car reg parking exemption machine which is located behind kiosk. As such I received a parking fine in the post which I appealed for the above reason and also that we had a genuine reason for using the car park, which was to use the cinema which offers free parking. This appeal was rejected but the POPLA details must have gone into my junk email as I never received it. I've contacted POPLA who won't issue another appeal number and Parking Eye are now threatening court action unless I pay a £170 fine. In terms of evidence I have the booking reference that my date paid for. I've tried contacting Odeon to get them to cancel the fine but they say that they are unable to do that as the land is owned by parking eye. I've even sent in an official complaint to Odeon which has gone unanswered. My question is....this is causing me a great deal of stress. Should I just pay the fine to avoid the potential cost of a failed court case or do I have a good case to fight it? If I do fight it, how much time and preparation is required? It grates to feel like the parking companies would be getting a payment but on the otherhand, I don't want to end up in a worse situation if I fight it and lose?

Coupon-mad

Parkingeye threatening court action. Do I pay up?

Obviously not!

It's not a fine.

A court claim would not be worse.

Complain URGENTLY to the cinema manager and whoever runs the entire site (managing agents). They can order it cancelled at any time.

The land IS NOT OWNED by PE.

Please show us the letter where you say PE are demanding £170.  Have never seen one of those.  Please show it (name & address redacted).

auntybeebee

Thanks for replying. Here are the letters I've been receiving. I've tried complaining to ODEON but it's as though every employee has now been told a blanket statement that they cannot get involved and have no power to do so. 

auntybeebee

In case the above links aren't working.

Not_A_Hope

Those are begging letters designed to try to scare you into paying up. 

You have time to get this cancelled by continuing to complain whilst waiting for a Letter Before claim when you need to begin to act. I you are not getting any success with the local management at the Odeon try finding out the email address of their head office and complain to their CEO. 

What is the name of the site? It might have featured on here previously. You could find out who actually owns the land (unlikely to be the Odeon) and complain to them.

auntybeebee

Thank you! It's Leicester Freeman's Park Odeon Lux

Not_A_Hope

Did a very quick Google search on that name and added parking ticket. Seems they have previous form with complaints in the press and tripadvisor etc

Not_A_Hope

@lostinleicester had a problem in this car park a few years ago when they visited Nando’s. So it does seem some retailers on the site are willing to help genuine customers.

“Just spoke to Nandos and they said there are tablets to register on in the store that I wasn't alerted to when I was in there. She said to come in and print off a receipt and I will be able to get it cancelled if I send the receipt to ParkingEye. Phew! Thanks for the info”

Umkomaas

PE tend to outsource unpaid parking tickets to debt collectors as a last gasp attempt to try to squeeze something from what they have written off as a lost cause. 

We haven't seen any such outsourced PE ticket progress beyond that point to the issue of court proceedings. 

patient_dream

auntybeebee said:

In case the above links aren't working.

Amazing ... two letters hoping you are a mug

PARKING EYE:
Are you aware that the Parking Eye v Beavis case clearly stated by the Supreme court, that the parking charge covered the collection of the said charge .... NOT £170 as DCBL are trying to mug you with

BUT this case was that Barry Beavis said the charge of £85 was unfair
THERE WAS NEVER A CASE IN THE SUPREME COURT THAT RULED ON A £100 CHARGE ?

And there was never a case that allowed a third party debt collectors like DCBL to add £70

So, both are talking where the sun don't shine

DCBL .... You are being scammed. As usual it is clear that PE use DCBL like a  public convenience ... free try on debt collection adding fakes with no cost to PE

Just imagine if PE let DCBL take you court ?   That we want to see, not only will PE go against their own Supreme Court ruling but they will have to explain why they rely on the £85 charge ruling  when there was never any Supreme Court ruling on a £100 charge

You may ask why have they increased it to £100 ?  Ask the BPA scam dept why ?

And here is another point, the parking industry has objected to the new code of practice whereby parking charges will be reduced by 50%.
IE: £50 not £100

As these fools rely on the SUPREME COURT PE v BEAVIS which was £85 ... 50% means that a parking charge will be £42.50 and then  discounted for a quick payment

Will government over rule the Supreme Court  ?

Coupon-mad

Oh they are just DCB Ltd letters. Seen hundreds of them!

You'd said that ParkingEye were sending letters demanding £170 (which they don't).