Cancelling a PCN from Euro Car Park & Sainsbury's

t_ree

Hi,

I have been reading the newbie guide as it's my first time trying to contest a PCN, and following the advice, I had executed a Plan A of sorts in sending a complaint to Sainsbury's. I was going to proceed to appealing this PCN through Euro Car Parks (ECP) online form today.

Just to add some background info, my father received a NTK at the beginning of the week for overstaying at Sainsbury's Whitechapel Car Park. It was issued by ECP and states that for overstaying by '3 minutes', he'd have to pay a ridiculous £85 charge. The evidence they gave was the ANPR shots of the VRN entering and exiting. The kicker is that he had actually left Sainsbury's in time to normally have not stayed for more than 1 hour 30 mins, but the exit of the car park had a queue leading towards the traffic lights at a junction just outside.

Knowing this and the fact that these PCN's can be contested, I followed the template posted for submitting a complaint to the CEO of Sainsbury's. I made sure to provide the PCN and enough details to justify cancelling the ticket. The focus was on the total stay time of 1 hour 33 mins not being strictly true, as those 3 extra minutes was spent in trying to leave the car park. I mentioned as well that the financial loss from this 'contravention' would be negligible as he was not taking the space of any new customer for Sainsbury's. Other than this, it was a strongly worded complaint highlighting the fact that they could lose loyal customers, and further insinuated that 1 hour 30 mins maximum stay for a big shop is an unreasonably short time period. I had sent this yesterday on his behalf as the PCN was issued on 23/03/2023, intending to allow enough time for a good response.

I started drafting an appeal this morning and writing this post here for some wording advice, but I've since had a reply from the complaint by the Executive Office. It went as follows:

Dear Customer's Name,

Thank you for your email which has been received and read by Sainsbury's CEO. He has asked that I look into your complaint and respond personally on his behalf.

I am sorry to read that you have received a Parking Charge Notice after your recent visit to our Whitechapel store and would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused.

I can confirm that this has now been cancelled in full and no further action will be taken.

Once again, please accept my sincere apologies. Should you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me on the details below.

Kind Regards,
XXXX XXXXX, Executive Office

Looks like the complaint has worked, but I would be feel better if I could get proper confirmation, maybe an update/notice from the PPC. Should I proceed with the appeal with ECP and ask for confirmation from them of the cancellation? Or should I ask the Executive Office for further evidence such as their correspondences with the ECP?

Thought I'd post this thread anyway just so people can see that the advice does work for any unfair PCN's being issued out. All it took this time was a strongly worded complaint for it to be cancelled, but I was still surprised at the ease and make me wonder why are they issued in the first place if it was given on such weak grounds. More should really be done against these PPC's who are scamming the public regularly through these unlawful PCN's.

Thanks for any help in advance!

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

You'll be waiting a long time for ECP to confirm the invoice has been cancelled. From my experience, they don't bother with that.
Just keep that notification from Sainsburys just in case you need it.

1505grandad

Perhaps go into ECP website as if to pay (don't) in a few days to see if still o/s. If nil take screen shot for posterity how you beat a scammer.

t_ree

Yeah okay, I'll take a step back and check the PCN again in a few days to see if they still want payment for it.

Look like I can put my half-completed appeal template in the bin so to speak, thanks for the help!

B789

t_ree said:

Yeah okay, I'll take a step back and check the PCN again in a few days to see if they still want payment for it.

Look like I can put my half-completed appeal template in the bin so to speak, thanks for the help!

You do not want to be communicating with these scammers if you can avoid it. You have the email response from Sainsburys confirming that they have instructed their agents to cancel the PCN. Unless, as advised by @1505grandad above, it is still showing as outstanding on their website, leave it at that unless the scammers come back at some time within the next 6 years.