Parking in Travelodge car park - but was a customer + their touchscreen broken UPDATE: Claim dropped

StoneColdJaneAustin

Hi all
Hoping someone might be able to help me here. Have read through the Newbies thread and a heap of pages on the forum but can't find anyone with this specific circumstance.

I've received a claim form after ignoring the letters. The claimant is CP PLUS LTD T/A GROUPNEXUS.
The legal firm address is DCB LEGAL LTD.

I stayed at a Travelodge in a service station last summer for one night. The touchscreen device on the reception was broken. The staff member on reception said they'd write my number plate down, which they did on a piece of scrap paper, and seemingly did nothing else with this information.

I have my booking details for the hotel stay, as well as the money going out of my account to Travelodge. I also have an email from Travelodge customer services where they acknowledge my complaint about the device not working by saying that they'd refund me if I pay the fine and send them proof I've paid the fine. This is on an email chain with them where I was complaining about a separate issue around my stay in the hotel.

The exact wording being: "I am happy to refund the parking fine if you are able to send a copy of the parking fine and confirmation showing you have paid for it."

Do I need to include the other elements of the defence template if I have the above as my defence already? Or is it best to include all of the template and add this extra part in?

Thanks in advance for any help.

KeithP

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Have you filed an Acknowledgment of Service?
If so, upon what date did you do that?

Fruitcake

It is not a fine. 

Complain to the hotel manager and CEO that their agent intends to take you to court. Say that you are not happy to pay an unregulated parking company before you receive the money in advance from the hotel chain as there is no guarantee you would ever be reimbursed. Also point out that the amount being demanded has now gone up to £ XXX.

Don't include copies of the email chain at this stage. Save if for the witness statement stage. What you don't want is for the PPC to see that they can get free money because the hotel are willing to fold and pay you. I think they are more likely to get pound signs in their eyes once they know this.
Carefully word your defence accordingly to say the hotel do not want their customer to be out of pocket.

StoneColdJaneAustin

KeithP said:

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Have you filed an Acknowledgment of Service?
If so, upon what date did you do that?

The issue date on the form is 10th October 2023. I filed acknowledgement of service (thanks to the info on this forum!) on 14th October 2023. Thanks.

KeithP

StoneColdJaneAustin said:

KeithP said:

Hello and welcome.

What is the Issue Date on your County Court Claim Form?

Have you filed an Acknowledgment of Service?
If so, upon what date did you do that?

The issue date on the form is 10th October 2023. I filed acknowledgement of service (thanks to the info on this forum!) on 14th October 2023. Thanks.

With a Claim Issue Date of 10th October, and having filed an Acknowledgment of Service in a timely manner, you have until 4pm on Monday 13th November 2023 to file your Defence.

That's over three weeks away. Plenty of time to produce a Defence, but please don't leave it to the last minute.
To create a Defence, and then file a Defence by email, look at the second post in the NEWBIES thread.

Don't miss the deadline for filing a Defence.

Do not try and file a Defence via the MoneyClaimOnline website. Once an Acknowledgment of Service has been filed, the MCOL website should be treated as 'read only'.

Use all of the template Defence text. Consider it very carefully before deleting anything from it - maybe asking here about particular bits you are considering removing.

StoneColdJaneAustin

Fruitcake said:

It is not a fine. 

Complain to the hotel manager and CEO that their agent intends to take you to court. Say that you are not happy to pay an unregulated parking company before you receive the money in advance from the hotel chain as there is no guarantee you would ever be reimbursed. Also point out that the amount being demanded has now gone up to £ XXX.

Don't include copies of the email chain at this stage. Save if for the witness statement stage. What you don't want is for the PPC to see that they can get free money because the hotel are willing to fold and pay you. I think they are more likely to get pound signs in their eyes once they know this.
Carefully word your defence accordingly to say the hotel do not want their customer to be out of pocket.

Following on from this I emailed the CEO, chairman and manager of the branch with my original email chain with their customer service team. I've been punted back to Customer Service who initially replied asking for more info so they can request the agents rescind the ticket. 
Today they've replied again, with this:

"Thank you for your email.

As this has now been taken to a Court Summons we wouldn't be in a position to get the fine cancelled.

However we would be more than happy to review reimbursing the cost of the fine. If you could please send a copy over we would be more than happy to review this for you.

Many thanks again for your time."


Is this the point where I cease communicating with them and just do my defence? Or should I respond to this pointing out that they (presumably) do have the ability to request their parking agency to retract their court claim?

Any help is appreciated!

UncleThomasCobley

Reply to them and inform them that they should escalate this higher up their pathetic management food chain, pointing out that this is neither a "fine" and you have not received a "summons". Tell them that if they are unable to fathom this, then they need to get some education on the matter.

If they want to fund the scammers, they are free to do so. However, if they had any inkling of intelligence they would know that this can be cancelled at any point up to a court hearing and that they should understand who is who in their contract with the unregulated private parking company. Are they the monkey or the organ grinder in their contractual relationship with their agent?

Explain to them that fools and their money don't last long in business if they are unable to figure out that they do not need to pay the scammers but just order them to cease and desist. It would certainly be cheaper for them.

Fruitcake

As above, point out that this is neither a fine nor a summons. As principal, the hotel/chain/CEO can simply instruct their agent, the unregulated parking company who has been sub-contracted by the hotel, to cancel the charge and the claim at any point up to the time of the hearing.

Ask them for the contact details of their legal department and the name of the person who will be attending the hearing if the charge is not cancelled. Ask them to provide dates over the next nine months when that person will not be available. Point out that you will be calling them as a witness as per Court Procedure Rules, Part 33.4, Miscellaneous Rules For Evidence (Power to call witness for cross-examination on hearsay evidence). 

Remind them again that you will not pay an unregulated company an unknow, varying, and continually increasing amount because there is no guarantee it will not increase above that amount, and there is no guarantee the hotel will honour this arrangement since they have already proven they will not support genuine hotel patrons by the simple one short email act of instructing the parking company to cease and desist.

Have you left negative feedback on the hotel/chain website/Tripadvisor etcetera? You should, pointing out that the hotel has refused to get the parking charge cancelled and has actually told you to pay it (don't mention the offer to reimburse you for an unknown variable increasing amount).

StoneColdJaneAustin

Thanks. I've sent back a variation of the above and received the following:

"Thank you for your email.

I can confirm once again we aren't able to get the charge waived.

If you wish to take this further you are welcome to write in and address any papers to our legal team at the address below;

Travelodge Hotels Ltd
Sleepy Hollow
Thame
Oxfordshire
OX9 3AT

May I once again apologise for the inconvenience caused."


Time to give up on this email chain and just put in the defence?

Coupon-mad

Certainly! You only have days left to defend. 

StoneColdJaneAustin

Thanks for all your help so far.

I submitted by defence by the deadline and received the postal confirmation.

Today I've received a letter direct to me from DCB Legal stating:

"We write in relation to the above matter.

We note you state within your defence you stayed at the Travelodge on the date of the contravention.

Please provide further documentation in support of the above statement within 14 days from the date of this letter in order for us to review the matter further.

We look forward to hearing from you."


Should I ignore this as it isn't for me to provide my evidence directly to them? Or should I provide it to them?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

(Also, the letter is dated 16th November but it only arrived today, 23rd November.)