I'm not a PCN virgin any more.

Fruitcake

It appears the driver of a car registered to me but owned by someone else paid for parking but entered the VRM of a different vehicle to which they also have access, at a hotel car park (Holiday Inn Express, Filton) infested by ParkMaven using ANPR scameras.

No NTK was ever received by me. I've lived in the same house for 41 years, and the V5C details are correct, so there is no reason why the PPC's letters shouldn't have arrived.

The only reason I know about this is because DCB Ltd have sent me a starter kit to make paper briquettes for my wood burner. It includes the fake £70 add on, so in my complaints/communications I will mention how PM got the idea from Mr Osner to add on fake amounts just to scam more money out of motorists.

I'll start with Plan A of course, plus an SAR to get the NTK.

Watch this space.

 

Coupon-mad

Wonderful that it's going the way of DCB! 

Fruitcake

I have been going around the Parkmaven website in circles for the last hour and cannot find an email address for them at all, let alone a DPO contact email address, nor even any details about their DPO.
They do have a privacy policy, but I cannot for the life of me find a way to send an SAR.

Complaint sent to the BPA. My breath, holding it, not going to.

KeithP

Fruitcake said:

I have been going around the Parkmaven website in circles for the last hour and cannot find an email address for them at all, let alone a DPO contact email address, nor even any details about their DPO.
They do have a privacy policy, but I cannot for the life of me find a way to send an SAR.

I agree with you.

Having looked at their Privacy Policy, the closest I can get is...

However, there are no 'details provided below'.

KeithP

Whilst looking on their website at their Complaints Policy, I did discover a postal address for their DPO...

...you can contact our data protection officer via post at ParkMaven Limited, Kemp House 160, City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. 

...but only a postal address.

But, and it is a big but, accessing their Complaints Policy via the link on their BPA AoS members entry - www.britishparking.co.uk/bpa-approved-operators - one is directed towards a different policy.

That shows an email address for complaints - 

So, Park Maven's public facing Complaints Policy prevents people complaining by email, but the version of their Complains Policy that they have told the BPA about does have an email address in it.

Thus telling the BPA "look, we are doing the right thing", when in fact they are not.

Fruitcake

Thanks KeithP, I will follow that up. I have already made a complaint to the BPA about PM's lack of DPO transparency/contact details.

Meanwhile, I know the SOP is to ignore DRAs, but I just could not resist with this reply to DCB Limited.

Dear DCB Limited,

      Thank you for the starter kit to make paper briquettes for my wood burner stove you sent me, DCBL Reference Number:  BORAX111, regarding a parking charge notice that I never received from Parkmaven Limited, reference Parking Charge Notice No : BORAX222.

      I have made a digital copy of your communication, but you can see the original here in the image below. 

      No doubt you are aware that your company, Direct Collections Bailiffs Ltd, have absolutely no powers within the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland to collect monies from me. You know that I do not owe you any monies. You know that you do not own any debt from me. You know that you are powerless and cannot instigate a court claim against me. I shall take this opportunity now to tell you in no uncertain terms that I do not owe anybody anything, and that includes your client, Parkmaven Limited.,

      
           Consequently I suggest you pass this alleged case for monies not owed by me straight back to your "no win - no fee" unregulated private parking company client at your earliest convenience in order to save yourselves time, money, and effort. I am aware that you are aware that the fake £70 add on debt collection fee is a fake add on, because Gary Osner, head of an unregulated debt recovery agency called ZZPS, told one of your agents during an interview that it was a fake add on amount, invented purely to boost profit, and serves absolutely no other purpose other than to boost profit for unregulated parking companies and unregulated debt recovery agencies such as DCB Ltd. Thankfully the DLUHC have been provided with numerous copies of the transcript of Mister Osner's interview with your company, so is perfectly aware that the fake add on admin or debt recovery charges are fake add ons, and that you offer a no-win no-fee service to your unregulated private parking company clients so they are legally unable to claim your fake add on debt collection fees because they have not actually paid them.

      You should be aware that your client, Parkmaven Limited, failed to provide me, the registered keeper, with a notice to keeper at all, let alone one that complied with the provisions of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012, Schedule 4. They never even pretended to have sent me a notice to keeper because they never even bothered to pretend they sent me a notice to keeper reminder. 

      It is such a shame really. I try to do my bit to save the planet, so all unsolicited paper I receive either gets recycled by hanging it on a nail in the outside Dunny, or being mashed into free winter fuel, so I could do with a ready supply of decent heating material.  Please see below.

     

        Whilst I decry the absolute waste of paper produced by the unregulated private parking industry described as "rogues, scammers, and bloodsuckers" by our MPs in open parliamentary debate, I will never look a gift horse in the mouth when offered free winter fuel by parking companies or their *ilk*. I am an OAP on a limited budget after all.

*A large animal with very large antlers*

Castle

KeithP said:

Whilst looking on their website at their Complaints Policy, I did discover a postal address for their DPO...

...you can contact our data protection officer via post at ParkMaven Limited, Kemp House 160, City Road, London, EC1V 2NX. 

...but only a postal address.

But, and it is a big but, accessing their Complaints Policy via the link on their BPA AoS members entry - www.britishparking.co.uk/bpa-approved-operators - one is directed towards a different policy.

That shows an email address for complaints - 

So, Park Maven's public facing Complaints Policy prevents people complaining by email, but the version of their Complains Policy that they have told the BPA about does have an email address in it.

Thus telling the BPA "look, we are doing the right thing", when in fact they are not.

According to Companies House they moved their registered office address from Kemp House, (which is just a mail drop anyway), to "Studio 4, Import Building 2 Clove Crescent London E14 2BE" on 2 December 2021 and in April 2023 they moved again to "Level 4 2 Redman Place London E20 1JQ".

(The ICO Register gives another address;-Level39,1 Canada Square, London, E14 5AB.)

Le_Kirk

Surely a complaint to the ICO is in order?

Fruitcake

I used the support@ email address to send the SAR to Parkmaven, and a complaint via the BPA complaint portal about their member's lack of DPO contact details.

I've got a vague memory that certain information must be posted on a company website: perhaps it was The Companies Act. I need to do some digging.

I'll send a postal SAR as backup and a complaint about the dodgy privacy details by post as well. Once I've done that, I can complain to the ICO.
The website states complaints must be made within 56 days of the incident taking place. How convenient. The alleged parking event was over 56 days before I received the debt collection letter. It's almost as if it was deliberate.

Coupon-mad

So you can't complain after 2 months?!

KeithP

Fruitcake said:

The website states complaints must be made within 56 days of the incident taking place. How convenient.

Yes, that's true, it does say that.
But it doesn't say "within 56 days of the alleged parking incident". It just talks about 'the incident' - whatever that is.

Perhaps you could work on the basis that 'the incident' that you are complaining about is 'the incident' when you discovered they failed to specify their DPO's contact details... i.e. yesterday.     


I've just looked again and there are other differences between the Complaints Policy accessed via their website and the one accessed via the complaints link on the BPA's AOS Members list.
All of the discrepancies concern missing email addresses on ParkMaven's website. 

For completeness, the following email addresses are missing from ParkMaven's version of their Complaints Policy but are clearly shown on the BPA's version...
1) support@parkmaven.com - already mentioned,
2) complaints@parkmaven.com  - might become useful, and
3) the elusive one we were looking for earlier - data@parkmaven.com - which, as described on the BPA's version and reproduced below, is claimed to be that of their Data Protection Officer...

For more information on how we use your information you can contact our data protection officer on data@parkmaven.com.

And just to make it perfectly clear, that very same sentence is replaced on the ParkMaven website with...

For more information on how we use your information you can contact our data protection officer via post at ParkMaven Limited, Kemp House 160, City Road, London, EC1V 2NX.