Parking ticket issued by Smart Parking scum bags

Steveyg777

I got a ticket from these underhand idiots who are BPA members:

Smart Parking Ltd

www.smartparking.com

I'll post my appeal to them and then secondly include an update of what happened (or lack of) more recently:

APPEAL

I have received your letter regarding my parking in the mail on the 4th of August.

You record that, according to the information obtained, I overstayed by 18 minutes.

Firstly, I am deeply concerned that it took you until the 25th of August to write a notice to send to me - My understanding is that this should have reached me within 14 days, not raised 21 days after the event and then sent to me, taking even more time to actually get to me. 

Secondly, it concerns me that the date of issue was 25th of August (the Friday before a bank holiday weekend), yet it took until late on Saturday the 2nd of September for it to actually reach me, eight days after it had been issued and 29 days after the event.

This meant that I had only six days to realistically respond in order to "take advantage" of your "discount". At the apparent rate of postage (8 days) this only left me slightly more than 6 days to recall, assess the event and deliberate my response. I don’t believe this was a fair or reasonable amount of time, especially given the details of the event, which I will go on to mention.

As the event was so long ago, it took me some time to recall the details, having to talk to family members who were with me there that day around my working hours (I am a carer who does 40 hours over 4 days, including two 13-hour shifts. By the time I arrive home at night my wife and children are asleep leaving me little time to discuss this event). After analysing the information about the event.

I concluded that it was not an obvious or clear parking charge given to me or to agree with; given the situation, the method in which the times are recorded or the ticket system is operated, and the complications that I encountered. For instance, you record the time that I entered the car park, and not the time that payment was made for the ticket, obviously people need some time to actually pay. Myself and my family couldn't find any cash to pay the parking ticket at the time, and therefore I spent several minutes trying to download the app to use to pay for the parking, unfortunately, at least for my mobile network, the coverage in the area was terrible and my phone took a very long time to download the app so that I could use it to pay the ticket. I was getting frustrated with the time that it was taking. I'm beginning to complain, fortunately, my wife managed to find a pound coin to pay for the parking, so we paid by cash in the end. Normally with parking, you are then issued a ticket to display which tells you the time that you need to be back and get out of the car park. This time for the parking would not be the same as the time when the car enters the car park, obviously. Evidently, your parking charge assumes the car and its party have an hour from the time that it enters the car park and leaves, which is erroneous and unfair. Realistically and logically parking should be charged for the time to actually be parked. 2eThis should not also include the time to drive in and out of the car park, find a space, pay for the parking and get the ticket back to the car.

To my honest knowledge and the best ability I thought I was back in time. When leaving I didn't know the area or how to go about getting out of the car park in the correct direction to head home, as we were on holiday, I tried to use Google Maps to plot the route so we could then promptly leave. As mentioned before the Internet connection is poor and therefore it took longer than usual for the app to assist me. If I'd been knowledgeable of the area I would've just driven off going in the direction I needed to travel, however, I didn't know the way. I would therefore ask and expect a parking company to be understanding of those kinds of situations.

I also make you aware of the grace period of 10 minutes, in which to be able to leave the car park, which is law in the UK. By your information, it appeared that my car left 18 minutes after arriving at the car park. If the 10-minute grace period was taken off these 18 minutes then I am confident that the remaining 8 minutes accounted for actually parking, getting out of the car, trying to download your app and paying. Surely, grace should be offered to customers who can’t download the app quickly and easily to pay if they don’t have cash. Additionally, the system has been engineered to include the process of driving into the car park as well as obtaining a ticket being included in the time of the parking violation which doesn’t make sense and I question if this is lawful.

I AWAIT YOUR RESPONSE TO THIS LETTER BEFORE I MAKE ANY FURTHER DECISION WITH REGARD TO PAYING. I HAVE FORWARDED THIS INFORMATION TO MY LOCAL MP, **********, AND THE BPA TO MAKE THEM AWARE OF THE SITUATION. THIS LETTER/APPEAL DOES NOT MY INTENTION TO PAY OR NOT TO PAY.

If I had better mobile internet coverage I would have investigated the reputation of the car park on Google Maps reviews and consequently chose not to use the car park, ever, after seeing so many bad experiences from previous customers who clearly feel that the operator skews the rules and handing out of charges towards extorting money from them.

Reply/Acknowledgment

emailed me on 17/09/2023 to say they would ENDEAVOUR to reply WITHIN 35 days.

20th Nov 2023 (notice dated 14/11/2023 - so took 6 days to get to me!)

Got a letter from 'Debt Recovery Plus' - reason ‘insufficient paid time’ - saying 'the time has come to decide how you wish to proceed regarding unpaid parking charge you received... on 04/08/23' ... 'you may not have responded to previous letters due to an oversight. Now, if you don't respond, you are making an active choice. Our client reserves, the right to take this as evidence of your intent, not to pay’

and gave 3 choices:

pay in full - £170!

Payment plan (interest free)

Do nothing

Neither Smart Parking nor Debt Recovery Plus had sent any post to me beforehand nor any initial/further emails so that first sentence is nonsense.

I called Debt Recovery Plus to explain I was appealing to Smart Parking and they said that the appeal was rejected and Smart Parking began a debt recovery request on 11th Nov!

Smart Parking had NOT got back in communication with me to tell me the outcome of the appeal or that it still wanted any money and I had taken the silence to mean that they had removed their claim for money because they knew it didn’t stand as reasonable and could get in trouble legally if I had brought this to the attention of the law.

Debt Recovery Plus said that when the debt request was initiated there was a £32.50 admin fee added, and now (can’t remember why the reason for it going up again or if they gave a reason) it’s gone up to £170!

Debt Recovery Plus said I was on stage 2 of 5 of the debt recovery process. they said the no action would be progressed for a couple of weeks. I said I would contact Smart Parking, Debt Recovery Plus guy said they probably wouldn’t talk to me about it now it got to this point - I wouldn’t be surprised if the two companies were in cahoots with one another to be honest, nor that they constructively try to churn out fines whenever at all possibly. you only have to look at their Google ratings, especially the car park I parked in.

Possible mitigating circumstances:

1. My first offence on this land/car park
2. Ability to pay was severely hindered because of the internet in the area and couldn’t download app and couldn’t find any cash at the time
3. Their grounds for timing the parking are unnatural at best, if not unlawful!(?)

So before I contact Smart Parking I wanted to ask advice here, please. I’m no expert in this sort of thing but £170 is disgusting! especially as I’ve been kept out of the loop on the appeal and they’ve bumped up the price behind the scenes!

KeithP

I hope you haven't sent that appeal yet.
It clearly tells Smart who was driving.
Why not just send the already written for you blue text template appeal easily found in the opening post on the NEWBIES thread?

Coupon-mad

The OP did already send that appeal telling Smart all about who was driving.  Oh dear.

I called Debt Recovery Plus 

Oh dear again.

You could have killed this in the first appeal if you'd come here first. This was such an easy win for the registered keeper. A one-liner email would have seen them cancel.

Don't compound these mistakes by paying!

 

Please stop engaging with them and read the NEWBIES thread 4th post.

You are NOT contacting either of them. Sadly the appeal was awful and made your position worse, so please stop ringing and responding.

Come back if Smart try a Small Claim.

Jasonsmith13

I thought all this had stopped because they have no power to take it to court

Coupon-mad

Jasonsmith13 said:

I thought all this had stopped because they have no power to take it to court

Errr...who told you that?  They can sue the OP but we can help them win anyway.

KeithP

Jasonsmith13 said:

I thought all this had stopped because they have no power to take it to court

You thought all what had stopped?

'they have no power to take it to court' - that's news. Please tell us more.

Steveyg777

Ok, so I am sorry for not reading the newbie thing. I didn't come here straight away because I really didn't know such support existed(!). I thought I was doing the right things. Can I still get this sorted out without having to pay?
ps- i'll read the newbie stuff tomorrow as it's late now.

UncleThomasCobley

Steveyg777 said:

Ok, so I am sorry for not reading the newbie thing. I didn't come here straight away because I really didn't know such support existed(!). I thought I was doing the right things. Can I still get this sorted out without having to pay?
ps- i'll read the newbie stuff tomorrow as it's late now.

No one pays (not so) Smart Parking... at least anyone who has not admitted to being the driver. You must read the newbies/FAQ thread to understand the reasoning. Your best hope for now is Plan A and that "not so" don't take it any further than the useless debt collector letters.