Disputing an already-paid Parking Charge Notice I received in a hire car

Coupon-mad

Dear Europcar,

When in a hole, stop digging.  Your email tells me nothing, is written in poor English and calls this invoice a 'fine' several times, as well as referring inexplicably to a station.

I don't need a naive lecture about why scam private parking firms infest private land. I have disputed the payment with my bank and I will not reimburse Europcar because your terms are unfair and the payment is unauthorised. You clearly don't understand the difference between a penalty from a local authority and an invoice from an ex-wheelclamper firm.

Based upon all the circumstances and the lawful reasons described in my last email, I will not pay you back and will never accept nor authorise you to 'choose' to pay these scam invoices.

Transfer of liability (using/sharing a partially redacted version of my hire agreement) - yes.

Payment by you - no.

That's assuming I decide to keep my business with you. I suggest you seek legal advice. 

yours,

YOUR NAME

sun_shine_ray

Any further update @moritzloast? 

helmsleyhitter

How was this resolved @moritzloast , if it has been yet ?

moritzloast

@helmsleyhitter @sun_shine_ray

This still hasn't been resolved, no. I received one last (shorter) email from Europcar shortly after my last post on here, which rather threateningly contained an attachment with my signature from the rental agreement on it and words to the effect that the fact I signed that piece of paper means that I have to pay up. I was advised to complain to the BVRLA if I did not agree, which I proceeded to do, and after I informed Europcar that I had complained to the BVRLA they put their efforts to extract the money from me on hold pending the decision from the BVRLA. The BVRLA auto-generated response stated that an actual reply can take up to 30 business days, and as things stand I'm still waiting to hear back from them.

sun_shine_ray

Thanks! On what basis did you complain to the BVLRA?

Europcar has now agreed to lodge an appeal to the car park operator on my behalf, even  I'm not sure what triggered this since it seemed to have taken a relatively firm position that Europcar's hands were tied and I could only take it up with the car park operator. I suspect it could have been either:

• a report that I made to the CMA regarding Europcar's conduct, although I doubt that this made a difference because I wouldn't expect a regulator to act so fast and in any event it's probably viewed as too trivial (involving little sums of money etc) by the CMA to warrant acting on it (unless they are treating unfair contract terms or the car rental industry or issues involving car parks as an enforcement priority). In any event, no one has suggested making a report to the CMA so I would encourage you to do the same because clearly there are many others who must deal with this unsavoury business practice and if more people complain, who knows, maybe the CMA might be persuaded to raise it with Europcar;
  
  OR

• an observation that I made that this entire situation was ironical because the value of the PCN pales in comparison to what I probably would've spent as a return customer of Europcar and so they are chasing 100 quid yet are at risk of losing manyfold more if there was no satisfactory resolution.

Anyway, I doubt it will change the situation because the car park operator has no incentive to cooperate now that it has received the money from Europcar.

Coupon-mad

Indeed: Europcar can't appeal if they paid.

They sound clueless!

Coupon-mad

moritzloast said:

@helmsleyhitter @sun_shine_ray

This still hasn't been resolved, no. I received one last (shorter) email from Europcar shortly after my last post on here, which rather threateningly contained an attachment with my signature from the rental agreement on it and words to the effect that the fact I signed that piece of paper means that I have to pay up. I was advised to complain to the BVRLA if I did not agree, which I proceeded to do, and after I informed Europcar that I had complained to the BVRLA they put their efforts to extract the money from me on hold pending the decision from the BVRLA. The BVRLA auto-generated response stated that an actual reply can take up to 30 business days, and as things stand I'm still waiting to hear back from them.

Any outcome?

@sun_shine_ray just had their Europcar invoice cancelled. See their thread.