Proof of purchase but no validation

James_Poisson

If they think they can easily get £60 or £100 why would they offer £20?

Car1980

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82164125#Comment_82164125

They are obliged to offer £20 due to certain circumstances listed in the Code of Practice.

Yours doesn't seem to be one, so maybe a mistake at their end. Or they know you are in the right contractually and this is their version of "appeal accepted".

We don 't know the details of the sign so can't really judge. Can you tell us more?

£20 isn't bad if you clearly breached the contract and would be relying on technicalities.
£20 is very bad if you did nothing "wrong".

If you are 100% correct a court claim shouldn't hold any fear and would be unlikely to go to a hearing and they probably wouldn't even claim.

almutabah

they say a purchase in a store gives free parking but you need to validate your parking. There’s no record of my plate validated so despite providing receipts of proof of qualifying purchases, they believe they are entitled to pursue payment of a penalty…

James_Poisson

To validate your parking will mean doing that in store in some way which you didn't do a sneaky little scam, but you have proof of purchase so they are offering a £20 admin fee to you. It is not a "penalty" private firms cannot issue penalties it's an invoice for damages.

It's up to you if you want to give the scammers £20 for it to go away do that, if you want to stick it out ignore them up to the point of the court claim then you have some more work to do.

Where exactly was this we may have had it crop up before?

almutabah

it was newhall park in Sutton Coldfield. I do see it mentioned a lot. Do you think I could win?

Car1980

Looks like Excel are at it again. Millions of essay signs with a couple of random ones showing this.

"To obtain a discount (FREE PARKING) you must visit one the following stores and make a qualifying purchase as advertised in these stores…"

This isn't a contract though, so what is it?

This looks like a CouponMad Consumer Notice special.

prowla

I'm always a bit dubious about these "proof of purchase" angles.

What happens if you go to a store and they don't have the item you wanted to buy?

almutabah

I’m not going to pay the £20 to the scammers but I don’t know what to do. I mean it doesn’t say on that picture you need to validate but I’ll have to go back (by train) and see the signs again. Even so the driver did make two qualifying purchases and the receipts have been shown to excel in the appeal

almutabah

the appeal rejection

Car1980

Ok, so 99% of that is irrelevant waffle because you were not using the pay to park option, you were utilising the "parking discount (free parking)" option.

There is nothing about 3 hours on the sign, only an unspecified length of free parking.

They claim you were required to enter your VRM into a screen.

But their entire case rests on two words - "as advertised". This alone may fall foul of the CRA 2015 (Google "consumer notice requirements in law"). It's not transparent when the consumer notice says "see some other T&Cs elsewhere" when they should say "Make a qualifying purchase instore AND validate using the touch screen inside."

So you would need to investigate this inside the stores.

There MUST be a contract. If it NOT in the store, no contract exists between the two parties. All the signs on site, including the entrance sign, are for the pay for parking system. They don't say "if you fail to validate a qualifying purchase you agree to pay £100." They don't mention free or purchases at all. The actions aren't linked, whether or not they have a VRN with no purchase beside it.
The only contract on site is for a separate action. If you fail to carry out THIS action, there is no £100 agreement.

It's unusual for a full contract to accompany a touch screen inside a shop, so I bet there isn't one.

This has the fingerprints of the stores wanting to offer free parking for customers clashing with Excel wanting to issue as many PCNs as it can. The purchases signs are an afterthought.

What is the precise reason for issue on the PCN because that will also have an effect.