NEVER pay a parking ticket unless issued by the council

Today my better half parked in Sainsbury's car park in Watford for over 2 hours. When she got back there was a parking ticket on the windscreen. She sheepishly told me that we owe £60, or £30 if we pay within 10 days. I asked her if I could get her off the ticket, could I have the £30 to spend in the pub when we play Spurs. She said no!

Anyway, just so that everyone on the forum is aware, you DO NOT ever have to pay a parking ticket issued in a private car park, such as Sainsbury's in Watford. They're not even parking tickets, just an invite to pay an invoice. Ignore ignore ignore. The letters you receive will get ever more threatening but you must NEVER contact them. Then suddenly they will stop.

These tickets are a scam, simple as that. As the threatening letters arrive I will keep you updated by scanning them and posting them here. Hopefully this will save a lot of you from paying these cowboys in the future, (and there are a lot of them about).

For reference, see Money Saving Expert forums here...
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-tickets?


Council issued parking tickets must be taken seriously.

 

will be interested to see how this progresses admin.

 

I will take a big interest in this.

Just before Christmas I was in a meeting in Orpington and parked in a big Tesco's that gives you three hours free parking, which should have been ample but unfortunately one of the people in the meeting liked to drag things out. In the end I excused myself to go and move it, I had been in for about 3h15m. When I got back to the meeting, my colleague excused herself to go and do the same. By the time she had moved it she had been in for just shy of 3h10m.

I haven't had anything come through, but the I met with the same colleague yesterday and she asked if I had received my ticket through the post as she had - it was £70 but £30 if paid straight away which is what she done. With how good the postal service is in my neck of the woods it wouldn't surprise me to have been sent a letter but not received it, however I will keep and eye out and watch what you do with your ticket with interest.

 

LBH, find out who issued your colleagues ticket?

 

I've just sent her an e-mail, when she replies I will post it on here. All the signs in the car park were the yellow and blue ones which I think are NCP.

 

Admin, after reading the MoneySavingExpert advice he suggests you are not supposed to pay unfair private parking charges. That doesn't necessarily mean all charges. Or does it?

 

Just a thought, could not paying effect your credit rating?

 

As far as I understand, no as long as there is no court order to pay.

 

I think if Mrs Admin didnt even shop at Sainsbury's then she should pay the ticket

Parking scabs like that block spaces for proper shoppers like Shirty!!




:naughty:

 

She did though Shirty, then went for a wander around the shops. I agree about people who park and don't shop there, but a legally enforcible fiver would be more than enough to stop it dead.

 

The question is, how has 10 minutes over a 2 hour stay cost the parking company £60 that they would be claiming in court?

 

No, only if a case goes to court, you lose and then don't pay can it affect you. However, the letters that will be coming will be claiming in big bold letters that her credit rating will be affected. It's why so many people pay these stupid charges.

 

yep just keep quiet... they cant prove she was driving, so cannot enforce the "fine"

Councils and Police CAN enforce you to give details though

 

Keep me updated Adders. It's because we're law abiding citizens, that if we get fines like this, we're always prone to just pay up, without questioning it, for fear of losing credit ratings, getting some sort of prosecution, a visit from bailiffs or something else. I hope you are right and you can show that we can just stare down these bullies.

 

Another way of looking at this is that it's private land and you're parking on it with their permission. If they say 2 or 3 hours max it's up to them and not your business to dispute. the signs warn you and if you choose to ignore them it's your problem. Pay up. Imagine it's your land.

 

Come off it berkshire. If they charged the hourly rate for each hour you exceed your allowance they might have a leg to stand on. But it's well known that cowboys run these firms and their actions are tantamount to racketeering. If Sainsbury's are £60 out of pocket because someone overstays their welcome by 1 minute I'm the Pope.

 

It was a company car so it went to the car rental firm, but it came from Euro Car Parks.

 

Unfortunately the rental firms will normally pay these, then pass on the cost to the renter.

Here are the letters that Euro Car Parks will send out...

http://www.violetmount.com/scam.jpg

Note the more threatening they become.

 

Yup, thats what they've done with my colleague. I just bit the bullet and called them and they haven't sent me anything so it looks like I got away with it, despite being in the car park longer than my colleague.

 

The first demanding letter turned up this morning. I'll scan it and post it up here later.

 

Letter 1:

 

The bit about the debt being passed to a debt recovery agent, is that a bluff? And if they were to do that then am I right in thinking that would damage your credit score?

 

Total bluff. The only our credit score can be hit is if we are taken to court, lose, then don't pay.

Watch this:

[video=youtube;XAIcdi9niHA]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAIcdi9niHA[/video]

 

I agree with you berkshirehorn. Yes, getting a ticket after only over-staying by 10 minutes is unfortunate but the 2 hour limit was made pretty clear. When does the over-stay become sufficient to issue a ticket, 10 minutes, 20 minutes... ?? How else are Sainsbury's expected to ensure people dont abuse their free parking policy? I am sure a lovely sign saying "please be nice and only stay for 2 hours" will work a treat. The £60 fine is obviously not representative of the money Sainsbury's lose by someone over-staying in their car park but it is designed to enforce their policy, what is so unfair about that? I agree that there are some cowboys out there who are simply criminals and should be dealt with, I dont believe the issuers in this case are. Out of interest UEA, what would you charge per hour of "over-stay"?

 

No idea but I would say a good starter would be something proportionate to the initial cost. If it's say 60p an hour to park then 60p per hour of over stay sounds fair. Possibly with a fair administration charge on top.

 

Exactly this. These cowboys don't just charge those who overstay by a few minutes, but are more than happy to ticket people in other car parks who go to get change to feed the meters. The fine is completely out of proportion to the offence committed, that's what this fight is about. it's nothing to do with wanting free parking or to flout Sainsbury's parking rules.

 

I accept the issue you raise of immoral cowboy clamper although your personal experience doesn't seem to be an example of this. The 60p per hour idea is a bit ridiculous though, the whole point is not to stay longer than 2 hours, I can't see how a tiny 60p fine will stop people staying longer. I would say a proportionate fine would be £25 max. In truth if most car parks introduced pay per stay parking people would complain so the legitimate company's are stuck in a difficult situation.

 

To be honest, they should just charge £1 an hour, and you get your ticket to take into Sainsburys, if you've bought things in the shop you get your parking refunded.

 

It's not supposed to be a fine though. That's the con! It's a breach of contract. Or at least that's the law they're relying upon when they try to bamboozle people into paying. So can they say you've entered a contract where you've given consideration of £x for x hrs and then suggest that for a breach of potentially 1 minute you're now liable to pay 20 times x?

 

wouldn't they have to make sure that the cost of overstaying is always more than the cost of using a legitimate car park? otherwise people will just pay the 60p (plus reasonable admin fee) to use spaces in sainsburys at the expense of people who might actually wish to buy frozen meals and pies in tins

 

Then raise the hourly rate to make it too high for casual parkers who block spaces and refund tickets at the till for customers. There are always ways and means.

 

Interested to know how this pans out Admin. I'm currently dealing with another scam that involves heavy threats of court etc. But same concept as this.

 

No mate, it's different. When she says no, it means no. Not a 60p fine.

 

On the 27th of Dec, I foolishly popped into Hatfield's Aldi to pick up a couple of pairs of neoprene gloves. I returned to the car to find a ticket demanding £80 ("...within 10 days otherwise blah, blah, blah..."). I immediately appealed online saying that there was insufficient signage (actually true) as I never would have dreamed that the car park in front of a supermarket was pay and display. Anyhow, I thought the fine was a bit steep and asked a 'brief' mate of mine what she thought of my chances of appealing. She told me, that basically, the only organization that can actually levy a fine in this country is the state not a private company. I've had one letter mentioning court action but nothing else so far.

Last week, the parking company who 'own' the bays on our development (I have two in front of my home) did a sweep of the development (at 02:10 am!) which led to around 95% of the residents receiving tickets for parking their cars, in their spaces in front of their homes. This one went straight in the bin and I was very interested to actually read the discrete signage posted around the development which stated that anyone parking there was subject to a "...contractual agreement..." which sounds like an almighty pile of bollox.

Admin, please keep us posted and I will do likewise.

 

Ah Moog, you could have told me before hand pal!!

The scam I'm dealing with is an Expo Guide scam. Mexican barstewards.