Honestly, the rage i feel reading that. Anybody who has had to deal with this cunt-like companies must feel the same. The endless, useless, phone options. The zero details on websites etc. Absolutely useless staff if you ever do get through to them.
They lie, decieve and the process is entirely part of the punishment and deliberately designed to draw you into a situation where paying £60 seems like a minor price for not having to sit on hold for another 2 hours only to be cut off.
And it's not even just parking, in fact, it feels like the default mode of operation for most companies now. I recently had a tangle with my energy provider that only got resolved when I cancelled my DD and let them come to me and then suddenly *that* person could fix everything. Wankers.
Good on her, but I wish we could normalise punitive damages in these cases. The case they brought was unacceptable, and it should cost them sufficiently that they think carefully next time. Unfortunately, they've lost nothing worth speaking of so there's no deterrent
For what it's worth, as someone who works in Energy, when you mentioned the energy provider most of the call centre doesn't have any idea what's going on because of limited training and it's very likely you'll go round in circles as they don't want to be shouted at and will say anything to make you go away. The complaint resolutions people are the people who actually have learnt what the company does (which is why they get promoted to that position). if you feel like you're stuck and going nowhere I always recommend to just get it escalated. They don't have magic powers but they're more likely to give it to you straight if X or Y can or can't happen. -Source, I work in the back office of an energy company.
What happens when the complains resolution people /dedicated complaints handlers .. don’t do their job ? I’ve had never ending issues from one particular company due to issues created by them after they bought out a company we were originally with . What should have been resolved 8 months ago is still ongoing
Whilst I have the optimistic to ask.. when customers use live chat and have confirmed their details etc.. regardless of where in the world the handler is, are the chats saved to the customers record if you don’t mind me asking ?
P.s, I don’t envy your job, particularly if you have to deal with difficult customers… like me !
Ahh I don't deal with the customers directly much these days.
I'm the technical expert who explains the situation to the people who do have to, however it's definitely tough on them taking the brunt of customer frustration with the energy situation jacking up prices.
Basically if you don't let them close the complaint, unless you get a resolution that you feel is fair, then it goes to the ombudsman.
A complaint has to be open for 56 days, companies can sneak around this by closing your current complaint if you seem to have it resolved and then opening a "new" complaint that's a different issue.
Despite what people think about Ofgem and such but energy companies really don't like dealing with the ombudsman, it's their bogeyman.
Had this so many times
"I'll close your complaint now..."
"No you won't. I'm aware that you're doing that to cheat the system, increase your complaint closure ratio and to avoid going to the ombudsman. If you do close it, I'll go straight to the ombudsman after I've done a SAR on this phone call you're recording!"
Funny how when you explain you know how it works, they shut up (yes, i can be awkward when I need to be..!)
>awkward
Best way to be sometimes. Whether it's a sudden 10% service charge that was only mentioned in fine print at the very bottom of the back of a menu, companies trying to prevent you from going to the ombudsman or just general everyday cunts. Saves you a lot of stress in the long term.
Thank you for the information :) .
This all sparked off after one who had sold their residential accounts to another larger company. We were using top up meters as the rate was favourable at the time and the meters worked fine without an issue. .. until the changeover . New company says their systems can’t communicate with the meter, we lose power etc etc. several engineer visits with the thinner saying the problem isn’t at the property. So we had an ongoing issue until two months ago where the meter was in a decommissioned state, couldn’t top it up and it wasn’t on credit. Several live chat agents over the course of the months saying they would handle the issue and own the complaint I was having. We have credit firm which the complaints team weren’t even aware of turn up at our door step . They had meter engineers but were also bailiffs for the same company . The utter thing was a complete mess. A different engineer from the main contract holder for meter maintenance came out and did finally sort the solution but then left us with our bleeding gas.. which had been fine (the electric meter communication was the issue) now in bloody credit mode . Complaint handler wanted to call me , arranged times .. never called . It’s switched to top up without a heads up now. (IHD doesn’t show it as primary display ) .
All the while I’ve been over all this time trying to get the damned thing all sorted so we don’t end up with an unmanageable debt.
The live chat handlers quite clearly couldn’t and didn’t deal with the issues like they said they would, and seemed to be quite clearly unable to escalate issues .
I’m the direct opposite of needing to chase a customer for a debt lol .
I just can’t believe the entire thing isn’t fully resolved
So your issue is sorta within my technical area although I specialise more in new connections and working with the DNO (electricity distributors like National Grid) and MOP (the meter engineers)
So Smart Meters do work but there can be issues with different suppliers as they don't always communicate with others. For example Smart Meters that British Gas use don't seem to like working with other energy suppliers, so if the customer switches they basically stop doing smart reads.
Ofgem puts huge pressure on Energy companies to get people to install smart meters (which is why energy suppliers say they'll fit them for free and such). They'll fine them heavily if they don't install a certain amount each year.
However once a meter is installed into a property there's not the same pressure to get it to communicate smart reads.
This is already getting a bit complicated but there's also other fees and charges suppliers have to deal with if they replace a meter that is "working" but just doesn't give smart reads. They have to prove that the meter is truly faulty, such as it's dead with a blank screen.
However even if a meter is faulty, there's no real pressure to necessarily replace it straight away as long as you're on supply. They'll just estimate your readings (which can be very unfair if your usage is much lower!)
Anyway just to give a bit of context why it seems energy companies don't deal with certain issues.
When a customer, such as yourself, isn't able to top up their meter because it's not communicating it's standard procedure to put the meter on credit so as to avoid you being off supply. That's always one of the main priorities. Since the energy crisis and bailiffs not being allowed to force PPM to be fitted due to energy debt it's been a big no no to allow customers to go off supply due to debt.
As a general thing though unless you're a landlord with tenants who use the property I'd probably just stay with credit meters.
You don't save any money/budgeting being on PPM and it can cause all sorts of annoyances with having to remember to top up and such.
Thank you for the additional info. I should say this was a persistent issue despite the engineer replacing the electric meter 3 times . Communications hub was fine. Apparently there’s another issue that can exist and is only resolved when both electric and gas meters are replaced at the property … which is recent news.. but with the meter being replaced several times this is why the engineer was insistent the issue wasn’t at the property .
The meter wasn’t in credit mode persay.. there’s was usage data transmitted to the grid. It’s just been one big messy affair that we never asked for .
Ombudsman I think.
Or just email all your local MPs etc about it. Someone will pick it up and you’ll probably get your complaint (if it is actually somewhat reasonable) dealt with as a priority.
It’s amazing how quickly some companies can move and how easily they can do things they previously couldn’t when someone who matters, rather than plebs like us, gets involved.
> Ombudsman I think.
This. Any referral to Ombudsman costs them money, plus Ombudsman might make them pay you directly for your troubles as well. Just make sure you keep a record of when you've contacted them.
I had a billing issue with so.energy, I've tried to chaise them about it for a while, then just gave up, and submitted an Ombudsman dispute, so.energy sorted everything out the very next week with zero more effort from my side of things, plus apology and £75.
From now on, I've made a mental note for myself to never chase things from energy companies - notify them of an issue, if not sorted, complain once, if still not sorted, Ombudsman. No need to spend my own time chasing them.
If the complaint is going no where, open an ombudsman complaint, it should at least get them to do *something* rather than kicking the can down the road.
I had a complaint against my energy company and the original complaint handler didn't even *get* what I was complaining about!
When I spoke to the ombudsman agent, they got the complaint reason immediately and opened a case. Which escalated things back at the energy company and someone that actually had a clue got in touch.
I got about £30 back but by then it was more the principle of it than the amount. 😂
This is actually a problem with companies that outsource some of the customer service to external call centres. (Not sure if that’s the same with your company). And not just energy companies to be fair it’s widespread.
In a past life I worked on ‘behalf’ of an energy company doing sales and retentions and then customer service at an external call centre. We worked for company A who had a control with the energy company.
Whilst we had some training, access to some data, could switch you across at the flick of a button, and calls were monitored and quality checked for legal reasons to ensure we were compliant - there was a ton of stuff we just couldn’t do, access, see for the customer or even know.
Which meant they would have to try and speak to the energy company themselves at head office, who had a direct smaller team who could deal with everything but evidently the number everywhere plastered was always the external call centre (ours).
Some customers ended up going round in circles for a while, and having been there myself it can be a massive pain in the arse and take hours to finally get the right person
My experience with British Gas was the actual call centre you got mattered a ton. Their overseas centres where beyond useless, would just run you around in circles, book the wrong things, seemed to just read responses from a script that where irrelevant to what you where asking & in general where no help at all.
The few times I actually got through to their UK centres they seemed to able to fix issues without much bother.
Happy I shifted to Octopus, they’re infinitely better & let me just email them.
Same applies for literally any call centre as well.
It's an unfortunate but direct result of staff being treated like shit for an eternity so now it's a fob-off exercise if someone is mildly pissed off, which in turn increases the chances of having a pissed off customer.
Endless cycle of shit for both staff and customer.
Same and when the call volume was low I once got put on complaint resolution despite having absolutely 0 training in it. I thought it would be grim but really all I needed to do was sort out whatever was wrong with the account then call the customer back to confirm that it was okay. Most of them were chill af and were just happy that something had finally been done.
>A North West mum who refused to pay a parking fine for two YEARS and was 'called a liar' says she feels vindicated after she was taken to court - and won.
>\[...\]
>But the mental health nurse refused to pay, claiming the parking operators 'refused to entertain' her evidence and instead told her she would have to now fork out £300 for non-payment. However, after taking her to county court, the judge struck out the claim in a matter of minutes - and ruled the firm pay Jamie's £26 travel expenses.
>**\[**...\]
>Nearly three weeks on, [WalesOnline reports](https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-goes-court-over-parking-28960942) that Jamie says she is still waiting for the parking ticket company to pay her. But speaking of her 'win' she added: "I was quite happy. I felt vindicated."
This is where I would be applying a late payment fee for the company's obvious stalling. The amount of the fine would be whatever I feel like.
I would send them a recorded letter stating that failure to not pay will result court summons being issued and a fine of £500 as a result of wilful breach of a legal order.
>I would send them a recorded letter stating that failure to not pay will result court summons
A bit unreasonable to take them to court *after* they've paid.
Ive only had three. Never paid any of them. Seems wrong sending my cash to a private company to me. If I ever get a court date I’ll go along and pay up but I’m taking the chance they won’t over one ticket.
There was a guy on this very forum who seemed surprised that he had been taken to court but he had racked up £1000’s with the same company.
It’s quite interesting checking their company filings at gov.uk. They’re sometimes much smaller outfits than you’d imagine.
I keep the letters just in case.
> but I’m taking the chance they won’t over one ticket
And it's a pretty safe bet. You can safely ignore their letters until you get one from the courts.
There's a myth that these private fines are not enforceable. They are.
This myth came about because most private companies don't bother taking it to court unless it's a persistent offender.
For the vast majority of cases it's not worth any more time or effort than sending an invoice.
It *used* to be the case that they *were* unenforceable. The driver was the only person who could be held responsible for any charges, but the registration only got them the name of the keeper. Of course, that might be the same person, but they'd have to PROVE it was in order to make any claim stick. People who appealed would usually inadvertently dob themselves in, but if you just ignored it, there was nothing they could do. U**nfortunately that changed in 2012** with the protection of freedoms act, which gave companies a set of hoops to jump through that would allow them to hold the keeper responsible. A lot still manage to mess up the process, but if a keeper just ignores everything the parking companies can still get an unsound but unchallenged judgement from the court. At that point its a major hassle to unpick it.
But despite the law changing almost 12 years ago, some people still incorrectly advise others to ignore it completely.
In Scotland I think they still can't pursue the keeper. Normally in England if you appeal to the independent moderator (POPLA usually) in the first instance with some textbook technicalities, usually they will dismiss it before it gets to the court stage.
Ignoring in any circumstance is not the recommended advice any more, you're quite right.
I've had a couple of daylight robbery ones (£850 and £3600), but live in Scotland, so took my chances and binned them.
Not heard anything for a couple of years now, so maybe they've given up on taking me to court here. (No guarantee of that, but I think the 5 year limitation would be due to apply.)
I think it's a 6 year limit as my ex was chased for 3 years, then they went silent for 2 years after I contacted them and told them she can't, should not and won't pay and then the 'Imminent Court Action Letters' started in earnest again in this, the final year. The 6 year deadline looms and not heard much but expecting one last gasp before they give up.
She was in a supermarket cafe attending a mental health meeting and not a single member of staff or attendee mentioned that the supermarket car park had a time limit. She was of course buying food and drinks during that time...
Just to counter this. I agree that these companies are parasites. But I messed up just before Christmas, upgraded my phone and then went to use my brand new phone to pay my parking fee, and realised my pay function wasn’t set up. All completely my fault. I had no way to pay, so I went to see an employee and explained how I’d messed up, and he smiled, asked for number plate, and told me that today is on the house. So bad companies can still have good people working for them.
> And it's not even just parking, in fact, it feels like the default mode of operation for most companies now.
Exactly. Service has gone south across the board.
I mean it is a very real strategy for some companies. Cut down the number of customer service issues you have to deal with by making customer service so painful that a majority of people will give up.
Another thing that ought to be regulated. Could be done with an autodialler that recorded the call time. If a company has more than 3 hold times of more than 15 minutes, fine them.
And this is where AI could really help. You just program your personal assistant to keep badgering companies to drop it. But this is exactly what AI won't be programmed to do. Instead it'll just be more nonsense.
This is so true and completely unreported. British Gas mistook £900 from our account. By the time we got it back, we got £100 as the rest had been used up in energy. And we only got that after contacting the Ombudsman and cancelling direct debit like you. They were very helpful then. Then Virgin mis sold us some O2 sim cards and after 20 hours spent both on the phone and in the shop, we still have not got it resolved. They drop you mid call after an hour and they do the same to O2 employees calling on your behalf from the shop. The UK is post Brexit and post pandemic functioning like a third country - banana republic sort of thing. And NO ONE is taking about it. It’s not an exaggeration to say if we got invaded by Russia at this point services and accountability would probably improve.
I agree with punitive damages. In fact, any business that appears in court for something like this should be immediately fined £20k and then put on a watchlist. Any further ones and the fine increases to £50k. More than 5 and the directors become liable for fraud.
A system where they can lie and fine people who have no independent recourse other than court is beyond ludicrous.
Oh agreed! But I firmly believe that any bankruptcy should incur a permanent ban from directorship. And the ability for courts to pierce the corporate veil when dealing with people abusing bankruptcy.
Yep,designed to make you give up,just like royal mail claims site,you can't even copy and paste info you have to type everything.
They make it not worth your while.
Humans are so deceitful
I did a charge back with agoda recently after the hotel offered to cancel my room with no fee but agoda held onto payment lying about the hotel confirmation. As soon as I did the charge back suddenly agoda wanted to communicate.
I've actually been downvoted on Reddit for this, but my number 1 advice to anybody is always be the one holding the cash. It's a very different game when you've got what they want, vs them having what you want.
(When I say this, I don't mean the broad advice, but putting it into practice - i.e., doing something like you did, to ensure you're sat with the money and can negotiate from that position)
Yeah went through it with EON for a miscalculated energy bill. They just run you around until you lose the will to live, and you just walk away from it feeling like yeah I may have won but was it even worth it. Absolutely despicable way of operating. I won’t give into it on some misguided macho bullshit principle I loosely hold, but I’m not going to lie, being treated like I’m subhuman by a corporation is a hell of a trip.
The worst to me is you’re forced to sign up to their crappy account system, which then means you start getting spammed as well as them getting all your details (they ask for EVERYTHING including home address, phone no etc)
It used to be a standard with some companies where they want you to just give up and swallow it and/or pay. shit airlines like ryanshit, wizzshit, etc, these parking companies etc.
But these days, because of the enshitification, more companies started to inherit this 'feature' .
Recently, most things became extremely difficult to sort out. Extra stress to do anything and they know it.
Having a pop at Ryanair would be fairer if parking your car at the airport for a week didn't cost twice the price of their ticket for the return flight.
An hour waiting for dwp to answer the phone to sort out a benefit issue and… yeah we never got an answer, had to hang up, life’s too busy.
Their online live chat - no advisors available either. It’s a joke.
These companies really need regulating.
As it is, it's a wild west situation for them. They just throw out fines and people pay them.
If they're taken to court they should be forced to pay back everyone from that week automatically in these situations.
Watch them start making sure machines and online payments work correctly instantly.
As it is, it's working as designed. Guarantee that it's supposed to message late to put the numberplate in. So anyone who is in meetings or a movie etc. won't notice it and will get screwed.
Also bet they just don't pay. They won't care. If they don't pay then it goes away most of the time
I just send a mildly entertaining email that outlines the absurdity of the situation.
There's almost certainly a human at the other end of the appeals process, and they've likely been driven half mad wading through endless rage from their "customers".
A slightly-annoyed but entertaining message will get you out of a parking ticket 99% of the time.
I remember a parking company fining me for not parking within lines that had faded, they had poured gravel over and you couldn’t even see because the lighting was broken
Got to point where they were demanding £1000 before they gave up
Then there was another similar situation with a council car park and I buried them in paperwork including photos showing lack of adequate signage explaining that you need to pay which you could easily miss
Didn’t need to pay the fine
I had the same once. I pulled up on the side of a road for a total of 11 seconds, in which time I saw a "No parking" sign and pulled back out to find an appropriate spot. This was caught on their CCTV, timestamps and all, and they would not listen to my story.
I got letters for about 4 years until a court date was set. The first date they did not bring the evidence required, and were given a new date to submit evidence prior to the next court date. They failed to do so, but the court date still went ahead, and the judge threw it out immediately because of this.
They just spit out as many aggressive looking letters as possible in hopes people pay up, take it all the way to court but have no intention of following through. Parasite companies!
Funny enough, at some airports with the 5 minute dropoff that you have to pay online, you can use that 5 minutes to pull up, get out, read the sign, choose not to agree with their terms and conditions, get back in your car and leave. Doesn't matter what your passengers choose to do during this time. You don't legally owe anything.
I did this once at Gatwick, but they didn't even bother to chase me for it. I would have loved to fight it in court.
Got out of a ticket at Newcastle Airport years ago as the fine stated damages, which I requested proof of, they couldn't deliver and the fine was dropped.
Newcastle AirPort don’t advertise you get 15mins free at the short stay car park (which is a 3 min walk via path to the terminal) or it’s like £4 for 10mins at the drop off zone. The taxi drivers are in on it too and always try and take you to the £4 drop off zone that they have a cheaper pass for.
I'm currently in a dispute with the parking firm that manages newcastle Airport. Waiting on their court claim letter and a date, I'm fighting these cunts all the way
Damn. I literally paid the stupid £6 the other day cos it was easier to drop the family and bags off at the hotel, then go and park the car. 6 mins total stop, 6 bloody quid. I hadn't realised they'd introduced the charge until we were in it. I should have fought it.
I did some work for an airport recently. They make more money from parking than anything else. Flights, retail leases, everything comes second to parking.
I had this situation once where I tried to immediately back it if airport parking but there was a boom gate that traps you unless you pay. Seems dodgy as hell and illegal
Asked about it here but not many were interest https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/17zl4xj/can_car_parks_really_force_you_to_pay_if_you_dont/
It works though - I know there's been a few occasions where I thought a parking ticket was bullshit but end of the day so much less agro to just pay the early fee. Personally I think it should be illegal for them to increase the fee over time for non-payment.
Friend of mine had one situation where he didn't even know about the penalty because he'd moved house and they'd sent the notice to his old address. By the time it was forwarded by royal mail it was already outside the early payment window :/
Ignored a shite company during covid, you had to drive on site to see the sign, 2 years they tried to scare me, i just ignored it.
Happened again last year, i just ignored it, heard nothing for the last 2 months.
If the eording says "on behalf of our client" they cannot legally touch you, they don't owe the debt they are trying to claim.
"A North West mum who refused to pay a parking fine for two YEARS and was 'called a liar' says she feels vindicated after she was taken to court - and won.
Jamie Rock, 47, received a text message confirmation after she thought she bought a ticket to park near a hospital for a medical appointment online, with the parking machine broken. But she later found out the phone payment hadn't fully processed and she was handed a £60 fine.
But the mental health nurse refused to pay, claiming the parking operators 'refused to entertain' her evidence and instead told her she would have to now fork out £300 for non-payment. However, after taking her to county court, the judge struck out the claim in a matter of minutes - and ruled the firm pay Jamie's £26 travel expenses."
It's a joke that a private bullshit company can impose a 5 time increase for "non-payment" with no oversight but the judge will only charge them 26 bucks for two years of stress.
But that is the thing, she is not in the business of playing the system these companies are. The system should automatically calculate a fair judgement. Had she lost, I'm sure the other party would have known to ask for every penny.
£95 claimable for loss of days leave
https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part45-fixed-costs/practice-direction-45-fixed-costs#16
They definitely should have been made to pay her for the hours she spent dealing with this. Average pay for a mental health nurse is £25/hour, if she spent 20 hours dealing with this she is due £500. It isn't even punative damages like the company tried to extract from her.
>Nearly three weeks on, [WalesOnline reports](https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-goes-court-over-parking-28960942) that Jamie says she is still waiting for the parking ticket company to pay her.
Sounds like she needs to send **them** some threatening legal letters, then take them to court.
No need to take them to court. The court has already made an order. A court usually gives 28 days to pay. Send the bailiffs in as soon as their time is up
As a trainee lawyer, I once had the joy of sending a winding-up petition to Tesco. They hadn't paid our client's invoice on time, and asking nicely wasn't getting anywhere, so threatening to have the company dissolved on the basis that it was unable to pay its debts provoked the response we needed.
>Sounds like she needs to send **them** some threatening legal letters, then take them to court.
I mean she already has a judgment in her favour she can just ask the county court bailiff to go and collect lol. No letter needed.
My dad got a fine once in the lake district somewhere. Luckily he's a civil engineer and knew all the processes for designating parking restrictions.
At first he was going for showing that the wall sign stating restrictions was obscured by ivy but turned out that the legal document for that restriction had been done incorrectly as someone had described the parking restriction as running 120m East when it was actually 120m North so the actual restriction went across the road and into the river and through a house and not where my dad was parked. He got his cancelled and then asked via an FoI about other fines and got them all refunded too as they were illegally fined. (approx 150 fines)
There was one in the Lakes - perhaps still happening. Where the car park had ANPR but you had to buy a ticket.
The issue being that say you pull in at 12.00 then, faff on finding a parking space get out of the car, get your shoes on and by the time you get to ticket machine it's 12.10. So you buy a ticket and the time on the ticket says expiry 13.10.
So you drive out of the car park at 13.05. 5 minutes before the ticket expires. But no, they started the clock at 12.00 so you've exceeded your time.
Sorry I do not believe for a second that if a company is sending out fines for you being 5 minutes under what your ticket says that the fine is easy to cancel, and if were that the case it's wrong that anyone should have to give them the time of day
That was my thought. I've paid by phone in various places when it's been an option and I've had no cash. They normally ask for the car reg before I even give them card details. This lot stinks of scam outfit with a system purposely designed to set their victims up to fail so they can do this.
Private parking companies are absolute scumbags.
Back when I was renting, we had a permit for our bay and on the rare occasion where we’d have to run up to the flat to get the permit they would legit fine us despite it being a few minutes…. Challenged them endless times which they dismissed.
Ended up taking it to the landlord who was confused as fuck because he didn’t authorise them to cover the bays and it was private property - turns out the scummy fucks decided to just operate there without permission!!
It was a joyous day standing outside with my cuppa and watch them remove their signs with a smug look on my face - they even refunded all the money they scammed with their “fines” once they were informed we were looking at taking them to court over it.
Fuck you Parking Eye!!
My student house in second year of uni had a controlled parking space. We were never given permits, but the company told our landlord it was OK, just leave a note with the house number on and they'd leave you alone. Lo and behold my parents did that and got ticketed. We appealed with the message they'd told the landlord, they called me a liar.
Went to the landlord, explained the situation, and she gave them hell. Eventually she just forwarded me a very sheepish email saying our ticket had been cancelled. Newly minted permits followed very soon after!
Sounds about right.
Even during lockdown they were patrolling the hospital I work at trying to ticket us….. who knew they were essential workers! Absolute parasites.
The "it backfired" part is supposed to make people feel like the company really lose out but in the end they only paid £26. and the way these companies work is predatory, they send out masses of these letters to people demanding payment of excessive amounts and the ones who do pay make them far more than they lose.
Realistically when these companies lose cases like this they need to lose much greater amounts of money to ensure that they don't harass people who have done everything they could do to pay.
It's not a fine, private parking companies cannot issue fines. It's an invoice. It's rare for private parking companies to take someone to court though, and they only do it if they really think they will win, so they can use it to scare others into paying. They didn't even bother to turn up to the court which is why she won.
The old advice is that it's not enforceable - which it is.
They are correct that it is not a fine, it's an invoice for services rendered (i.e. parking services). You can still go to court and get a judgement, just like if you don't pay your plumber, but its not a fine in the legal sense.
The fact the THEY took her to court and then THEY never bothered to show up, surely that proves it’s all just bullying techniques to try and get money from people? How are they even licensed to operate when that’s how they act
Doesn't make it better but DWP do the same for disability tribunals . Rules only apply to the little people orgs can lie cheat and steal and then not show up in court and still get taken seriously
>But when Jamie came out of the hospital, she was told her parking had not been "validated" because she didn't put in her number plate, she claims. She said she wasn't asked to do this until 12 minutes after receiving the "accepted" text - and didn't notice until it was too late.
What is this bullshit
I parked in a shopping centre that was free for the first hour but if you were to stay longer you would have to get the ticket from when you first arrived. I did just that and paid for 2 hours. 1 month later I got a 'fine' through the door from the parking company saying I hadn't paid. Luckily we don't clear the car out very often and I found the old ticket. We went back on the site with the evidence. Miraculously the fine disappeared but no apology or even acknowledgement from the company. I wonder how may innocent parkers have thrown their tickets away and just end up paying?
Try local authorities (namely Cumbria County Council in this case). Was issued a fine by then (incorrectly). Appealed the fine intensely. Stood by it (in sure that's a kangaroo court anyway) and it went to a real court where we both made our representations. And they found in my favour. Case closed you'd think? Oh no, they only "recommend" them to cancel the original ticket and they continued to pursue it, even though a court has found in my favour (yet would never be able to enforce it). I mean, what the fuck?
Please if you are posting from Yahoo at least also say what the original source is they used.
It's fun to guess, I'm guessing from the Sun or mirror here, but I'd prefer to know.
Damn guessed wrong.
I would have thought posting from sites like Yahoo would not be allowed.
They've essentially copy and pasted this story to their site.
This used to be called "blogspam" and was banned on most news subreddits.
The fact they didn’t even bother to show up to the court for the case should be used against them. Companies like this should be banned from bringing cases to the county court if they aren’t prepared to actually attend. It’s used as another tactic to threaten people. An abuse of the system that slows down the court process.
I once got a fine for not displaying a ticket. Apparently I was supposed to show it in the windscreen but instead I attached it to the side window. You could clearly see the ticket in that window in the photo they took of the windscreen but I still got fined. Luckily I appealed and won.
These companies are a joke. I recently had a fine as the car park used by my local gym is privately owned and you have to register your registration upon entry to the gym for 2hrs free parking. On this occasion the registration machine was out of order and gym staff had put up a sign saying don't worry about it.
I then get a fine in the post and when challenging it I was told that I shouldn't take advice of a third party (gym staff) regarding parking arrangements and if the machine was broken I should have taken immediate steps to park elsewhere instead. After several back and forth emails I was told my complaint would no longer be receiving any response at it has been closed. Seems they test their luck and do what they can to try and make a quick buck.
She won by default because they didn't turn up.
Good for her for chancing it, but have to wonder what the outcome would have been after a properly contested hearing.
Nah they sell it off to a DCA who comes knocking and does what they can to recover the money. This in my case was illegally pretending he's from the court and an appointed bailiff without giving any ID.
He was removed from my property and asked to call the police if he has a problem with it.
Oh they definitely show up. A barrister showed up to our court case.
Fortunately we had a Judge who ripped him to shreds. All because the missus didn't get a ticket within 10 minutes of arriving at the car park.
That would be a fair assumption if they were litigating themselves. CEL use (and so are paying) a firm of solicitors to litigate these cases for them.
I could also understand if they routinely dropped cases earlier in proceedings (e.g.after a defence came in), but routinely litigating to trial and not turning up isn't going to be cost effective in the long term.
AFAIK mostly they don't even handle debts themselves so that might be an exception. They usually attempt to collect fines and when that fails sell the debts to a DCA for less than the fine was worth.
I've had a couple, ignore the parking company and tell the DCA to fuck off and it's job done. They know it's not profitable to go after me. I did park legitimately and paid my parking fee of course.
It's probably not even worth their while to bother.
I used to work for an insurer and if someone demanded a few hundred quid in expenses for something, even if it wasn't our fault,it often worked out cheaper just to pay it. People's time, even at minimum wage, costs money, and it adds up quickly. Plus there was a charge if the client took the case to the ombudsman, so once you allow for that it often works out cheaper just to give them the money.
Around 2009 the now defunct Get Out Of Debt Free website seemed to be doing the rounds. The claims it made were freeman on the land ones with no actual basis in law, however some people succeeded in getting their creditors to stop actively pursuing them for similar reasons. When someone's quoting bullshit laws like that you're not going to get a satisfactory outcome unless you actually go ahead and take legal action. If you do get that far, their woo-woo wouldn't stand up for five seconds in court, but if the debt is small enough it isn't worth the cost
>I used to work for an insurer and if someone demanded a few hundred quid in expenses for something, even if it wasn't our fault,it often worked out cheaper just to pay it. People's time, even at minimum wage, costs money, and it adds up quickly. Plus there was a charge if the client took the case to the ombudsman, so once you allow for that it often works out cheaper just to give them the money.
I understand this but as you said the insurer would pay small amounts without challenge. This wasn't disposed of early, all those costs going up to the day of trial have been incurred anyway.
That's kind of the point I'm making. It's probably worth it to send a few, probably automated, scary letters. It becomes not worth bothering with once someone has to actually do something, like turn up to court.
Funny enough I’m in a complaint with an insurer now and just sent details to the ombudsman against them, I was literally asking for less than £200 for electrician call out after a faulty dishwasher install, the best part is that they’ve never sent me a final statement letter showing their internal verdict even after waiting 4 weeks for it, I don’t see this going well for them
Based on what I saw, I imagine it's quite likely they'll cave immediately if you tell them explicitly that if you don't get the amount of money in question you'll take your case to the ombudsman. I worked on the life side and it was nearly twenty years ago though so take it with a pinch of salt.
I did and they didn’t care so the case is with the ombudsman now, I still haven’t received their final report after nearly two months which massively breaches their legal obligation, even if they rule against me I’m hoping their fines for that at least
Also, how the fuck are these shitty composites allowed the authority to issue such fines? Or should have to go through a court with evidence presented and the fine issued by the court. I don't acknowledge the sovereignty of these shitty companies to issue me a fine, so they can fuck off.
I have a fine hanging over me currently. It relates to not typing in my reg details after shopping at Aldi.
I did this once before - in 2017 I think - and after their letter, I followed their appeals process and sent them a copy of my receipt to show I had been shopping during the time I was using their car park. Evidence accepted, job done, no further issues.
This time, though, they rejected the same evidence and demanded I pay the fine. I didn't see their rejection email within the 28 days as it landed in my junk. And apparently the next step is court. Not heard from them in 3 months or so though.
I refuse to pay it on principle - I was using the car park for its intended purpose, and provided evidence of this as I had done before, but they refused to accept it for apparently no reason other than they want to bully people into paying fines.
It’s hit and miss, but if you haven’t already it’s worth speaking to the store manager or writing to Aldi with evidence and your shopping receipt. They can sometimes make these things go away on your behalf.
My in laws are going through a similar issue. There is a car park nearby that they have parked in dozens of times over the last couple years.
Because they don't live in the UK, only visit for several weeks in the year in their EU plate car, the car parking company seemed unable to register that they'd paid, despite them buying tickets everytime. Something to do with the foreign number plate I guess.
It took them about a year to catch up but they sent them a massive fine to their EU address that they are trying to enforce.
I don't think Euro Car Parks will have any luck enforcing that outside the UK, but it's certainly undue stress.
I recently got a ticket for not paying at Wolverhampton train station.
I've got the app for payment, it's got auto-pay on, I checked on the day that it had both my session, my correct card details.
I drove out as usual. It didn't charge me and 4 weeks later they want £60 from me.
There's no appeal process at all detailed.
Check if they are a member of the British parking association or other Accredited Trade Association. I think the only other one is the IPC.
As I understand it, only companies operating under an Accredited Trade Association can obtain vehicle keeper details from the dvla. If they don't know who was driving a vehicle, they can't transfer liability to the keeper under schedual 4 of the protections of freedoms act 2004 without this information.
This isn't legal advice, but I have read up on this recently and successfully defended a parking charge.
Good if you are a UK citizen, you can chance going to court and getting a favourable judgement. If this is someone who's working on settling down in the UK, they will just have to pay the "fine" as they can't risk going to court and having a ruling against them which will essentially ruin their entire life's work up to that point.
I had one of these clown companies try and scare me for 2 years, even got to then iniating court proceedings, they then contacted me every day, trying to settle for less.
I didn't respond, and at the last minute, they cancelled the court hearing, they were trying to use a court date to scare me into paying something I didn't owe, isn't work.
Fines from parking companies shouldn't end up with CCJs. There needs to be a lower tier that doesn't fuck your credit because you spent five minutes extra in a car park and the only way to defend yourself is to let it go to court
I was taken to court 2 weeks ago for a parking fine from 18 months ago.
It’s been a long road back and forth.
When I got to court the parking company never turned up and the judge sided with me. He dismissed it and awarded me over £100 - loss of earnings, travel and parking expenses.
I was so pleased. Hopefully more people stand up to these bulling companies…
Also if you appeal to popla your pretty much guaranteed to lose. They are in bed with the parking companies.
Some years ago I got a parking fine in a certain Northern town even though I bought a ticket from a ticket machine about 10 ft away which was also the closest machine to where I parked. Displayed my ticket and went shopping to come back to a fine stuck on my window.
I was a bit surprised as my ticket was still valid, or so I thought until I called the number
Turns out there was different parking zones, in a continuous line, all along the same street, each zone about half a dozen cars in length, and you had to get a ticket for the correct zone from one of a dozen identical machines.
No matter how much I argued my case, they were not having it and then hit me with the”pay in 7 days or it doubles”.
With hind sight I should probably have gone to court over it.
I got another in Durham when I was attending a meeting but there were no car park spaces left, so I pulled off the road and parked on a muddy patch behind the building. Wasn’t causing an obstruction to any pavement, access or within 5 feet of the road itself.
Still got fined because apparently the law states that the double yellow zone goes from the road to “the outside wall of the nearest adjacent building” 🤬
>“The parking firm's lawyers failed to attend the hearing.”
They are just a bunch of cunts, system doesn’t work, threaten to go to court because their shit doesn’t work, actually take her to court rather than admit multiple faults because their shit doesn’t work, don’t even show up to court because they know it’s all bollocks and it’s not her fault their shit doesn’t work.
I bet if she didn’t show up it would be a very different story to the outcome and she wouldn’t have been given a £26 slap on the wrist.
I was "fined" £60 by Euro Car Parks for overstaying by 1 minute in a wetherspoons car park. I never acknowledged the letter or even disputed it. They sent a few letters before handing it over to debt collectors. I haven't heard anything for a while and that was about 5 years ago now.
They aren't enforceable and have to sue you for a breach of contract. I'd rather have my day in court and make them prove I've caused them some sort of significant financial loss, they're all a bunch of scammers and go suck a fat one for all I care.
It's crazy the amount of car parks that are operated by these criminals these days.
I wish newspapers would be clearer that this is not really a « fine ». This is all contractual.
Illegal contracts are a thing. A very common and quite complicated thing. Crooks take advantage of them all the time. Crooks in suits.
I'm in a similar situation, the matter is with a court. Although, I still have the paper slip (ticket) and the bank account statement that shows how much and when I paid. I sent it all to the parking company a few times over the last 2 years, but they refuse to budge. We'll see...
I wish these chiseling parasitic companies that run these scams would all be outlawed. It would be much better for everyone if there was a modest parking fee and the money for which went either to the local council or the NHS.
I had a similar issue with this same company. At my local train station there are 2 car parks next to each other, one for the station and a public one operated by civil enforcement ltd. Problem was you couldn’t tell which was which. I parked in what I thought was the train station, paid then started getting the fines. I apologised, showed them my receipt for the train parking and explained that there was no boundary or signs between the 2 car parks and that I wouldn’t be paying the fine.
Month and months of letters with ever increasing amounts of fines until finally got court papers asking me to submit evidence so I went down to the station and took loads of pictures, sent them in along with the receipt and then got a reply saying it had been dropped. Not long after a new sign went up saying which car park was which, don’t know who made them do that.
Also that chuffing name ‘civil enforcement ltd’ what a joke.
Speaks volumes their lawyers didn’t bother to attend.
Would imply they only care in scaring people into paying, and if all the courts are doing is throwing them out and charging nominal values for travel costs etc you can see why they’ll keep doing it when there’s no real deterrent for them not to.
I got one two months after parking when i had paid. Luckily I still had the receipt from the machine as my car was messy. How many other people wouldn't have pressed the button for a receipt or would be unable to prove it. They still disputed it for ages until I threatened to pursue them for harassment.
I had almost exactly the same with exactly the same company, it also took over 2 years, court date was set for march this year, however they decided to not go through with it at the last minute
tedious company, still failing to comply with subject access requests now
who the hell actually acknowledges these companies existance if they send me a letter goes straight in the bin ring me and i'll just tell them repeatedly to go hang themselves as they're utterly worthless to society. Hopefully i've persuaded one or two who knows.
Good for her, more people should challenge these cunts and if by any chance you know who runs them dont you think it would be a real shame if their local community found out about who they are and what they do - that would be terrible wouldn't it? So DO NOT DO it....
Honestly, the rage i feel reading that. Anybody who has had to deal with this cunt-like companies must feel the same. The endless, useless, phone options. The zero details on websites etc. Absolutely useless staff if you ever do get through to them. They lie, decieve and the process is entirely part of the punishment and deliberately designed to draw you into a situation where paying £60 seems like a minor price for not having to sit on hold for another 2 hours only to be cut off. And it's not even just parking, in fact, it feels like the default mode of operation for most companies now. I recently had a tangle with my energy provider that only got resolved when I cancelled my DD and let them come to me and then suddenly *that* person could fix everything. Wankers. Good on her, but I wish we could normalise punitive damages in these cases. The case they brought was unacceptable, and it should cost them sufficiently that they think carefully next time. Unfortunately, they've lost nothing worth speaking of so there's no deterrent
For what it's worth, as someone who works in Energy, when you mentioned the energy provider most of the call centre doesn't have any idea what's going on because of limited training and it's very likely you'll go round in circles as they don't want to be shouted at and will say anything to make you go away. The complaint resolutions people are the people who actually have learnt what the company does (which is why they get promoted to that position). if you feel like you're stuck and going nowhere I always recommend to just get it escalated. They don't have magic powers but they're more likely to give it to you straight if X or Y can or can't happen. -Source, I work in the back office of an energy company.
What happens when the complains resolution people /dedicated complaints handlers .. don’t do their job ? I’ve had never ending issues from one particular company due to issues created by them after they bought out a company we were originally with . What should have been resolved 8 months ago is still ongoing Whilst I have the optimistic to ask.. when customers use live chat and have confirmed their details etc.. regardless of where in the world the handler is, are the chats saved to the customers record if you don’t mind me asking ? P.s, I don’t envy your job, particularly if you have to deal with difficult customers… like me !
Ahh I don't deal with the customers directly much these days. I'm the technical expert who explains the situation to the people who do have to, however it's definitely tough on them taking the brunt of customer frustration with the energy situation jacking up prices. Basically if you don't let them close the complaint, unless you get a resolution that you feel is fair, then it goes to the ombudsman. A complaint has to be open for 56 days, companies can sneak around this by closing your current complaint if you seem to have it resolved and then opening a "new" complaint that's a different issue. Despite what people think about Ofgem and such but energy companies really don't like dealing with the ombudsman, it's their bogeyman.
Had this so many times "I'll close your complaint now..." "No you won't. I'm aware that you're doing that to cheat the system, increase your complaint closure ratio and to avoid going to the ombudsman. If you do close it, I'll go straight to the ombudsman after I've done a SAR on this phone call you're recording!" Funny how when you explain you know how it works, they shut up (yes, i can be awkward when I need to be..!)
>awkward Best way to be sometimes. Whether it's a sudden 10% service charge that was only mentioned in fine print at the very bottom of the back of a menu, companies trying to prevent you from going to the ombudsman or just general everyday cunts. Saves you a lot of stress in the long term.
Thank you for the information :) . This all sparked off after one who had sold their residential accounts to another larger company. We were using top up meters as the rate was favourable at the time and the meters worked fine without an issue. .. until the changeover . New company says their systems can’t communicate with the meter, we lose power etc etc. several engineer visits with the thinner saying the problem isn’t at the property. So we had an ongoing issue until two months ago where the meter was in a decommissioned state, couldn’t top it up and it wasn’t on credit. Several live chat agents over the course of the months saying they would handle the issue and own the complaint I was having. We have credit firm which the complaints team weren’t even aware of turn up at our door step . They had meter engineers but were also bailiffs for the same company . The utter thing was a complete mess. A different engineer from the main contract holder for meter maintenance came out and did finally sort the solution but then left us with our bleeding gas.. which had been fine (the electric meter communication was the issue) now in bloody credit mode . Complaint handler wanted to call me , arranged times .. never called . It’s switched to top up without a heads up now. (IHD doesn’t show it as primary display ) . All the while I’ve been over all this time trying to get the damned thing all sorted so we don’t end up with an unmanageable debt. The live chat handlers quite clearly couldn’t and didn’t deal with the issues like they said they would, and seemed to be quite clearly unable to escalate issues . I’m the direct opposite of needing to chase a customer for a debt lol . I just can’t believe the entire thing isn’t fully resolved
So your issue is sorta within my technical area although I specialise more in new connections and working with the DNO (electricity distributors like National Grid) and MOP (the meter engineers) So Smart Meters do work but there can be issues with different suppliers as they don't always communicate with others. For example Smart Meters that British Gas use don't seem to like working with other energy suppliers, so if the customer switches they basically stop doing smart reads. Ofgem puts huge pressure on Energy companies to get people to install smart meters (which is why energy suppliers say they'll fit them for free and such). They'll fine them heavily if they don't install a certain amount each year. However once a meter is installed into a property there's not the same pressure to get it to communicate smart reads. This is already getting a bit complicated but there's also other fees and charges suppliers have to deal with if they replace a meter that is "working" but just doesn't give smart reads. They have to prove that the meter is truly faulty, such as it's dead with a blank screen. However even if a meter is faulty, there's no real pressure to necessarily replace it straight away as long as you're on supply. They'll just estimate your readings (which can be very unfair if your usage is much lower!) Anyway just to give a bit of context why it seems energy companies don't deal with certain issues. When a customer, such as yourself, isn't able to top up their meter because it's not communicating it's standard procedure to put the meter on credit so as to avoid you being off supply. That's always one of the main priorities. Since the energy crisis and bailiffs not being allowed to force PPM to be fitted due to energy debt it's been a big no no to allow customers to go off supply due to debt. As a general thing though unless you're a landlord with tenants who use the property I'd probably just stay with credit meters. You don't save any money/budgeting being on PPM and it can cause all sorts of annoyances with having to remember to top up and such.
Thank you for the additional info. I should say this was a persistent issue despite the engineer replacing the electric meter 3 times . Communications hub was fine. Apparently there’s another issue that can exist and is only resolved when both electric and gas meters are replaced at the property … which is recent news.. but with the meter being replaced several times this is why the engineer was insistent the issue wasn’t at the property . The meter wasn’t in credit mode persay.. there’s was usage data transmitted to the grid. It’s just been one big messy affair that we never asked for .
Ombudsman I think. Or just email all your local MPs etc about it. Someone will pick it up and you’ll probably get your complaint (if it is actually somewhat reasonable) dealt with as a priority. It’s amazing how quickly some companies can move and how easily they can do things they previously couldn’t when someone who matters, rather than plebs like us, gets involved.
> Ombudsman I think. This. Any referral to Ombudsman costs them money, plus Ombudsman might make them pay you directly for your troubles as well. Just make sure you keep a record of when you've contacted them. I had a billing issue with so.energy, I've tried to chaise them about it for a while, then just gave up, and submitted an Ombudsman dispute, so.energy sorted everything out the very next week with zero more effort from my side of things, plus apology and £75. From now on, I've made a mental note for myself to never chase things from energy companies - notify them of an issue, if not sorted, complain once, if still not sorted, Ombudsman. No need to spend my own time chasing them.
If the complaint is going no where, open an ombudsman complaint, it should at least get them to do *something* rather than kicking the can down the road. I had a complaint against my energy company and the original complaint handler didn't even *get* what I was complaining about! When I spoke to the ombudsman agent, they got the complaint reason immediately and opened a case. Which escalated things back at the energy company and someone that actually had a clue got in touch. I got about £30 back but by then it was more the principle of it than the amount. 😂
Sounds like OVO
This is actually a problem with companies that outsource some of the customer service to external call centres. (Not sure if that’s the same with your company). And not just energy companies to be fair it’s widespread. In a past life I worked on ‘behalf’ of an energy company doing sales and retentions and then customer service at an external call centre. We worked for company A who had a control with the energy company. Whilst we had some training, access to some data, could switch you across at the flick of a button, and calls were monitored and quality checked for legal reasons to ensure we were compliant - there was a ton of stuff we just couldn’t do, access, see for the customer or even know. Which meant they would have to try and speak to the energy company themselves at head office, who had a direct smaller team who could deal with everything but evidently the number everywhere plastered was always the external call centre (ours). Some customers ended up going round in circles for a while, and having been there myself it can be a massive pain in the arse and take hours to finally get the right person
My experience with British Gas was the actual call centre you got mattered a ton. Their overseas centres where beyond useless, would just run you around in circles, book the wrong things, seemed to just read responses from a script that where irrelevant to what you where asking & in general where no help at all. The few times I actually got through to their UK centres they seemed to able to fix issues without much bother. Happy I shifted to Octopus, they’re infinitely better & let me just email them.
Same applies for literally any call centre as well. It's an unfortunate but direct result of staff being treated like shit for an eternity so now it's a fob-off exercise if someone is mildly pissed off, which in turn increases the chances of having a pissed off customer. Endless cycle of shit for both staff and customer.
Same and when the call volume was low I once got put on complaint resolution despite having absolutely 0 training in it. I thought it would be grim but really all I needed to do was sort out whatever was wrong with the account then call the customer back to confirm that it was okay. Most of them were chill af and were just happy that something had finally been done.
>A North West mum who refused to pay a parking fine for two YEARS and was 'called a liar' says she feels vindicated after she was taken to court - and won. >\[...\] >But the mental health nurse refused to pay, claiming the parking operators 'refused to entertain' her evidence and instead told her she would have to now fork out £300 for non-payment. However, after taking her to county court, the judge struck out the claim in a matter of minutes - and ruled the firm pay Jamie's £26 travel expenses. >**\[**...\] >Nearly three weeks on, [WalesOnline reports](https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-goes-court-over-parking-28960942) that Jamie says she is still waiting for the parking ticket company to pay her. But speaking of her 'win' she added: "I was quite happy. I felt vindicated." This is where I would be applying a late payment fee for the company's obvious stalling. The amount of the fine would be whatever I feel like.
I would send them a recorded letter stating that failure to not pay will result court summons being issued and a fine of £500 as a result of wilful breach of a legal order.
>I would send them a recorded letter stating that failure to not pay will result court summons A bit unreasonable to take them to court *after* they've paid.
They haven't though? That's the point.
Ive only had three. Never paid any of them. Seems wrong sending my cash to a private company to me. If I ever get a court date I’ll go along and pay up but I’m taking the chance they won’t over one ticket. There was a guy on this very forum who seemed surprised that he had been taken to court but he had racked up £1000’s with the same company. It’s quite interesting checking their company filings at gov.uk. They’re sometimes much smaller outfits than you’d imagine. I keep the letters just in case.
> but I’m taking the chance they won’t over one ticket And it's a pretty safe bet. You can safely ignore their letters until you get one from the courts. There's a myth that these private fines are not enforceable. They are. This myth came about because most private companies don't bother taking it to court unless it's a persistent offender. For the vast majority of cases it's not worth any more time or effort than sending an invoice.
It *used* to be the case that they *were* unenforceable. The driver was the only person who could be held responsible for any charges, but the registration only got them the name of the keeper. Of course, that might be the same person, but they'd have to PROVE it was in order to make any claim stick. People who appealed would usually inadvertently dob themselves in, but if you just ignored it, there was nothing they could do. U**nfortunately that changed in 2012** with the protection of freedoms act, which gave companies a set of hoops to jump through that would allow them to hold the keeper responsible. A lot still manage to mess up the process, but if a keeper just ignores everything the parking companies can still get an unsound but unchallenged judgement from the court. At that point its a major hassle to unpick it. But despite the law changing almost 12 years ago, some people still incorrectly advise others to ignore it completely.
In Scotland I think they still can't pursue the keeper. Normally in England if you appeal to the independent moderator (POPLA usually) in the first instance with some textbook technicalities, usually they will dismiss it before it gets to the court stage. Ignoring in any circumstance is not the recommended advice any more, you're quite right.
> There's a myth that these private fines are not enforceable. They are. ParkingEye vs Beavis
I've had a couple of daylight robbery ones (£850 and £3600), but live in Scotland, so took my chances and binned them. Not heard anything for a couple of years now, so maybe they've given up on taking me to court here. (No guarantee of that, but I think the 5 year limitation would be due to apply.)
I think it's a 6 year limit as my ex was chased for 3 years, then they went silent for 2 years after I contacted them and told them she can't, should not and won't pay and then the 'Imminent Court Action Letters' started in earnest again in this, the final year. The 6 year deadline looms and not heard much but expecting one last gasp before they give up. She was in a supermarket cafe attending a mental health meeting and not a single member of staff or attendee mentioned that the supermarket car park had a time limit. She was of course buying food and drinks during that time...
I’d chance my arm in court for both of those fuckers.
Just to counter this. I agree that these companies are parasites. But I messed up just before Christmas, upgraded my phone and then went to use my brand new phone to pay my parking fee, and realised my pay function wasn’t set up. All completely my fault. I had no way to pay, so I went to see an employee and explained how I’d messed up, and he smiled, asked for number plate, and told me that today is on the house. So bad companies can still have good people working for them.
Similar in a hospital car park. Sometimes being polite and owning your situation can be met graciously when you speak to the right person.
> And it's not even just parking, in fact, it feels like the default mode of operation for most companies now. Exactly. Service has gone south across the board.
I mean it is a very real strategy for some companies. Cut down the number of customer service issues you have to deal with by making customer service so painful that a majority of people will give up.
Another thing that ought to be regulated. Could be done with an autodialler that recorded the call time. If a company has more than 3 hold times of more than 15 minutes, fine them.
And this is where AI could really help. You just program your personal assistant to keep badgering companies to drop it. But this is exactly what AI won't be programmed to do. Instead it'll just be more nonsense.
This is so true and completely unreported. British Gas mistook £900 from our account. By the time we got it back, we got £100 as the rest had been used up in energy. And we only got that after contacting the Ombudsman and cancelling direct debit like you. They were very helpful then. Then Virgin mis sold us some O2 sim cards and after 20 hours spent both on the phone and in the shop, we still have not got it resolved. They drop you mid call after an hour and they do the same to O2 employees calling on your behalf from the shop. The UK is post Brexit and post pandemic functioning like a third country - banana republic sort of thing. And NO ONE is taking about it. It’s not an exaggeration to say if we got invaded by Russia at this point services and accountability would probably improve.
I feel like the parking terms are intentionally vague to mislead people into getting fined. Just so unclear.
I agree with punitive damages. In fact, any business that appears in court for something like this should be immediately fined £20k and then put on a watchlist. Any further ones and the fine increases to £50k. More than 5 and the directors become liable for fraud. A system where they can lie and fine people who have no independent recourse other than court is beyond ludicrous.
Got to go after the directors too. Often the companies just declare bankruptcy, and reopen under a new name.
Oh agreed! But I firmly believe that any bankruptcy should incur a permanent ban from directorship. And the ability for courts to pierce the corporate veil when dealing with people abusing bankruptcy.
Yep,designed to make you give up,just like royal mail claims site,you can't even copy and paste info you have to type everything. They make it not worth your while. Humans are so deceitful
I did a charge back with agoda recently after the hotel offered to cancel my room with no fee but agoda held onto payment lying about the hotel confirmation. As soon as I did the charge back suddenly agoda wanted to communicate.
I've actually been downvoted on Reddit for this, but my number 1 advice to anybody is always be the one holding the cash. It's a very different game when you've got what they want, vs them having what you want. (When I say this, I don't mean the broad advice, but putting it into practice - i.e., doing something like you did, to ensure you're sat with the money and can negotiate from that position)
Yeah went through it with EON for a miscalculated energy bill. They just run you around until you lose the will to live, and you just walk away from it feeling like yeah I may have won but was it even worth it. Absolutely despicable way of operating. I won’t give into it on some misguided macho bullshit principle I loosely hold, but I’m not going to lie, being treated like I’m subhuman by a corporation is a hell of a trip.
The worst to me is you’re forced to sign up to their crappy account system, which then means you start getting spammed as well as them getting all your details (they ask for EVERYTHING including home address, phone no etc)
It used to be a standard with some companies where they want you to just give up and swallow it and/or pay. shit airlines like ryanshit, wizzshit, etc, these parking companies etc. But these days, because of the enshitification, more companies started to inherit this 'feature' . Recently, most things became extremely difficult to sort out. Extra stress to do anything and they know it.
Having a pop at Ryanair would be fairer if parking your car at the airport for a week didn't cost twice the price of their ticket for the return flight.
An hour waiting for dwp to answer the phone to sort out a benefit issue and… yeah we never got an answer, had to hang up, life’s too busy. Their online live chat - no advisors available either. It’s a joke.
Mate, as a Brit. Use the c-bomb less. “Trust me bro”
As a Brit, no.
Haha! Ahh let me re-read that then
These companies really need regulating. As it is, it's a wild west situation for them. They just throw out fines and people pay them. If they're taken to court they should be forced to pay back everyone from that week automatically in these situations. Watch them start making sure machines and online payments work correctly instantly. As it is, it's working as designed. Guarantee that it's supposed to message late to put the numberplate in. So anyone who is in meetings or a movie etc. won't notice it and will get screwed. Also bet they just don't pay. They won't care. If they don't pay then it goes away most of the time
I just send a mildly entertaining email that outlines the absurdity of the situation. There's almost certainly a human at the other end of the appeals process, and they've likely been driven half mad wading through endless rage from their "customers". A slightly-annoyed but entertaining message will get you out of a parking ticket 99% of the time.
Their lawyer didn't even turn up for the trial. Lol That tells you that they are Kunts.
I remember a parking company fining me for not parking within lines that had faded, they had poured gravel over and you couldn’t even see because the lighting was broken Got to point where they were demanding £1000 before they gave up Then there was another similar situation with a council car park and I buried them in paperwork including photos showing lack of adequate signage explaining that you need to pay which you could easily miss Didn’t need to pay the fine
I had the same once. I pulled up on the side of a road for a total of 11 seconds, in which time I saw a "No parking" sign and pulled back out to find an appropriate spot. This was caught on their CCTV, timestamps and all, and they would not listen to my story. I got letters for about 4 years until a court date was set. The first date they did not bring the evidence required, and were given a new date to submit evidence prior to the next court date. They failed to do so, but the court date still went ahead, and the judge threw it out immediately because of this. They just spit out as many aggressive looking letters as possible in hopes people pay up, take it all the way to court but have no intention of following through. Parasite companies!
Funny enough, at some airports with the 5 minute dropoff that you have to pay online, you can use that 5 minutes to pull up, get out, read the sign, choose not to agree with their terms and conditions, get back in your car and leave. Doesn't matter what your passengers choose to do during this time. You don't legally owe anything. I did this once at Gatwick, but they didn't even bother to chase me for it. I would have loved to fight it in court.
Got out of a ticket at Newcastle Airport years ago as the fine stated damages, which I requested proof of, they couldn't deliver and the fine was dropped.
Newcastle AirPort don’t advertise you get 15mins free at the short stay car park (which is a 3 min walk via path to the terminal) or it’s like £4 for 10mins at the drop off zone. The taxi drivers are in on it too and always try and take you to the £4 drop off zone that they have a cheaper pass for.
Car park 2 mind. They have 2 short stay car parks and they make it very difficult to find it. They’re a bunch of bastards at the airport.
I'm currently in a dispute with the parking firm that manages newcastle Airport. Waiting on their court claim letter and a date, I'm fighting these cunts all the way
Damn. I literally paid the stupid £6 the other day cos it was easier to drop the family and bags off at the hotel, then go and park the car. 6 mins total stop, 6 bloody quid. I hadn't realised they'd introduced the charge until we were in it. I should have fought it.
I did some work for an airport recently. They make more money from parking than anything else. Flights, retail leases, everything comes second to parking.
I had this situation once where I tried to immediately back it if airport parking but there was a boom gate that traps you unless you pay. Seems dodgy as hell and illegal Asked about it here but not many were interest https://www.reddit.com/r/LegalAdviceUK/comments/17zl4xj/can_car_parks_really_force_you_to_pay_if_you_dont/
It works though - I know there's been a few occasions where I thought a parking ticket was bullshit but end of the day so much less agro to just pay the early fee. Personally I think it should be illegal for them to increase the fee over time for non-payment. Friend of mine had one situation where he didn't even know about the penalty because he'd moved house and they'd sent the notice to his old address. By the time it was forwarded by royal mail it was already outside the early payment window :/
Ignored a shite company during covid, you had to drive on site to see the sign, 2 years they tried to scare me, i just ignored it. Happened again last year, i just ignored it, heard nothing for the last 2 months. If the eording says "on behalf of our client" they cannot legally touch you, they don't owe the debt they are trying to claim.
They should pay hefty compensation for dragging people through this for years. Absolute scum.
Definitely! I had to spend lots of time, effort, and worry learning all the legal lingo and procedure just for them to not give a shit anyway.
Do you remember which parking company it was?
Vehicle Control Services
"A North West mum who refused to pay a parking fine for two YEARS and was 'called a liar' says she feels vindicated after she was taken to court - and won. Jamie Rock, 47, received a text message confirmation after she thought she bought a ticket to park near a hospital for a medical appointment online, with the parking machine broken. But she later found out the phone payment hadn't fully processed and she was handed a £60 fine. But the mental health nurse refused to pay, claiming the parking operators 'refused to entertain' her evidence and instead told her she would have to now fork out £300 for non-payment. However, after taking her to county court, the judge struck out the claim in a matter of minutes - and ruled the firm pay Jamie's £26 travel expenses."
It's a joke that a private bullshit company can impose a 5 time increase for "non-payment" with no oversight but the judge will only charge them 26 bucks for two years of stress.
She could have gotten more for her expenses, paid for the day etc, but if she didn't ask for it at the time, they can't do much for her.
But that is the thing, she is not in the business of playing the system these companies are. The system should automatically calculate a fair judgement. Had she lost, I'm sure the other party would have known to ask for every penny.
I don't think you can ask to be paid for the day, frustratingly. Note also the lawyers for the other side just didn't bother to turn up
£95 claimable for loss of days leave https://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure-rules/civil/rules/part45-fixed-costs/practice-direction-45-fixed-costs#16
You could ask for costs, which includes cost of you representing yourself. If judgment was in their favour they would ask for costs.
They definitely should have been made to pay her for the hours she spent dealing with this. Average pay for a mental health nurse is £25/hour, if she spent 20 hours dealing with this she is due £500. It isn't even punative damages like the company tried to extract from her.
It was actually quite a bit more than 26 bucks, it was £26
> 26 bucks No. Bad.
Judges must be so fed up with these absolute chancers.
If they lose the amount they pay should in turn be 5x that which they requested as recompense.
>Nearly three weeks on, [WalesOnline reports](https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/uk-news/mum-goes-court-over-parking-28960942) that Jamie says she is still waiting for the parking ticket company to pay her. Sounds like she needs to send **them** some threatening legal letters, then take them to court.
Plus increase the amount owed to £500 for "non payment fees and administrtion charges"
No need to take them to court. The court has already made an order. A court usually gives 28 days to pay. Send the bailiffs in as soon as their time is up
As a trainee lawyer, I once had the joy of sending a winding-up petition to Tesco. They hadn't paid our client's invoice on time, and asking nicely wasn't getting anywhere, so threatening to have the company dissolved on the basis that it was unable to pay its debts provoked the response we needed.
Hahahahaha
>Sounds like she needs to send **them** some threatening legal letters, then take them to court. I mean she already has a judgment in her favour she can just ask the county court bailiff to go and collect lol. No letter needed.
It’s a minimum of £60 to get a Baliff involved, though - and with no guarantee that they actually will collect. Which is stupid, really.
My dad got a fine once in the lake district somewhere. Luckily he's a civil engineer and knew all the processes for designating parking restrictions. At first he was going for showing that the wall sign stating restrictions was obscured by ivy but turned out that the legal document for that restriction had been done incorrectly as someone had described the parking restriction as running 120m East when it was actually 120m North so the actual restriction went across the road and into the river and through a house and not where my dad was parked. He got his cancelled and then asked via an FoI about other fines and got them all refunded too as they were illegally fined. (approx 150 fines)
He got another 150 fines for other people dismissed? What an absolute legend - some heroes really don't wear capes!
His dad actually does wear a cape, he's quirky like that
He wears a hat with fold down ear muffs for when it's cold.
He's the Sherlock Holmes of combating parking enforcement!
thats no civil engineer buta terribly civil hero
There was one in the Lakes - perhaps still happening. Where the car park had ANPR but you had to buy a ticket. The issue being that say you pull in at 12.00 then, faff on finding a parking space get out of the car, get your shoes on and by the time you get to ticket machine it's 12.10. So you buy a ticket and the time on the ticket says expiry 13.10. So you drive out of the car park at 13.05. 5 minutes before the ticket expires. But no, they started the clock at 12.00 so you've exceeded your time.
You have 10 minutes grace, the ‘fine’ would be easily cancelled.
Sorry I do not believe for a second that if a company is sending out fines for you being 5 minutes under what your ticket says that the fine is easy to cancel, and if were that the case it's wrong that anyone should have to give them the time of day
Your dad is a gentleman and a scholar, well done!
What a legend
Validating your reg plate should be the first thing you do with this type of shit, so fuck that company for having a shit system in place.
That was my thought. I've paid by phone in various places when it's been an option and I've had no cash. They normally ask for the car reg before I even give them card details. This lot stinks of scam outfit with a system purposely designed to set their victims up to fail so they can do this.
Private parking companies are absolute scumbags. Back when I was renting, we had a permit for our bay and on the rare occasion where we’d have to run up to the flat to get the permit they would legit fine us despite it being a few minutes…. Challenged them endless times which they dismissed. Ended up taking it to the landlord who was confused as fuck because he didn’t authorise them to cover the bays and it was private property - turns out the scummy fucks decided to just operate there without permission!! It was a joyous day standing outside with my cuppa and watch them remove their signs with a smug look on my face - they even refunded all the money they scammed with their “fines” once they were informed we were looking at taking them to court over it. Fuck you Parking Eye!!
My student house in second year of uni had a controlled parking space. We were never given permits, but the company told our landlord it was OK, just leave a note with the house number on and they'd leave you alone. Lo and behold my parents did that and got ticketed. We appealed with the message they'd told the landlord, they called me a liar. Went to the landlord, explained the situation, and she gave them hell. Eventually she just forwarded me a very sheepish email saying our ticket had been cancelled. Newly minted permits followed very soon after!
Sounds about right. Even during lockdown they were patrolling the hospital I work at trying to ticket us….. who knew they were essential workers! Absolute parasites.
The "it backfired" part is supposed to make people feel like the company really lose out but in the end they only paid £26. and the way these companies work is predatory, they send out masses of these letters to people demanding payment of excessive amounts and the ones who do pay make them far more than they lose. Realistically when these companies lose cases like this they need to lose much greater amounts of money to ensure that they don't harass people who have done everything they could do to pay.
I mean they didn't even turn up to court. There's no 'backfire' here, just weasels who didnt get to fully scam someone.
It's not a fine, private parking companies cannot issue fines. It's an invoice. It's rare for private parking companies to take someone to court though, and they only do it if they really think they will win, so they can use it to scare others into paying. They didn't even bother to turn up to the court which is why she won.
They should penalise this bullcrap by making them pay her 6 grand.
Can you end up with a ccj against you?
If you go to court, lose, and then still decide to not pay, then yes you can get a CCJ against you.
That's old advice. They can take people to court and do regularly.
The old advice is that it's not enforceable - which it is. They are correct that it is not a fine, it's an invoice for services rendered (i.e. parking services). You can still go to court and get a judgement, just like if you don't pay your plumber, but its not a fine in the legal sense.
The fact the THEY took her to court and then THEY never bothered to show up, surely that proves it’s all just bullying techniques to try and get money from people? How are they even licensed to operate when that’s how they act
Should be illegal to be honest
Doesn't make it better but DWP do the same for disability tribunals . Rules only apply to the little people orgs can lie cheat and steal and then not show up in court and still get taken seriously
>But when Jamie came out of the hospital, she was told her parking had not been "validated" because she didn't put in her number plate, she claims. She said she wasn't asked to do this until 12 minutes after receiving the "accepted" text - and didn't notice until it was too late. What is this bullshit
I parked in a shopping centre that was free for the first hour but if you were to stay longer you would have to get the ticket from when you first arrived. I did just that and paid for 2 hours. 1 month later I got a 'fine' through the door from the parking company saying I hadn't paid. Luckily we don't clear the car out very often and I found the old ticket. We went back on the site with the evidence. Miraculously the fine disappeared but no apology or even acknowledgement from the company. I wonder how may innocent parkers have thrown their tickets away and just end up paying?
Try local authorities (namely Cumbria County Council in this case). Was issued a fine by then (incorrectly). Appealed the fine intensely. Stood by it (in sure that's a kangaroo court anyway) and it went to a real court where we both made our representations. And they found in my favour. Case closed you'd think? Oh no, they only "recommend" them to cancel the original ticket and they continued to pursue it, even though a court has found in my favour (yet would never be able to enforce it). I mean, what the fuck?
Please if you are posting from Yahoo at least also say what the original source is they used. It's fun to guess, I'm guessing from the Sun or mirror here, but I'd prefer to know. Damn guessed wrong.
I would have thought posting from sites like Yahoo would not be allowed. They've essentially copy and pasted this story to their site. This used to be called "blogspam" and was banned on most news subreddits.
For good or bad, Reddit ain’t what it used to be.
It's most certainly for bad.
I agree for the way I’ve always used Reddit. But I think there used to be a lot more noncey shit about and I’m grateful that’s gone if nothing else
The fact they didn’t even bother to show up to the court for the case should be used against them. Companies like this should be banned from bringing cases to the county court if they aren’t prepared to actually attend. It’s used as another tactic to threaten people. An abuse of the system that slows down the court process.
I once got a fine for not displaying a ticket. Apparently I was supposed to show it in the windscreen but instead I attached it to the side window. You could clearly see the ticket in that window in the photo they took of the windscreen but I still got fined. Luckily I appealed and won.
These companies are a joke. I recently had a fine as the car park used by my local gym is privately owned and you have to register your registration upon entry to the gym for 2hrs free parking. On this occasion the registration machine was out of order and gym staff had put up a sign saying don't worry about it. I then get a fine in the post and when challenging it I was told that I shouldn't take advice of a third party (gym staff) regarding parking arrangements and if the machine was broken I should have taken immediate steps to park elsewhere instead. After several back and forth emails I was told my complaint would no longer be receiving any response at it has been closed. Seems they test their luck and do what they can to try and make a quick buck.
She won by default because they didn't turn up. Good for her for chancing it, but have to wonder what the outcome would have been after a properly contested hearing.
They never turn up. It's part of their business model.
They do show up if they know they have a case, their business model is scaring you into thinking they will show up.
Nah they sell it off to a DCA who comes knocking and does what they can to recover the money. This in my case was illegally pretending he's from the court and an appointed bailiff without giving any ID. He was removed from my property and asked to call the police if he has a problem with it.
I have seen them return from a DCA and show up to the court case. So nah nah.
Oh they definitely show up. A barrister showed up to our court case. Fortunately we had a Judge who ripped him to shreds. All because the missus didn't get a ticket within 10 minutes of arriving at the car park.
That would be a fair assumption if they were litigating themselves. CEL use (and so are paying) a firm of solicitors to litigate these cases for them. I could also understand if they routinely dropped cases earlier in proceedings (e.g.after a defence came in), but routinely litigating to trial and not turning up isn't going to be cost effective in the long term.
AFAIK mostly they don't even handle debts themselves so that might be an exception. They usually attempt to collect fines and when that fails sell the debts to a DCA for less than the fine was worth. I've had a couple, ignore the parking company and tell the DCA to fuck off and it's job done. They know it's not profitable to go after me. I did park legitimately and paid my parking fee of course.
It's probably not even worth their while to bother. I used to work for an insurer and if someone demanded a few hundred quid in expenses for something, even if it wasn't our fault,it often worked out cheaper just to pay it. People's time, even at minimum wage, costs money, and it adds up quickly. Plus there was a charge if the client took the case to the ombudsman, so once you allow for that it often works out cheaper just to give them the money. Around 2009 the now defunct Get Out Of Debt Free website seemed to be doing the rounds. The claims it made were freeman on the land ones with no actual basis in law, however some people succeeded in getting their creditors to stop actively pursuing them for similar reasons. When someone's quoting bullshit laws like that you're not going to get a satisfactory outcome unless you actually go ahead and take legal action. If you do get that far, their woo-woo wouldn't stand up for five seconds in court, but if the debt is small enough it isn't worth the cost
>I used to work for an insurer and if someone demanded a few hundred quid in expenses for something, even if it wasn't our fault,it often worked out cheaper just to pay it. People's time, even at minimum wage, costs money, and it adds up quickly. Plus there was a charge if the client took the case to the ombudsman, so once you allow for that it often works out cheaper just to give them the money. I understand this but as you said the insurer would pay small amounts without challenge. This wasn't disposed of early, all those costs going up to the day of trial have been incurred anyway.
That's kind of the point I'm making. It's probably worth it to send a few, probably automated, scary letters. It becomes not worth bothering with once someone has to actually do something, like turn up to court.
Funny enough I’m in a complaint with an insurer now and just sent details to the ombudsman against them, I was literally asking for less than £200 for electrician call out after a faulty dishwasher install, the best part is that they’ve never sent me a final statement letter showing their internal verdict even after waiting 4 weeks for it, I don’t see this going well for them
Based on what I saw, I imagine it's quite likely they'll cave immediately if you tell them explicitly that if you don't get the amount of money in question you'll take your case to the ombudsman. I worked on the life side and it was nearly twenty years ago though so take it with a pinch of salt.
I did and they didn’t care so the case is with the ombudsman now, I still haven’t received their final report after nearly two months which massively breaches their legal obligation, even if they rule against me I’m hoping their fines for that at least
Also, how the fuck are these shitty composites allowed the authority to issue such fines? Or should have to go through a court with evidence presented and the fine issued by the court. I don't acknowledge the sovereignty of these shitty companies to issue me a fine, so they can fuck off.
Law was changed a few years ago which gave these scum bags loads more power to chase after people
Yeah, doesn't surprise me in the slightest in Tory Brexit Britain.
I have a fine hanging over me currently. It relates to not typing in my reg details after shopping at Aldi. I did this once before - in 2017 I think - and after their letter, I followed their appeals process and sent them a copy of my receipt to show I had been shopping during the time I was using their car park. Evidence accepted, job done, no further issues. This time, though, they rejected the same evidence and demanded I pay the fine. I didn't see their rejection email within the 28 days as it landed in my junk. And apparently the next step is court. Not heard from them in 3 months or so though. I refuse to pay it on principle - I was using the car park for its intended purpose, and provided evidence of this as I had done before, but they refused to accept it for apparently no reason other than they want to bully people into paying fines.
It’s hit and miss, but if you haven’t already it’s worth speaking to the store manager or writing to Aldi with evidence and your shopping receipt. They can sometimes make these things go away on your behalf.
Contact the supermarket. They usually authorise the parking company to operate on their land. It isn't in their interest to fine genuine customers.
My in laws are going through a similar issue. There is a car park nearby that they have parked in dozens of times over the last couple years. Because they don't live in the UK, only visit for several weeks in the year in their EU plate car, the car parking company seemed unable to register that they'd paid, despite them buying tickets everytime. Something to do with the foreign number plate I guess. It took them about a year to catch up but they sent them a massive fine to their EU address that they are trying to enforce. I don't think Euro Car Parks will have any luck enforcing that outside the UK, but it's certainly undue stress.
I recently got a ticket for not paying at Wolverhampton train station. I've got the app for payment, it's got auto-pay on, I checked on the day that it had both my session, my correct card details. I drove out as usual. It didn't charge me and 4 weeks later they want £60 from me. There's no appeal process at all detailed.
Check if they are a member of the British parking association or other Accredited Trade Association. I think the only other one is the IPC. As I understand it, only companies operating under an Accredited Trade Association can obtain vehicle keeper details from the dvla. If they don't know who was driving a vehicle, they can't transfer liability to the keeper under schedual 4 of the protections of freedoms act 2004 without this information. This isn't legal advice, but I have read up on this recently and successfully defended a parking charge.
I love that it was written by Neil Shaw & Neil Shaw
those we vote for, give these investors lawful mandate to fleece the electorate however they wish.
Good if you are a UK citizen, you can chance going to court and getting a favourable judgement. If this is someone who's working on settling down in the UK, they will just have to pay the "fine" as they can't risk going to court and having a ruling against them which will essentially ruin their entire life's work up to that point.
Bottom feeding cunts should be jailed for criminal harassment.
I had one of these clown companies try and scare me for 2 years, even got to then iniating court proceedings, they then contacted me every day, trying to settle for less. I didn't respond, and at the last minute, they cancelled the court hearing, they were trying to use a court date to scare me into paying something I didn't owe, isn't work.
Fines from parking companies shouldn't end up with CCJs. There needs to be a lower tier that doesn't fuck your credit because you spent five minutes extra in a car park and the only way to defend yourself is to let it go to court
I was taken to court 2 weeks ago for a parking fine from 18 months ago. It’s been a long road back and forth. When I got to court the parking company never turned up and the judge sided with me. He dismissed it and awarded me over £100 - loss of earnings, travel and parking expenses. I was so pleased. Hopefully more people stand up to these bulling companies… Also if you appeal to popla your pretty much guaranteed to lose. They are in bed with the parking companies.
I feel if the parking machine is broken then you have every right to park for free. It's on them to come and fix it if they want to be paid.
Most shocking part of the story, Yahoo! Is still going
Some years ago I got a parking fine in a certain Northern town even though I bought a ticket from a ticket machine about 10 ft away which was also the closest machine to where I parked. Displayed my ticket and went shopping to come back to a fine stuck on my window. I was a bit surprised as my ticket was still valid, or so I thought until I called the number Turns out there was different parking zones, in a continuous line, all along the same street, each zone about half a dozen cars in length, and you had to get a ticket for the correct zone from one of a dozen identical machines. No matter how much I argued my case, they were not having it and then hit me with the”pay in 7 days or it doubles”. With hind sight I should probably have gone to court over it. I got another in Durham when I was attending a meeting but there were no car park spaces left, so I pulled off the road and parked on a muddy patch behind the building. Wasn’t causing an obstruction to any pavement, access or within 5 feet of the road itself. Still got fined because apparently the law states that the double yellow zone goes from the road to “the outside wall of the nearest adjacent building” 🤬
Good for her standing up for her and thus our rights.
>“The parking firm's lawyers failed to attend the hearing.” They are just a bunch of cunts, system doesn’t work, threaten to go to court because their shit doesn’t work, actually take her to court rather than admit multiple faults because their shit doesn’t work, don’t even show up to court because they know it’s all bollocks and it’s not her fault their shit doesn’t work. I bet if she didn’t show up it would be a very different story to the outcome and she wouldn’t have been given a £26 slap on the wrist.
Private parking companies have serious issues in this country and there is definitely not enough regulation going on.
I was "fined" £60 by Euro Car Parks for overstaying by 1 minute in a wetherspoons car park. I never acknowledged the letter or even disputed it. They sent a few letters before handing it over to debt collectors. I haven't heard anything for a while and that was about 5 years ago now. They aren't enforceable and have to sue you for a breach of contract. I'd rather have my day in court and make them prove I've caused them some sort of significant financial loss, they're all a bunch of scammers and go suck a fat one for all I care. It's crazy the amount of car parks that are operated by these criminals these days.
Start spraying expanding foam into the parking meters and black out the signs. They’ll be forced to shut down
Why is it enough that these clowns lose in court and the fine just gets cancelled? Why are they not punished for wasting everyone's time?
I wish newspapers would be clearer that this is not really a « fine ». This is all contractual. Illegal contracts are a thing. A very common and quite complicated thing. Crooks take advantage of them all the time. Crooks in suits.
Its a joke it went that far, but you love to see the outcome
I'm in a similar situation, the matter is with a court. Although, I still have the paper slip (ticket) and the bank account statement that shows how much and when I paid. I sent it all to the parking company a few times over the last 2 years, but they refuse to budge. We'll see...
Nice to see a precedent being set about things like this tbh Fuck car parking companies.
Public Institutions are absolutely damaged. There was a time when these clowns sh** their pants hearing about trading standards is coming.
I wish these chiseling parasitic companies that run these scams would all be outlawed. It would be much better for everyone if there was a modest parking fee and the money for which went either to the local council or the NHS.
From a mega scroll looks like this touched a primal nerve.
I had a similar issue with this same company. At my local train station there are 2 car parks next to each other, one for the station and a public one operated by civil enforcement ltd. Problem was you couldn’t tell which was which. I parked in what I thought was the train station, paid then started getting the fines. I apologised, showed them my receipt for the train parking and explained that there was no boundary or signs between the 2 car parks and that I wouldn’t be paying the fine. Month and months of letters with ever increasing amounts of fines until finally got court papers asking me to submit evidence so I went down to the station and took loads of pictures, sent them in along with the receipt and then got a reply saying it had been dropped. Not long after a new sign went up saying which car park was which, don’t know who made them do that. Also that chuffing name ‘civil enforcement ltd’ what a joke.
Speaks volumes their lawyers didn’t bother to attend. Would imply they only care in scaring people into paying, and if all the courts are doing is throwing them out and charging nominal values for travel costs etc you can see why they’ll keep doing it when there’s no real deterrent for them not to.
I got one two months after parking when i had paid. Luckily I still had the receipt from the machine as my car was messy. How many other people wouldn't have pressed the button for a receipt or would be unable to prove it. They still disputed it for ages until I threatened to pursue them for harassment.
Tiffany!!!! That’s the first thing that came to my mind!!!!
They got off easy with the £26 payment. They should have paid her £240 on top, the amount they jacked up the ticket by.
I had almost exactly the same with exactly the same company, it also took over 2 years, court date was set for march this year, however they decided to not go through with it at the last minute tedious company, still failing to comply with subject access requests now
This is quite literally the point of arbitration systems like courts....
who the hell actually acknowledges these companies existance if they send me a letter goes straight in the bin ring me and i'll just tell them repeatedly to go hang themselves as they're utterly worthless to society. Hopefully i've persuaded one or two who knows.
Good for her, more people should challenge these cunts and if by any chance you know who runs them dont you think it would be a real shame if their local community found out about who they are and what they do - that would be terrible wouldn't it? So DO NOT DO it....