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I remember a thread a while back on similar issues. I received a 'penalty charge notice' from this company in a Waitrose car park. Few websites and my research says to just ignore it and they will give up as they have no powers to do anything apart from initially chase it.
Anyone have any experience with them?

Help much appreciated

Coffee and/or newspaper?
If it is your only choice, do you pick up the daily mail?
Free range or corn fed chicken?
Is the Heston range worth the money?

Haha inwasnt shopping. Parked there for work!

Guessing your time is worth more than the money. Flick it in.

Ultimately it depends on whether you feel comfortable being harassed every few weeks with threats of bailiffs and solicitors letters about CCJs and how they recently won a case. Personally I wouldn't and never have give in to these lowlife scumbags.

They drop it after a while/ ever had any ill affects from it?

What will you do if they don't drop it and you run up tonnes in costs?

There's a website for fighting parking fines, pepopo or something like that.

Didn't Alex have a similar problem?

Nothing has ever come of one of these for me. The furthest it ever got was with the solicitors letters and every time it stopped after the second letter.

What's your sample size?  Are you a serial fine merchant in these spots?  I had one in a super market last week and nearly went down the non payment route.

Over the last 6 or 7 years I have had approximately 11 of these with the last one being just over 12 months ago. I have never intentionally parked and not paid, I have however gone over the time allowance for the majority of these and think the fine is well over the top.

My daughter is currently on her 6th letter from one of these companies, after initially trying to fine her £140 and then £200 they passed the debt on to another firm and reduced the amount to £80. She's not going to pay though.

Think there are some letter response templates on MSE website. I think latest advice is to not just ignore it as they will probably keep chasing but to write back explaining you feel the charge isn't representative or fair, that they have no legal powers of prosecution and you have no intention of paying the bill they have sent you (it isn't a fine)

Worth a few hours googling

I had a decent bit of back and forth with mine from May 2015 but haven't heard anything for 6-12months. But I did not just ignore it no. There's a thread here somewhere called Parking Fine or something if you wanna dig it out.

The only legally enforceable parking fines are issued on behalf of the council. This does not appear to be one of them.

A few years ago I received a fine from a train station car park because the machine wouldn't take an over payment for the amount. I did reply with a letter stating that I tried to pay it but they sent a few back declining and pursuing higher figures. I just ignored them and they stopped very soon after.

The police can also fine you but will be for violations on a public road not on private land.

All of these private parking companies should eff off!  I find it remarkable as well that they get your details from somewhere. Its not like you leave your name and address on your windscreen so there is a 3rd party involved selling your details on, which is probably the DVLA. Its one big scam.

I mean it's not a scam is it.

The company have presumably purchased the land for the purposes of renting out car park spaces. Assuming that is a legal business, I don't call that a scam.

Their fines may not be legally enforceable but that doesn't make their business a scam in my book.

Also yes they get your details from the DVLA which also must be legal.

Why don't they clamp people?

Surely that makes more sense than sending uninforceable fine notices?

I would say it depends on which Police force it is as most don't give a fuck. Constant battle between the residents near my Son's School and lorry drivers who block the road whilst parking on double yellows for hours at a time. Police have stated they are not interested and Council just say that residents should inform Police.

i got a fine christmas 2015 at grosvenor casino, forgot to put my reg number into the terminal
still receiving letters zzz
can ignore it until its court summons lol

It's not a scam, it's a farce that they can try and 'fine' you a disproportionate amount against the agrievance caused. And that is why I will not pay. Charge a reasonable amount such as the council do and I'm sure more people would pay up.

Can I just get this straight. You parked on a Waitrose car park, not to shop but while you went to work, they issued a fine and you think they are out of order, yes?

Apologies in advance if I've got it wrong

Well it was for an appointment. It's a car park attached to Waitrose but for general 'town' use too.

Despite some advice around to the contrary you could probably get away with never paying for parking or for the charges that follow to a lot of these operators. I wouldn't do that because I'd equate not paying in the first instance with theft and I don't steal.

I'm sure we all have our own stories but I have refused to pay additional charges on a couple of occasions whilst also offering payment of a small admin fee to cover the cost of the correspondence necessary to clarify the situation. Both cases ended with the operator getting a letter from me saying that I wasn't going to pay and wouldn't answer any further correspondence. I could have probably ignored both but it made me feel better to explain myself.

Assuming you don't work for Waitrose then I'd say you deserve the parking charge.

Unless they have a sign that says otherwise then the car park's there for customers not your convenience.

Clamping is now illegal

Ok scam may not be the right word. I certainly don't think the DVLA should be allow to pass on your details to anyone other than the police or insurers though. As you say, these private car parks should make their charges fair. £60-80 for going over by a short period of time is just not reasonable.

Pretty certain there'd come a point in the tussle where you could offer £10-20 and they'd snap accept.

The reason I got in to all this not paying the fines started many years ago when my wife thought she paid £1.20 at the machine for 3 hours parking. When she got back to her car after 2hours and 10 min she had one of these parking charge notices. On closer inspection of her payment receipt she only paid £1.15. The charge for 2 hours parking was 80p. So I photocopied the parking receipt to show she under paid by 5p and actually as she paid £1.15 this should cover the 10 minutes over the 2 hour period. As a gesture of good will I would pay £10. It took them 21 days to respond to my email request. The response stated appeal denied and now you owe £140 as it's gone over 14 days since the 'offence'. My response was okay I withdraw my offer of £10 and screw you. Ever since I have not paid any of these so called fines.

^^^this

for what its worth i wasnt after people saying 'ahh youre so unlucky'! I paid the fine, was just wondering what peoples experiences were with them, as you hear people all the time dodging them

I used the Money Saving Expert templates to successfully appeal to the main parking body (can't remember what it's called). Originally appealed to the parking company, which was unsurprisingly rejected.

My mum is a blue badge holder and parked in a train station permit only bay on a weekend in a section that was completely empty - the station had just 3 disabled spaces out of 400 odd (further away than the permit areas from the station, and all taken), with available regular spaces too far away from the station for her to walk. Even though blue badge holders parked for free she'd paid for a ticket (she's not that bright sometimes).

Appealed based on the Equality Act (rejected), inadequate signage (rejected) and that a £60 fine wasn't a genuine measure of the loss suffered by the parking company (upheld).

As long as you've parked and the signage is clear, you've entered into a contract. If you breach that contract any remedy in law has to be proportionate (unless damages were suffered - which clearly isn't the case here) - this is seemingly the basis that most appeals are successful. Whilst they usually give up as there's no economy in pursuing tiny figures, these companies do have a legal basis to make a claim against you.

i got a ticket in a free car park at asda when i parked in a disabled parking space, as these are the only one wide enough for me to get my wheelchair in and out. i was in the shop less than 20 minutes i came out and there was a parking ticket over my tax disc ( which clearly states disabled) they also printed a ticket which had the name and address of the owner of the car on it (motabilty)
at the time i wasnt paying the £40 for a blue badge as i didnt require one as i never parked anywhere other than free for all car parks.
i wrote to them explaining i was in a wheelchair and parked in a disabled space as i am disabled after a few exchanges my fee was now four figures so i went into the same store spoke to the manger who told me that he couldn't do anything as it was a separate firm when i explained to him that i will see them in court while i explain to the press (i am friendly with a couple of local journalists that were wanting to run the story already) how the only people that had to pay for parking in asda were the disabled (as they wanted to see a blue badge costing £40) phone was picked up and ticket cancelled and my story never got the press that i was aiming at.

i might try and run with this idea again when i am feeling fitter but i picked up a blue badge recently as i need to park in some car parks where blue badge holders get the parking free so makes having a blue badge viable even if its a bit more expensive

hmmm Scotland has different laws but still

A woman has been ordered by a sheriff to pay a private parking company £24,500 in unpaid charges

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-39478203

Guess there will be an appeal?  I don't have too much sympathy here.  I have way more sympathy for people who just miss signs, stay over for 10 minutes.  But this just sounds like she was giving them the finger given she was offered parking for £40 a month.

Agreed. She has deliberately taken advantage here and her actions are wrong.

Doesn't the charge seem rather high given that the "loss" was £40 a month?

Dundee waterfront doesn't sound like a place where parking is cheap.  Presumably £40 a month was away from the waterfront and where she parked was fairly prime.   I lived in a flat in a farly nice development.  You could pay £2k a year to park conveniently or £40 a month to walk a fair while and face a fight to find a spot.  Presumably she wanted convenient parking without paying. 

She picked black, got red.

bump

this didn't end well.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-40628560 (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-south-east-wales-40628560)

How the hell did it come to this?

one nurse had tickets amounting to £150,000.

Assuming this isn't just a massive typo, did she buy the bloody car park?

This is a scandal NHS staff should not be charged to park on site. 

A lot of people pay to park at work and for some there is no choice. 

I do think any parking charges should be reasonable and affordable for staff.  But you could extend that to patient's too. 

It can't be in anybody's interest to have arrived where they have.   

The campaigner quoted has a just giving page to raise money for an appeal.  At least the lawyers will be happy.   

Yeah my Mrs pays to park at work but she works in the City Centre and her employer negotiate a discount but it's still £35 a week in an NCP.  I claim the majority of my parking back being self employed. 

But for NHS staff I think its deplorable that they are charged to park.  Especially as most of these workers do all sorts or crazy shifts.  If there was a parking charge to patients and visitors if that was going back to the NHS I'd be ok with it, but when it's going to private companies I think that is a bigger scandal.