First Parking Fine!

[Toms306]

So today I recieved my first ever parking fine in the post....seems odd as im a tight bastard and only ever park in free spaces.

Even more odd that I was parked there for 2 hours which is half hour more than allowed....I never stay anywhere for 2 hours!

So took me a while to work it out but just realised its where I had the 306 tracking done! They took so long messing it up that it went over the allowed time!

Now I've seen the thread about this but as I genuinely wasn't at fault (technically it was parked in the garage not the car park anyway) how do I sort this? Do I ask halfords autocentre to sort it or do I just tell parking eye that I was at halfords autocentre?

Cheers
Tom

[r3k1355]

Since it's a private parking INVOICE then you take a different route, get on Money Saving Expert for full details and samples of the correct letter to send.

You do have to reply tho, or appeal as it actually will be - MSE will be able to walk you through the correct procedure.

If you ignore it, they can and do take people to court - where the chance of winning is around 50:50 (some judges are possibly on the take)

---

Here I've dug out the guide you want:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/show...?t=4816822

[Kezzieboy]

Don't do the above yet, complain to Halfords first, they'll probably sort it and it'll be much easier that way.

[Dum-Dum]

Yeah if you were in a garage off that car park then I would probably ask Halfords for their advice and see what they say then write to parking eye with a copy of your tracking invoice explaining the situation.

[Tom]

Like said ask Halfords first, if not send the template from MSE, i have done and got out of the fine perfectly.

[r3k1355]

You can do both, you don't admit liability at any point during an appeal.

I'm not sure if there's a time limit to get an appeal in??

[Toms306]

Yeah if you were in a garage off that car park then I would probably ask Halfords for their advice and see what they say then write to parking eye with a copy of your tracking invoice explaining the situation.

They never finished the job so no invoice! I have the reservation e-mail but that's it.

Gotta go into town tomorrow so will go into Halfords and ask then.

You can do both, you don't admit liability at any point during an appeal.

I'm not sure if there's a time limit to get an appeal in??

Cheers for the info and link above, will do that if Halfords Autocentres aren't helpful - Id imagine it must happen a lot though, anything other than simple tyres or MOT must take longer than the 1.5 hrs allowed now I've thought about it.

No idea of time limit but won't leave it just in case!

[Niall]

Right...

Firstly, is it private or council fine (i see some have assumed private and it sounds private but we have to be sure?)
If private, DO NOT ignore it. Which company have issued you this speculative invoice? 90% of them are toothless and just like to use big words and red paper to scare people but there are a few out there that will take you to court and will win. Mostly parking eye.

Firstly, as said above, you need to speak to halfords. If they have the ability to cancel the fine (some places do, some don't. Ive been successful with this method once) then its so easy. Email them with bull shit like i am a big customer of yours, will never use you again blah blah blah

If they can't cancel it, you need to appeal. As above, on MSE there is a thread with a template appeal which you can adapt to your situation. They will deny this appeal and HAVE to issue you with either a POPLA number or the BPA equivalent. If they don't or refuse, tell them you deny all knowledge of any invoice and if they contact you again, it will be pursued as harassment.

Your POPLA appeal, you need to remember that they will only take into account fact and will not even consider your personal circumstance. The biggest and easiest way to get out of these should be your first point that the speculative invoice is not a true representation of their loss. Legally, they can only invoice you for their loss by you parking there. they can not make profit from it which they all do!
If its the BPA equivalent, ignore ignore ignore. They do not side with the driver/keeper of the car and funnily enough, was set up by a previous owner of Euro car parks....its a con so i wouldn't waste your breath and just ignore them

Tell me who the parking company is and i can give you a more detailed way of dealing with it.

[toseland]

it will likely be one of those "parking eye" things, that monitor carparks for companies for you parking there for over 2 hours..

[306carter]

Used to get these all the time when I did installations for Sainsburys.

We just had to let the store know and it would be reversed. I would guess it will be the same with Halfords.

[Niall]

Used to get these all the time when I did installations for Sainsburys.

We just had to let the store know and it would be reversed. I would guess it will be the same with Halfords.

Its dependant on what relationship Halfords have with the land owners. They probably don't own the building and it may be that if there is a few stores on the site, the parking company has been brought in by one of them which may not be halfords.

[Toms306]

It is indeed Parking Eye.

The site has a few stores on it, IP1 1UZ. All the cool shops are there though, Machine Mart for one...how can anyone only spend 1.5 hours in Machine mart!?

As I say, I will make Halfords the first port of call tomorrow and see if they can do anything...though as I don't even own the car now and have no receipt that could be interesting lol.

[Niall]

It will be fine
Ive bullshitted a company before that i bought a kitchen from them to get them off of a fine. In reality, i bought nothing as they had nothing i wanted then i went down the road and got lunch
Email the store, if they don't reply or don't help, go to the CEO. I did this with the particular store i mentioned and within minutes i had been told by the CEO they would sort it out and true to his word, next day it was sorted!

[Eeyore]

Go to halfords. It must have happened before!

[r3k1355]

Who was 'in charge' of the car??
Who put the car where it was??

Like did you drop it off at Halfords, give them the key and go shopping??
because then I'd argue the car was in their hands, and they are responsible for leaving it there.

[Toms306]

Emailed them last night (can only email nationally, not individual stores) but no response so far. If nothing time I go out at 1pm I'll take it into the store and see what they say.

[r3k1355]

If its the BPA equivalent, ignore ignore ignore. They do not side with the driver/keeper of the car and funnily enough, was set up by a previous owner of Euro car parks....its a con so i wouldn't waste your breath and just ignore them

Tell me who the parking company is and i can give you a more detailed way of dealing with it.

What is the crack with dealing with the non-POPLA organisations??
I'd heard they'd been setup because the parking scammers weren't getting their way.

[Toms306]

Who was 'in charge' of the car??
Who put the car where it was??

Like did you drop it off at Halfords, give them the key and go shopping??
because then I'd argue the car was in their hands, and they are responsible for leaving it there.

That was exactly the point I tried to make in the first post lol, its nothing to do with me at all! I parked in the car park and straight away gave them the keys at 1.30 (pre-booked appt) and didn't get the keys back until 3.30! Presumably the car was in their garage for most of that time anyway, but obviously the ANPR camera only checks arriving or leaving the car park entrance.

[r3k1355]

I don't think many of us got the full gist of your first post then mate.

First port of call is Halfords then, get them to drop it, it was they who left the car there, blah blah blah.
Second is like said before, do the appeals, follow MSE etc etc.

I guess your trump card here is legally they can only go after the owner if they can't find the driver, so if it comes to it tell them you weren't the driver, it was Halfords (employee) and they're kinda f*cked.

---

It's worth remembering that if they are part of POPLA, every POPLA appeal costs them like 27 quid or something.

Which is very satisfying.

[Eeyore]

Who was 'in charge' of the car??
Who put the car where it was??

Like did you drop it off at Halfords, give them the key and go shopping??
because then I'd argue the car was in their hands, and they are responsible for leaving it there.

That was exactly the point I tried to make in the first post lol, its nothing to do with me at all!  I parked in the car park and straight away gave them the keys at 1.30 (pre-booked appt) and didn't get the keys back until 3.30!  Presumably the car was in their garage for most of that time anyway, but obviously the ANPR camera only checks arriving or leaving the car park entrance.

If Halfords were responsible for the car and it was in their shop which is inside of this car park then I fail to see how its your fault! Im sure they will sort it out for you.

[Toms306]

So went into Halfords and after 10 mins not being to find me on the system (must be common surname ) the receptionist said she'd sort it and not to worry about it... So hopefully that's done with!

[Niall]

If its the BPA equivalent, ignore ignore ignore. They do not side with the driver/keeper of the car and funnily enough, was set up by a previous owner of Euro car parks....its a con so i wouldn't waste your breath and just ignore them

Tell me who the parking company is and i can give you a more detailed way of dealing with it.

What is the crack with dealing with the non-POPLA organisations??
I'd heard they'd been setup because the parking scammers weren't getting their way.

You've only got POPLA and IAS. POPLA are very fair providing you put your case towards them in a sensible and factual way. Most of the people who fail at the POPLA stage are idiots and say something like "i was later back to my car because i was stuck in a long cue at the post office". They don't care about mitigating circumstances and won't pay any attention to them. Just facts like incorrect signage, no right to claim on this land, charge not a fair representation of true loss etc.
IAS on the other hand, they make it up as they go along and tbh if you use a parking company that uses IAS (Like PCM) i would appeal to the company, they will appeal it then just ignore. IAS just isn't worth the hassle and paper your appeal is written on!

[r3k1355]

So if your appeal fails with the company, then what - you go to court??

[Niall]

Hahahaha. No. Youve got more chance of winning the lottery than going to court. The only company that you need to worry about going to court with is Parking eye and even then, you don't worry as providing you put your case across factually, you will walk out of there more than likely with compensation in your hand if you push for it

These invoices are very very rarely legal! There are so many things they do wrong. They just prey on people who think they are a fine and they are going to get a life sentence in prison if they don't pay it immediately.

The worst (and i really do me worst) case scenario is you go to court, you completely cock it all up somehow (would have to be retarded) and loose the case. Worst that will happen is you will be ordered to pay the fine and thats it. No CCJ, no additional fines and you won't go to prison and be shagged rotten by a big bloke in the showers who has a weird affection for pink teddies and Dora the explorer.
Then, you pay it but you would have to be really retarded to get that far. The majority of the companies will not take you to court (even though they threaten it) because they know what they are doing has less chance of standing up in court than a 90 year olds cock.
Have a look in my thread in the guides section and there is two FOI requests showing the total number of court cases from individual companies. Note though, this is just court papers served. The majority of these would not of gone forwards to a judge and would of been solved outside of court simply by being reviewed by the courts office and again, if you have put your point across correctly, thrown out.

Dont be scared by the big words and threats of court and CCJs. It won't happen

[Toms306]

UPDATE

So at the weekend I received another fine letter, conveniently on the last day of the 'reduced' fine....not that they plan that of course.

Was intending to go in to Halfords today to see if they'd sorted it. However, got another letter this morning from Parking Eye saying the fine had been cancelled. Sorted.

[Eeyore]

yay. One less thing for you to worry about!

[bashbarnard]

Result. Tis good day

[7057sam]

Nice one mate,glad it all worked out ok

[1616six]

Free parking when you're in that area then, handy to know!

[306Dan]

Glad it's all sorted for you, that's something else off your mind then