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Stayed for 2 hours 27 minutes so have been sent a notice with the usual pay £60 now or £100 later.
Was sat in Starbucks eating and drinking and chatting all that time so a bit peeved at paying for services there then to be charged for the overrun, it's an expensive extra coffee
I know someone has successfully challenged these at a services any pointers?
Tell `em to **** off
3 pages, an argument between 4 arm-chair lawyers and Big N Daft pays £500 + VAT.
I think we'll be spared the crazy car-finance lady...
Fine seems steep, but in pretty much every services I've been to it's been clear that free parking was for 2 hours, and if you wanted to stay longer you had to pay.
a bit peeved at paying for services there then to be charged for the overrun
Should you not have left after 2 hours then?
We had one after staying in the motel at the one in South Wales over the bridge from Bristol. Couple of phone calls sorted it but still a PITA.
Fine seems steep, but in pretty much every services I've been to it's been clear that free parking was for 2 hours, and if you wanted to stay longer you had to pay.
This
You can't really get away from it because you parked their and as such agreed to the service - pay the smaller financial and move on.
Nicholas Bowen was the QC that challenged one of these.
Different rules north of the border, which services?
i used this company a couple of years ago:
http://privateparkingappeals.co.uk/
pay them 19 quid and they'll get it cancelled (at the time the website said if it couldnt be cancelled thay'd pay the fine, not sure if this is still the case!) Anyway, i thought the ticket would have to be paid as all the warning signs were obvious about max time, and my wife had dumped the car for 2 hours in a max 45 minute stay place. They got my ticket cancelled, was happy to pay them 19 quid for it rather than the £75 fine.
Chorley services, so English Law
Parking Eye don't provide a service to the user of the car park
The owner of the car park wants me spending money in their facilities and franchises (which I was) the car park wasn't full therefore there is no loss as no customer who would have used the facilities was unable to do so
I'll appeal and take it to POPLA as apparently it costs them but not me
^^^ ha yeah that would be a clever scam!
i did think about appealing it myself but tbh i dont have the time or interest to faff around with that, i thought £19 was fair enough for an obvious parking overstay (they had number plate recognition cameras so knew the exact entry and exit times)
Ask the services if they'll quash it.
I'd love it if> http://privateparkingappeals.co.uk/It's a really clever business idea because not all companies chase these things up and those that do are well known. Some never chase. So if they decline to handle cases from firms that are known to be chasers they can make £19 per customer and never even send a letter.
If they just take £19 of everyone and play the numbers game through the POPLA process they'll make a decent portion of the £19 fee. (Which is what I suspect they do.)
Nice business.
I assumed they were just playing the numbers game, tbh, it's a £19 insurance policy.
I've got out of two of these.
The best advice you can get is on the moneysavingexpert forum (Pepipoo is also good but more aimed at Council fines rather than private PCNs).
http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/forumdisplay.php?f=163
The advice they will give you is
1) Complain loudly to the services. You were a paying customer. They can get the parking company to back down. Don't get fobbed off. A well placed email to the MD or a tweet may help.
2) Don't ever admit who was driving
3) parkingappeals.co.uk don't seem very active
4) there's no magic bullet you are going to have to read up on the appeals process if the services don't quash it
5) It's not a fine it's a speculative invoice based on a supposed contract you agreed to on the signs when you parked (you read the clear legible signs placed in numerous places in the car park when you parked right?!)
6) Ignore / bin advice is out of date unless this was in Scotland
7) did I say don't admit who was driving?
Get armed with the Issuing Company's name before you go over to MSE. Know your enemy.
It's £60, is it really worth the bother. If you don't want to do the time don't do the crime.
I've got out of two of these.
I've got out of four. Three when the 'advice' was to ignore, not appeal and once after the 'advice' was to appeal.
When I appealed I heard nothing back. When I ignored in two cases I got 2 warning letters each time and then nothing and in one case heard nothing.
The business model is all about collecting the low hanging fruit, not chasing the 'difficult' cases, so I don't think many people end up paying except for a few well know firms.
All the ones I avoided I was pretty clearly morally in the right, but the firms involved had no idea of that because I didn't tell them so the chase/don't chase decision is not based on the rights and wrongs of the case, they're playing the numbers game.
The best advice you can get is on the moneysavingexpert forum (Pepipoo is also good but more aimed at Council fines rather than private PCNs).
I think they're both equally good for PCNs. Pepipoo was the one that stuck in my mind.
Yes I should have pointed out the two I mentioned were where the signage was WOEFULL, unclear, not present, and I genuinely had no idea I was going to end up with a 'ticket'.
Happy to pay for my parking when it's clear what's needed to be done but in those two cases the PCN was unfair and unjust.
Definitely worth [s]complaining[/s] raising it politely with both Starbucks and the Services management.
They just have to punch the number plates into the computer to prevent any fines, we do it often when working on customer sites with time restrictions.
Sorry, can we rewind a bit.
You spent over 2 hours at a Starbucks in a motorway services?
I mean, I like a coffee and a chat, but when I'm using the motorway network, I try to keep it to under 2 hours because I'm usually on my way to somewhere I'd rather be.
You have my sympathies. However, I'd be on to Starbucks, tell a pack of lies about how you were enjoying their overpriced product so much you had more than you planned & spent even more than you'd expected in their emporium. They're making an absolute fortune so can afford to pay the fine for you!
Sort of thing is annoying. I don’t really expect there to be parking restrictions at places like these. Got done at an out of town hotel a few months back, complained to the hotel and mentioned I was there on business with a company who put a lot of business their way. Was quickly taken care of. Apparently it was well signposted but I honestly didn’t notice any, probably because I didn’t expect there to be any.
I can’t imagine these places actually having a problem with people abusing their car parks, can’t think of anywhere else you could really be going if you parked there! Is car sharing the issue?
Anyway i’d complain to starbucks, then to the services manager. Don’t bother speaking to the parking company.
It’s annoying when someone profits out of someone else’s car park, how do you actually pay if your staying over 2 hrs, can’t ever remember seeing a pay and display machine?
mate of mine got done in the services like this. he stopped because he was on the motorway and tired. big signs saying don't drive tired hanging on every gantry but when he pulled into the services and fell asleep in his car he went over the two hrs and 2 weeks later got a fine through the door.
he was bit miffed.
It's not a fine....
Honest John's advice as I remember it was to reply pointing out how disproportionate the money they're asking for is to the amount of overstay, enclose £10 to cover the overstay and consider the matter closed. But I'd go down the annoyed customer route to Starbucks and the services first.
I'm also not so sure about the "if it's Scotland, ignore it" advice anymore... Wasn't there a student in Glasgow who ended up having to pay a hefty sum recently?
Edit: I was close, story [url= http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-tayside-central-39478203 ]here[/url]
OP, when you say Chorley services, do you mean the ones on the M61 ?
If they are, they are owned by Euro Garages who only have that one service area, but have loads of small petrol stations around the North West.
http://www.eurogarages.com/contact/
It might be worth contacting them and seeing what they say. Just thinking you may get a better response off them rather than the larger service area groups like Moto, Welcome Break etc.
I'm guessing the main reason for the restrictions are people leaving their cars for ages, car sharing etc and I'm pretty sure that back when the M61 services were an absolute dive, there was a local bloke selling cars off there.
I don’t really expect there to be parking restrictions at places like these.
I'm guessing the main reason for the restrictions are people leaving their cars for ages, car sharing etc.
Yes - and while it's easy to point to the fact there's 'lots' of spaces still, another factor is that people pulling into a service area if they see all the spaces taken up are tempted to drive on - it's not like a restaurant on holiday where the fact it's busy means it must be good, being busy means you'll have to queue for ages and when all you want is a quick coffee and a burger, then you'll be tempted to drive on to the next one = lost revenue.
As noted above - a leisurely visit for a coffee and a piss should take maybe 30 minutes, staying 2.5 hours I'll bet you didn't have 5 coffees (although that would explain the time spent pissing too) which is how the service area sees it.
It’s annoying when someone profits out of someone else’s car park, how do you actually pay if your staying over 2 hrs, can’t ever remember seeing a pay and display machine?
Usually a sign with a Pay-By-Phone number on it. The car parking enforcement company will pay a fee to the site owner to run the car park for them then try to recoup that and any costs from overstayers, plus any profit.
If they are, they are owned by Euro Garages who only have that one service area, but have loads of small petrol stations around the North West.
And two services outside Monmouth and have bought a few sites in Wales.
If it is the Euro Garages site then you need to get in touch with the site manager of that site. He'll have authorisation to waive the charge as they do for contractors etc. Might be a battle but worth a shot.
Just pay it. You can appeal but will get nowhere, meanwhile the clock will be ticking and the higher amount will be due. Then their solicitor will send you a letter and suddenly it's £200 plus due to their fees. At that point it's either pay or get a CCJ against your name.
Used to be you could challenge and win until some fool took it to court, defended himself, it became case law and now everyone is screwed. IANAL.