Parking "offence" - advice needed

[whole diary]

[ChrisB]

Oh they do! For example, it has been proven that they can clamp, then remove your car for non-payment/abandonment....case @ court went to the car park operator

[Phil]

Reading has pay (on foot) before you exit.  Seems to work OK and in a way is more customer friendly.  You pay for the time you have actually parked and it is less likely you will be rushing when exiting the car park than when entering it and having to pay and display with the minutes ticking away to your train.

I much prefer this method anywhere, it means not worrying if your held up that you may overstay your pay and display ticket.

This used to be the case in the massive Charlotte St Car Park in Bath - however, oddly enough, pay-on-foot-before-you-exit has just recently been removed and the more common "cash and flash" machines re-installed instead. Not sure what the council (BANES)'s thinking was - obviously there must be a good reason for it. Delays at the barriers on exiting perhaps? Malfunctions with the barriers? (you had to feed your receipt into the machine to make the barrier pop up).

There was something similar in Chippenham station car park YEARS ago, with a physical barrier popping up from the tarmac which prevented you from leaving unless you fed a receipted ticket into the machine. That idea didn't last long either. I suspect it's the maintenance and repair cost which puts the mockers on these schemes. Or maybe it damaged one too many cars - they looked pretty blooming lethal.

[JayMac]

Oh they do! For example, it has been proven that they can clamp, then remove your car for non-payment/abandonment....case @ court went to the car park operator

Towing abandoned vehicles is fine, as would towing any vehicle causing an obstruction, but Private Parking Companies are on very shaky legal ground seizing a vehicle for a civil debt without a court order. Do you have details of this case where the PPC was successful in court after towing a vehicle?

[inspector_blakey]

Not sure what the council (BANES)'s thinking was - obviously there must be a good reason for it. Delays at the barriers on exiting perhaps? Malfunctions with the barriers? (you had to feed your receipt into the machine to make the barrier pop up).

The cynic in me suspects it's probably that people will play it safe and pay for time they probably won't use, thereby raking in a little extra cash than if they only paid for the length of time they'd been there.

[adc82140]

Towing abandoned vehicles is fine, as would towing any vehicle causing an obstruction, but Private Parking Companies are on very shaky legal ground seizing a vehicle for a civil debt without a court order

Very shaky indeed. The "debt" is owed by the driver of the vehicle at the time it was parked, not the actual vehicle. It is very possible that the driver is not the same person as the vehicle's legal owner or keeper. The legal owner could report the towing of a vehicle as taking without consent, ie theft.

Also, a debt in the case of parking issues would be monies owed as the result of entering into a contract (ie parking in their car park) to the landowner (FGW^▸ (First Great Western)) or their agent (APCOA^▸ (Car parking company used at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - controlled stations in the area)) that have not been paid. So in effect, if you fail to pay to park, you owe them the parking fees, plus reasonable costs to reclaim them, not an inflated amount like ^80, as that would be considered punitive. By offering to reduce the amount for quick payment, they are shooting themselves in the foot.

If you have parked over two spaces, you have effectively denied them the business of one other vehicle, so thoeretically you owe them the parking fees for that bay as well. Nothing more. But the PPCs don't see it that way.

I'd love to know how the courts see it, but APCOA don't do court.

[Tim]

Not sure what the council (BANES)'s thinking was - obviously there must be a good reason for it. Delays at the barriers on exiting perhaps? Malfunctions with the barriers? (you had to feed your receipt into the machine to make the barrier pop up).

The cynic in me suspects it's probably that people will play it safe and pay for time they probably won't use, thereby raking in a little extra cash than if they only paid for the length of time they'd been there.

I suspect it was because BANES had a very unrealiable system.  It was supported by a call centre in Holland who were unable to release malfunctiing barriers.  It was known for frustrated parkers to drive into barriers until they snapped or get their spanners out and mismantle them.

If you had a malfunctiing ticket there was no way to prove that you had paid.  You just had to phone them up and they took your word for it and opened the barriers for you,.

[argg]

the t&cs regarding parking within the marked bays are displayed on the apcoa signs, so are available prior to purchasing a ticket...

Agreed.  However it refers to being in a marked bay, which I was although, I admit, one wheel on the line and one just over (but still touching).

The guff quoted on the letter I received about a driver needing to find a suitable alternative space cannot be seen on the sign or online.

I shall sit tight and see what happens - I shall let you know

James
(Need a new screen name - no relation to and not to be confused with "Arg" from The Only Way is Essex)

[Mookiemoo]

I've never paid an APCOA^▸ (Car parking company used at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway) - controlled stations in the area) parking fine in my life - and never intend to

They'll chase you and chase you and finally get bored after about the 12th threatening letter

[LiskeardRich]

Reading has pay (on foot) before you exit.  Seems to work OK and in a way is more customer friendly.  You pay for the time you have actually parked and it is less likely you will be rushing when exiting the car park than when entering it and having to pay and display with the minutes ticking away to your train.

I much prefer this method anywhere, it means not worrying if your held up that you may overstay your pay and display ticket.

This used to be the case in the massive Charlotte St Car Park in Bath - however, oddly enough, pay-on-foot-before-you-exit has just recently been removed and the more common "cash and flash" machines re-installed instead. Not sure what the council (BANES)'s thinking was - obviously there must be a good reason for it. Delays at the barriers on exiting perhaps? Malfunctions with the barriers? (you had to feed your receipt into the machine to make the barrier pop up).

There was something similar in Chippenham station car park YEARS ago, with a physical barrier popping up from the tarmac which prevented you from leaving unless you fed a receipted ticket into the machine. That idea didn't last long either. I suspect it's the maintenance and repair cost which puts the mockers on these schemes. Or maybe it damaged one too many cars - they looked pretty blooming lethal.

I worry they may of done this to increase revenue by increased fines for exceeding parking time etc

[argg]

As an update - now got to the phone call stage.   Need to work up some clever "unhelpful responses".  Any suggestions?
 

[LiskeardRich]

do not acknowledge the debt under any circumstances, as soon as you acknowledge the "debt" in any way shape or form, it extends how long they can harrass you for. assuming they are chasing a "debt" they will be governed by FSA rules or something similar, which has a regulation of a maximum number of times they can call each day.

[Chris from Nailsea]

As an update - now got to the phone call stage.  Need to work up some clever "unhelpful responses".  Any suggestions? 

"We have registered with the Telephone Preference Service and therefore we do not take any unsolicited phone calls", and put the phone down. 

[thetrout]

*** Mods, please feel free to delete this post if you decide I am being a little too cheeky... ***

Although a little cheeky... When one of my friends was being harrassed daily by Barclaycard, He passed me the phone when they rang and I answered with: "Good Morning you're speaking to Dave at Dildo's Direct, may I take your order number please...?!" The caller promptly put the phone down!

Or if you're feeling really brave... There is always this... Scares the cr$p out of them

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jwHbOtQCHPk

[thetrout]

The other one that works is every question they ask, just say "Yes" nothing else, just "Yes" odd as it sounds it quite quickly closes the conversation down and it ends up going nowhere

[Andrew1939 from West Oxon]

We have an excellent little device called "Truecall" that is plugged into our telephone line before it reaches our main receiver and intercepts all incoming calls. You can program it to let your friends come through as normal but to refuse any numbers you do not want to call and also asks any numbers not in either category to announce themselves and this is recorded and played to you before allowing them through. You just press "1" on your receiver to let the call through or "#" to refuse and the Truecall gives a message to the caller saying that the call is not wanted (you can program it to say what you want). It removes all the foreign numbers that seem to call nowadays and any telephone pests. You can also press a button on the Truecall and it sends all the details of calls made and received to a personal account at Truecall offices and then download the details so you have a detailed permanent record of all activity on your line.

Highly recommended in your circumstances!