Petty? Yes. Illegal? Not sure...messing with a morally corrupt car park

Soldato
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often these old ones are where the "debt" has been sold on, have proceedings been issued? even when they have I have known them get withdrawn if the defendant makes it clear they will attend and fight it
Still resides with the issuer. Luckily I have a valid excuse in that I had sold the car a couple of weeks beforehand. DVLA have updated their records, I've let them know I will fight - TBC on them withdrawing the claim...I have spoken to them twice and they suggested both times to go ahead and enter my defence.
 
Soldato
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Agreed, it hasn't got much better since the 2012 reforms. If anything it is worse. Bottom feeder industry. I guess at least clamping is banned (?).
 
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Soldato
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If it was a council carpark you'd have a good chance at an appeal as its private, good luck with that. They often know full well its not possible to pay and basically scam you huge fines for not paying what you couldn't pay in the first place. If it was me I wouldn't have parked there not that thats much help you now.

But not sure if that retaliation was such a good idea, fun but could lay yourself open to a counterclaim.
 
Soldato
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Almost exactly the same thing happened to me, but where the online system appeared to work fine but obviously didn't. Neither Euro Car parks or the company managing the online system were any help and actually appear to mutually reinforce the system whereby you're forced to pay £100 for no good reason. I added a negative review to their established google maps pin and unsurprisingly, it was one of many others who had similar issues. No compassion, no understanding and an unreasonable fine for what would have been a £2 charge or similar. The central government needs to act on these things but they won't as they love the big businesses who run this stuff. Local councils can't/don't do much anymore since there is so little budget and most car parks now seem private, at least round here. Will not park there again or in any Euro Car parks if I can help it at all.
 
Caporegime
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I once had a trailer behind my car so I bought two tickets from the car parking machine as I was taking up a double space and put one in my car and stuck the other to the trailer. Still got a ticket and lost the appeal as I had broken their terms and conditions about no trailers allowed. That was the council as well/

I am still miffed as its a small market town and their is still a farmers market in it and basically farmers have nowhere to legally park if they want to do some banking or pick up some shopping after they have been to the market.
 
Caporegime
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Almost exactly the same thing happened to me, but where the online system appeared to work fine but obviously didn't. Neither Euro Car parks or the company managing the online system were any help and actually appear to mutually reinforce the system whereby you're forced to pay £100 for no good reason. I added a negative review to their established google maps pin and unsurprisingly, it was one of many others who had similar issues. No compassion, no understanding and an unreasonable fine for what would have been a £2 charge or similar. The central government needs to act on these things but they won't as they love the big businesses who run this stuff. Local councils can't/don't do much anymore since there is so little budget and most car parks now seem private, at least round here. Will not park there again or in any Euro Car parks if I can help it at all.
The situation with hospital car parks tells you all you need to know about the state of the industry in this country. All private, no free parking for staff, and in fact they go after staff the same as they go after members of the public, so it's clearly not run for the benefit of the NHS...

Parking is just a farce, really. Nice little money spinner for somebody and don't expect fairness, ever. It's purely about scamming drivers out of their cash. That's it.

Oh and also for scamming delivery drivers out of their cash too. Found that out one time delivering equipment to a hospital dept, right to their door and carried it inside for them, only to issued a fine and told that's not permitted, you should have obtained a permit to make deliveries, or had the porter collect the equipment from you off-site (outside of the areas the parking company control).

It's a massive scam, always.
 
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Soldato
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How do we know that the online payment method that was initially tried, and failed, isn't actually set-up to fail on purpose so people are forced to queue for the machine. Thus causing them to go over the ridiculous 10 minute rule?
Because nobody is that stupid of a conspiracy theorist, let alone a CT targeting parking machines.
 
Caporegime
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Because nobody is that stupid of a conspiracy theorist, let alone a CT targeting parking machines.
Let's say instead that they have "little incentive to fix their online systems". Does that sound better? It's basically the same thing.

And no, it's not a CT. It's shady business practice, which is very, very common.
 
Soldato
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Let's say instead that they have "little incentive to fix their online systems". Does that sound better? It's basically the same thing.

And no, it's not a CT. It's shady business practice, which is very, very common.
:confused: it's just such drivel. Why wouldn't they want people to have a good experience and return often? Why wouldn't they want to avoid sending a jobber out there to empty the coins?

You guys live in some alternate world where everything is somehow convoluted or against society even if it's so mundane and blindingly obviously not.
 
Soldato
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Because nobody is that stupid of a conspiracy theorist, let alone a CT targeting parking machines.

OK then, how about this. It's not faulty on purpose, but the company knows damn well that the online payment method isn't working as intended and just doesn't bother to fix it because it's another revenue stream. Not a conspiracy, just a dodgy parking company doing what they do best.
 
Caporegime
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:confused: it's just such drivel. Why wouldn't they want people to have a good experience and return often? Why wouldn't they want to avoid sending a jobber out there to empty the coins?

You guys live in some alternate world where everything is somehow convoluted or against society even if it's so mundane and blindingly obviously not.
But you have to park somewhere, and they know that... and they all have similar terms, similar fines, etc.

Also with the amount of fining that goes on, would you bet against fines being a decent % of their total income? I wouldn't bet against it.

If they were at all concerned about a "good experience" they wouldn't dismiss the OP's case, now, would they? Clearly they don't care about a good experience at all. Op paid after 15 mins, paid more than he should have, and still got fined. The "10 minute rule" is obviously unreasonable, and designed to generate a nice income from fines. Esp when you dismiss all reasonable appeals. Then your assertion that they want a good customer relationship is proven to be, well, "drivel".
 
Soldato
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But you have to park somewhere, and they know that... and they all have similar terms, similar fines, etc.

Also with the amount of fining that goes on, would you bet against fines being a decent % of their total income? I wouldn't bet against it.

If they were at all concerned about a "good experience" they wouldn't dismiss the OP's case, now, would they? Clearly they don't care about a good experience at all. Op paid after 15 mins, paid more than he should have, and still got fined. The "10 minute rule" is obviously unreasonable, and designed to generate a nice income from fines. Esp when you dismiss all reasonable appeals. Then your assertion that they want a good customer relationship is proven to be, well, "drivel".
There is a difference between a company enforcing T&C's, how unfairly or fairly it may seem, and suggesting they are purposely delaying the fix of an online payments solution to make this scenario happen.

The OP could be telling complete BS for example.:rolleyes:
 
Associate
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ANPR should be banned from all car parks and only used by the police and on petrol forecourts. As someone who has to go fix servers in retail parks and supermarkets it’s always the first thing I have to do on arrival, book myself in on their car register so I don’t get a ticket.
 
Soldato
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I'm sat here having just appealed a PCN for 'no stopping', £100 'fine' for literally a 30 second stop to let the wife out of the car. If it was something reasonable like £10,i probably would have just paid it and moved on with my life but £100 is just laughable.

I was being nagged by the Mrs to just pay it for peace of mind but I couldn't bring myself to give money to these scammers. After an hour or so reading legal beagles and MSE, you realise that they are or such shaky legal ground, it's not worth paying even if you are completely in the wrong.

I can't blame you for getting petty with them though!
 
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