Long wait for charger = parking charge £100!

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Nanuchka

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Location
Cornwall UK
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MG5
Hi,
Just had a £100 demand letter from Parkingeye. This was my first long journey in the MG5 the return leg from Gloucester to Cornwall. I stopped at Gordano Services where there was only one working charge point (out of three). Waited for two other people to charge, and had to leave at 75% as I was getting short of time (probably should have tried somewhere else but I was nervous about running into the same problem and losing my place in the queue, so decided to just wait). OH says just ignore the letter, but I'm not made of such strong stuff as he... WWYD?
N
 
smokie said:
What's it for exactly? Overstaying 2 hours? If so, did you?
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Pretty much this. Regardless of your purpose for being in the car park, it's a car park, observe the signage and pay for parking if you're going to be there for more than the allocated free period. They're unlikely to cancel the ticket.

Pay the early payment fee and chalk it up to experience, and remember to check the parking rules on the private car park you entered.
 
Before you contact the parking company, check out this thread here:

Help with Parking Tickets and Motoring Offences

Never phone them. ALL interactions should be in writing.

Never identify "the driver", not even in advice forums as the parking companies aren't above trawling the forums and have been known to produce screen captures in court. So no "I", "me", "the wife" or even "the cats mother". You deal with the matter as "the keeper", reporting what "the driver" did.
 
I had a different issue with Parking Eye but a few years ago my number plate was cloned and I received a parking demand for a M'way service station I had never been to. Long story short... I sent letters appealing the demand denying it was my car but they still pursued the demand and their fee kept increasing. I never paid and they eventually gave up chasing me. Whole thing was a nightmare. Turns out travellers had cloned my plate and were stealing caravans and parking at the service station!

Good luck hope you get it sorted.
 
Years ago the rules were different and I ignored many snail mails from solicitors right up to and including the bailiffs (twice) - then heard nothing else. I was fairly sure of my ground though, as they'd tried it on someone else at the same spot and they'd got away with it.

Must admit I was a bit concerned at times.
 
Lguk said:
Pretty much this. Regardless of your purpose for being in the car park, it's a car park, observe the signage and pay for parking if you're going to be there for more than the allocated free period. They're unlikely to cancel the ticket.

Pay the early payment fee and chalk it up to experience, and remember to check the parking rules on the private car park you entered.
Click to expand...
Not necessarily. Signage is required to be accurate, readable and capable of being seen by the driver. Cases have been successfully defended on the grounds of inadequate signage.

Slightly off topic but there are many instances of parking tickets being issued in communal car parks for blocks of flats. Parking is often a right conferred by the lease and/or tenancy agreement, which utterly trumps and notice put up by a stranger to the lease agreement. Not only have cases been defended but the Parking co has been severely told off.

Check out forums.pepipoo.com for lots of cases
 
smokie said:
What's it for exactly? Overstaying 2 hours? If so, did you?
Click to expand...
Yes. I overstayed while waiting for a chargepoint as I was nervous about trying somewhere else. Did not even occur to me that it was a problem. If there had been a visible sign it would have galvanised me, that's for sure. I won't make the same mistake again.
 
MikeW said:
I had a different issue with Parking Eye but a few years ago my number plate was cloned and I received a parking demand for a M'way service station I had never been to. Long story short... I sent letters appealing the demand denying it was my car but they still pursued the demand and their fee kept increasing. I never paid and they eventually gave up chasing me. Whole thing was a nightmare. Turns out travellers had cloned my plate and were stealing caravans and parking at the service station!

Good luck hope you get it sorted.
Click to expand...
Not much fun being pursued like that. Well done for standing your ground.
 
Fluffykins said:
Not necessarily. Signage is required to be accurate, readable and capable of being seen by the driver. Cases have been successfully defended on the grounds of inadequate signage.

Slightly off topic but there are many instances of parking tickets being issued in communal car parks for blocks of flats. Parking is often a right conferred by the lease and/or tenancy agreement, which utterly trumps and notice put up by a stranger to the lease agreement. Not only have cases been defended but the Parking co has been severely told off.

Check out forums.pepipoo.com for lots of cases
Click to expand...
I definitely didn't see a sign. I am aware of the 2-hour rule, but it completely went out of my head, I guess cos I was so anxious about the whole thing. If there had been a sign by the charge points that would have galvanised me to try somewhere else. It was a newbie error, but seems to me that having visible signs near charge points would be helpful. The two-hour rule presumably predates the advent of service station charging, which is inherently time-consuming especially when functioning at 1/3 of advertised capacity, and could do with some amendment!
 
Last edited:
Fluffykins said:
Before you contact the parking company, check out this thread here:

Help with Parking Tickets and Motoring Offences

Never phone them. ALL interactions should be in writing.

Never identify "the driver", not even in advice forums as the parking companies aren't above trawling the forums and have been known to produce screen captures in court. So no "I", "me", "the wife" or even "the cats mother". You deal with the matter as "the keeper", reporting what "the driver" did.
Click to expand...
Thank you! VERY helpful.
 
I suspect you aren't the first in very similar circumstances. I'd search the internet first, if nothing found I'd explain the circs to the company and go for the sympathy vote.

EDIT: in fact I just searched "car park charge overstay ev" and the first article had similar examples to yours. I didn't read further.
 
Nanuchka said:
Hi,
Just had a £100 demand letter from Parkingeye. This was my first long journey in the MG5 the return leg from Gloucester to Cornwall. I stopped at Gordano Services where there was only one working charge point (out of three). Waited for two other people to charge, and had to leave at 75% as I was getting short of time (probably should have tried somewhere else but I was nervous about running into the same problem and losing my place in the queue, so decided to just wait). OH says just ignore the letter, but I'm not made of such strong stuff as he... WWYD?
N
Click to expand...
 
I appealed similar, got in touch with my MP and trudyHarrison and got my £140 parking charge cancelled having had to wait at broken pod point charger in Llandudno
 
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