Thanks for the reassurance Slick, and for answering my questions.

The T&C's posted on here at the beginning of the thread are thire current T&C's rather than ones that apply to me and they don't seem to want to give me my original T&C's! They are not forthcoming and I wouldn't have thought that would go in their favour at all!

I would like to tell OFT about this issue once it is all over so they can look into specific examples of Harlands and CRS.

Thanks,

Debrob

Excellent, thanks locutus!

Yep Locutus, he is bob on again!

Thanks for the info and letter guide Slick. I will send it Rec'd deliver,y as you advised, and see what happens.

If this goes to court, I should have enough evidence to prove that they didn't give me any information regarding my membership or direct debit info. Therefore they didn't keep their side of the bargain at all. Thank you for the offer of support if this does go to court. If they do want to take me to court, what is the usual process? Would they send me a formal letter telling me to go to court? Obviously, I've never been in this position before so any information would be helpful!

By checking the CRA files, does that mean looking on Experian or similar to check my credit report?

Many thanks

Debrob

I have had a letter today- but not from Harlands.

It is from Credit Resolution Services (so no response letter from Harlands!) as you predicted.

It reads:

"IMPORTANT: PLEASE READ VERY CAREFULLY

An amount of £160 with Harlands has now been passed to us for collection.

In accordance with the terms and conditions of your contract with Harlands you have now also become responsible for our fees in recovering this amount. Our standard charge of £66.50 has therefore been applied bringing the full account balance to £226.50.

You can now only speak to us about this balance. Harlands will simply refer you back to us if you contact them.

- please call us on 01444 449 165 to arrange payment of your balance over the telephone.

- Of you are unable to settle the balance straight away, please still call us as we will help you resolve any problems you have in paying.

- A Collector will be used to recover your balance if you do not call us by 18th October 2012, which may lead to you being taken to court.

We want to help you clear this balance but failure to address the matter may result in further fees being applied, so please call today.

Yours sincerely,

For Credit Resolution Services

Charlie Amos

Collections Department"

They reside on 1st Floor, 41-43 Perrymount Road, Haywards Heath, West Sussex, RH16 3BN.

Do you think that they know that my bank, Santander, is actually chasing them for the money or are they doing all this as a scare tactic. What legal rights do they actually have against me seeing as I have not received a copy of any terms and conditions, did not receive a copy of any direct debit information and have not attempted to answer any of my questions?

What should I expect now in terms of letters and dare I say court?! I have taken on board what you said about ignoring them in an earlier thread. However can they actually and realistically take me to court? Would it be worth them doing that? Also, can any of this go on my credit history?

Many thanks in advance

Hi Slick,

Just a quick update. I haven't had a response from Harlands yet but I will respond when I do!

Thanks

Hi Slick,

A site donation is the least I can do to support you and your site.

Thank you for your advice and the reply. I have written the letter and it will be sent tomorrow. I will let you know their response.

Hi Slick,

I am TDJ's partner but writing on my account. I have donated some money as you have been extremely helpful.

However, I have received a letter today from Harlands. I didn't expect it as I assumed I had won the case - the bank refunded me the money.

Harlands have written:

'We have received an Indemnity Claim from your bank to refund your annual instalment collected in July 2012, total £160.00. Consequently, we write to clarify the situation.

As you are aware upon joining you agreed to the membership Terms and Conditions, that included the renewal of your membership. The instalment collected was valid and correctly collected under the terms and conditions of your membership. At no time did we receive advice from your bank that the Direct Debit had been cancelled therefore the payment is not refundable. Due to the indemnity claim your bank has sent us, this instalment must be repaid to your bank, unless the claim is withdrawn. We therefore ask that you request your bank to withdraw its indemnity claim immediately.

Should you not withdraw the claim and rectify the breach of your membership by 6th October 2012 you will incur a £20.00 administration charge and the matter will be referred to a debt recovery company to pursue for a full refund of £160.00 and all costs incurred.

We trust this letter receives your urgent attention.'

I didn't realise that a company can override a bank's decision and try to get me to undo the indemnity claim but then again I don't really know how they work. Do you have any advice for this?

Also, they have once again failed to supply me with my terms and conditions and an answer to my question relating to whom they sent the information (e-mail) to regarding my personal direct debit with dates etc.

I'm going to see the bank tomorrow to see if they have any information regarding this issue.

Thanks in advance,

Debrob555

Thank you for giving me the reality check I need!!!!

I think I just needed people to spell it out to me!

i just had a bit of a laugh to myself! i looked at the link you sent and the 3rd letter from central ticketing is exactly the same as mine!

I suppose I won't even see the 4th letter becasue I won't be at the same address and it probably wouldn't be a good idea to give them my new address! haha!

Thanks for reassuring me everyone!

Thanks for all your posts. I felt that paying the amount would put my mind to rest and therefore I could enjoy my holiday - we're going away on Tuesday for 3 weeks. we are also changing address. My other thoughts are that if they do summon me to court, however unlikely, I would not know about it and therefore would be in even more trouble!

It would be my luck for me to be the first person Central Ticketing took to court! Haha!

Hi guys,

Just received a letter from 'Graham White Solicitors' saying that I'm about to be taken to court regarding a Central Ticketing fine.

I've contacted Trading Standards and they've told me that GWS have the right to take me to court should they decide to pursue it. Technically I was trespassing on private land and admitted to it so I'm not sure where I stand.

A lot of people have told me to just ignore the letters but as long as I'm getting them I don't feel like I can move on.

Thanks for your help in the past on this matter but once again I'm not sure what to do!

Thanks,

Debbie

I have a pic of the meter but I couldn't take a picture of the bays because I couldn't stop for long enough! However, the bays were just parking on the side of a road. No specific bays but a long one that went round the crescent. Hope that is of some help.

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb94/laztozia/25052010006.jpg

Thanks again for all your posts, you're all being realy helpful.

I'm sorry, don't know whether you are able to see those scans! here are other ones which you may be able to see a bit more clearly!

EDIT - Here are some direct links to the full size images!

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb94/laztozia/parkingticket1edit.jpg

http://i206.photobucket.com/albums/bb94/laztozia/parkingticket2edit.jpg

thanks for your reply. Here is the parking ticket etc. Thank you.

I have recently received a parking ticket but this time it is from the council (I have had 1 private company ticket before). I parked outside my work and paid for 2 hours into the machine, which it accepted. It showed that £2.50 was paid. What I should have done was look at the end time because I would have realised that it only gave me 1 hours parking time.

I should have looked more in detail at the wording of the parking meter because in quite small letters it said 'parking 1 hours' on the meter but it didn't say it anywhere else.

My main argument is that there is insufficient signage for people to realise it is only 1 hour parking plus if it is only 1 hour parking, why does it accept more money than the 1 hour, which is £1.20? Surely that is classed as theft.

I'm going to appeal the ticket on these grounds. Is there anything else I can use to back up my argument? If I lose the appeal or don't really have a case then it will teach me the lesson of being more careful!!!

Thanks in advance for your posts.

thanks very much for all your posts. You've been really helpful! I'll be ignoring the letters from now on!

Thanks for the reply! Is there anything I need to back myself up with legally?

Hi,

I have read a lot of information from various people discussing various ways they were apparently breaking the conditions of the private ticketing companies and I thank you for your comments.

I would like to ask some advice on what has happened to me (although I have a strong suspicion about the response I will get).

I parked my motorbike in a car park which was controlled by Central Ticketing and in big letters clearly stated 'Maximum stay 2 hours'. There were several shops around the car park. I nipped over the road to the college opposite with the full intention of shopping at the shops afterwards. I had parked outside of a bay because I had to attach my motorbike to a bollard (my last one was stolen!) plus it was infront of a disused shop. When I came back to my bike, I had received a parking ticket. It was for 'abused patron parking' - in other words, I walked away from the car park. It did not mention anything to do with where I was parked.

When I came back, I fully read the sign and realised my mistake.

So, I sent them a letter asking for an appeal even though I knew I was completely in the wrong. My appeal was declined. So by looking at all these messages saying ignore the letter etc, am I right to pay the £65 fine seeing as I had breached the conditions of the car park?

However, a wierd thing has happened! In their reply, they stated 'The signs at this site state "Customer parking only. This car park is to be used whilst in store. Parking whilst off site contravenes these terms". I don't know where they got that from because it didn't say that on the sign!!! The sign is attached - hopefully it has uploaded!

So I am not claiming that I am innocent but at the same time, I do not want to pay the fine if legally I do not have to. I hope that makes sense.

Thank you in advance!!