Advice: Parking Charge arising from Miskeyed Reg Plate

[Bigtrev2]

Hi My first post. I have had a thorough read of the forum but haven't found a case quite like my current situation.

 

I received last week an official looking Parking Charge Notice from Excel Parking. A demand for £60 for non payment for parking at a Somerfield store in Sheffield. My wife who was in charge of the car had inadvertently missed the first letter of the registration plate when she keyed in the details before paying the parking charge.

 

As the car is actually registered in my name (and I hadn't come across this site) I wrote back with a copy of the ticket showing that payment had been made and the charge was unfair.

 

Excel have now responded, that payment for parking had been made but as it was our mistake I should pick up their admin costs of £10 for the DVLA search with the usual dire threats of court action etc.

 

Initial instinct was to pay it and inform them to go forth as a tenner isn't worth going to war. However they have really got under my skin and I rather like the idea of being a pain in the a##e to this outfit.

 

I wish I had spotted the excellent templates available here earlier. Any thoughts of what I should include in my response?.

 

TIA

[Michael Browne]

What about your admin costs in having to deal with an unecessary demand for £60. Send them an invoice.

 

You could have some real sport here

[Barnsley Boy]

Excel really are having a laugh - they seriously expect you to believe their threat of taking you to court for £10.

 

Only write back to them if you want to.

 

Having read through the templates you will appreciate that they were only entitled to payment for parking. The £60 is a disallowable penalty.

 

It sounds like the mistake was theirs anyway. The ticket was presumably displayed, the over zealous attendant noted the ticket did not have all Eyes dotted & Tees crossed and decided to issue the ticket.

 

If the above was the case then surely the whole thing is down to Excel's own idiocy.

[wavydavy01]

Right, this has made me more determined now to invoice them for my admin fees.

If you have a look at my thread under 'Excel parking' you will see I have had problems with these jokers in the exact same car park.

Unfortunately for them, they are completely in the wrong and have had to admit it.

If they are then billing you for their time / admin costs, I am going to do the same.

[MalMonroe]

Hello, I am new to the forum! But I miskeyed my registration into the machine in Sheffield too. Unfortunately I did not keep my ticket and Excel wrote to me almost three weeks after I had parked in Broomhill - who would have kept it??? I've found two cases where people's fines were reduced from £60 to £10 because they could actually produce their tickets displaying the wrong registration number. I'm contesting my case strenuously and will continue to do so now because they are saying that I did not abide by their rules by incorrectly inputting my registration number. I feel a lot happier now knowing that I can write yet another letter asking why they let people off when they can produce their ticket but ignore those who can't.

Thanks to you all! Wish me luck - please! And shall we all write to DVLA saying we don't want our details to be released like this any more? I've written to my MP and will keep on pestering her too.

[Barnsley Boy]

Malmonroe,

 

GOOD LUCK - not that you need it, not a cat in hells chance of Excel actioning this although you will get the standard BS threatening letters.

 

You paid for the parking but made an innocent typo entering your reg details. Excel think this "offence" is worth £60 to them. They are virtually alone in holding this opinion. It may be shared by other parking companies but not, I trust, by the legal profession.

 

STAND FIRM! DON'T PAY

[emsgeorge]

Does this not make excel seem stupid - they are admitting that their costs involved in the whole issue / dvla etc are a total of £10 - so anything more is a penalty !!.

 

Might be worth scrubbing the letter of all personal details and posting it up here.

 

I know excel never takes anyone to court, but if they start, it might be worth putting a copy of the letter in the bundle, to show that their charges ARE only a max of £10, and they freely admit it to others.

 

And for the OP - The dvla info costs £2.50. If you really feel that you want to pay them, then offer them £2.50 at the tops.

[Bigtrev2]

An update;

 

Responded to their demand for the £10 admin charge as follows;

 

"Thank you for your letter of 12th February 2008.

 

I note your acknowledgement that I purchased a valid Pay and Display ticket.

 

Would you please advise me what statute(s) and/or judicial precedent enable you to enforce this “cancellation fee” against me? .

 

In the meantime I absolutely deny your claim that the amount claimed, or any further amount at all, is due to you from me"

 

Got a reply yesterday with a further demand for the £10 as follows;

 

"We appreciate your comments, however, as the signs posted advise motorists that in order to purchase avalid pay and display ticket, their full Vehicle registration Number must be entered into the Pay and Display ticket machine. On the date in question your vehicle's registration number was entered incorrectly. as a gesture of goodwill, we are prepared to waive the Notice, however the £10 cancellation fee must be received in our office by 11th of March 2008.

 

If you fail to comply, we will continue to pursue the Original Notice, whcih may incur additional costs and fees.

 

We hope this answers any queries and helps to clarify the situation."

 

Er no, Excel you have completely failed to answer the question, so this response went out earlier;

 

"

Thank you for your letter of 26th February 2008.

 

Unfortunately you have not addressed the points raised in my letter of 14th February 2008.

 

You have previously acknowledged that I purchased a valid pay and display ticket. Could you please advise me under what statute(s) and/or judicial precedent am I liable to pay this supplementary charge?.

 

I will pay the charge, if it has been legally presented, but having checked the relevant case law I am unable to find any precedent to support your demand"

 

Since this started I have been surprised by the number of people who have given me similar stories of their bad experiences using this car park and Excel. Unfortunately everyone else had disposed of their ticket and have coughed up.I am prepared to fight this although my wife is now getting nervous as she fears bad credit reports, courts etc.

 

Surely they will cut their losses at some point - won't they?

[Barnsley Boy]

Yes they will. No one here has heard of excel taking anybody to court over one of these tickets. It is certainly not going to happen over £10. I'd just ignore them from now on, writing back just seems to encourage a response. If you must write back, try the "cease & desist" letter from Bernies templates.

[MalMonroe]

Thanks Barnsley Boy. I'm fighting on and am typing my letter as we speak. Excel are inconsistent in their treatment of motorists and now I won't be able to go to Broomhill any more as I can't possibly use that car park!

 

I'm going to write about DVLA disclosing my details. I wrote to DVLA about it and they said they 'acted within the confines of the law'. I don't think it's good enough and the law should be changed.

 

I may end up in court or I may not but I'm not going to pay them and I'm even prepared to go to jail!! Watch this space..... (do they have PCs in prison?)

[Barnsley Boy]

Malmonroe,

 

I wouldn't write too much, it only encourages a response. If you must write and taking your point that you are prepared to go all the way on this:

 

If you must write just say something along the lines of..

 

"The parking was paid for, there is no loss. Your attempt to recover further monies due to alleged mistypying of the car registration constitutes an unenforceable penalty under both contract and statute law.

 

I will pay for your proposed charge on instruction of the court and only upon instruction of the court.

 

I demand that you issue Court proceedings within 14 days or cease and desist from any further contact.

Any other form of contact whatsoever, whether by you or your agents, will be regarded as harassment and will be reported as such.

y/f

Don't worry - they would be mad to take up your challange, they'd lose. It is important that, should they continue writing to you, after receiving something along the lines of the above that you report them to trading standards for harrassment.

 

 

 

[MalMonroe]

Thank you, BB!

It's really good to know that I'm not the only one who's received this kind of notification. Having done a bit more research on the internet I've discovered that Excel Parking Services are not thought of very highly (to say the least). In one town they were forced to stop operating one of their parks because they caused so much trouble and harassment. It'd be good if we could get them closed down in Sheffield. I have to say that the council owned car parks are much more user-friendly for those of us who don't always have our reading specs with us - their machines are set out like phone keypads so anyone can find the numbers easily.

[CinnamonLady]

Oh, I cannot tell you all what a relief it has been to find this site. I received a ticket recently from Excel in the Broomhill car park, and had accidentally misentered my registration number by one character.

 

I still had the ticket, returned it with a covering letter, and like Bigtrev2, they are attempting to claim £10 costs.

 

My husband has written a lengthy letter inviting them to take us to court (sent directly to their MD), and we await their response.

 

I will keep you informed, though what i would like, to be honest, is to go to court, happily pay over £2.50 MINUS the 60p I've already paid, and hear the judge tear shreds off Excel for their poorly designed machines, blatant profiteering, and lack of intelligence in their software systems for detecting and matching "orphan" tickets.

 

Fabulous site. Thank you.

 

CL

[Barnsley Boy]

CinnamonLady,

 

Good on you. Having sent the letter "take us to court" then you can cheerfully ignore anything from excel from now on. All they will write is "we may take you to court", having asked them to do just that why would they not have the courage of their convictions.

 

Simply - because they would lose and they know it!

[CinnamonLady]

Check out the Mail on Sunday today - landmark case ruling that may prove their downfall. Can't see how their business model can survive if the court has ruled that the business model is founded on unlawful penalty charges.

 

Judge quashes £300 parking fine...because it set out to ‘frighten and intimidate’ driver | the Mail on Sunday

 

Anyone with more legal nouse than me care to comment?

 

Regards,

 

CL

[pin1onu]

Check out the Mail on Sunday today - landmark case ruling that may prove their downfall. Can't see how their business model can survive if the court has ruled that the business model is founded on unlawful penalty charges.

 

Judge quashes £300 parking fine...because it set out to ‘frighten and intimidate’ driver | the Mail on Sunday

 

Anyone with more legal nouse than me care to comment?

 

Regards,

 

CL

Unfortunately its not landmark because its only county court and therefore not binding on other courts.

 

That said it is promising because there have been a few reports in the media in the past few weeks of motorists fighting back and judges accepting that these so called fines are penalty charges.