@sainsburys Euro Car Parks, Sainsburys Hoddesdon

[bosun69]

Having sorted my wife's charge at Morrisons, now trying to do same with Sainsburys and Euro Car Parks.

 

ECP sent the initial parking charge,

"issued" 10th February, letter dated 16th February.

Interesting thing was that there was no first name on the letter.

There are two of us here at this address, my son and myself,

so the person to whom it was addressed was ambiguous.

In my view they had not written to me.

 

A second letter, headed notice to keeper was dated 9th March. Again no first names, only surname.

 

I then heard nothing until a letter from Debt Recovery Plus was received, dated 7th May.

 

 

This letter was addressed to me, and headed *Notice of Intended Court Action" which of course it was not.

they demanded £130, £60 more than the alleged original charge.

 

 

This letter referred to a letter dated 14th April, which I had not received.

 

 

Wording was curious - "If you are liable for this charge and do not pay the full amount...."

and threatening to pass a file to the creditors solicitor with a recommendation to commence court action.

 

I replied to this letter saying,

I had not received a pcn,

nor a notice to keeper,

nor a notice of keeper liability.

I disputed the "debt",

said they had not complied with the BPA Code of Practice,

told them I would be writing to the landowner,

which I have,

and telling them if I had no response within 14 days

I would consider this an indication that the matter was closed.

 

 

This prompted a written, rather than a form letter,

explaining some tosh about the BPA Code of Practice,

quoting Clause 22.7 (incorrectly) about challenges not being possible,

referring to the pre-court action code of conduct (irrelevant at this stage)

 

 

with a comment that they were trying to resolve the matter amicably

(strange given that the tone of their other letters was anything but amicable)

and mentioning Beavis vs Parking Eye as a "landmark Case"

and alleging that they believe that similar conditions applied (I think not as I understand it).

 

 

They finally said that they may not reply to any further correspondence if it didn't provide further "evidence"

 

I am drafting a further response and will thank them for not writing further to me and tell them I won't be writing to them again.

 

I have written to Sainsburys but cannot believe the response I have got.

We were actually customers at the store and I submitted receipts to show this, we also used our nectar card.

 

 

It was answered by their customer services "Careline" - more like "Don't Careline"

- saying that they did own the car park, but "would not be able to overturn the charge" which I know to be not true.

 

They did thank me for taking the time to contact them!

There will be a follow up letter addressed personally to their CEO.

 

Interested to receive any comments from anyone.

 

 

How would my view that ECP have not written to me because they only used second names in the initial letters stand up?

 

thanks

[SabreSheep]

Definatly complain to the ceos office

 

sales are down again for them this year

 

Did you get a poplar code? if not demand one.

 

Also was this an ANPR capture, if so the notice to keeper is out of time and that can be use don your appeal to POPLA

 

Also BEVIS case is now subject to appeal again.

[bosun69]

Thanks,

 

 

As things stand, my position is that ECP have not actually served ME with a pcn so no need for a POPLA code as yet, but I will ask for one if I hear further from them properly. The DRP jokers can recommend whatever they like to ECP, until I hear further from ECP I'm just writing to Sainsbury's again and also considering complaint to BPA, for all the good I suspect that will do. Obviously I don't know if the (presumed) contract with Sainsburys allows them to use other companies. I'm wondering if they are also in reach of Data Protection by passing personal information on to another company, there is nothing on the signage about use of personal information, so it could be worth making contact with the ICO.

 

 

It was an ANPR capture, but the images they have sent of the number plates are poor on one of the photos. DRP seem to have got hold of copies of the whole image showing a car like mine, but the VRM is unreadable on one of the photos, so I will challenge this when I hear further.

[ericsbrother]

DR+ are rentathreats and can NOT take you to court. All they do is write letters so ignore them. ECP are rubbish at following the protocols so they can be ignored as well unless they fancy a drubbing in front of a judge as their payemnt terms are an unfair contract and penalises people unlawfully anyway.

[i hate bailiffs]

Sainsburrys will own the car park it will be part of planning permission

To have a car park

You need to go to the ceo of sainsburrys you are their customer ask them to they want you to shop elsewhere

Give them greif over this

Not how customers should be treated they need all they can get

[bosun69]

I am having fun.

 

In February last year went to Hoddesdon for my wife to buy (an expensive!) dress for our daughters wedding. We parked in Sainsbury's but went over the 3 hours as we were a bit of a while in the shop and when finished we had lunch and did some shopping (for which I have receipts) at Sainsburys.

 

A week later, Euro Car Parks sent a Parking Charge Notice to my address, but the letter was only addressed by surname (which oddly also happens to be my sons surname who still lives at the same address and he is well over 18). The images of the registration number of the car were not particularly good either and potentially ambiguous, so I ignored it as in my view it wasn't properly addressed to me. A Notice to Keeper followed, similarly ambiguously addressed.

 

Forward to May 2015 and first letter from DRP arrives, followed by 12 more over the period up to February this year (is this a record?) I did reply to them initially in a brief letter just the once telling them I didn't owe them anything, but perhaps predictably it made no difference. Anyway, the letters eventually stopped in February this year, so it seemed that they had accepted defeat.

 

Last week, however, I received a letter from Gladstones Solicitors. It noted Euro Car Parks as the "claimant", but was equally intimidating and also equally ambiguous as the DRP ones (e.g. "Client may instruct taking legal proceedings" etc.). Notably it did not say exactly who their actual client is, and also requested replying to DRP rather than Gladstones. They also invited me to pay DRP, not them and not Euro Car Parks.

 

I had written to Sainsbury's Chief Executive in May 2015 but I don't believe it ever got anywhere near him as I received a very poor reply from them saying that they "couldn't" cancel the charge, which I believe is nonsense, what they meant was they weren't going to. The reply was from their customer services and it was clear they had no idea about parking contracts. I didn't reply at the time, but having received Gladstones letter, I shall now be writing to them again. I may also write to the BPA about the matter.

 

I am seriously considering taking action for harassment against DRP. It seems to me that their persistent letter sending may constitute harassment under the Protection from Harassment Act 1997, which defines harassment as conduct which causes another person alarm or distress. I think 12 letters threatening court action and so on may just about creep into that category?

 

Incidentally, I don't believe they will take this further as they have made the threats so many times that if they thought they had a case they would surely have done it by now. Maybe I should tell them to get on with court action if they are going to? On the other hand I don't want them to think that because up to now I have totally ignored them that they think they can actually take action and win simply because I don't respond.

 

Any comments or suggestions most welcome.

 

thanks

[dx100uk]

Threads merged

[ericsbrother]

DRP cant do anything, they dont have any interest in anything other than earning a few quid to send out scary letters. Continue ignoring.

[bosun69]

Thanks for that. Sorry, its such a long time ago, I'd forgotten that post and it hadn't come up in my searches.

[dx100uk]

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