VCS Spycar photos PCN - no stopping - southend Airport

[TerraFirma]

Is there anything you can advise on this? 

 

We hired a car in Southend Airport in August and on return, with 89 yr old mother who is a blue badge holder, we could find no bay to drop her within walking distance to the terminal.   We stopped briefly in a bus stop to allow my mother/bags out while husband dropped the car back at the car rental depot some distance away.  This was for seconds and at just after 6am in the morning.  

Months after our visit, we received a VCS notice with a £100 penalty.  The notice was received AFTER the appeals deadline. We live in Ireland (i.e. non-UK) so we presume insufficient postage was put on this.     We had taken photos of my mother at the time, just in case.  The VCS photos from a white van that pulled up behind us, deliberately excluded her alighting from the vehicle with walking stick and only showed us with bags.  We even spoke to the driver to explain and he understood & said it was grand!

 

We went round in circles trying to speak to someone at VCS and eventually got through to a rep who told us to email the debt recovery email address.  We did this and have sent 3 emails with no reply.  Meantime, we have another nasty and threatening letter, the fine has inflated and we are being told we have to go to court (in the UK presumably).

 

Any ideas on how to deal with these people?  Online views seem to me that they are a bullying, unscrupulous crowd set up to trap people like us. 

[BankFodder]

The parking experts will be along in the next day or so – (bank holidays are in the way). However, your problem is that the car is hired presumably from a UK rental company and also they will have your credit card details. Presumably the letter you have received is from the rental company not from VCS. It seems to me quite likely that the rental company will simply settle the bill because they don't want the headache of fighting this kind of stuff when they already have access to your credit card details and your deposit and can simply apply the debit.

As I say, people with better experience and better noise will be along at some point but that's my initial view.

I suppose that you could think about taking it up with the rental company but I'm afraid that they won't be interested. They just want to get on with their life and their business. Your characterisation of VCS and other private parking companies is pretty well spot on – but I'm afraid that the view I take is that when these bounty hunters managed to target rental vehicles, then they are dealing with easy pickings.

If I have it wrong and your correspondence is directly from VCS then please let us know. I have assumed that the correspondence has been passed on by the rental company.

 

[dx100uk]

Its not a fine

Nor is it a penalty

Its a speculative invoice for breaking some imaginary contract.

 

Its airport land covered by byelaws that vcs cant trump nor enforce.

 

There are 100's of no stopping threads here to read.

 

Ignore until/unless you get a letter of claim

[TerraFirma]

Hi there

Thanks for the replies.  

Our car hire company (Europcar) initially wrote to us to say they were supplying our details to the issuing body of the "Penalty Charge Notice" and charged us £40 for the pleasure.  This was also months after and we could not take it up any further with Europcar as they handed to VCS who were now in touch directly.

 

I don't know anything about Bye-laws in Britain but thanks for that info, am hoping you are right to ignore it.

Although I have sent 3 emails to the email address given to me by VCS staff.  

 

The staff member I got to on the phone, acknowledged that we had no time to appeal due to the length of time taken and said the appeal would be acceptable by email (although he did say it's unlikely the charge would be waived).  

 

Had absolutely no email replies from them, just another letter received on 18 December, saying the company intends to take me to court for the "debt", which s now £160 and that my opportunity to appeal has already lapsed.  

That letter was dated 20th November (!) and had a "deadline for action" of 4th December !!

 

Regards, 

G

 

 

[dx100uk]

well do a chargeback on that £40 admin fee?

they have no legal right to take it 

they can only do that for Penalty Charge Notices [fines] from a local authority 

 

as for the rest 

get reading up as advised 'PCN no stopping'.

[BankFodder]

Please read our customer services guide before doing anything else on the telephone

[dx100uk]

oh god yes

never phone or email these fleecing private parking companies.

 

for ref

heres a few threads worthy of a read regarding private parking tickets at airports and alike that are covered by byelaws.

 

https://cse.google.com/cse?cx=partner-pub-8889411648654839:3134625398&q=no stopping PCN&oq=no stopping PCN&gs_l=partner-generic.12...126982.135515.0.137224.15.15.0.0.0.0.154.1196.14j1.15.0.gsnos%2Cn%3D13...0.8713j21126757j16...1.34.partner-generic..15.0.0._eNOmX0p4cE

[TerraFirma]

Thanks Guys.  

 

I'm reading through threads and will desist any further communication/email with them as advised.  

 

Just noticed a post by Honey Bee in one of the threads on "PCN No stopping" that Southend Airport had an article in the 'Evening Echo' with a new scheme  https://www.echo-news.co.uk/news/17725996.drivers-stopping-in-airport-roads-could-be-given-100-fine/

Hopefully this isn't making it justifiable.  

 

Thanks for all your help.  

Am sure ye have better things to be doing on NYE so have a good one and here's to 2020 giving a lesson to VCS et al !!

[dx100uk]

typical useless press

call it a fine!!

 

dx

 

[ericsbrother]

the airport may have a need to manage their roads but they are constrained by the laws and cant just hand it all over to some bandits to make a profit from non- breaches.

 

what it needs is for everyone who beats VCS at court to sue the airport owners for breach of the GDPR and they will soon be looking at their arrangements.

 

Laziness through and through. Same as govt outsourcing almost everything to Crapita a company that is like the banks, too big to fail so we will all be baling them out in due course