Dozens and dozens of innocent motorists are being ripped-off by Premier Parking Solutions
My story is this:
During a touring holiday in Cornwall, I parked my car in Sunny Corner Car Park in Mevagissey. I bought a ticket for 2 hours at the ticket machine and displayed it in my windscreen as I should. I returned to my car well within the time I had purchased and drove away. Two weeks later, I received through the post a Parking Charge Notice from Premier Parking Solutions, claiming that I had not paid for my stay on their land. Of course, by then I had discarded the ticket as people invariably do – though I won’t from now on! The Notice was an invoice for £60 for unpaid parking and gave details of how to appeal. However, any appeal if rejected would delay the payment and thus the charge would immediately rise to £100. I issued an appeal and as predicted this was turned down so I now owe them £100. I then appealed to a so-called Independent Appeal Organisation (thought it’s not really “independent” because the whole car-park management industry is self-regulated!). This too was rejected. My only 2 remaining courses of action are to shell out the £100 and draw a line under the whole episode or opt to have my day in court which in my case would be prohibitively expensive.
I have checked out several internet forums e.g. Trustpilot, MSE etc on this subject and discovered that I am far from alone in this sorry saga. Dozens of people have reported that this has happened to them in car parks managed by PPS – quite a few of them at the same car park as myself. It seems that their ticket machines are not always recording the car registration numbers so tickets purchased (even on the rare occasions they are retained by the motorist) aren’t a valid proof of purchase.
I wonder if any other contributors to Mumsnet have had a similar experience and if so, would they be interested in trying to set up some sort of support group to initiate a legal challenge against this unethical practice? It's probably too late for me to avoid having to shell out £100, but PPS shouldn't be allowed to continue ripping off folk in this way.