Two separate companies trying to unfairly charge me!

[oustedbymymate]

Last week received a PCN parking charge notice saying I failed to pay for parking. This is a complete false allegation. I paid for parking via Apple Pay at the machine at the required time and amount. It’s a standard flat fee. I have the bank statement with the time date amount and car park robbers company on. I appealed online via the method it told me on the letter. I submitted screen shots of the evidence and wrote explaining I have paid. They have now sent me a letter saying that I need to provide proof via postage such as a parking receipt for them to consider the appeal. I don’t have a receipt. I do have correct bank statement which I’ve already submitted. So now I need to go to the library to print out the picture of the bank statement and then go to the post office to pay yet more money to send it recorded delivery as no doubt they will claim they haven’t received anything.

Then today in the post. A charge for £75 for an engineer that came to my house two weeks ago. My washing machine is less than 3 months old. It doesn’t always spin properly leaving my clothes soaking. I have never had this problem before. I rang hotpoint and said it’s in warrenty and needed someone to look at it. After speaking to most of India over a 2 hours period I finally had an engineer booked to come and look at it. At no point did they tell me there would be a fee. Engineer came a week later and turned my washer on empty and it spun and he said there wasn’t an issue with it and I needed to fill it more. I was like oh right how do you know if it’s empty and he told me there wasn’t anything wrong. Again mention of a charge. Today a letter came charging me £75 for the engineer to look at my empty washing machine. I am really cross. How does he know it isn’t broken as he didn’t fill it with anything?! Why am I being charged??

so nearly £200 I’m having to fight in unfair and unjustified charges. WTF.

Good grief, they are both scammers surely. Of course an empty washing machine doesn't behave like a full one. I wonder what would happen if you simply refused to pay and told them both to take you to court if they felt they had a good case (don't know the answer to that, but Citizens Advice might tell you).

Oh I've been hiy by Hotpoint too! Bought a washerdryer and withing 3 months it was leaking. Got them out for free under the warrenty. The engineer said he couldn't find what was wrong with it and it 'Must have been a invisble hair, coming from inside the machine and poking out from under the door.' WTF right? Well surprise, surprise now it's out of warrenty I get the same problem and this time charge me £149.00 for the pleasure of replacing the door seal. Funny how you've been treated the same isn't it with your machine just out of warrenty.
Sorry to hear about the parking charge. Can you get in touch with the CAB to see if you have any rights? They sound like right con merchants.

@Openmouthinsertfood how very annoying. It seems it is a bloody con. I am going to appeal and u am not going to pay. I will contact the CAB. It’s so frustrating as it’s yet more life admin I have to deal with despite doing everything right!

it’s a lot of money too. Like I’m just like oh ok I’ll drop my pants and pay that then. I’m raging about it as you can tell

What did you have in the washer ours struggles to spin if it’s something heavy on it’s own like a towelling dressing gown ,a throw or a bath sheet on its own
it will just keep going back and forwards occasionally try to spin but if it can’t distribute the load it won’t spin
I stop it take it out dripping wring it out so it does weigh as much as then put it back in and it will spin
its not a fault as such the wet item is to heavy to balance
loading the machine better sorted it I don’t put heavy stuff in on it’s own

@rwalkerjust a normal load. The worst part of it is that the ‘engineer’ tried to tell me that I needed to put MORE washing in. I’m like I’ve got two kids I’m not short of washing!! I can’t be taking each item of clothing out wringing them on some sort of mangle and putting them back in. It’s hard enough keeping on top of the washing mountain as it is!

Very good luck to you, I hope you find out something useful to help. I definitely would look into it though, sounds like they are chancing their arm. I'm not surprised you are annoyed! I imagine they rely on harrassing people into paying, making it as difficult as posible not too.

I can deal with 1 but not 2. You don’t have to respond or do anything about the parking charge as you have paid and they’ve acknowledged what you sent to them (by them asking for more).

Instead you can enjoy the luxury of their increasingly hysterical letters to you.

And you can then further enjoy going to court where they tried to claim £890 costs from me as well as the original parking charge. The judge asked to see my bank statement and car registered in the app then asked them to confirm that they have evidence it was that car parked.

They confirmed (solicitor looked embarrassed as fuck) and the judge said please take back to your employer yet again that they have once again wasted the courts time. He said yet again he criticised their practices. And of course dismissed all charges.

I really enjoyed it.

@LaurieFairyCakei didn’t use an app i paid that the machine with Apple Pay but have proof on my bank account which i have sent them.

That’s all good 😊 I would literally ignore them, you have paid

With the parking ticket just tell them to take you to court.

They will drop it once you submit the evidence.

Even if they don't drop it you have a solid defence.

If per chance you lost then you can pay at that point.

The washer: I would call and tell them it is still faulty so you are not paying for a call out and require another engineer to come and actually repair or replace free of charge under the warranty. Send in an email also for written proof. I'd be chasing for a replacement washing machine. So frustrating.

The parking: respond in writing that as you paid and supplied proof, you will not be spending any more time or expense because of their poor admin (you did put the correct registration number in?).

I can't imagine them taking anything further, but if they do, you've got proof you paid.

@AlmostAnUnderAchieveryes I did put correct number plate in. And even if I did make a mistake which I didn’t it wouldn’t have been able to ‘pull up’ the plate if you see what I mean.

yes will also chase washer. It’s all just such a Ballache

never buy Hotpoint or candy machines. they are the same company. I bought one and they replaced it four times in a 2-year period because they all kept breaking down and during the warranty period they do have a number. do give them a call because this should have been free. regarding the parking fee, send them the evidence in the post and then ignore all correspondence from them. if it goes to court you will be exonerated

so frustrating. The washing machine spin thing is really common. Poor elderly MIL has had engineer our several times (free) on warranty due to imbalance on spin loads preventing spinning. Engineer said he does 6 visits a week on this involving new machines. A case of technology going backward

This was on Channel 5 news the other day. The same as you. The woman had paid. They said people end up paying as they are worried but not to. I'll try and find an article about it

I think this is the video. https://x.com/5_News/status/2112586377447514427

Do you want help with troubleshooting your washer?

Does it never spin, or is it selective? What speed are you spinning at? How large are your loads, how many kg of laundry is the machine rated at?

My machine is getting on for over 6 years now and I admit I have unintentionally abused it by spinning very heavy loads of loads of towels at 1600 many times over the years, so now it is struggling with spinning. Not that I'm suggesting you've done that with a 3 month old machine!

I've just had to be more mindful with my laundry to get it to spin. If it's a particularly heavy load it sometimes struggles to balance, so I run a 800 spin first. Then it can run the 1600 spin as it is easier to balance the load once a lot of the water has gone.

Can your machine cope with a lower spin speed of say 400 to 800? If so, it probably is a balance issue of the laundry inside. Machines are just much more sensitive now as the technology has moved on they are performing more functions, but also less robust.

If it can't cope with a 400 spin with a reasonably full load, then I would say it is definitely faulty, as my poor old wearing out machine can still do that easily.

I find the spin cycle works even if the wash cycle fails to spin properly, something to do with the transition from wash to spin not working properly as said above it can't balance the load so won't spin fast. Re-booting the machine seemed to help, might have been a glitch in the program or I'm being more careful loading.