Parking eye charge …

[cheshireknobb]

Parked in a Tesco car park, went to see a Chinese lady, came back and drove off… been sent a £60 fine for being there 32 mins… might be 2 mins over the limit but not sure….
Any advice on appealing?

Write to Tesco say you have a parking fine but was fault on self service it kept say assist required your shopping trip tjat should have taken 20mins max took 30mins

and if fine stays you will put on social media

dont message the parking eye firm is just a CHARGE Not a fine

[DastardlyDick]

DM is right, and the owner can ask you to leave the property or you'd be trespassing, which as far as I'm aware is a civil matter, (like squatting), and can take months to resolve. Travelling communities tend to take advantage of this and I'm totally against that type of abuse of others property, be they private or commercial.
Sometimes the law has to be tested IMO or we might find new laws creep in and take away our rights.

Squatting in a home is now a Criminal matter, and Police can deal with it, but Commercial premises are still a Civil matter.

[Skeleton]

Not sure on the specific details for your ticket, but I once got a ParkingEye ticket for apparently leaving the site whilst parked. Had 3 years of letters from various debt collection agencies culminating in a court date being sent. Each one went straight in the bin. Decided to ride it out and they emailed the day before the court date to drop it all. I never sent any correspondence in their direction.

However, probably wouldn’t recommend this as a strategy as it could be pretty stressful, I just found it entertaining and luckily can afford to pay the costs of it had gone to court.

From what OP has said, he had no right to park there as not a Tesco customer that day, so best to just pay the fine and learn from it.

[Xtro]

Squatting in a home is now a Criminal matter, and Police can deal with it, but Commercial premises are still a Civil matter.

    

[scutty brown]

Write to Tesco say you have a parking fine but was fault on self service it kept say assist required your shopping trip tjat should have taken 20mins max took 30mins

and if fine stays you will put on social media

dont message the parking eye firm is just a CHARGE Not a fine

If you do what he says you're just sticking your head in a noose.
If you claim the machine was faulty, their records will disprove that.
Threaten them with social media and they'll just say "come on then"
If you ignore Parking Eye you'll end up in court

[advent2016]

Parked in a Tesco car park, went to see a Chinese lady, came back and drove off… been sent a £60 fine for being there 32 mins… might be 2 mins over the limit but not sure….
Any advice on appealing?

It's not a fine!, In general, only courts or councils can impose fine, rarely do they want to go to court.
These are mostly just invoices. The only way they can be enforced is by taking you to a county court. If you have good evidence, and it was unfair you will probably win. Obviously some caveats - If the land is Freeman or monarch owned, if owned by the King then he nearly always wins, unless you are a knight of the garter.
Don't ignore them, but don't be bullied into a quick response.

There is some good advice on MSE forums, create an anonymous user
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There are template letters that stop most of these in their tracks.  First thing is never, ever, identify the driver to these search agencies.

I've never paid one of these "invoices"

I've written to Supermarket area managers and shown them how much I spend in their car parks, and do they want to lose me to a competitor. They're often very helpful. I drive other veterans as part of a "Good neighbours scheme" and we get longer to park as we are dropping off and helping injured, recovering people shop. Look at all reasons why they should drop the ticket.

[Doc Holliday]

This is one of those threads where the OP is vague and does not contain sufficient information, compounded by no attempt to follow up on the various replies.

Tesco has free parking for customers only, but the time restrictions vary by store. The devil is in the detail.

In addition Tesco does not appear to use 'Parking Eye' as a management company? External Link/Members Only

[lillythesavage]

How times have changed  .

Bored in the pub on a hot sticky Friday night, 4 of us, nice car outside, decided to fuck off to Cornwall. Cannot remember paying to park anywhere.
The weather was so good, we decided not to leave on Sunday, call in sick, we eventually stayed 2 weeks in glorious sunshine.

Monday morning, we needed cash, remember that  , parked on a double yellow outside a bank, got out and spotted the warden coming towards us. Went to move car.

He shouted, " Alright lads, I am going to lunch ".  Got talking to him, he said he had never issued a PCN, searched shops for offenders of cars that needed moving, " We want and need tourists in Cornwall"  was his reasoning, not putting them off coming back.

Different times indeed, this was very early 80,s, remembering the car, a MK4 Cortina, ex company fleet, so would have been 4 years old max.

Would he still be in the job today? Not age wise  , would not making money, but being paid, be acceptable anywhere today?

[Count Duckula]

Not sure on the specific details for your ticket, but I once got a ParkingEye ticket for apparently leaving the site whilst parked. Had 3 years of letters from various debt collection agencies culminating in a court date being sent. Each one went straight in the bin. Decided to ride it out and they emailed the day before the court date to drop it all. I never sent any correspondence in their direction.

However, probably wouldn’t recommend this as a strategy as it could be pretty stressful, I just found it entertaining and luckily can afford to pay the costs of it had gone to court.

From what OP has said, he had no right to park there as not a Tesco customer that day, so best to just pay the fine and learn from it.

yeah i wouldn't recommend this either. i did the same (based on basically being a lazy twat more than anything else)

ended up with a ccj that i then had no choice to deal with for considerably more than the original £60 hit.

was parking eye btw

[sir wanksalot]

These parking companies can be utter c**** at times.

A friend of mine went shopping with a group of her friends to a retail park. They mooched around all the shops as women do before finally landing at a Costa where they spent close to 1.5 - 2 hrs chatting, drinking, re-ordering drinks etc.

Few days later, she gets a parking ticket as she had gone over the 3hr parking limit. She was fuming as she had been shopping there all that time. She refused to pay and despite regular letters nothing has escalated to a court date.

Costa weren't interested in cancelling the ticket as they said it's upto the parking company whilst the parking company who SHOULD be acting on behalf of the retailers clearly want to limit how much time and money you spend on the retail park

[Blackpool Rock]

yeah i wouldn't recommend this either. i did the same (based on basically being a lazy twat more than anything else)

ended up with a ccj that i then had no choice to deal with for considerably more than the original £60 hit.

was parking eye btw

Yep I bailed out and paid just before getting the CCJ, cost me a shit load more than if i'd paid up straight away and the stress wasn't good over a number of months.
Some parking companies may not follow through for various reasons such as not 100% complying with the regulations as to how much signage is required etc, some may figure they will do the easy but and send out the invoices and make enough money from those who pay up whereas they start incurring more costs having to follow up

However as I previously said Parking eye are notorious for having everything in place to comply with the rules and following through.

I say this as someone who personally hates these companies and IMO it's an abuse of ANPR cameras "Big Brother" etc however my advice is just pay up.
I was mighty pissed off when I got my fine / invoice however I do have to concede that I used a car park and didn't comply with the rules of using it, annoying but as others have pointed out i'd be hacked off if someone decided to park on my driveway 

[Blackpool Rock]

These parking companies can be utter c**** at times.

A friend of mine went shopping with a group of her friends to a retail park. They mooched around all the shops as women do before finally landing at a Costa where they spent close to 1.5 - 2 hrs chatting, drinking, re-ordering drinks etc.

Few days later, she gets a parking ticket as she had gone over the 3hr parking limit. She was fuming as she had been shopping there all that time. She refused to pay and despite regular letters nothing has escalated to a court date.

Costa weren't interested in cancelling the ticket as they said it's upto the parking company whilst the parking company who SHOULD be acting on behalf of the retailers clearly want to limit how much time and money you spend on the retail park

3 hours free parking seems adequate to do as much shopping as most people would ever need.

Perhaps the parking restrictions are in place to stop people parking their cars all day while they go elsewhere / to work etc and use it as free parking but then once word gets round 100's of others also do the same and genuine shoppers can't park 

[advent2016]

I used to run my own small car park in a seaside town (this was to stop it falling foul of compulsory purchase) I was cheap, and it was always full. Customers paid to park and 99% did and bought a day ticket. I wasn't large enough to get DVLA type search facilities so I used social media/local people to trace addresses for cars (it always seemed to be the chap with the £100K car that couldn't pay the £10 day ticket). I'd sent a few pay me £50 or it's my solicitor and most paid up. Some didn't, these recalcitrant's we may have let a tyre or two down or more subtle ways.

[sir wanksalot]

3 hours free parking seems adequate to do as much shopping as most people would ever need.

Perhaps the parking restrictions are in place to stop people parking their cars all day while they go elsewhere / to work etc and use it as free parking but then once word gets round 100's of others also do the same and genuine shoppers can't park 

I understand why the parking resstrictions are there. As you say, it is to deter non-shoppers from using it as a free car park however, it should not be upto the parking company to then determine that three hours of shopping and spending money in the retailers is long enough and anything over that time results in a parking fine.

The whole point of the parking restrictions is to allow genuine shoppers to shop

[cunnyhunt]

When the GF’s family have field gates blocked they move them with a telehandler to the wettest part of a field. Only one complained so far and tried taking it to law but failed. There’s enough signage to tell drivers not to block but plenty of selfish cunts do.

Maybe Tesco/Aldi should do the same.

[Blackpool Rock]

I understand why the parking resstrictions are there. As you say, it is to deter non-shoppers from using it as a free car park however, it should not be upto the parking company to then determine that three hours of shopping and spending money in the retailers is long enough and anything over that time results in a parking fine.

The whole point of the parking restrictions is to allow genuine shoppers to shop

How do you know who decided on the time limit 
I would expect that the land owner would have decided after consultation with the businesses who have shops there and rent it

[Blackpool Rock]

When the GF’s family have field gates blocked they move them with a telehandler to the wettest part of a field. Only one complained so far and tried taking it to law but failed. There’s enough signage to tell drivers not to block but plenty of selfish cunts do.

Maybe Tesco/Aldi should do the same.

I worked somewhere with a fairly large car park but during the day when more staff were all on site it would be full and people had to double park.
Every so often someone would randomly park a car and leave it for a few days, i'm sure many never got noticed but occasionally some twat would be obvious especially if they were half blocking someone else in etc and then the car park list would get checked

One time a tatty old Audi just stood out, it wasn't parked straight and was partly over the lines into the next bay, a quick online check showed that it wasn't taxed / insured / MOT plus the tyres were worn.
It got blocked in by a 1 ton pallet so they had to come to reception to ask for it to be moved so they could get their car out at which point they were told not to park in our car park again

Our MD was friendly with some of the top plod and wouldn't you just know it a traffic car was parked up just round the corner as they drove out 

[sir wanksalot]

How do you know who decided on the time limit 
I would expect that the land owner would have decided after consultation with the businesses who have shops there and rent it

Based on common sense. Why would any right minded retailer/group of retailers/landlord decide that paying customers should cease spending money after a period of time.

The 3 hr time limit was devised to deter non-shoppers. If someone can prove they were on site and shopping then the ticket should be cancelled.

[Blackpool Rock]

Based on common sense. Why would any right minded retailer/group of retailers/landlord decide that paying customers should cease spending money after a period of time.

The 3 hr time limit was devised to deter non-shoppers. If someone can prove they were on site and shopping then the ticket should be cancelled.

But common sense surely tells most people that 3 hours is more than ample to do your shopping 

[Watts.E.Dunn]

FWIW Tesco have a store at what they call Yarrow road Fulbourn, just to the south east of Cambridge.

Its by itself and has quite a large car park i can't think who would want to park there overnight apart from Pikeys.

Don't think any service providers are in that area now.

No pubs or the like close by.

So why?.. Unless its a blank policy covering all their stores?..

[advent2016]

But common sense surely tells most people that 3 hours is more than ample to do your shopping 

Disabled (Blue badge) people may require longer, people that shop for others in bulk may require longer. The store manager at our local supermarkets waives the polices for those groups, but the parking company often ignore it until they get a letter. We collect for our food bank and that can take a long time, though we usually park in the loading areas.

[timsussex]

But common sense surely tells most people that 3 hours is more than ample to do your shopping 

Not for a pair of women !

I can do a weekly shop c£75 in 20 minutes so yes you are right for 50% of the population

One of my local LIDL has a cr park where you have to scan your receipt or you will be charged £25 for car parking

[threechilliman]

Not for a pair of women !

I can do a weekly shop c£75 in 20 minutes so yes you are right for 50% of the population

One of my local LIDL has a cr park where you have to scan your receipt or you will be charged £25 for car parking

I feel a price-match coming on.

[advent2016]

One of my local LIDL has a cr park where you have to scan your receipt or you will be charged £25 for car parking

How do they extract the £25? Not from the card you used to purchase the shopping, surely? Sounds like nonsense to me.

[Blackpool Rock]

Thought it was an interesting concept by some earlier in this thread about how they had previously shopped at XYZ so classed themselves as a customer and claimed they should be able to park there whenever they wanted to and basically forever.

Couldn't be bothered cooking anything last night so decided to take a wander down into Blackpool to get something to eat and then remembered about 10 years ago I went somewhere and had an "All you can eat buffet" so thought i'd go there again.

Everything was fine until I pointed out that i'd been before so classed myself as a customer and as i'd previously purchased the "All you can eat" deal that surely it meant for life 

They called me a fucking chancer and told me to piss off, i'm fuming, don't they know I have rights   

[tintin100]

Thought it was an interesting concept by some earlier in this thread about how they had previously shopped at XYZ so classed themselves as a customer and claimed they should be able to park there whenever they wanted to and basically forever.

Couldn't be bothered cooking anything last night so decided to take a wander down into Blackpool to get something to eat and then remembered about 10 years ago I went somewhere and had an "All you can eat buffet" so thought i'd go there again.

Everything was fine until I pointed out that i'd been before so classed myself as a customer and as i'd previously purchased the "All you can eat" deal that surely it meant for life 

They called me a fucking chancer and told me to piss off, i'm fuming, don't they know I have rights   

I like the way you spin that.

[Strawberry]

Checking parking rules is now part of life for drivers, one of the problems sometimes is actually figuring out the payment system.

A few years ago I watched a TV programme about people disputing parking fines, luckily the examples followed seemed to have plenty of spare time. The hours, hassle, effort did not seem worth the potential 'saving' of £60.

Just make sure you allow plenty of time and perhaps nip in to buy something, seems a £5 purchase could have saved the upset of the letter.

As someone mentioned above however if there is a genuine error, such as the pub example above then a gentle explanation may work. Quite a few years ago I was caught by a hotel suddenly changing it's policy, for years they'd never required anyone to register then suddenly they did BUT signs were not updated nor the change obvious. I had stayed at the hotel for personal reasons several times in the past. When I received a notification of fine letter a quick Google revealed others had been caught out the same way at the same hotel. I phoned the hotel explained I had parked on previous stays without needing to register. It was obvious staff were dealing with a lot of disgruntled guests, they arranged for the fine to be dropped. I did receive another letter following up the fine, contacted hotel again, this time it was cancelled. When I next visited the hotel probably 6 months later the hotel had installed huge signs both in the car park and entrance to the hotel.

[Blackpool Rock]

Checking parking rules is now part of life for drivers, one of the problems sometimes is actually figuring out the payment system.

A few years ago I watched a TV programme about people disputing parking fines, luckily the examples followed seemed to have plenty of spare time. The hours, hassle, effort did not seem worth the potential 'saving' of £60.

Just make sure you allow plenty of time and perhaps nip in to buy something, seems a £5 purchase could have saved the upset of the letter.

As someone mentioned above however if there is a genuine error, such as the pub example above then a gentle explanation may work. Quite a few years ago I was caught by a hotel suddenly changing it's policy, for years they'd never required anyone to register then suddenly they did BUT signs were not updated nor the change obvious. I had stayed at the hotel for personal reasons several times in the past. When I received a notification of fine letter a quick Google revealed others had been caught out the same way at the same hotel. I phoned the hotel explained I had parked on previous stays without needing to register. It was obvious staff were dealing with a lot of disgruntled guests, they arranged for the fine to be dropped. I did receive another letter following up the fine, contacted hotel again, this time it was cancelled. When I next visited the hotel probably 6 months later the hotel had installed huge signs both in the car park and entrance to the hotel.

Yeah that's why I absolutely hate driving or parking anywhere these days that i've not been to before or aren't familiar with.
Stray a wheel into a bus lane to get out of the way of a blue light emergency vehicle and get a fine 
Turn up and see a load of signs with small print which may be legible but frankly isn't clear and may as well be written in a foreign language 
I find it really stressful especially if you think you may be under a 5 or 10 minute time limit to leave the car park before incurring a fine.
Had it a few years ago having driven into the wrong hotel car park by the passenger who was navigating that the exit was blocked by a barrier so i couldn't get out 
Had it earlier this year on a punt that the only way to pay was by phone but my old punting phone didn't support the App 

When I got caught about 8 years ago it was on a punt in a hotel car park that i'd used for punting many times before but they'd obviously changed things

[daviemac]

Stray a wheel into a bus lane to get out of the way of a blue light emergency vehicle and get a fine 

Emergency vehicles can use bus lanes just like they can use motorway hard shoulders. Car drivers can't break the law to get out of their way.

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[tintin100]

Emergency vehicles can use bus lanes just like they can use motorway hard shoulders. Car drivers can't break the law to get out of their way.

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Indeed, some of us know that but why do emergency vehicles still have their sirens blaring out loud when the car drivers have no where to go, hence pressurising the driving to commit the offence. I have seen that happen many times in central London.

[Blackpool Rock]

Indeed, some of us know that but why do emergency vehicles still have their sirens blaring out loud when the car drivers have no where to go, hence pressurising the driving to commit the offence. I have seen that happen many times in central London.

I was under the impression that emergency vehicles couldn't use the bus lanes until recently, not sure if the information was just wrong or whether the rules were changed at some point.
Part of the issue here is when loads of drivers move over into the bus lane to let the ambulance through and you don't so look like a total XYZ for holding it up but it now can't use the bus lane as it's full of cars that have pulled over 

[advent2016]

£60 is still quite a lot to me. I'd rather give it to a charity than a parking scammer.

Strawberry
I noticed you parked outside my (fictitious) cat hotel, I've sent you several made up threats re taking you to court, meow
Please send me £60 in cat treats

Or I'll send Tigger round to stare at you

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[DastardlyDick]

I was under the impression that emergency vehicles couldn't use the bus lanes until recently, not sure if the information was just wrong or whether the rules were changed at some point.
Part of the issue here is when loads of drivers move over into the bus lane to let the ambulance through and you don't so look like a total XYZ for holding it up but it now can't use the bus lane as it's full of cars that have pulled over 

My understanding is that it varies by Council, some do allow it some don't and some demand proof that the vehicle was genuinely on an Emergency Call and will only cancel if such proof is provided. London Councils mostly operate this option, but there may be others.

[daviemac]

I was under the impression that emergency vehicles couldn't use the bus lanes until recently, not sure if the information was just wrong or whether the rules were changed at some point.
Part of the issue here is when loads of drivers move over into the bus lane to let the ambulance through and you don't so look like a total XYZ for holding it up but it now can't use the bus lane as it's full of cars that have pulled over 

Emergency vehicle can use any bus lane as long as it's a genuine emergency and the have their lights and sirens on, any drivers who don't know the rules of the road shouldn't be driving.

If a car goes in a bus lane they get a fine, there's no excuse, emergency vehicle would still be reported but the fine squashed if they were legally allowed to use the bus lane at the time.

It isn't really difficult a car driver is not allowed to break the law in order to let an emergency vehicle past, emergency vehicles can use bus lanes, motorway hard shoulders and go through red lights, the onus is on them to find a way through, car drivers are expected to make it as easy as possible while staying within the law.

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[Watts.E.Dunn]

Near Cambridge theres the village of Gt Shelford that has a station with a level crossing ajacent to it.

Once was waiting near the gates when a blinking ambulance came from one direction and a couple of Fire engines the other! So having some knowlege of railway procedures i vaulted across the closed gates picked up the phone spoke to the signaller declaring an emenergency sithation and at that the barriers rose, ambulance amn fire engines passed over the crossing and barriers came down an that was that bloody train was a light engine, diesel loco on its own pased by!

Was asked if i could hold back the traffic once they had passed, bloody thankfull i had a Yellow hi-vis jacket on!:)

Pity they couldnt put a bridge there be very worthwhile!!

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[sir wanksalot]

But common sense surely tells most people that 3 hours is more than ample to do your shopping 

I think you're missing my point.

For most people, yes, three hours is plenty but if a shopper, or a group of shoppers, want to spend an afternoon going through every shop on the retail park AND spending money in some of them then the retailers should be encouraging them to do that.

The whole science behind retail is to get customers to spend more time in their stores and spend money.

The retailers and/or landlord have thought 3 hours is enough for most but if a shopper can prove they were actually shopping for that duration then they really should be cancelling the parking fine. It's bad business otherwise.

No doubt you will see it differently 

[daviemac]

I think you're missing my point.

For most people, yes, three hours is plenty but if a shopper, or a group of shoppers, want to spend an afternoon going through every shop on the retail park AND spending money in some of them then the retailers should be encouraging them to do that.

The whole science behind retail is to get customers to spend more time in their stores and spend money.

The retailers and/or landlord have thought 3 hours is enough for most but if a shopper can prove they were actually shopping for that duration then they really should be cancelling the parking fine. It's bad business otherwise.

No doubt you will see it differently

Go to Gateshead's Metro Centre there's 10,000 free parking spaces with no time limit.

[southcoastpunter]

I think you're missing my point.

For most people, yes, three hours is plenty but if a shopper, or a group of shoppers, want to spend an afternoon going through every shop on the retail park AND spending money in some of them then the retailers should be encouraging them to do that.

The whole science behind retail is to get customers to spend more time in their stores and spend money.

The retailers and/or landlord have thought 3 hours is enough for most but if a shopper can prove they were actually shopping for that duration then they really should be cancelling the parking fine. It's bad business otherwise.

you are talking about what should in your opinion happen and not what does or did happen. Parking companies are usually just engaged to enforce the rules of parking as determined by the landlord/owner of the car park - if they have to investigate and determine whether someone spent enough to justify overstaying - how much is enough? etc Very messy and very time consuming.

And besides this is not what the OP in this thread did. He simply used a Tesco car park to park whilst he went punting (and overstayed - albeit only by a bit)

[daviemac]

And besides this is not what the OP in this thread did. He simply used a Tesco car park to park whilst he went punting (and overstayed - albeit only by a bit)

Perhaps the OP can explain how he was only in the carpark for 32 minutes yet he managed to get a punt in during that time. I've never done a 15 minute quickie but I would imagine it would be a struggle to park up walk to the venue have the punt then walk back within 32 minutes.

Perhaps those who do 15 minute bookings could give an estimated time frame for how long on average it would take from parking to getting back to the car.   

[DastardlyDick]

The whole science behind retail is to get customers to spend more time in their stores and spend money.

What many shopping centres are doing is trying to do is  make themselves a "destination" by including a lot of restaurants, a cinema etc rather than just a collection of shops - the theory being that if customers don't go outside their centre, they'll spend more (or all) of their "spare" cash there. This makes them more attractive to shop owners, who will rent space there rather than the "High Street" - some even have the cheapest parking in the local area. I used to work near Westfield in Shepherds Bush, and it was cheaper for me to park there for my shift than it was to park on street and pay Hammersmith Council and a lot safer too!