Tweet
Hi all, wanted to probe your collective brains as this is quite the Small Claims case that I am currently pursuing. And also a matter of principle.
My brother is profoundly deaf and uses two hearing aids, he uses a relay service to make calls, etc. He went out Christmas shopping with his autistic son and on using a car-park found the vehicle registration machine was not working. He was only able to enter the two R's from his reg. number. He collected his ticket, used the shop for 55 minutes of the hour paid for, then left, within this time. It was not an option to call the car parking company, with his autistic son Alfy kicking off, and his having to make use of a relay service to speak to anyone.
He received a penalty ticket a week later, giving him the opportunity to pay £60 now, or £100 later, from this scummy company.
He used their appeals process, sending a photo of the ticket which he luckily still had, to prove he did not try to rip them off. He works 50 hours a week and cares for his son Alfy, and as I stated, the last thing he had time to do with Alfy in tow was use the relay service to call the car parking company.
He did not however state all this in the email he sent Smart Parking, being incredibly busy, and figuring that with the ticket itself, and assuming they would obviously know about the problems with their machines at the car park, as well as their knowing that there are two R's in his vehicle registration number, which proves he knew the reg. number and tried to enter said number, this would all suffice.
But it did not. They sent him to 'allegedly' independent adjudicator POPLA to appeal. Which he did, detailing everything. Unbelievably, they still sided with Scum Parking,
By now the ticket was £100. He had to ask for my help as I am the only relative he has able to deal with this sort of thing on his behalf. I work abroad, and was quite horrified to read about all this. From the USA, I called, thinking that a reasonable conversation should nip this in the bud, and prepared to write off the cost of the call as long as it was quickly taken care of.
Well, obvs, it was not. I was on hold forever, before finally reaching a very rude lady who refused to talk to me in any great depth about the matter said "pay up", and then hung up on me. I called again, and explained to the next person I spoke with that all call recordings would be obtained under the data Protection Act. I also told her I was calling from the USA and all call costs would have to be covered too. She merely told me nothing would change, and to pay or debt collection agencies would become involved in a weeks time.
To say I was angry is an understatement. I immediately began litigation, for my call costs and my time thus far at the LIP rate of £19 per hour. I had discovered that the phone number they gave my brother was a Premium rate number and I had spent £255 on these two calls. Not that it particularly matters though, they are paying for all my call costs, even if I have to go to hell and back to get said costs paid.
I ended the call with this lady by requesting a Subject Access Report (and so both call recordings), and asked whether it was normal practice for Smart Parking to talk to anyone that calls up mentioning a relative's ticket? I was not put through any security and given all pertinent information about said ticket, incident, etc.
So I took legal action. They acknowledged the claim, telling the Court they intended to Defend. They then sent a letter normal delivery to my brother, to say they would waive the ticket and cover the call costs after seeing evidence of such. But there was no second page and no contact name or details. I had just spent that entire day researching Smart Parking, finding other cases where they did not succeed in Court because they were not actually cheated of the premium to use the car park, and also discovering that POPLA is paid for by the ticketing companies and not really impartial at all. This added a further three hours of my time spent dealing with it all.
I will add here that up to this point, three weeks later, I had sent several emails pursuing my Subject Access Report, and heard nothing back other than form responses to tell me a proper response would be sent within a week. But emails most definitely were not producing satisfactory responses, so I was forced to spend more money calling this company again from abroad (I was now working in Thailand). Nobody answered the first call. The second time I spoke to a man who told me Smart Parking's legal representative would email me and send the letter again, but he refused to give me his/her name or contact details, and then hung up on me.
I waited a week and got no emails form them, nor any further response to my DSAR request. I then called AGAIN, and had a 40 minute call with the person at Smart Parking who was dealing with this. I told her I would send evidence of the call costs up to that point, and she said she was agreeable to paying them as Smart Parking wanted to settle. She stated she emailed me, but that is codswallop. There is no email from her in my junk, or deleted folder and no email in my inbox. I have checked and double-checked. She either sent it to the wrong email address, or she is fibbing.
Our Grandfather then passed away, last Friday. I sent this email the following day, after my brother, on his day off, had to get up early to go the Post Office to collect a copy of the letter that was sent with a page missing the week before, sent recorded delivery:
"Mrs (CENSORED),
Please view the attached proof of call costs from Thailand.
I have called from my Thai number on the following dates, I am sure you are able to trace the calls.
JANAURY
22nd 15 minutes
23rd 23 minutes
29th 2 x 1 minute
30th 1 minute + 41 minutes
This comes to a total of 83 minutes x 135 Baht per minute (to include 7% tax) = 11,205 Baht ; £270.
The calls in the POC total £255. To get proof of such would involve a call to the head office in Seattle and that would take time I do not have right now. Our grandfather passed away last night.
I suggest either A) You make payment of the above £525 of call costs, I will forgo anything for my time and my costs i.e. filing fee, time spent as an LIP 6 hours x £19, and you agree to pay a further £100 to my brother as way of apology.
B ) You agree to make full payment of the claim and this further £270 of Thai call costs, and £200 compensation, and do so after June, when I am next in the USA and can call the provider for free to get the required proof.
And obviously cancel the ticket.
I will then notify the Court to discontinue.
I add here, not as a threat, but fyi: I have a contact at the Guardian named (CENSORED). He works for the sports betting part of their online platform. I am aware of the Guardians Consumer Champions column, and given how terribly this whole affair has been handled by your company, your next move will dictate whether I think this is a story that needs to be told via that column.
I vey much hope we won't have any more of our time wasted at this painful time for the family.
Sincerely,"
There was no response, until yesterday, when I was sent the attached part admission. With a phone number which is a dead line.
Well to say I am FURIOUS is an understatement. I sent the following email:
"Mrs (CENSORED),
Please see the email chain below.
I made my verbal request to exercise my rights under the data Protection Act on 2nd January.
This DSAR is now overdue. I am contacting the ICO's office today to make a formal complaint. Call costs will be passed on to you.
For the avoidance of doubt, your part admission, filed yesterday, is rejected.
The fact that you chose to file this part admission instead of emailing me back speaks volumes, and shows that attempting to enter into discussions with you was clearly pointless.
Your company is quite simply not trustworthy.
I put you under notice that I am now claiming all costs including my time, moving forward.
An application will be made to Court in due course, to increase the amount claimed by approx. £800.
This application fee of £255 will also be passed on to you, as will my travel expenses for attending Court with my brother, which will be at least £600.
Congratulations. You have now ensured that your company is locked in to this matter until the bitter end. i.e. until the conclusion of the final hearing.
The Guardian will be in touch soon as well, I expect."
I have also just started the following Twitter page, after reading several stories about this scummy company.
https://twitter.com/smartparkingsc1
Here are several stories on this company:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...-smart-parking
https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...parking-ticket
https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...ines-car-parks
https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...penalty-appeal
So moving forward, does anyone have any advice on how to continue with my proceedings? I have already rejected the offer at Court, and sent this rejection to Smart parking, as well as tell them of my Twitter site and my intention to canvass for other unhappy members of the public when I get a story in the Guardian.
Any advice moving forward would be greatly appreciated. I will not stand for the way this scumbag company have tried to cheat my brother like this, and now think I will just walk away £300 worse off than when this whole incident started.
*
My brother is profoundly deaf and uses two hearing aids, he uses a relay service to make calls, etc. He went out Christmas shopping with his autistic son and on using a car-park found the vehicle registration machine was not working. He was only able to enter the two R's from his reg. number. He collected his ticket, used the shop for 55 minutes of the hour paid for, then left, within this time. It was not an option to call the car parking company, with his autistic son Alfy kicking off, and his having to make use of a relay service to speak to anyone.
He received a penalty ticket a week later, giving him the opportunity to pay £60 now, or £100 later, from this scummy company.
He used their appeals process, sending a photo of the ticket which he luckily still had, to prove he did not try to rip them off. He works 50 hours a week and cares for his son Alfy, and as I stated, the last thing he had time to do with Alfy in tow was use the relay service to call the car parking company.
He did not however state all this in the email he sent Smart Parking, being incredibly busy, and figuring that with the ticket itself, and assuming they would obviously know about the problems with their machines at the car park, as well as their knowing that there are two R's in his vehicle registration number, which proves he knew the reg. number and tried to enter said number, this would all suffice.
But it did not. They sent him to 'allegedly' independent adjudicator POPLA to appeal. Which he did, detailing everything. Unbelievably, they still sided with Scum Parking,
By now the ticket was £100. He had to ask for my help as I am the only relative he has able to deal with this sort of thing on his behalf. I work abroad, and was quite horrified to read about all this. From the USA, I called, thinking that a reasonable conversation should nip this in the bud, and prepared to write off the cost of the call as long as it was quickly taken care of.
Well, obvs, it was not. I was on hold forever, before finally reaching a very rude lady who refused to talk to me in any great depth about the matter said "pay up", and then hung up on me. I called again, and explained to the next person I spoke with that all call recordings would be obtained under the data Protection Act. I also told her I was calling from the USA and all call costs would have to be covered too. She merely told me nothing would change, and to pay or debt collection agencies would become involved in a weeks time.
To say I was angry is an understatement. I immediately began litigation, for my call costs and my time thus far at the LIP rate of £19 per hour. I had discovered that the phone number they gave my brother was a Premium rate number and I had spent £255 on these two calls. Not that it particularly matters though, they are paying for all my call costs, even if I have to go to hell and back to get said costs paid.
I ended the call with this lady by requesting a Subject Access Report (and so both call recordings), and asked whether it was normal practice for Smart Parking to talk to anyone that calls up mentioning a relative's ticket? I was not put through any security and given all pertinent information about said ticket, incident, etc.
So I took legal action. They acknowledged the claim, telling the Court they intended to Defend. They then sent a letter normal delivery to my brother, to say they would waive the ticket and cover the call costs after seeing evidence of such. But there was no second page and no contact name or details. I had just spent that entire day researching Smart Parking, finding other cases where they did not succeed in Court because they were not actually cheated of the premium to use the car park, and also discovering that POPLA is paid for by the ticketing companies and not really impartial at all. This added a further three hours of my time spent dealing with it all.
I will add here that up to this point, three weeks later, I had sent several emails pursuing my Subject Access Report, and heard nothing back other than form responses to tell me a proper response would be sent within a week. But emails most definitely were not producing satisfactory responses, so I was forced to spend more money calling this company again from abroad (I was now working in Thailand). Nobody answered the first call. The second time I spoke to a man who told me Smart Parking's legal representative would email me and send the letter again, but he refused to give me his/her name or contact details, and then hung up on me.
I waited a week and got no emails form them, nor any further response to my DSAR request. I then called AGAIN, and had a 40 minute call with the person at Smart Parking who was dealing with this. I told her I would send evidence of the call costs up to that point, and she said she was agreeable to paying them as Smart Parking wanted to settle. She stated she emailed me, but that is codswallop. There is no email from her in my junk, or deleted folder and no email in my inbox. I have checked and double-checked. She either sent it to the wrong email address, or she is fibbing.
Our Grandfather then passed away, last Friday. I sent this email the following day, after my brother, on his day off, had to get up early to go the Post Office to collect a copy of the letter that was sent with a page missing the week before, sent recorded delivery:
"Mrs (CENSORED),
Please view the attached proof of call costs from Thailand.
I have called from my Thai number on the following dates, I am sure you are able to trace the calls.
JANAURY
22nd 15 minutes
23rd 23 minutes
29th 2 x 1 minute
30th 1 minute + 41 minutes
This comes to a total of 83 minutes x 135 Baht per minute (to include 7% tax) = 11,205 Baht ; £270.
The calls in the POC total £255. To get proof of such would involve a call to the head office in Seattle and that would take time I do not have right now. Our grandfather passed away last night.
I suggest either A) You make payment of the above £525 of call costs, I will forgo anything for my time and my costs i.e. filing fee, time spent as an LIP 6 hours x £19, and you agree to pay a further £100 to my brother as way of apology.
B ) You agree to make full payment of the claim and this further £270 of Thai call costs, and £200 compensation, and do so after June, when I am next in the USA and can call the provider for free to get the required proof.
And obviously cancel the ticket.
I will then notify the Court to discontinue.
I add here, not as a threat, but fyi: I have a contact at the Guardian named (CENSORED). He works for the sports betting part of their online platform. I am aware of the Guardians Consumer Champions column, and given how terribly this whole affair has been handled by your company, your next move will dictate whether I think this is a story that needs to be told via that column.
I vey much hope we won't have any more of our time wasted at this painful time for the family.
Sincerely,"
There was no response, until yesterday, when I was sent the attached part admission. With a phone number which is a dead line.
Well to say I am FURIOUS is an understatement. I sent the following email:
"Mrs (CENSORED),
Please see the email chain below.
I made my verbal request to exercise my rights under the data Protection Act on 2nd January.
This DSAR is now overdue. I am contacting the ICO's office today to make a formal complaint. Call costs will be passed on to you.
For the avoidance of doubt, your part admission, filed yesterday, is rejected.
The fact that you chose to file this part admission instead of emailing me back speaks volumes, and shows that attempting to enter into discussions with you was clearly pointless.
Your company is quite simply not trustworthy.
I put you under notice that I am now claiming all costs including my time, moving forward.
An application will be made to Court in due course, to increase the amount claimed by approx. £800.
This application fee of £255 will also be passed on to you, as will my travel expenses for attending Court with my brother, which will be at least £600.
Congratulations. You have now ensured that your company is locked in to this matter until the bitter end. i.e. until the conclusion of the final hearing.
The Guardian will be in touch soon as well, I expect."
I have also just started the following Twitter page, after reading several stories about this scummy company.
https://twitter.com/smartparkingsc1
Here are several stories on this company:
https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...-smart-parking
https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...parking-ticket
https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...ines-car-parks
https://www.theguardian.com/money/20...penalty-appeal
So moving forward, does anyone have any advice on how to continue with my proceedings? I have already rejected the offer at Court, and sent this rejection to Smart parking, as well as tell them of my Twitter site and my intention to canvass for other unhappy members of the public when I get a story in the Guardian.
Any advice moving forward would be greatly appreciated. I will not stand for the way this scumbag company have tried to cheat my brother like this, and now think I will just walk away £300 worse off than when this whole incident started.
*
Comment