Received a parking charge - am I being unreasonable?

[Mont Blanc]

I just received a parking charge notice, from Horizon parking, for my wife’s car, for our local supermarket car park.

It shows photos of my wife’s car entering the car park at about 9pm on a Thursday evening, and exiting at around 8:30am the next morning, Friday.

They therefore allege that we overstayed the 2 hour limit and owe them £90, or £45 if paid promptly.

The car did indeed enter and leave at those times pictured, but it also left 15 mins after the Thursday entry, and entered 20 mins before the Friday entry…

So it was 2 separate visits yet their cameras/software system has picked the first entry and the last exit.

Sorry if I somehow made that description complex.

I went to the online appeal for Horizon parking, and asked them to cancel the PCN as it was 2 separate visits, said their system is faulty, and informed them that I have CCTV and Ring footage from my house that shows the vehicle movements in line with the entry/exit timings at the car park, but more importantly shows the car parked on our drive when it was apparently left at the supermarket all night long.

They replied, basically saying they didn’t believe me, and that I would have to supply them with the videos from my home CCTV so they can consider my appeal.

Would it be unreasonable of me to reply like this:

“No, I am not wasting any more of my time on this matter. I have told you your system is mistaken or faulty, given you the explanation as to the actual movements of my car, and I will not use my spare time to locate, download, or send my private CCTV footage to you. If you wish to verify my story, you can check the Supermarket car park CCTV yourselves on your own time, or check the other images held by your own camera system at the times I have mentioned. If you decide to persue this matter, I will enjoy attending court, showing my CCTV footage, and listening to you apologise for wasting the courts time, and be questioned over your faulty equipment, and asked how many other motorists you have been falsely accused”

Is that just too much of being a dick, and I should just send them the CCTV footage?

For the record, I am a sucker for obeying parking rules on private land. I always buy tickets as required, follow the rules, and do not overstay.

But for some reason this one has irked me…

[loskie]

Just relay your story to the Supermarket Customer Service and ask them to sort it.


You shouldn't have to do Horizon's or the supermarket's job for them.

[Mont Blanc]

loskie said:

Just relay your story to the Supermarket Customer Service and ask them to sort it.


You shouldn't have to do Horizon's or the supermarket's job for them.

That’s a very valid point. I really shouldn’t have to spend any time dealing with a contractor of the supermarket after spending my money there.

I will try that when I am in there this week.

[Chasing Potatoes]

That would have irked me equally and I think I'd have sent the same reply as you.

[Countdown]

Actually I wouldn’t have bothered replying again. I’d let the tossers take me to Court, hopefully resulting in them incurring the maximum amount of costs.

[bad company]

I’d send the reply you suggested. As someone else said you don’t have to do their job for them.

[a311]

I had something similar a while back and got in touch with the supermarket and it was quickly written off.

My sister battled a charge all the way to end, disputed it, paid a fee to one of these companies that fight it for you and was eventually given a date to attend court. The company didn't write it off until 24 hours of the court date (it might even of been the morning of).

Generally these things take time and effort to dispute in the process getting most people's backs up if they are/think they're in the right.

If you now ignore it you'll get multiple letters etc. My wife recently got one when the parking charges weren't enforced on weekends she still needed multiple comms and eventually getting in touch with the land owner before the parking company wrote it off. These have just become another one of modern life in Britain's annoyances.

[Mr E]

bad company said:

I’d send the reply you suggested. As someone else said you don’t have to do their job for them.

I would. For a reasonable fee.
Say, the parking charge they’re trying to apply. In advance, obviously.

[Mont Blanc]

I genuinely would be quite happy to attend court just to embarrass them, show my evidence, and question the accuracy of their camera systems, but I would also be slightly worried about getting some old duffer of a judge who accuses me of wasting the courts time becuase I could have just sent them my CCTV footage and had the thing dealt with well before court.

I’ve reviewed the Doorbell footage, and I really don’t see why I should give it to them, it features my wife and my toddler going to and from the car, having conversations which you can clearly hear, and is basically a glimpse into my private life on my private property.

I’m not precious about our privacy when out in public, but I just think Parking Horizon can do one over this matter.

What if I didn’t have CCTV or a Ring door bell and was falsely accused of this? Just bend over and pay up?

[Pit Pony]

Mont Blanc said:

loskie said:

Just relay your story to the Supermarket Customer Service and ask them to sort it.


You shouldn't have to do Horizon's or the supermarket's job for them.

That’s a very valid point. I really shouldn’t have to spend any time dealing with a contractor of the supermarket after spending my money there.

I will try that when I am in there this week.

I'd be contacting the store manager, nit pissing around with hard working but potentially ineffective customer service people.

Although the anarchist inside me, would be wanting to invoice them for the time I'd already wasted at £100 per hour, with a fixed price quote for the admin in providing them further proof that thier system is flawed.
And an offer to let them sue you, with a promise to counter sue for your lost time at erm a very reasonable £100 an hour.
Ironic that the anarchist is prepared to go to court buy hey.
I'd probably refer them to the very relevant (at least in any case like this which you would win in court) test case Arkel vs Pressdram (1971)
https://proftomcrick.com/2014/04/29/arkell-v-press...

[Super Sonic]

Mont Blanc said:

I genuinely would be quite happy to attend court just to embarrass them, show my evidence, and question the accuracy of their camera systems, but I would also be slightly worried about getting some old duffer of a judge who accuses me of wasting the courts time becuase I could have just sent them my CCTV footage and had the thing dealt with well before court.

I’ve reviewed the Doorbell footage, and I really don’t see why I should give it to them, it features my wife and my toddler going to and from the car, having conversations which you can clearly hear, and is basically a glimpse into my private life on my private property.

I’m not precious about our privacy when out in public, but I just think Parking Horizon can do one over this matter.

What if I didn’t have CCTV or a Ring door bell and was falsely accused of this? Just bend over and pay up?

Can you charge them an 'administration fee' for reviewing your doorbell footage and writing a letter informing them you have evidence etc?

[fatjon]

Tell them how much you will charge for sending them the footage etc. Ask them to agree to pay or take you to court. Then they have had a chance to mitigate their costs.

Play them at their own game, do not roll over and hand over the vaseline like several sheeple have advised. This kind of crap stops when people stop it.

[119]

Mont Blanc said:

loskie said:

Just relay your story to the Supermarket Customer Service and ask them to sort it.


You shouldn't have to do Horizon's or the supermarket's job for them.

That’s a very valid point. I really shouldn’t have to spend any time dealing with a contractor of the supermarket after spending my money there.

I will try that when I am in there this week.

Make sure you have a receipt.

[R6tty]

Have you got proof of two separate visits? Till receipts would be best but bank details? Going in the shop and pointing out you have this proof, and you suggest they tell the parking company to lay off. It usaully does it.

[Super Sonic]

There's a website you can go on for advice on this, called pepipoo

[Mont Blanc]

R6tty said:

Have you got proof of two separate visits? Till receipts would be best but bank details? Going in the shop and pointing out you have this proof, and you suggest they tell the parking company to lay off. It usaully does it.

Yes I have all the Tesco transactions easily viewable on our baking app. It shows the two visits.

If that wasn’t enough, the video footage from Ring is clearly time and date stamped, shows us heading into the house carrying shopping from the car on both occasions. If that wasn’t enough, it clearly shows the car at home during the hours that it was allegedly parked overnight at Tesco.

I could solve this very easily by either sending the downloaded Ring footage to Horizon Parking, or telling the store to deal with it on my next visit.

But for some inescapable reason, I just want to take the piss out of them or embarrass them in some way. To make them sort their cameras out if nothing else.

Worse still, my wife came back from work today and the exact same thing had happened to a colleague of hers in the same car park. Visited two days in a row, then got sent a charge notice for staying 18 hours… luckily they also had CCTV and proved it to Horizon.

How many people have they sent a parking charge notice to that couldn’t prove car was at home becuase they don’t have CCTV or Internet banking?

[OutInTheShed]

Anyone who needs to go to a supermarket twice in 12 hours needs a £90 fine for being disorganised, or an amusing excuse.

[Glenn63]

Reply saying you can indeed send footage but all time used in any further correspondence including time to download/ edit footage etc will be charged at £100 per hour and by them replying to this email they agree to the charges and would like to continue with the process.

[FWIW]

Not at all unreasonable. They are utter scum.

[Mont Blanc]

OutInTheShed said:

Anyone who needs to go to a supermarket twice in 12 hours needs a £90 fine for being disorganised, or an amusing excuse.

The first visit was the weekly shop.

The second visit was my wife popping in there to get some birthday cake candles for our child’s birthday that day. We thought we had some at home but we couldn’t find them so she called in to the supermarket after the school run.

Is that a good enough excuse for you?