Charging in private carparks

[pills]

Well thanks to my own stupidity of assuming if I was charging I would be exempt from the parking charge I received a nice 60 quid fine from charging at Instavolt in Thornaby today. Just a heads up for others. Please feel free to mock me for my own stupidity.

Edited by pills on Monday 23 December 11:34

[sixor8]

I nearly got a ticket in October. Some car parks have you pay even if charging (they make plenty on the electricity mark-up!), some don't. There' usually a sign in the bay stating this.

The sea front car park (Bath Road) in Bournemouth has charging points but you're supposed to pay to park. The machine wouldn't accept cash, had to download an app, which wouldn't work. After 10 mins, I gave up disconnected and drove out. I couldn't see any cameras and fortunately, I was right, they still use wardens to patrol all the streets and car parks checking for ticket on dashboards. Cameras are only used at venues with barrier, I think.

[Countdown]

pills said:

Well thanks to my own stupidity of assuming if I was charging I would be exempt from the parking charge I received a nice 60 quid fine from charging at Instavolt in Thornaby today. Just a heads up for others. Please feel free to mock me for my own stupidity.

Edited by pills on Monday 23 December 11:34

Out of curiosity how would they know who had been charging and who hadn't?

[LeeM135i]

There are a few Tesla chargers in hotel car parks where you have to go into the hotel and give your registration number so they can add you as a visitor. If you don't you get a lovely letter through the post charging you £60.

I always take a couple of minutes to walk into reception and ask them while the car is charging.

[phil4]

Redbridge park and ride on the south edge of Oxford (has both Tesla and FastNed rapid chargers), needs you to get a ticket for first hour free.

I think I'd bin any prior assumptions and replace with "they can and will do anything, so check carefully on arrival".

[5s Alive]

Countdown said:

pills said:

Well thanks to my own stupidity of assuming if I was charging I would be exempt from the parking charge I received a nice 60 quid fine from charging at Instavolt in Thornaby today. Just a heads up for others. Please feel free to mock me for my own stupidity.

Edited by pills on Monday 23 December 11:34

Out of curiosity how would they know who had been charging and who hadn't?

It's fairly common for chargers to be placed in paying car parks, so everyone pays whether charging or not. Very nearly got caught out in Fort Willam. Two adjacent car parks that I thought were one but in the one with the chargers you had to pay. I left blissfully unaware until our friends said that they had parked in the adjacent one to avoid paying. What! - they were separated midway by a low kerb and I was at the other end so didn't realise. Too busy looking for where the chargers were placed. Never heard anything about it fortunately.

Edited by 5s Alive on Monday 23 December 19:36

[pills]

Countdown said:

Out of curiosity how would they know who had been charging and who hadn't?

No idea which is why I ended up with a charge of the other variety.

[ashenfie]

It doesn’t matter they fine for over staying either way.

[-crookedtail-]

There is an InstaVolt in the car park of KFC in Weymouth that if you use outside the opening times of the 'restaurant' you will get a ticket. I had no idea about it but I saw the reviews of disgruntled folks on Google Maps while looking for a charger. The charger is live regardless 24hrs and the car park has no barrier!

I know left to their devices folks can be selfish when it comes to parking, so there is a need for some enforcement, but these chargers in car parks need better regulation as these car parking firms operate like the wild west.

[anonymous-user]

LeeM135i said:

There are a few Tesla chargers in hotel car parks where you have to go into the hotel and give your registration number so they can add you as a visitor. If you don't you get a lovely letter through the post charging you £60.

I always take a couple of minutes to walk into reception and ask them while the car is charging.

It’s shown on the Tesla app, for example:-