Parking Tales and hassles

[GiveMeABreak]

I'm guessing this is one of those places where they give you an hour or so free parking (like some Lidl stores) and clock you coming and going.

Obviously if there is an exemption for restaurant goers (where it's not uncommon to wait an hour before you get anything ) then why the hell are they even sending you this? Surely this would also affect other customers in the Harvester? You would of expected them to check with them before going through all this grief?

[Dormouse]

I had that sort of dilemma in Fort William where we parked up and then could not enter our reg in the onsite terminal and we could not get a decent wifi signal to connect to the internet (including the Restaurant's own wifi!). We recorded a conversion with the restaurant manager and made a point of asking that we would be ok for parking and that the restaurant would take care of registering us. Touch wood we have not had a letter, but we could not register our car at all.
While in Buxton we had parked in a council car park and neither machine would accept payments. Several car owner's were flummoxed until a local phoned the council office (?) and pronounced that no tickets would be issued that afternoon! Apparently the machines often stopped working and the locals now knew who to phone to report the issue to and they then instructed the Parking Wardens to not bother to issue tickets as it took masses of time to deal with the fallout afterwards!

[mickthemaverick]

I'm guessing this is one of those places where they give you an hour or so free parking (like some Lidl stores) and clock you coming and going.

Obviously if there is an exemption for restaurant goers (where it's not uncommon to wait an hour before you get anything ) then why the hell are they even sending you this? Surely this would also affect other customers in the Harvester? You would of expected them to check with them before going through all this grief?

Just to clarify that this is the car park owned by the Harvester in which we were eating!! Makes it even more annoying for me!!

[Hell Razor5543]

It is not unknown for higher management to give 'control' of their car parks to a third party, and let them deal with all of the hassles (such as, for example, a group of travellers moving in). However, sometimes that does not work well. A few years ago I was working on an Amazon locker at a Morrisons with such a car park setup. Although I did sign in at the customer services for some reason the car park company either did not receive this or chose to ignore it. We were sent a parking notice. I phoned the store, explained the situation, and they said they would resolve it. A month later we got another notice. This time I went to the store, and they said they would resolve it. A month later we received ANOTHER notice. This time the store emailed me clear proof that they TOLD the the car park company that I had been there for work reasons, and to cancel the notice. I sent this proof to the van lease company and to my company fleet division. Apparently there was another notice issued, but with both companies responding with the proof and the threat of legal action for harassment nothing further was heard from them.

[NewcastleFalcon]

Just to clarify that this is the car park owned by the Harvester in which we were eating!! Makes it even more annoying for me!!

Precedent has been set Mick...

https://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/ShowUserR ... gland.html

General Manager A, Manager at Harvester Croxley Green, responded to this review
Responded 6 October 2017
Dear Guest,

I am very sorry to read that your received a PCN in the post, as a guest with us if this is done in error we will always get this cancelled for you. please feel free to contact me if you require any assistance at croxleygreen@harvester.co.uk

Regards Neil

[mickthemaverick]

Excellent work Neil, thanks!! I'll keep that in reserve if my appeal is denied!!
I actually thought it would be interesting to go to the Harvester again and eat and drink £50 worth, then say to the manager I'll pay for the food if you pay for the parking fine!!

[Paul-R]

Slight flaw in that plan Mick. Don't you have to pay for your food after you've finished ordering?

[mickthemaverick]

No Paul, not there, you get the bill after eating so I will have already consumed my £50 worth!!

[admiral51]

Car parking is a nightmare but i am sure sometime in the first week of December and on January 2nd one of the 4 HGV drivers for the company i work for will get a PCN for doing our job.
We deliver a 20' storage container to a public house carpark for the use of a greengrocer who uses it for storage of christmas trees and has been arranged with the pub.
We need to access the pub car park to deliver/collect the container yet we get a PCN via the car park management as our vehicle reg is picked up by ANPR cameras and the pub give our vehicle details to the management company 2 days in advance yet still we get the PCN and it goes to head office first and us drivers are liable etc etc .

Colin

[myglaren]

Duct tape over the number plates!

[admiral51]

Duct tape over the number plates!

No way the fine for that is more than my job is worth, lets keep the people in Head Office busy lol

[mickthemaverick]

I have just been down to our local hospital for a chest X-Ray, arrived and parked and walked to the Pay & Display machine. Firstly the minimum parking fee was £4.20 for 0-2 hours!! I knew I'd only be there 20 minutes at the most so that irritated me. Then I saw that the machine had had its card slot taped up leaving only coins or download an app as my options. I only had £4.00 in coins and I refuse to use apps for this sort of thing so I walked over to the attendants booth to try and get some change. The conversation went like this:

"Morning, have you any change for the machines as they won't take cards?!

"No mate, not a currency exchange!"

"What are we meant to do then?"

"You'll have to use the app mate!!"

(Tongue in cheek) "But I havn't got a smart phone with me" (it was in the car)

"What are you here for mate?"

"A walk-in chest X-ray!"

"No worries then, leave your car there and I'll keep an eye on it and make sure the cameraman walks past!!"

"OK thanks, won't be long"

And it turned out I wasn't, in and out of the hospital in 11 minutes exactly - I spent almost as much time in the car park!!

I still think they should have a fixed rate per 15 mins of your stay!!

[GiveMeABreak]

Hospital car parking is free here in Wales now - but ours was the last to go free due to being locked into a parking firm contract!

[mickthemaverick]

I see you have a hospital trip to Bristol planned Marc so be prepared for a shock!!

[myglaren]

I had to collect my daughter's car from hospital the day after she was admitted, the car had been the over 24 hours. The charge should have been £8, not that I knew that.

Put her reg in the machine and it recognised her car, asked for confirmation of arrival time.
The said it was only accepting cash. Not a problem as I had plenty with me.
Then it said that it couldn't find the files and if I left within twenty minutes parking was free.

Each time I have been since, to take stuff in for her, it has been free as I was out within twenty minutes.
No visiting for Covid reasons.