-
Euro Car Parks PCN - Morrisons Wells - App not accepting bookings
Posted by HairyGorilla on 01 Dec, 2024 16:20 -
I have received a Parking Charge Notice from Euro Car Parks Ltd, the operators of the car park at Morrisons in Wells, Somerset.
The vehicle referenced was parked at this location on 16th November 2024, for over 4 hours.
The car park has an initial 2-hour free parking period.
After two hours, while in town, I opened the YourParkingSpace app to purchase more parking time.
The app refused to let me buy parking time, displaying a message “Unfortunately, all of our allocated bays have been booked at this time. To guarantee space in future, please pre-book in advance.”
This makes no sense to me, when the vehicle had been parked in a marked bay throughout.
There is no mention of a need to pre-book parking spaces on the signs in the car park. It’s presented as optional on the sign.
I include photographs of the signs from Euro Car Parks and YourParkingSpace: (click to enlarge)
There are no machines in the car park to buy tickets instead of using the app.
The PCN’s date of issue is Friday November 22nd.
The PCN did not arrive in the post until Friday November 29th.
This leaves only a week until the deadline for the reduced parking charge of Friday 6th December. It sounds like this could be a standard “tactic” of private parking companies.
I do not understand why it was not possible to buy parking. I did as instructed on the signs.
Sensing trouble ahead, I captured the screenshot of the app above, and even purchased parking for the following day instead, even though this vehicle has not returned to that car park since. -
-
I should add the keeper of another vehicle which arrived and departed at the same time as mine did has not so far also received a PCN.
Some members of the group of people I was with purchased items in the store, and we may be able to produce electronic receipts.
I am tempted to take this to the management of the store, highlighting my concerns about paying for parking at this site. -
-
The green YourParkingSpace sign says that payment must be made on arrival, but I would say there's a good argument to be made that the term was not prominently displayed.
Before we advise on any appeals, speaking to the management of Morrisons would be sensible. Anecdotally Morrisons can be quite good at intervening in parking chsrges issued at their car parks -
-
It does seem very underhand to issue a PCN, when the app to which they direct customers, is rejecting bookings for an obscure reason.
This is an unnecessary complication, especially given what it's led to!
I am reluctant to engage with Euro Car Parks directly, which is another reason why taking it to Morrisons looks more attractive.
I cannot identify other examples of the YourParkingSpace app behaving in this way which makes me wonder if this is an issue specific to this car park. -
-
Unless you can get Morrisons to get the PCN cancelled, this will never be accepted on appeal, at least by ECP. There is a remote possibility that a secondary appeal to POPLA will succeed but don't bank on that.
However, no one who is here receiving advice and following it, pays a penny to ECP. Even if Plan A, a request with Morrisons to cancel the PCN or Plan B, an appeal to ECP or Plan C, an appeal to POPLA don't succeed, I can say with greater that 99% confidence that Plan D will bering the matter to a close after a county court claim is issued and simply defended, they will eventually discontinue some time next year.
Please stop worrying about the "mugs discount". It is there to persuade low-hanging fruit on the gullible tree to pay up without making ECP have to do anything. It's a scam. Sadly, one that probably works for the majority of the 41,000 private parking tickets that are issued every single day! Yes, every day.
Follow the advice and, whilst it can be protracted, you will not pay a penny of your well earned cash to these ex-clampers and you'll learn a lot of useful civil law and rights in the process. -
-
Thank you for your replies, both of you.
I have submitted an "enquiry" via the Morrisons website, so we'll see what happens next. -
-
After two hours, while in town, I opened the YourParkingSpace app to purchase more parking time.
YourParkingSpace only allow a certain percentage of spaces to be booked, based on historic ANPR data. Once that limit has been reached, they don't allow further bookings even if you're already on site.
The app refused to let me buy parking time, displaying a message “Unfortunately, all of our allocated bays have been booked at this time. To guarantee space in future, please pre-book in advance.”
This makes no sense to me, when the vehicle had been parked in a marked bay throughout.
The signage could definitely be improved to make that clear. -
Agree x 1
Like x 1
View List