McD's

[DAVE O]

Mate of mine stopped off at a McD's near to the M1 for a business meeting. He later got through the post a civil parking ticket for having his van in the car park for over 2 hours. He's written back to them explaining that he was using the restaurant for a meeting etc but they have increased the fine from £75 - £250 and are now threatening civil court.

I've told him to chuck it in the bin and forget about it  

Has anybody any experiance re this - are they likely to take it to court.

Like my mate says - he went for something to eat and a meeting and wasn't looking for any parking signs - they even lay on wifi etc and encourage this. The restaurant cctv will show them in the premises the entire time.

Any thoughts appreciated  

ta Dave O.

[Matt Seabrook]

Contact head office explaining how in future you will conduct future business elsewhere. I can see how people just using the parking facilities is taking the p**s but he was a paying customer.

[nik9669]

If he wants to fight/persue it, first thing is to check for any signs or notices in the car park, on walls or lampposts. Increasingly often there are, unfortunately. They're appearing in B&Q and such "large" car parks too, to discourage convenience car-parking. It's common for people to meet up somewhere convenient, leave one car there for a while and share transport for the longer journey. If there is signage, there's not much he can do - the rules are plain to see, if you think to look for such a thing! Since it's easy for the car park enforcers to add the cost of "recovering the debt" to what's already owed, I suggest he pays before it escalates further.

[Hammy]

If yuo are tlaknig about a Mcd' on a Motorway service station ,directly on the motorway or up some slip road nearby....

I've been caught at motorway serivces before, if that is where your McD's  resides, for leaving the car all day and have had to smile and pay -there are usually notices about at Motorway service stations limiting you to 2 hrs. The fact you are "there" and eating for over 2 hrs isn't part of the deal and doesn't alter things.

McD's is only a franchise and on a service station most likely  doesn't own the car park

Recognised meeting places at service stations such as BTworkdspace, or whatever its called, usually  have a "sign in" and your reg  number is passed to the nice wardens that tour the car park so they don't fine you.

IMO your friend is stuffed, both with Big Macs, fries and the fine. Ignoring it is not a good idea. If you can't find a sign you have a chance...

who said life was fair,  but the fines are just too steep.

[Flappa]

My only experience with a similar thing was at Meryhill shopping centre. I parked with my wheels across a white line (i.e. taking two bays). There was a reason for this but that's not relevant.

Came back to the car to find an official looking black/yellow notice.

Sure enough we then had a notice through the post.

I looked online for advice on this, which was to ignore. If you are on private land it seems that there is no actual legal basis for them to take action against you. Very different if you are on council owned land.

You should notice that the letters are sent to the 'registered keeper' of the vehicle, not the driver and there is not obligation to tell them who was driving. They pay their £2.50 to get the details from the DVLA.

In our case the letters were sent to my wife, while it was me who was driving. There is an assumed contract between them and the driver on the basis that there are signs in place.

Basically they usually allow a contractor to monitor the car parks, probably for a fee or a cut of the takings.

We completely ignored it, the letters got more and more threatening each time (we had about five in total), but then they just stopped and we've heard nothing more.

My advise would be to do some more searching online (google parking ticket at McD's), and then probably ignore completely.

This is not legal advise, just my experience but it worked in our case.

Hope that helps.

Edited to add this link:

PePiPoo forum link

[XTR2Turbo]

My brother had same at McDonalds Heathrow and ignored. They have a weak position in law and won't follow up other than threatening letters etc.

That's why most employ clampers to enforce .

[Carl]

QUOTE

I've been caught at motorway serivces before, if that is where your McD's  resides, for leaving the car all day and have had to smile and pay -there are usually notices about at Motorway service stations limiting you to 2 hrs. The fact you are "there" and eating for over 2 hrs isn't part of the deal and doesn't alter things

Some Service stations have number plate recognition at the entry / exit and automatically send you a bill if your stay is longer than 2 hrs (and you haven't bought a ticket)

[DanE]

Might have been a mistake writing back. I'm no expert but from what I've read its best not to give them any names so that they cannot say who was driving at the time, hence cannot prove who the contract to park was with.

If they know your mate was driving due to the letter he sent to them, then it might be too late to ignore.

[Barry Ashcroft]

Yep ignore it they will not enforce it because they can't.

[Paul Aspden]

Just Bomb McD's and have done with it!

[lippydave]

Got one last Saturday.....

Missus wanted to go into Dunelms (soft furnishings) at J2 of the M5.

The car park was heaving, so I dropped her outside and parked on the Halfords opposite.

me and the lad went into Halfords for 15 mins or so then crossed over into Dunelm to meet the wife.

When we got back to the car 15 mins later there was a ticket on the window for 80 quid.

I went back into Halfrauds and confronted the spotty yoof of a manager. he was adamant it was company policy and refused to forget it. So I took it to the front till and tore it into two pieces whilst abusing him loudly in front of all of the customers....

He picked the two pieces up, so I too them off him again, made them into confetti and asked him if they were now small enough to stick up his A***.....    

if they try legal action I shall engage a s**t hot lawyer and indulge in a fun means of publicly humiliating tem... them .....

[DAVE O]

McD's was off the motorway - not at a service station. Off the top of my head it's about 2-3 miles from the M1.

Thanks for all the advice I've sent him a link to view...

Ta Dave O.

[exsevener]

I'll be parking mine around the corner the next time I go for a Mc****e

[archersam]

some great advice here...

http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-tickets

[Mark B]

My missus had a similar thing the other year at Morrisons, she parked in their carpark & went in shopping over a busy holiday period & ended up 10 or 15 mins over & got a ticket, even though she was in their store spending money with them!!!!!!

The parking attendent was most uncaring and unhelpful (don't they all seem to be?).

Wrote to the manager of the store who apologised & cancelled the ticket etc.

It's an increasing annoying trend that stores seem to follow, I can understand them wanting to stop folk using the car park when they're not shopping with them, but imo if you show a receipt to say you were in their store spending money it's a no brainer......

Tell em b*****ks that's what I say........