25th june and i went to london on a weekend trip with the missus, having picked up some free tickets for the O2 festival.
the hotel we were staying in was the SAS radisson, just near the Ritz and near hyde park, great for the concerts.
parking was a bit of a problem when i got there, as there was only 20 metres of single yellow available, all taken by scaffolding, a skip and a tesco truck unloading, so i parked in the only available space, a residents bay.
given there were 5 residents bays available, the time was 22:00 and i only needed to check in, take the luggage into the room and take the car to some pre-arranged parking, i was hopeful there would not be an issue.
well, just so you guys know, westminister council operate 24hour parking attendants!
i was parked for 15 minuntes and got a ticket for £100, reduced to £50 if paid in 14 days!
i have been driving 7 years and this was my first ticket so to say i was peeved is to be very very polite!
i sent a challenge in the next day to the council parking team, knowing that they would put my ticket on hold pending my query.
14 days rolled by and i thought to check the morning of the 14th day, expecting the ticket to have been refunded.
nope, it had been increased to £100, as i had not paid within the 14 days!
now i was fuming, i was willing to pay the £50, as even though there was no parking available, i could have possibly got my wife to check in whilst i found parking. far from ideal as this was a gift for the missus but in the circumstances barely accpetable.
i paid the fine (all £100!) and requested an urgent update on why this had been allowed to progress to the £100 stage with a query, and where my query was.
after several mails i was told that they had no record of my query, even though i had an automated response on the email i sent asking me to resend.
I resent and again no repsonse.
after several mails i chased the complaints department for the parking section, but again no joy.
by now my mail trail had extended to 32 emails of chase, chase chase!
i then sent a complaint to the westminster council complaints department, with the mail trail asking for some explanation for what was going on, and where my query was.
i got a repsonse that they were investigating and have just been told that i will be getting a full refund, so my concious is clean!
happy days...!
remember, it pays to complain even if it takes 40 odd emails to get it done!
the hotel we were staying in was the SAS radisson, just near the Ritz and near hyde park, great for the concerts.
parking was a bit of a problem when i got there, as there was only 20 metres of single yellow available, all taken by scaffolding, a skip and a tesco truck unloading, so i parked in the only available space, a residents bay.
given there were 5 residents bays available, the time was 22:00 and i only needed to check in, take the luggage into the room and take the car to some pre-arranged parking, i was hopeful there would not be an issue.
well, just so you guys know, westminister council operate 24hour parking attendants!
i was parked for 15 minuntes and got a ticket for £100, reduced to £50 if paid in 14 days!
i have been driving 7 years and this was my first ticket so to say i was peeved is to be very very polite!
i sent a challenge in the next day to the council parking team, knowing that they would put my ticket on hold pending my query.
14 days rolled by and i thought to check the morning of the 14th day, expecting the ticket to have been refunded.
nope, it had been increased to £100, as i had not paid within the 14 days!
now i was fuming, i was willing to pay the £50, as even though there was no parking available, i could have possibly got my wife to check in whilst i found parking. far from ideal as this was a gift for the missus but in the circumstances barely accpetable.
i paid the fine (all £100!) and requested an urgent update on why this had been allowed to progress to the £100 stage with a query, and where my query was.
after several mails i was told that they had no record of my query, even though i had an automated response on the email i sent asking me to resend.
I resent and again no repsonse.
after several mails i chased the complaints department for the parking section, but again no joy.
by now my mail trail had extended to 32 emails of chase, chase chase!
i then sent a complaint to the westminster council complaints department, with the mail trail asking for some explanation for what was going on, and where my query was.
i got a repsonse that they were investigating and have just been told that i will be getting a full refund, so my concious is clean!
happy days...!
remember, it pays to complain even if it takes 40 odd emails to get it done!
