4 major rip-offs you can fight back against

[b]Hey [url=/profile/Crispvs.aspx]Crispvs[/url][/b]  Would you please give a name of the scumming carpark management firm to warn others? plus they really should be named and shamed Many thanks Sara

Here's another one. A well known carpark management firm sent me a letter a couple of years ago stating that I had overstayed the allowable time in a particular carpark and was thus liable for a fine which I should either send them by return of post or by telephoning their 'payment hotline'. They said that they had CCTV footage of my car both entering and leaving the carpark which proved I have overstayed the time. The letter stated my registration number and the make and model of my car as proof. The date they cited had been around two months before and turned out to be a Saturday. This immediately rang alarm bells as this carpark is close to my place of work and I normally stop there when I am shopping either during a lunch break or after work. This is always during the working week and I never have any reason to stay long. i don't go to that part of town on a Saturday! Next I checked through my receipts and found that I had made several purchases in the city centre (several miles away) during the exact period I was supposedly parked in the carpark. The receipts showed the date and exact times of the purchases, proving that I could not have been in the carpark when they said I was. I decided they had made a mistake and ignored the letter. However, a fortnight later, a very threateningly worded letter arrived from them demanding immediate payment and making thinly veiled threats of court action. I knew that what they were claiming was wrong and so rang them to tell them so. I quoted my evidence to them (pointing out also that while a bank statement might show transactions a day or two after they had actually happened, a receipt showed the exact time of a transaction) and the operator I spoke to seemed to accept what I was saying. However, just on a month later I received another letter containing an overt threat of imminent court action. I telephoned them again and this time I was told that I was lying as they had CCTV footage showing me to have been there. I requested screenshots of this footage to prove that they really did have what they said they had but this request was refused with the usual excuse of 'Data Protection'. Therefore I requested an address to write to and on being given it, sent photocopies of the reciepts, along with printouts from 'upmystreet' showing the distances from the carpak to each of the locations indicated by the reciepts. To be on the safe side I kept copies of everything I sent them, which turned out to be a good thing, as it turned out. I heard nothing more for about six months and thought the matter was behind me. Then I received a letter from a debt collection agency demanding the payment which had previously been demanded plus a surcharge. I telephoned them and explained that the matter had been a mistake (I was using the term very generously) on the part of the car parking company and I had already proved to them that no money was owed. The debt collectors said that they could not accept what I said and had to go with what they had been told so would still require the money. I told them that I would not pay but would send them a copy of what I had already sent the car parking company by recorded delivery. I did this (using the address listed on their letter) but about six weeks later I recieved another letter from them, which took a very threatening tone. Around the same time however, I discovered that the debt collection company was actually just a department of the car parking company, so they had had the proof from me all along but had continued to try to get money out of me. At this point I sent copies of all of the correspondence which had passed between us to the Office of Fair Trading's 'Scambusters' team, having decided that despite being a well known company, they were clearly running a scam which was probably frightening many people into paying unwarrented fines to them for purported overstays whicyh had probably never happened. After referring them to the OFT's Scambusters team I heard nothing more from them, which I am very glad of. However, I don't imagine that that will stop that particular type of scam any time soon, either by that company or by another in a similar position. After all, most people would not think to refer them to the OFT. It is a scam which purports to have proof of an event which did not happen in order to frighten people into paying up. It was only thanks to my rather anorakish habit of keeping and filing my receipts that I was able to prove that they were lying. If I had not been able to do this I could have been forced into paying them, as I suspect many others must have done. I suspect most people would not be able to gather the proof I was able to either.

And another! Spurious claims by UK car hire/rental companies months after the hire period '....for damages inflicted to the car' after it had been returned. THe car was undaaged and I had time and dated photographs on my iPhone to prove it! Thieves to say the last! When challenged, the national company claimed that it was an administrative error on the part of one of its franchise companies!! Rogues!!!! Yes, I received compensation for the time and effort spent challeging their false claim!