Soldier is hit by hotel car park drop-off fine

9:30am Thursday 10th January 2013 in News

WARNING: Staff sergeant Rick Boys is warning other motorists after being hit by a £100 parking fine for dropping his wife Karen at the Fownes Hotel for a training day. WARNING: Staff sergeant Rick Boys is warning other motorists after being hit by a £100 parking fine for dropping his wife Karen at the Fownes Hotel for a training day.

A SOLDIER was shocked to be handed a £100 parking fine despite only being on a hotel car park for a matter of seconds.

Staff sergeant Rick Boys, of St John’s, Worcester, had driven into the Fownes Hotel car park on City Walls Road, Worcester, to drop off his wife Karen for a training day and returned later to pick her up.

It was a stay which Mr Boys, who was on three weeks leave from his Army Air Corps base in Hampshire, says lasted only seconds. But on New Year’s Eve he received a fine from Parking Eye, the company which manages the car park, claiming that he had stayed for seven hours and 34 minutes.

Pictures taken by the company show the car was not in the same position and Mr Boys has provided evidence, seen by your Worcester News, which proved the car was at a garage and two supermarket car parks during that time. When contacted by your Worcester News, Parking Eye said it would cancel the charge, but 47-year-old Mr Boys is concerned that more people could be caught out and choose to pay up. “Both times it could have been for no longer than 30 seconds, just the time it took to open the door and say goodbye. So it is absolutely ridiculous to say the car was there for more than seven hours.

“It’s farcical beyond comprehension and I’ve lost time with my family gathering evidence and getting the matter sorted out.

“But it worries me that vulnerable people could get caught out by this company and pay up or they have already paid fines.”

Staff at the Fownes Hotel said there are 12 signs, as well as one in reception, warning people of parking restrictions, but did not wish to comment further.

Mr Boys, who has since returned to base, said he was pleased that the ticket was overturned, but added that he hoped they would take steps to ensure it did not happen to anyone else.

“No one would be that silly to park outside the hotel for that amount of time without paying.”

Comments(29)

spider666 says...
10:00am Thu 10 Jan 13

So was there an apology from Parking Eye and what about some compensation,this man has no doubt spent a lot of his time sorting this out.And the Fownes Hotel stated that there are 12 signs warning of parking restrictions,Mr Boys did not park he mearly " dropped off " so maybe they should be having a few strong words with their car park watchers.

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jabroner says...
10:14am Thu 10 Jan 13

So what does him being a soldier have anything to do with this story?

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laidback says...
10:26am Thu 10 Jan 13

Parking Eye is a commercial entity with no powers to "fine " anyone. Their parking charge invoices are a civil contract matter which any recipient is free to ignore.

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bicbic says...
10:32am Thu 10 Jan 13

jabroner wrote:
So what does him being a soldier have anything to do with this story?
I am pretty sure most WN stories I read contain a persons occupation, is your next comment likely to be "what does him being 47 years old have anything to do with this story"?
Age and occupation have nothing to do with this story it's just the way they are reported? Just a thought.

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imustbeoldiwearacap says...
10:37am Thu 10 Jan 13

Presumably Parking Eye use cameras and number plate recognition. Thier system seems to be at fault for not "seeing" the car leave once driver had dropped off or arrive when he came to pick up - it only "saw" the initial arrival and final exit! Something wrong with the system software - or were Parking Eye "trying it on". As laidback has stated this is a civil matter and what you receive is not a Parking Charge Notice but an invoice for parking!

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izzy23 says...
11:16am Thu 10 Jan 13

Jabroner. The reason they mentioned my husband was in the forces is because we only get to spend weekends and a few weeks holiday a year together which you can understand is very valuable to us.
Not be wasting time sorting out incompetence mistakes that wasted by these morons.

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Dickie of Dodderhill says...
12:08pm Thu 10 Jan 13

izzy23 wrote:
Jabroner. The reason they mentioned my husband was in the forces is because we only get to spend weekends and a few weeks holiday a year together which you can understand is very valuable to us. Not be wasting time sorting out incompetence mistakes that wasted by these morons.
Well said izzy23 !!

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Dickie of Dodderhill says...
12:12pm Thu 10 Jan 13

izzy23 wrote:
Jabroner. The reason they mentioned my husband was in the forces is because we only get to spend weekends and a few weeks holiday a year together which you can understand is very valuable to us. Not be wasting time sorting out incompetence mistakes that wasted by these morons.
Well said izzy23 !!

the hotel should at least offer a free meal it would at least go some way to make up for the inconvinience and time wasted.

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mayall8808 says...
1:54pm Thu 10 Jan 13

Tell Parking Eye go take a running jump, i am sick of these type of rip off merchants we seem to have in our lives these days.

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MJI says...
2:46pm Thu 10 Jan 13

The invoices they send are best put into the filing cabinet with small motor and narrow slot!

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mr.meldrew says...
5:57pm Thu 10 Jan 13

what ajoke fownes are....no comment..i am available if you want a pr man....

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truth must out says...
10:36pm Thu 10 Jan 13

Dickie of Dodderhill wrote:
izzy23 wrote:
Jabroner. The reason they mentioned my husband was in the forces is because we only get to spend weekends and a few weeks holiday a year together which you can understand is very valuable to us. Not be wasting time sorting out incompetence mistakes that wasted by these morons.
Well said izzy23 !!

the hotel should at least offer a free meal it would at least go some way to make up for the inconvinience and time wasted.
Why should they offer a free meal....?? The hotel have done nothing wrong....maybe Parking Eye should give him free parking!!

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izzy23 says...
10:40pm Thu 10 Jan 13

The Fownes employ them

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Smyffie says...
8:56am Fri 11 Jan 13

Obviously a company such as The Fownes should know that their reputation is of the upmost importance. therefore they must immediately cancel their contract with Parking Eye due to trying to steal money from one of their genuine customers, and instead find a more reputable outfit to monitor their carpark!

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catterbutts says...
10:14am Fri 11 Jan 13

Smyffie wrote:
Obviously a company such as The Fownes should know that their reputation is of the upmost importance. therefore they must immediately cancel their contract with Parking Eye due to trying to steal money from one of their genuine customers, and instead find a more reputable outfit to monitor their carpark!
We had a similar problem with ParkingEye at the Co-op in St Johns. The Co-op arranged for the 'invoice' to be cancelled - but the damage to their reputation has been done (and how many customers just pay up and never use the Co-op again?)

Very poor PR and a situation that should have been anticipated when the bean-counters suggested how much could be 'saved' by outsourcing.

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Twin Torque says...
10:45am Fri 11 Jan 13

Thanks for the supporting comments folks.
The most disappointing thing about this was that the fownes hotel just did not want to know.
I took all my proof in to confront them and they just palmed me off, and never got back to me after phone calls
Seems they are quite happy to let their customers possible get fleeced by these crooks called parkingeye
I call them crooks because in the charge they sent me, my car was in two different places, so clearly any muppet could have worked out it hadn't been parked.
But they obviously just sent the charge anyway hoping I'd be worried enough to pay.
I will certainly never use fownes hotel ever again and will strongly advise family and friends to do likewise.
Their incompetence is staggering.

To think I could park my car outside a hotel all day for free...............i
f I was that stupid I'd be working for parkingeye!!!

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truth must out says...
11:12am Fri 11 Jan 13

izzy23 wrote:
The Fownes employ them
So what you really want is a FREE MEAL.............!!!
! Is that what this is all about???

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bicbic says...
11:23am Fri 11 Jan 13

truth must out wrote:
izzy23 wrote:
The Fownes employ them
So what you really want is a FREE MEAL.............!!!

! Is that what this is all about???
Obviously they are not after a free meal, as it states "Staff sergeant Rick Boys is warning other motorists after being hit by a £100 parking fine for dropping his wife Karen at the Fownes Hotel for a training day."

They are sending out a warning so people don't get conned by parkingeye. Not trying to blag a free meal

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Twin Torque says...
12:02pm Fri 11 Jan 13

Exactly right bicbic,
I just don't want other people being caught like this and in the worse case paying these crooks

I free meal is the last thing I want from fownes, I will never use the place again

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samm says...
12:07pm Fri 11 Jan 13

Parking Eye did the same when we were in Cornwall, the difference being the car park was full, so we looked elsewhere, returned 20 mins later found a space and paid for a ticket. When we received a fine stating we had overstayed without a ticket, I called them furious. They conveniently did not recognise our car leaving and returning 4 times, or from the machine we had entered registration number into, just when it suited them. They told me to send proof of ticket, which had our car reg on, I never bothered as I googled them, and found out in Newquay they were just issuing tickets to everyone. Cowboys, Fownes should cancel their contract. Why does everyone outsource everything? If Fownes had policed their own car park this probably wouldn't have happened.

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Flomay says...
12:33pm Fri 11 Jan 13

laidback wrote:
Parking Eye is a commercial entity with no powers to "fine " anyone. Their parking charge invoices are a civil contract matter which any recipient is free to ignore.
I wish i'd know that when i was taken ill whilst driving on the M40 last year! I was so ill, i only just made it to the services toilets before i exploded... literally!! As i was an hour and a half away from home i had to wait for my brother to drive my car home. The last thing on my mind was getting a car park ticket. Mind you... when i got the fine, i didn't feel so guilty about the vomit i left on services toilet floor lol eeeeeeeew!

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imustbeoldiwearacap says...
4:36pm Fri 11 Jan 13

Have a look at the forums on moneysavingexpert.co
m regarding parking "fines" and Parking Eye in particular! The "fines" they impose arre disproportionate to the losses that might have been incurred and as such are unenforceable - so best to ignore the "invoice" cos if they did take you to court they would be laughed out!

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RichardW says...
6:57pm Fri 11 Jan 13

He was not handed a £100 fine, he was handed a £100 invoice for "parking" on private land and he would have been better off treating it as junk mail. Parking Eye as with all these other Parking Enforcement Companies have no powers to fine anyone.

As with all of these cowboy parking companies, he would have received another invoice in a month or so increasing the amount.

In another month another invoice would be sent offering a discount if paid within 14 days.

The next month one final demand would be sent informing him the bailiffs would be one their way. (Some of them use letter headed paper from a firm of solicitors who are also on the parking scam gravy train).

A month later he may have received another invoice offering one last chance to pay an amount half of the original "fine"

They will eventually give up.

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Respectable says...
7:46pm Fri 11 Jan 13

What a crazy world we live in. So many people must not recognise the difference between a Fine and an Invoice. Couple that with fear / threat of the Bayliffs. I thougt demanding money with menaces was illeagl. Shocking scammers.

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ian9919 says...
8:32pm Fri 11 Jan 13

STEER CLEAR OF THIS PLACE!!

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izzy23 says...
9:08pm Fri 11 Jan 13

RichardW
We have ignored it, we told these people politely what they can do with their letter.
We just wanted to warn other people,
We DID NOT PARK on private land.
We merely turned into the drive so my husband could drop me off.
After all it's what Taxis do when they drop people off for parties etc.

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More Tea Vicar says...
11:27am Mon 14 Jan 13

truth must out wrote:
Dickie of Dodderhill wrote:
izzy23 wrote:
Jabroner. The reason they mentioned my husband was in the forces is because we only get to spend weekends and a few weeks holiday a year together which you can understand is very valuable to us. Not be wasting time sorting out incompetence mistakes that wasted by these morons.
Well said izzy23 !!

the hotel should at least offer a free meal it would at least go some way to make up for the inconvinience and time wasted.
Why should they offer a free meal....?? The hotel have done nothing wrong....maybe Parking Eye should give him free parking!!
Fownes appointed them.

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Lew Smoralz says...
11:26pm Tue 15 Jan 13

Ut seres ita et metes

Fownes appointed them, so they must take the blame.

I have stopped eating there as I don't see why these ugly people should cause me anger with their unscrupulous tricks.

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laidback says...
6:11am Wed 16 Jan 13

Well said! The hotel management appears not to operate a functioning system of quality approved suppliers.

qui coniungetur veteratores oportet conputat sumptus

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