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Parking Tickets From Private Companies

queenbee1127

queenbee1127

Bluelighter
Joined
Apr 13, 2008
Messages
1,051
Location
Denver, CO
I got a parking ticket from a private parking company, Central Parking Systems. It is NOT a parking ticket from the city of Denver. The ticket itself is $40, plus the $6 fee for parking in the lot in the first place. The ticket itself features "photos" of the license plate of my car, and my dashboard lacking a pay pass. The only problem is these "photos" look like ultrasounds gone wrong, and absolutely nothing is visible.

I e-mailed the appeals address on the back of the ticket, and got a reply from a woman, "Sandra" saying I would need to mail in copies of both the ticket and my parking pass as proof. I didn't pay, so obviously I can't submit that. However, I sent "Sandra" a letter with a copy of my ticket, and explained that neither of the photos provided proved that my car was the one in violation, or that my dashboard was lacking a pass. I also mentioned that the ticket said my car is black, which it is not.

That was two weeks ago and I finally got a response in the mail saying the ticket was valid and I would need to pay a fine of "$_______" with no number written in the blank.

My question is: Do I need to pay this? I know it won't go to the DMV since it's not a ticket from the city but I don't want to be sent to a collector either.

And: How should I handle the dispute from here? Obviously, "Sandra" is just an automated response, and I'm sure no one really looked at the letter I sent. The phone number provided on the back of the ticket is an automated line, I never get an actual person.

Thanks SO :)
 
The best strategy is no action. Like you said, it's a private company. Also, the ticket is for $40 - so they aren't going to do anything about it. Imagine, for a moment, an office full of uneducated human compost. Not imagine that same pile of human compost being fitted with headsets and CRT monitors. These people are your opponents, and while they have been trained to talk to you as if paying the ticket is important, the people who trained them know that it takes too much time (money) to make someone pay $40 who doesn't want to. For every more evolved person who understands that treating this situation seriously is an exercise in denial, there are 99 other people who pay the $40 because they respect anyone who claims to be an authority. Be the 1%.




...if you're afraid of it going to a collector, spend 3 minutes a week calling them and getting instructions on how to buy a prepaid Visa from Wal Mart because "you don't have a bank account." This will make them put the notes in your account for the next phone jockey to read. Your subsequent calls should consist of you claiming that you paid the ticket using the card during your last phone call, and that you threw it away. Oh, you mean the process didn't go through? But I threw away the card!! Okay, let me just wait until payday because now I'm out $40 from your incompetence, phone person! Rinse and repeat. At worst, they will keep it away from collectors. At best, a manager will press delete on the charge.
 
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^No, I was parked in a pay lot. One of those ones where it's "$3.00 per hour, $10 max all day" etc...

The company sending me the ticket is Parking Revenue Recovery Services Inc.
 
In my Jurisdiction, private companies can have security officers who are sworn in as "Municipal by-law enforcement officers" and/or "Provincial Offenses Officers" and who issue legit parking tags that WILL deny your vehicle tag validation from happening. Is that the case there? If so pay it/court?

If not, I'd blow it off.
 
if it isn't a city ticket, I don't think it will affect your driving record. but they can and probably will send it to a collections place, if you provide them with your contact info! why not just wait and see if they even have a way to access your address?
 
I'm not comfortable with the public sector deputizing the private sector to collect fees.

We have this highway in Ontario called the 407ETR and it's a national embarrassment, as we've essentially sold off a large strip of our crown land to a handful of foreign venture capitalists for pennies on the dollar, and we even deny people their license renewal if we don't pay their tolls. We signed a contract basically ensuring disgusting amount of profit leaves our country into foreign hands.

While the road is optional to drive on, we have lost millions (if not billions) of dollars in revenue on this private deal, and the public gets nothing for it but the most overpriced toll highway in the world. I'm not exaggerating, it is the most expensive in the world.

I realize that this isn't exactly the same as the parking scenario, as the owner of the lot is most likely local.. but when it comes to private companies trying to utilize a public process to pad their own bottom line, I'm definitely not OK with it. It's a conflict of interest. If they want to penalize me for breaking their rules, they can take me to small claims court like everyone else. I will not have the burden of proof shoved off on to me.
 
queenbee1127, did you pay to park in the lot or was there an issue with your pass (e.g. you lost it, it wasn't visible, etc.)?

alasdair
 
Cyc said:
I'm not comfortable with the public sector deputizing the private sector to collect fees.

We have this highway in Ontario called the 407ETR and it's a national embarrassment, as we've essentially sold off a large strip of our crown land to a handful of foreign venture capitalists for pennies on the dollar, and we even deny people their license renewal if we don't pay their tolls. We signed a contract basically ensuring disgusting amount of profit leaves our country into foreign hands.

While the road is optional to drive on, we have lost millions (if not billions) of dollars in revenue on this private deal, and the public gets nothing for it but the most overpriced toll highway in the world. I'm not exaggerating, it is the most expensive in the world.

I realize that this isn't exactly the same as the parking scenario, as the owner of the lot is most likely local.. but when it comes to private companies trying to utilize a public process to pad their own bottom line, I'm definitely not OK with it. It's a conflict of interest. If they want to penalize me for breaking their rules, they can take me to small claims court like everyone else. I will not have the burden of proof shoved off on to me.
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As it goes here in Ontario, a MLEO is a sworn enforcement Officer, he or she has become a "public" officer, not unlike a university or transit special constable, but with less powers. The charge pressed is pressed before the regular courts(Ontario court of Justice to be tried by a JP), giving you the same right to trial as if the city's PKE tagged you, and the fees collected go to the Court. The also have the authority to have vehicles towed from property under their contract, and that again works the same as the public PKE doing it. It just allows the owner of a large parking lot to pay for more attention and faster response than he'd get by calling it in.
 
queenbee1127 said:
^No, I was parked in a pay lot. One of those ones where it's "$3.00 per hour, $10 max all day" etc...

The company sending me the ticket is Parking Revenue Recovery Services Inc.
Click to expand...

I feel like im missing part of the story? how did you receive this ticket? Did you actually not pay in a pay lot? Cause i have dodged em many a time. Just dont park there again!

Or did you just randomly recieve this for doing nothing?
 
^No, I did not pay to park there. The way I see it, I can't prove I paid, but they can't prove I didn't - at least with the information they have provided for me.

Vibby - I would imagine they would look up the address the car is registered to if they really wanted to send me to collections.

I have successfully disputed parking tickets with the city of Denver, and I don't have any infractions on my driving record, but this is clearly a private company and not a public parking issue. I got the ticket on January 12, and it's taken them over a month to respond to my e-mail and then respond to my letter, so I can't see this as a pressing issue. My thoughts is kind of with captainballs, for every 100 people who get a ticket, 99 will just pay it because it's seemingly coming from a valid authority, but am the 1 who thinks it's bullshit.

I just don't want to get sent to a debt collector and have this hurt my (good!) credit!
 
queenbee1127 said:
^No, I did not pay to park there.
...
I just don't want to get sent to a debt collector and have this hurt my (good!) credit!
Click to expand...
counterpoint: why not take responsibility for your actions and pay the ticket. you took a chance and parked there without paying. you got caught. pay up?

alasdair
 
alasdair, here's what bugs me.

if they post a sign saying no pass=$40, I agree. but if the sign says $10/day and violators will be towed, then tow the fucking car and bill her for $10. private lots can have shit towed. but it seems obscene that they could just decide to collect $40, $400, $4000, or your firstborn child if they so choose. I mean where do they come up with the amount? credit card companies and banks have maximum fee penalties allowed. I don't think it's unreasonable to expect this place to show that they are within their rights to bill for this amount.
 
queenbee1127 said:
I just don't want to get sent to a debt collector and have this hurt my (good!) credit!
Click to expand...

Under the new FICO guidelines, debts under $100 will have no impact on your credit score, so don't even worry about that. This will never get sent to collections for so many reasons that it's not even funny. I've worked debts in every U.S. state and territory and this parking company's case wouldn't hold water in any of them.
 
Oh come on guys. You know if you park somewhere and don't pay you're going to probably have to pay more than you would if you had just paid. It's a fairly straight-forward way to try to get people to follow the rules and not just blow off paying for parking. After all, I mean I'm sure people get away with it sometimes. How else are they going to try to dissuade people from doing it?
 
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