So, how do I beat this thing????

[Willie263]

Hah!!!! I 'm talking about a parking ticket...... ya pervs............

Diamond Parking gave me a ticket several months ago at one of their lots next to a Safeway. Yeah, I parked there and walked off the lot to my bank across the street. I come back in less than 5 minutes and the guys writing me up a ticket on some fancy hand-held.

Well before I can jump in and drive off, he's slapped the ticket on my windshield. Now they've written me a final notice of $98.17 payable or threatening to take me to Small Claims Court with an additional cost of $100 -150.00 or placing a lien against my vehicle or towing or immobilizing my vehicle.

The bastards tell me the letter serves as confirmation that I understand and am prepared to pay any additional costs that may be incurred by their company in order to recover this debt. "This may come in the form of, but not restricted to, monetary fees such as towing cost and/or legal charges"


"Failing settlement of this debt, legal proceedings my be commenced against you without further notice. "

Well, I guess that I have to be notified if it is going to court so I have a chance to defend myself, but unsure about that. Is this worth talking to a lawyer???????

I see in Washington where Diamond has lost to a class action settlement of 1.8 - 2 million dollars for fees charged over and above the actual parking ticket. Thanks for any help, Willie

 

[Kev]

Before you received that final notice you should have paid the ticket. In your own admission above you're guilty of parking in Safeway's parking lot, leaving the lot to run to the bank. Parking in someones parking lot to leave and do business elsewere is something we are all guilty of. You just got busted.

So your big concern now is those enormous fees companys have in recouping revenue spent on tracking down those who don't pay their fines in the first place.


One thing about Safeway's parking lots is there huge. So how about Safeway makes it far to enticing to would be motorists to park there even if they don't have to shop at Safeway. So its Safeways fault that you parked there if their lots were smaller you would have to look elsewere. Well i tried.

 

[Cock Throppled]

This burns my ass. Who are you hurting by parking at the edge of a probably half-empty lot for 5 mins?
Not sure how to beat it, but for future reference- keep an old Safeway bag in the car. When you park run into Safeway and out again, take out the bag and leave it on the seat (put anything in it to look full). Then do your banking. No legal way they can bust you with evidence right there you shopped at their crappy store. This burns my ass.

 

[Chef]

2 possible options

You can either ignore the notices and call their bluff, or call the parking company and negotiate a lower fine. Alternatively, you could argue that you were going to the bank to get some money to go to Safeway.

 

[Mr Blonde]

you're screwed

my story isnt with diamond parking, but with impark.

a couple of years ago i received a ticket from impark stating that i was illegally parked on one of their lots in vancouver. the funny thing was, on the day of the offence I WAS AT WORK 30 kms or so away. I get a good laugh about it and call impark. after sitting on hold and being bounced around from supervisor to manager and so on (all of whom thought I was full of shit) they said, if I could produce a letter from my employer stating i was indeed at work the day of the offence they would cancel the fine. Good enough for me. I'm livid at this point, but I draw up the letter, my employer signs it I fax a copy to Impark AND express post the hard copy to their offices downtown c/o the manager i spoke with on the phone.

Here's where it get interesting. A few months later I begin to get notices from a collection agency back east. It starts with letters, then escalates to automated phone calls saying I owe a fine to Impark and so on and so on. I call the collection agency and explain to them whats going on. They tell me I have to call Impark and deal with them. So I call Impark and they begin to tell me to deal with the collection agency. I call the RCMP because I'm complaining about getting these phonecalls at all hours of the day and night they're saying I need to log (through a telus service that you have to pay for) the times that this automated phone calls. A whole bunch of noise later the calls have finally stopped, but I'm pretty sure theres an ugly blemish on my credit report because of it.

 

[pokemon]

This burns my ass. Who are you hurting by parking at the edge of a probably half-empty lot for 5 mins?
Not sure how to beat it, but for future reference- keep an old Safeway bag in the car. When you park run into Safeway and out again, take out the bag and leave it on the seat (put anything in it to look full). Then do your banking. No legal way they can bust you with evidence right there you shopped at their crappy store. This burns my ass.

I doubt that is a worthwhile argument since he was not parking at Safeway but at a lot next to it, and that would still be considered private property.

In my humble opinion, there is mainly just a threat of legal action and it will cost them more to do a Small Claims Court action if it is just one ticket. More likely they keep a record of tickets issued to one person, and when it is worthwhile then they chase after you. In Small Claims Ct the most that a losing party has to pay in the vast majority of the time, aside from the claim itself (ie the ticket cost), is the Small Claims Court filing fee which is maybe $100 or so. Further, and here is where I sound like a lawyer, the extent of their loss is arguably just the ticket costs so that may just be what $1.00 for the half hour. Can't say too many people sue over that.

My suggestion - ignore them - that's what I have done in the past and no one has chased after me. Just don't go parking in any of their lots for the next little while - then thay may impound your car for trespassing and you'll have to deal with the tow truck cos. then and that is a whole different ballgame..

 

[mustangjoe]

Just pay the fucking thing.

No, they won't take you to small claims, but they will forward you to a collection agency. You can take your chances if you like with the collection agency. A small portion of them report to Equifax such as CBV collections, but the majority of them are not that sophisticated. If you get a collection letter by some 2 bit agency, just turf the letters. They'll stop after a few months if you don't pay.

I still say you're better off just paying it. If it does show up on your credit report, it'll stay there for 5 years. Most banks want you to pay it before they will forward any mortgages to you anyway. However, if your credit rating is the shits you got nothing to loose.

 

[Chef]

My experience with impark

I got a ticket at Langara College over a year ago, I won't go into details, but it wasn't my fault. To make a long story short I called impark and gave them a earful, the lady asked me to fax them a written explanation, and I basically told her to s**k my d**k. I never heard from them again.
I hate impark.
If you ignore their notices, just make sure that you don't park on their lots again without paying.

 

[DJLAW]

lets put this in terms that most of us here can understand. $98.17. at $$$, that is less than 20 minutes with many of the SPs on this site.

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