Parking fine not fine at all

How many more people are going to be caught out by this ridiculous parking scheme at Jempsons? I sincerely hope they will have the decency to cancel Dr Haydn Smith’s fine. I agree with him that the signage is just not good enough and I doubt whether the locals even know that the 2 hour limit stays in place when the car park is supposed to be free after 4pm. The whole thing is nonsensical.

The signage on the sides of the covered trolley bays also states that pay and display applies to parking from Monday to Saturday 9am until 4pm which appears to indicate that parking on a Sunday is free of charge. If you then read the parking pay machine, this is not correct as there is an all day charge for a Sunday. I wonder how many people will get caught out by that?

You do not have to pay these fines – it is highly unlikely any company would pursue through the Courts – there are numerous websites that explain this but this link is relatively straight forward. http://www.mirror.co.uk/money/millions-parking-tickets-illegal—5199090
The parking tickets issued by people like Jempsons are not fines: they are invoices for breaching your contract to park for only two hours and they will have to go to court to be implemented – most of the time companies like this cannot be bothered (although I pick up from conversations with locals that Jempsons have such a poor reputation in this town and are known to be a petty and generally hated company so they may be the exception and not mind spending loads of money just to be spiteful).
I didn’t know that the 2 hour rule applied to times when the car park is free and that does seem like it’s worth appealing as most reasonable people would assume that free means free?

Jempson,s Parking

I understand very well that Jempson’s Rye charges for the parking and reimburses 1£ when products are bought in the shop. The only very annoying point is that the £ is deducted from the bill and not handed back. It happened now several times that I had no coin left, hence had to go into the shop to get a coin. But getting a coin in the shop means very often to queue and loosing time. When asking not to deduct the pound but hand back a coin, sometimes it is possible and sometimes it needs very long discussions. Hence a general rule should be given that a coin can be handed back. It is certainly not the customers charge to have always coins ready when buying at Jempson’s in Rye especially when going easily every second day.

This Email conversation with Jempson’s and their approach to customers care might interest also others.

Kind regards

R-E Ensmann

Here the answer from Jempson’s.

For the convenience of the shop the shop expects customers to carry sufficient coins or to make twice the way from the car to the shop and than to the ticket machine, even in storm and rain. The notion of customer care has apparently been lost on the way by Jempson’s.
 
I think as customer approach, this is unique!
 

—–Original Message—–
From: Jempsons [mailto:brunorioch@googlemail.com]
Sent: 01 April 2016 17:01
To: Dominic Plomer Roberts
Subject: Contact form submission from the Jempson’s website

Dear Mr Ensmann, good afternoon,
 
Thank you very much for taking the time and trouble to contact us.
 
Apologies that you find this inconvenient, but scanning the ticket and deducting the £1 from the bill is simply the best way to operate the refund system.
 
My colleagues are always available to offer change should it be required, please note that charges do not apply prior to 9am or after 4pm. (2 hour maximum stay is still applicable though).
 
Thank you for your understanding, as well as for your custom and support, we do appreciate it.
 
Enjoy your weekend,
 
With kind regards,
 
Dominic

Thanks for your comments. I did appeal and, of course, they didn’t accept it so I paid the £40 to avoid further hassle. I am sure they will catch out more visitors to your lovely town!