24 comments Add a comment
Isn't it time for a competition enquiry into NCP? Every station in my area with a direct line to London has outsourced its car park to this fine organisation, and I now have a thick file of dog-eared letters and e-mail print-outs to show for it.
Now, as a retail coward, I rarely complain, preferring instead to save time and pain by simply shopping, eating or viewing somewhere else. I know I should try harder but life just seems too short, somehow.
It's hard to that when you have to get to London and you live in a village far enough away from the station that driving is the only viable alternative. A couple of years back, when NCP took over the car park, they did two things.
First, they introduced 'pay by phone'. Then they added 50% to the price of a season ticket. I paid by phone and it worked well, right until the time I started getting 'penalty notices' under my wipers, even though I had paid by phone and had the texts to prove it. I called them. I was quite right, they said, I had paid. Just ignore the tickets and they would be cancelled.
Then the letters from the debt collection agency started to arrive. I called the agency and explained that NCP had said it was OK. Apparently everyone says that. I called and wrote to NCP again. They would call them off, they said. Next week I got a letter from a firm of bailiffs.
By now I was e-mailing, writing faxing and recorded-delivery-couriering everyone at NCP up to and including the CEO, but it wasn't until a very nice young man (must have been a temp) agreed that yes, the record clearly showed I had paid on the days in question and *agreed to e-mail me a screen grab* that, with this proof in my possession, I eventually got some sense from his bosses. The letters stopped and I got a grudging letter of apology.
Now I pay by monthly direct debit and every month they send me a disc to display on the windshield. During the postal strike the disc didn't arrive. I called them. "I just want you to reassure me that you know I have paid so I won't be getting tickets". They reassured and another disc was sent out.
Last week I got the first debt-chasing letter for the two disc-less days last year. I may have to go and lie down now...
Leave a comment
The end.
If that is the highest aspiration you have for your children, it proves my point. Now go away and play somewhere else. You are beneath contempt.
Can I state now that your are the t__t (again inserting the missing words: oh sorry thats me being thicking again) that started the name calling in the first place. Sorry it is my fault for descending to your crass and incompotent level. And another question: WHY OH WHY IF YOU THIN THE CHARGE IS UNFAIR ARE YOU DISAGREEING IN THE FIRST PLACE? I am afraid Mikie boy that any charges of dunder head, dumb head or any other d heads one can think of must be squarely placed at your door my good friend.
Maybe I will have kids, have one grow up to be a bus driver and run over your sorry little a___. I will also call him MikeP, how is that for irony?
I happen to know that car park, I use it sometimes. May I suggest that you provide NCP with photographic evidence that the rates are not clearly displayed at the entrance, if this is the case, and maybe you will win your argument.
I do think the charge is fair for a popular city centre car park, and I have no connection with NCP other than as a user of this and many other of their facilities.
Next time take the bus and do everyone a favour and save yourself some money too - put it towards getting an education for your children if you have any, because with a father like you they won't get much education at home.
I have the right in a democracy to make my views known, especially when facing such extortionate charges. I humbly suggest Mike, go and shove your head up your own [insert word strating with a] if you think these prices are just or fair, buisness or no buisness. If you work for NCP or are an ordinary motp defending this robbery, shame on you and the horse you rode in on. Just dont park at at the NCP (AS I WONT AND IMPLORE ANYBODY READING THIS TO FIND A CHEAPER AND BETTER ALTERNATIVE THAN THESE MONEY GRABBING B'S)
You are aggrieved that you paid £3.70 for 9 minutes extra, but that is how business works. You feel they should have given you 10 minutes grace, then next time you, or the next guy, would expect 12 minutes, then 15, and so on. That is why the limit is there. 2 hours means 2 hours.
I am sure NCP car parks will be mortified if they ever see your complaint! Watch their shares go tumbling!
Dear Sirs
I parked for 2 hours and 9 minutes on sunday morning, 3rd April at the Greenside NCP carpark in Edinburgh and was charged £8.50. This is completely extortionate and I will no longer be using your service in the future. Shame on you for exploiting drivers, its a disgrace and I hope others feel like me and boycot all NCP carparks in the future. I know WILL.
With very little regards
Wayne Morrison
IDIOTS!!!!!!!!
We truned up in a bit of a hurry at Gatwick a few weeks ago to find that our pre-booked 'onsite' NCP booking wasnt any where near the airport! Sure maybe we should have read the small print but hey we reasonably assumed that we would drive to the airport! AND they havent bothered to reply to my online complaint and I want my £45 back!
anyway someone (i'm assuming a cleaning/maintenance employee) walked over the bonnet and roof of my car.
upon complaining to NCP they have refused to pay for the dint in my bonnet to be repaired - needless to say I will NEVER use an NCP crap park again! my car is safer left on a side street in salford - where its free to park!
Dida
NCP is a criminal organisation!!!