Went to Westfield the other day and didn’t realise I’d parked in a 60-minute zone. Got a $55 ticket from Parking Enforcement Services (ebreach.pesnz.co.nz). Any chance I can get out of it?
Has Anyone Had Experience in Dealing with Shopping Mall Parking Ticket?
xsolider on 29/10/2024 - 12:38
Comments
Thanks, I'll email the Mall and see how it goes.
Never respond to them, never go online to appeal for your parking. Just throw away the letters you receive. Eventually they'll give up and stop contacting you. Even if they do somehow take you to Dispute Tribunal (very unlikely), you can just say you never got those letters. My credit score never got affected either.
Please don't give legal advice ever again. Baycorp do not collect on Wilson parking tickets, that's another debt agency. Claiming you never got any letters or notice is not a valid defense.
They very rarely lodge defaults against parking tickets unless you rack up a lot (in the thousands worth), but this is only because the cost of collecting them quickly outpaces any potential profit they could have made. Disputing the ticket if you feel it's unjust is a better first option, often the collection manager will do a better review of the ticket than Wilson will do themselves, but if you don't want to pay it, then ignoring it after that as long as you're not frequently incurring parking infringements is unlikely to result in any action.You told someone to ignore letters from a debt collection agency and argue at the tribunal that you never received them. That's legal advice whether you think it is or not.
People think every debt agency is Baycorp.
FYI I used to manage the Wilson and PES debt accounts at the debt collection agency.
PES Has authorized access so that does nothing if they wish to shake money out of you.
This explicitly says 'Revoke authorised access'?
https://transact.nzta.govt.nz/transactions/PersonalInfoAcces…Yeah they lobbied nzta to give them access and they did I found the list somewhere but places like finance companies and petrol stations have access even when revoked. The only exception is the restricted list which is for people on witness protection etc
This explicitly says 'Revoke authorised access'?
https://transact.nzta.govt.nz/transactions/PersonalInfoAccess/entryI just tried it, and it seemed to work fine for me.
Upon completion, it says:
Personal information (including name and address) held on the Motor Vehicle Register for the vehicles listed will no longer be disclosed to third-parties authorised by the Ministry of Transport.
I'm not inclined to 'test it', and to the best of my knowledge, I have never received anything from anyone who has accessed my info through the NZTA database, but no harm doing it from my perspective.
@Alan6984: You are right, revoke and they have no access.
Done this to all my vehicles and PES are leeches and act like leeches.
The amount of screwing around and having to provide receipts that I had been in countdown shopping, basically made a fake email address and fake name and tried to get the ticket waived even with proof … They persisted … And I told them to take a walk and that they could try and chase me and good luck trying.
Never heard from them again.
Ignore them with revoked access, do not engage them with any communication
Nova is somewhat right but please don't take their debt collectors advice at face value. It is ignorant and misinformed and the only reason you can get away with that is because of this specific debt type.
Claiming you did not receive any notices/letters is not a valid defense if any action is taken by debt collectors. And I'm saying that as the person who used to manage the Wilson/PES parking accounts at the debt collection agency. (no they don't use Baycorp)
Do as they suggest and contact the mall to see if they can help. If not, dispute it through the website as stated on the ticket and include evidence you were a genuine customer of the mall by sending a copy of your receipts, if possible, see if there's clear signage where you parked and take a photo that shows it's not immediately obvious and is easy to miss or not clearly displayed.
If it reaches the collection agency you can try to dispute it again as they will demand the evidence that PES has and review it more thoroughly - ultimately you need to decide whether you've genuinely made a mistake and the ticket is valid or not before doing this though because they will only waive it if it's been made in error at this point, but before that, decide whether it's worth paying the smaller amount at PES before it gets another $20-$40 added and you want to risk ignoring it.
Refusing to pay after disputing it makes no difference compared to ignoring the letters. They will not care and in fact are more likely to just ignore it if they have contacted you and you've stated you refuse to pay. The only reason they stop chasing it is because the cost to do so is more than the value of the infringement notice. If you incur lots of notices, that's when they may take other action, but it's in the thousands of dollars worth, so rarely does someone incur that much. However, before I worked there, the previous manager sometimes set credit defaults against people, so the idea that it will never impact you is just a gamble you're taking. You'd likely get it reversed, but the only time you really know about defaults is when you wish they weren't there because you just got denied service because of it.Perhaps that has changed since you worked there?:
A Baycorp NZ spokesperson said the company provided debt collection services to a number of clients, including Wilson Parking, and acted on its behalf to collect amounts owing.
Source: https://www.newstalkzb.co.nz/news/national/shopping-centre-m…
Someone used my number for their Baycorp debt, was constantly phoned by them. I told them my name and they said ok this debt isn't yours so I requested them to remove my number. Then about 8 months later, they rang me again!
I had told them this is the second time their debtor used my number and if they don't blacklist them using my phone number then I'll lodge a proceeding against them under the Harassment Act 1997. Haven't had a phone call since.
My Centrix credit score is over 800 so it definitely wasn't me.
Also on another note, Wilson Parking is owned by a Hong Kong Real Estate tycoon (who is one of 4 'old money' families that are part of the HK real estate monopoly - they make decisions on what development gets approved in HK) who funded the Hong Kong riots a few years ago. Hardly does any philanthropic/charitable work. A very vile and nasty 90 something year old man including all his corporate entities.
Updates: received an email from scentre group today advising the ticket has been waived. Thank you NovaAlpha and all others who commented above.
Got to wonder why they have a 60 minute zone as people are usually in a mall for longer than that. But better than my local mall which charges for parking. The parking sector is in massive need of regulation.
Not everyone takes an eternity in the mall. Need those parks for organized people doing their click and collects.
Not everyone takes an eternity in the mall. Need those parks for organized people doing their click and collects.
Agreed. I very rarely spend more than twenty or thirty mins at a mall - I know what I want, go directly to the shop(s) I need, and get the items - no need to fluff about from my perspective.
I only visit the mall if I can park easily, and those 60 minute spaces are more likely to be free.
If they aren't (and there are no other obvious spaces) I take my money elsewhere, so I'd say the 60 minute spaces probably work well to capture spend that would otherwise go to a competitor location.
If I really do want to be there longer (maybe meeting someone), I just park elsewhere.
The way malls are set up is to entice people want to go into other shops as well. I don't think I have been to a mall for well over a year now TBH. Kmart and other big box retailers, yes, but not an actual mall like Queensgate.
The way malls are set up is to entice people want to go into other shops as well. I don't think I have been to a mall for well over a year now TBH. Kmart and other big box retailers, yes, but not an actual mall like Queensgate.
Don't doubt that they try (I would if it were me!) - I'm sure many people are very easily tempted.
The elderly can.
Yep, got ticketed at westfield riccarton. Had parked in the 60 min zone for about 80 mins. Emailed them and said that i was a regular customer at the mall and was attending a farewell lunch for a colleague which went overtime. The ticket was waived.
Just some broad advice. You might find on Reddit etc that you can send the a soteingly worded get fudged email, that was the case before 2020 I think. The tickets / fines are enforceable now
We've parked over the time limit a couple times and if you provide them with your receipts and bank statements etc to prove you were genuinely shopping and forgot about the time limit and ask them nicely they will most likely waive the fee.
Did you ask the mall or the car park company?
The parking company, the malls contract them out and they don't normally want to get involved.
Yep. Just contact the mall's email and they'll usually just help you waive the ticket.
Also, PES is part of Wilson Parking I believe and you can just ignore them. Make sure to opt-out of NZTA so that 3rd parties can't get your info (although they still have ways to do so).
Somewhat related, I've gotten a few parking tickets from Wilson a couple of months ago and even received a couple of letters from Baycorp. Never respond to them, never go online to appeal for your parking. Just throw away the letters you receive. Eventually they'll give up and stop contacting you. Even if they do somehow take you to Dispute Tribunal (very unlikely), you can just say you never got those letters. My credit score never got affected either.