G24 Ltd Suck. Car Parking charge at B&M Stores

Mr Anthony Jermy! !XXX XXXXXXXXXX XXXX!

XXXXXXXXXX!XXXXXXX!

XXXXXX!XXX XXX!!!!

Contractual Parking Charge Notice Number : 4xxxxxxxxxx2!!Car: Ford Focus colour: Black registration: XXXX XXX!!

!!To whom it may concern at G24 Ltd,!!It is with regret that I have to; a) take the time to write to you about the contractual parking charge notice I have received and b) need to tell you that neither the driver or the registered owner of the vehicle will be paying your parking charge of £90.00 (presumably a figure which you have fabricated from the echelons of the private parking firm community). After my initial shock of the authoritarian approach to the format of your parking charge notice (the combination of white bold lettering on a red background really does strike fear into the core of the unassuming recipient), I carefully read your charge notice before applying it to the date and event detailed in the charge notice. I can only presume that although your charge notice is not a circular, it is indeed a generic automated template and therefore does not take into account the individual idiosyncrasies of the car parks you are responsible for “maintaining”. Consequently, some profound flaws of the charge notice have been identified when applying the stipulations to the car park in question at B&M Stores, Mile Cross Lane, Norwich. Please allow me to elaborate, as the likelihood that the recipient reading this has the prerequisite knowledge of the layout and idiosyncrasies of this car park, is somewhat slim.!!Paragraph two of your charge notice states that “the terms and conditions were clearly displayed at the entrance to, and in prominent places within, the car park”. Apart from the over zealous and unnecessary use of punctuation, this sentence is not applicable and actually dangerous in practical context when applied to the car park in question at B&M Stores, Mile Cross Lane, Norwich. Please allow me to draw your attention to image 1:!

Image 1

Image 1 illustrates the only entrance to the car park at B&M stores, Mile Cross Lane, Norwich. Traffic filters down a cul-de-sac from Mile Cross Lane, a busy A road in Norwich. The arrow to the left of image one identifies the only route into the car park. You can clearly see in image 1 that the entrance to the B&M stores car park is a sharp left hairpin turn, where the drivers vision and attention is naturally drawn to the nearside aspect of the car/windscreen. You can also see in image 1 that a hedgerow clearly obstructs the vision of the driver entering the car park until they pass through the red elliptical area on image 1. The aforementioned elliptical area would be the only opportunity where the driver would have a head on view of the sign at the entrance to the car park. the sign is blocked from view before the ellipse and to enter the car park safely, the drivers vision and attention must be directed to the nearside aspect after the ellipse. Presuming the car is driving at the designated speed of 5mph (which would only be the case if the driver was concentrating on the speed limit sign and not your car park entrance sign), then the driver would only be in this vantage point monetarily, certainly not long enough to read, divulge and adhere to the 82 characters of varying font sizes and colours detailed on the sign as seen in image 2 (taken at a distance of approx. 1m from the sign). !

!A study by Ascone et al. (2009) identifies that 16% of fatal accidents, 21% of injury crashes can be associated with driver distraction, whilst 23% of near-crashes can be attributed to this also. Liang et al. (2012) defines a distraction as a diversion which the attention of the driver is taken away from critical tasks of safe driving and go on to say that one of the worst distraction tasks is reading text whilst driving.!!The only foreseeable occasion where a car would be at a standstill in this position, would be if a pedestrian was using the crossing in image 1. If this was the case, of course the drivers attention

Image 2

and line of sight would be directed towards the pedestrian, unless of course your company is advocating driving without due care and attention? Nevertheless, image 1 also clearly shows how unreadable your sign is from that distance, so the driver would have to physically leave the vehicle and approach the sign to read it. Unfortunately, there is an apparent lack of pedestrian access to this sign. The concrete bollards next to the shop would mean a pedestrian would need to walk into the road to get within reading distance of the sign (I had to literally take my own life in my hands when presenting this evidence which I am not especially happy about). Therefore a member of the public must put their own health and wellbeing at risk to identify that due care and attention should be applied to further signs within the car park. I am sure this is not something that your company would advocate?!!Due to the inappropriate positioning of your ‘opening gambit’ sign, upon entering your car park at B&M stores, Mile Cross Lane, Norwich, the driver was completely unaware that further signs detailing contractual obligations whilst parking in the car park required attention before entering the store to take advantage of B&M store’s self confessed ‘sensational prices’. Admittedly, having subsequently returned to the car park for photographic evidence, multiple signs have been placed around the car park, however the ‘prominence and clarity’ of the signs which I refer back to in paragraph two of your charge notice depend absolutely on the parking space occupied by the patron. I would therefore like to bring your attention to images 3, 4 and 5 on this page and the next.!

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Image 3

Car parking space used!Please note this is a retrospective!image, so the car in the picture is actually!a Ford Mondeo and not a Ford Focus!(you will have to use your imagination…)!

Entrance to the store!(notice the lack of car parking signs)

Image 4

Image 5

!Image 3 was taken after receiving your contractual parking charge notice. It clearly illustrates the entrance to B&M stores with no notices about car parking terms, conditions and charges in sight heading towards the entrance. To the bottom right of the image the front of a Ford Mondeo can be seen parked in one of your designated parking spaces. To the extreme right of the Ford Mondeo, the metal bracing of the shopping trolley shelter can also be seen. We couldn’t believe our luck when we saw a car leaving this exact space as we arrived into the car park on the day in question. Not only a space right next to the store, but also right next to the trolley shelter. We had to take it. With two you children in tow, It would have been rude not to! If only we were to know how apparently unlucky this space would turn out to be thanks to you, G24 Ltd. as we would not need to subsequently pass and have our attention drawn to one of your horrendously crafted terms and conditions signs.!!For clarity, I have identified the route which was taken to enter the store in image 3. This can also be seen in image 4 (courtesy of google maps). If our attention had been gained from a somewhat lacking appropriately positioned entrance sign to the car park, care and attention would have been taken to read further signs before entering the store and subsequently our route from car to store entrance would have been more like that seen in image 5.!!Subsequently, due to poor/inappropriate positioning of multiple signs at the entrance to, and in, not so prominent places within, the car park, G24 Ltd. has failed to provide adequate warning of contractual obligation to the patrons of B&M stores, Mile Cross Lane, Norwich. Without prior notice, these patrons (albeit perhaps small in terms of parking spaces with direct routes to the store without passing your signs) are distinctly disadvantaged to a penalty that they would have almost certainly avoided if they were aware of it. Ultimately, the failure to abide by your contractual obligations lies predominantly with the frankly terrible positioning of your entrance sign. The British Parking Association (2010) advises that: “Any signage within the parking facility must be clearly visible and used to control, warn or instruct customers. Ideally, signs should be sited so that information is visible from all parts of the parking facility.”!!Your sign to the entrance of B&M Stores car park, Mile Cross Lane, Norwich, does not fulfil any of the above criteria when entering the car park, apart from when a car passes through the ellipse illustrated in image 1. Patrons should not be unfairly penalised for poor judgement on your companies part, or whoever had the bright idea to put a sign up where nobody driving safely would ever be looking.!!As G24 Ltd. is basing its assumptions on the driver of the car having disregarded the safety of themselves and any passengers in the car (think of the children why don't you!) to read the signs, I have to assume that as the signs within the car park were not seen at the time due to the location of the car parking space occupied, that the retrospective image taken of the parking notice in image 6 (next page) has been altered since contractual parking charge notice was issued. The sign in image 6 has clearly been amended where the text stipulates both the maximum duration of stay and the penalty price to pay. What looks like white sticky backed plastic with a new charge/time limit has been placed over a previous figure. As there is no indication on the sign as to the date of amendment, I have no basis as to whether this charge was correctly displayed at the time of the alleged offence.!!It is also worth taking into an account just how ridiculously small the text is on this sign. I am 180cm tall and image 6 was taken approx. 1 meter away using the 8mp iSight camera from an iPhone 5S, (a camera that T3 (2013) calls the best they have seen from the industry leading iPhone to date) and the text at the bottom of the sign is unreadable. These signs are presumably therefore intended only for people over six feet tall with perfect 20/20 vision to read. Better yet, they are all positioned where the viewer would have to be standing in a parking space to read them, furthermore putting the patrons of B&M Stores at further risk of injury from cars… if the musculoskeletal injury of the cervical spine straining to read them doesn’t get them first.!!

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Image 6

Blue Peter!Style amendments.

Although the information above should be more than enough evidence to identify that this parking charge is not applicable given the poorly positioned and formatted signs within your car park, please let me detail a collection of other events that led to the car in question being parked on the private property longer than you would like. Obviously the following should only be considered if the health, safety and wellbeing of patrons of B&M Stores is not a priority to you.!!The date of the alleged offence was Friday 1st November 2013 at 14:42. This was during a half term school holiday and subsequently, B&M Stores, Mile Cross Lane, Norwich was particularly busy (hence our ecstasy at gaining a parking spot at the very entrance to the store). The entirety of time spent whilst the car was parked in your car park was spent within B&M stores and this can be seen from the time at the bottom of the receipt of goods bought in image 7:!

!It is also worth noting that all 13 items bought on the receipt are gifts for Christmas, many of which are for children. As this was the first visit to B&M stores, Mile Cross Lane, Norwich (it used to be a Comet in a previous incarnation as I am sure you are aware), it took time to orientate ourselves around the store, carefully exploring every aisle to take advantage of the sensational prices B&M has become famous for, whilst being blissfully unaware that the hypothetical parking charge clock was ticking. As anyone who has ever bought Christmas gifts for children can testify to, getting the right gift is of paramount importance and as some of the gifts being bought were not just for our own children, but those of family and friends, furious text messages and phone calls were being exchanged to ensure duplicates would not occur and ultimate satisfaction would be achieved by all parties involved. This understandably took some time, more so than say ‘popping to the shops for some normal groceries’. It should therefore be understandable that our apparent 90 minutes of allotted time could be eaten into severely by navigation of the store and careful consideration for gifts bought. But we’re allowed 90 minutes right? Apparently…!!At this point I feel I must also comment on the quite frankly sub standard customer service delivered by the point of sales staff within the store. Although I am aware that your company will not be directly involved with B&M Stores or its appointment of staff within its commercial empire, this does somewhat add to our exceeded stay of twenty three minutes passed your 90 minute virtual car parking claxon. I am also including this as this letter is also going to be sent to B&M Customer services, possibly Simon Arora the CEO of B&M Stores as well as being posted on various social network sites on the B&M pages as members of the public need to be informed of your car parking charges in a useful way. Anyway, I digress…!!After we had satisfied our Christmas shopping urge, we joined a somewhat lengthy queue at the checkout only to wait patiently for upwards of ten minutes (as mentioned before it was busy inside the store) to then be told that the checkout we were waiting at was closing because the cashier was due to go on a break. After joining another queue and adding more time onto our shopping experience, we were served by a cashier who began to process our items before being distracted by two security guards escorting a shoplifter off the premises. Ever the professional, the cashier eventually remembered that they were employed to serve patrons and returned to their duties, whilst intermittently chatting about the emerging fracas with another assistant. At the time, we thought little of this delay, apart from a minor annoyance. A bit of tutting and eye rolling was all it escalated to by ourselves and other patrons. If we were aware of our 90 minute parking limit our response would have understandably been somewhat different by these stalling tactics.!!As previously mentioned, the latter part of this message is more anecdotal and not directly related to G24 Ltd. as a company, however it does illustrate legitimate rationale for our extend stay at B&M Stores and the car park. The receipt in image 7 clearly shows that the time from checkout until the time your cameras noted our car leaving the car park was a total of 5 minutes. This is a completely acceptable time to load a car with shopping and secure our three year old and ten month old children in the back of the car before leaving. Although the delay at the checkout was a mild annoyance at the time, we were overall happy with our shopping experience at B&M Stores due to the items bought, but would be reluctant to return given the subsequent contractual parking charge notice and if we do, it will only be to return the items and ask for a refund if you intend to take this case further. We feel that we have completely legitimate reasons for inadvertently not acknowledging your contractual obligations given the evidence above and ask that you take this into careful consideration when reviewing this letter!!Yours faithfully!!!!!!Anthony Jermy !

!!!References!!Ascone, D., Lindsey, T. & Varghese, C. (2009) Traffic Safety Factor: An Examination of Driver Distraction as Recorded in NHTSA Databases: National Highway Traffic Safety Administration’s National Centre for Statistics and Analysis.!!British Parking Association (2010) New Build Car Park Guidelines: for Car Park Designers, operators and owners. Available online at http://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/safer%20parking/SPS%20New%20Build%20Guidelines%20-%20web%20version.pdf !!Liang, Y., Horrey, W. & Hoffman, J. (2012) Reading While Driving: A Study on Driver’s Strategies of In-Vehicle Task Initiation. Proceedings of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society Annual Meeting!!T3 - The Gadget Website (2013) iPhone 5S Review. Available online at http://www.t3.com/reviews/iphone-5s-review/iPhone-5s-Camera