An east London couple claim they were betrayed from a parking garage in Margate last month.
Alan Rodney, 57, was fined by Smart Parking Limited, who operates Dreamland’s parking garage, after visiting town with his wife Jennifer on their 30th wedding anniversary.
He claims the parking meter would not accept his registration number to calculate how much he owed so he calculated it himself and bought a ticket but was later fined £ 60.
Read more: Fraud alert for anyone with a Santander, Barclays or Nationwide bank account
Alan told KentLive, “My wife is a huge Margate fan. It was a beautiful day, we had a wonderful anniversary in town.
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“But that keeps people from going to Margate. I will certainly not go there again.
“It’s a city that has to depend on a lot of tourism and if people are inappropriately charged it will put them off.”
Alan said the parking lots at the Dreamland parking garage say you don’t have to pay until you leave, you enter your license plate number, which should have been captured by the parking lot’s cameras, and the meters calculate how much you owe.
However, Alan said the machine did not recognize his registration number when he went to check out.
The parking notice given to Alan by Smart Parking Limited
(Image: Alan Rodney)
After trying several parking machines, Alan said he calculated the fare himself and paid a £ 6 parking ticket for which he kept the receipt.
He believed this would solve the problem, but on Wednesday October 13th he received a parking fine in the mail from Smart Parking Limited accusing him of failing to pay the fee.
Alan objected through their website, but when trying to upload pictures of the parking ticket, their system said an error had occurred and he had to appeal without evidence. He also had no luck finding a phone number to challenge the fine.
Alan added, “They make it very easy to pay your bill, but it is very hard to dispute.
“I suspect that I am now getting more letters that persecute me about payments and threaten legal action.
Alan kept his parking receipt as proof that he had paid
(Image: Alan Rodney)
“This got me thinking how many other people have gotten into conflict with what can only be described as a fraud.
“How many people have to go through this and are not as savvy as I am and are only paying the £ 60 fine?”
Alan also reached out to Margate Council and Dreamland, both of whom said the parking lot had nothing to do with them as it was operated by a private operator.
He will continue to ignore further letters that have been sent to him regarding the fine.
Alan added, “I shouldn’t have to have this conversation. Why do I have to go so far these days to highlight something like this?
“If the company had done the right thing from the start, I would praise Margate, but instead I tell my friends and family not to go there.”
Alan isn’t the only person who has had a negative experience with the parking garage – Smart Parking Limited has just one star on Trust Pilot, with 99 percent of 594 reviews being “bad”.
Alan received the fine after parking in the Dreamland parking lot
One person commented: “Unfortunately I had to press an asterisk or else I got stuck. If you ever see Smart Parking, you are scammers.
“You will not be able to challenge an unjustified fine received.
Another Trust Pilot user added, “Scammers. They should be closed. Professional scammers.”
A third person said, “They sent a £ 54 fine even though I bought a ticket which goes up to £ 100 after two weeks with no payment.
“I appealed and they didn’t even respond, which means I had to pay to avoid the risk of paying £ 100. Criminal.”
Regarding Alan Rodney’s fine, Dreamland said Margate they were unaware of the complaint they filed, but have since forwarded Mr Rodney’s complaint to Smart Parking Limited.
KentLive has made the editorial decision not to share Mr. Rodney’s information with Smart Parking Limited.
Because of this, Smart Parking Limited said they were unable to investigate his case and make a statement based on his allegations.
However, a spokesman for Smart Parking Limited said: “We can confirm that none of the on-site parking machines were defective on the day in question and we remind all drivers to follow clearly signed instructions when using our locations.
“Hundreds of users do this every day with no problem.”
They did not directly respond to Mr Rodney’s allegations that this was not the case.
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