Parking Ticket !!! while supercharging.

[PW.S75D]

Hi All,
Am i the first Tesla owner to get a parking ticket while super charging?
The highway robbers called "ParkingEye Ltd." appear to be employed by the "Hotel Campanile Northampton"
I have used many other super chargers in hotels and never had any problem.
In the highway robbers hotel it is apparently necessary to enter your reg. No. into a terminal in their reception area.
There is absolutely no reason for this because on the parking fine it has photo's of both my front and rear plates (see attached photo).
They state that this information is on signs in the car park which is probably true, but i did not read the signs because i assumed it would state something like:- These spacers are reserved for Tesla drivers only.
The information is also on the navigation screen if you select the super charger to get more information.
But again i did not select the charger because it was the only one on route and it was chosen by the car.
I called the hotel and complained but they would not help (i suppose they get their cut from the robbers)
I called Tesla for help but they would not help either, do they also get a cut?
Can anyone suggest what else i can do apart from appeal to the robbers.
Thanks Peter.

 

[DrRa]

Probably not from the county or city. Kind of like the red light tickets. Won't get turned into the local authorities

 

[jorobsand]

Is this a supercharger or a destination charger?

 

[brycerocky]

Reading up on the company, it seems their final course of action is to go after clients through credit agencies and suing in court. Found this article though:
ParkingEye meets its match as it takes on a top barrister over an £85 fine

Seems like this is a cheaper alternative than towing companies, but one way to bog down the courts.

 

[deonb]

Not sure I understand the outrage of having a paid-for parking lot. Are the parking lots in the UK on public land and paid for by tax dollars or something?

 

[Mark_T]

Finding it a little hard to muster much sympathy as it is not exactly a well hidden risk, and is well documented on the Tesla site and as you admit both in the navigation screen and on signs at the location...

From the Tesla website:

Parking

To avoid being fined by Parking Eye, visit the hotel reception to submit your car registration within 10 minutes of arrival. Parking is free thereafter.

The location is on private land, it is not a public parking lot and clearly belongs to the hotel.

 

[Asterix187]

Unfortunately you are in the wrong. I use this charger a fair amount and there are signs stating that parking is only allow for 1 hour and you must register your car registration number with the hotel front desk within 10 minutes. This is also shown on the supercharger info on your map in the car.

 

[DOCAL]

Unfortunately you are in the wrong. I use this charger a fair amount and there are signs stating that parking is only allow for 1 hour and you must register your car registration number with the hotel front desk within 10 minutes. This is also shown on the supercharger info on your map in the car.

This seems like a good opportunity for Tesla to add a geofenced pop up, possibly with some sort of chime to alert you. Any supercharger that has special requirements like this, could have the pop up as soon as you put the car into park, if you're within a certain area.

Last time I was back in the UK I rented a S90D from WhiteCar, I would never have thought there would be any special registration requirements for using a supercharger, so could well have been stung by this too.

 

[Asterix187]

There are a few in the UK that require registration but mainly due to the hotel itself using something like parking eye to stop none residents from parking there. Its used mainly where the hotel is near a business park or somewhere employees might need to find parking for the day.

Another example of this is the Heathrow T5 supercharger which is at the Hilton Hotel. You need to register your car registration number with reception or get a fine.

However, in both instances, its free to do and there are clearly signs stating that registration is needed. The OP even stated he ignored the signs as he thought they were the normal 'Only Tesla' type signs but thats not the hotel's fault.

Geofencing would be a great idea.

 

[David.85D]

Sorry. The whole thing stinks.

This is the outrage of privatizing public functions. Parking lot owners shouldn’t be allowed to give “parking tickets” for violations of their own arcane, arbitrary, capricious rules...

I received a warning at our local mall (and a threat I would be towed the next time) for supposedly parking improperly in an electric car spot! In 2016, the parking lot staff couldn’t recognize a Tesla as an electric car! I don’t shop there anymore.

 

[JammyP]

I have been to this site and saw the sign luckily. It always pays to check the signs and don’t take anything for granted!

 

[Asterix187]

This is the outrage of privatizing public functions. Parking lot owners shouldn’t be allowed to give “parking tickets” for violations of their own arcane, arbitrary, capricious rules.

Sorry what? What part of this is a public function? It’s a private hotel offering services for a private company? If they said you were only allow to and from your car by hopping on one leg then if you choose to park there that’s what you should do. You had another choice which is not to park there. You accepted their rules, clearly stated, but chose to ignore them as you thought you knew/were better.

 

[TaoJones]

That’s an interesting if draconian approach to a reduction in ICEing at an SC.

You’d think if Parking Spy/Eye doesn’t want further trouble in court that they would refrain from ticketing Teslas that are charging/connected at least for the first hour. Which is to say chalk a tire and come back in an hour. If still there, fair game.

Although I suppose the registration might exempt them but it is clearly unclear.

Since this seems to be an embedded malaise, then a little more messaging up front would seem reasonable. Once informed, it’s up to the driver to choose to support that host business with their patronage or not.

But not finding out until you get there that there’s an hour’s restriction is crap. If you need to top off for a long next leg, it can take over an hour to add 30% - especially when paired.

 

[Big Dog]

This is the outrage of privatizing public functions.

Why is this any different than putting up a sign outside of the pool or tennis courts, saying, "Sorry, Registered Guests Only"

 

[McRat]

Sorry. The whole thing stinks.

This is the outrage of privatizing public functions. Parking lot owners shouldn’t be allowed to give “parking tickets” for violations of their own arcane, arbitrary, capricious rules...

I received a warning at our local mall (and a threat I would be towed the next time) for supposedly parking improperly in an electric car spot! In 2016, the parking lot staff couldn’t recognize a Tesla as an electric car! I don’t shop there anymore.

Should people be allowed to park on your property when they wish?

There are few if any 'electric car parking stalls'.
What there are, is Electric Car Charging Stations. They are for charging only. Once you are done charging you are obliged to open the charger for the next person who needs it.
I would say about 1/2 the people who park at the Whole Foods chargers are not charging even though it's posted.

 

[thegruf]

I have to say I only became aware of this pernicious parking fine at a supercharger model via this website.
I bet there are many who have been caught out who dont visit here.

If you have a good lawyer I would say this:

charging <> parking


The reality is that the parking companies have access to DVLA records (well unless they are so bad that this gets withdrawn).
It would therefore be trivial to identify a Tesla by its index plate.

There are these scenarios for superchargers

ICE parking - the above deals with that
EV charging - ditto - and can ignore
EV completed charging - Tesla deals with that
EV parking - Tesla should be able to deal with this.

In other words this is and should be entirely solvable with intelligent use of existing technology to the benefit of all concerned.
In particular it can be used to tackle the blight of ICEing at superchargers.

 

[David99]

While the info might have been available and he missed registering his car at the hotel, I think it's silly to have that requirement at a Supercharger! If you drive a Tesla and go there to charge your car, that should automatically be enough. I mean you can see it is a Tesla, you can see it is plugged in and charging. That's what the Supercharger is meant to be. That is what the hotel knew would be the intent of a Supercharger. It's poor of Tesla to pick a location that has this silly extra step requirement.

 

[PW.S75D]

I know it is my fault for not reading the signs but i believe some people are missing my point of contention.
Registering the car number plate does not help with illegal parking. They clearly cannot identify a Tesla car.
If i was driving an ICE car and i parked in a Tesla spot and registered my number plate, It would be fine with them and they would ignore me.
They require people to give them information that they clearly already have (photo's of front and rear number plates)

It looks like there is a problem with the forums "Upload an image/file" as i tried to upload an image of the parking ticket.
It is only 1.3MB .jpg but keeps putting up error signs' i will try again on this post.
If the image does not appear can someone advise me what the problem is.

 

[TaoJones]

While the info might have been available and he missed registering his car at the hotel, I think it's silly to have that requirement at a Supercharger! If you drive a Tesla and go there to charge your car, that should automatically be enough. I mean you can see it is a Tesla, you can see it is plugged in and charging. That's what the Supercharger is meant to be. That is what the hotel knew would be the intent of a Supercharger. It's poor of Tesla to pick a location that has this silly extra step requirement.

A fair point, about to be potentially exacerbated or at least exemplified at the new/penultimate downtown San Diego SC location that is a) locked up tight after hours and on weekends, and b) very much a private pay-to-park parking garage with a staff as yet unknowledgable about any grace period for charging Teslas, such as what exists at the Savannah airport and similar locations.

 

[ww73]

Give them a negative review on yelp, trip advisor, Google maps, Facebook, everywhere on social media.