Just received my first supercharger private parking ‘PCN’ after charging at Kings Lynn, Norfolk. The site was exactly the type that you’d expect this to happen, based at a hotel. I was highly suspicious about it, checked everything I could think of, and have still ended up with one.
Not impressed with this because:
- I already know the risks of supercharger PCNs having not experienced one, but read about them here. I was also on high alert because the site ‘felt’ like just the sort of place it might happen.
- I checked this forum for previous threads to remind myself how it all worked, and saw that ticket recipients are often accused of failing to read the supercharger information screen. Not going to be caught out that way, I know better than that now I’ve read the forum threads. So I double checked by reading the supercharger information screen. I even compared it to the Northampton site as I knew that one had PCNs. I could see the warning at Northampton, but nothing at this site. I wondered if the car and Tesla web directory might show different things so triple checked that too.
- The hotel was deserted with all the lights off. The entire car park contained not a single other car apart from one that had broken down. Some people exited through a hotel door near the superchargers that looked sort of like a main door, but when I went to try the door, it had locked behind them and it could not be opened and there was no buzzer or sign. Hotel seemed empty and dark.
- I checked all around the superchargers and the surrounding deserted car park for any explanatory signs. I asked my two passengers to also look, explaining about the PCN system in place at superchargers and that you have to look actively for instructions. We all looked. For most of the 25 minutes of charging. Around the entire car park. There were no signs. My non-Tesla owning passengers made fun of me for my ridiculous paranoia, saying that it was obvious to anyone that they wouldn’t have a charging station and then fine you for using it.
- There was a couple stopped with a breakdown in the car park, and a grounds maintenance type person looking like they were helping. I asked them and the maintenance person said they did look after the car park property, but had no idea about payments worked but did know that it was allowed, to use the supercharger.
Here we are ten days later, with a PCN for £100, covered in warnings on the back saying that this may go to court, that the popular believe that private parking tickets are overturnable is incorrect and quoting a court case, warning that I may receive a CCJ, my credit record may be affected, and I may receive a visit from bailiffs.
This system is unbelievably terrible. It isn’t just the sort of terrible where someone has failed to do something well enough. It is the worst sort of terrible where actual effort, time, money and ongoing work has been put into making the experience as poor as possible.
I cannot believe someone has gone to all the effort of:
- Erecting cameras and an AI system to detect vehicles entering and leaving and record their details.
- Sending these details to a third party company to research the vehicle and its keeper by making a formal request to DVLA.
- Finding out that the vehicle is a Tesla vehicle, that it entered the supercharger station and then left less than 30 minutes later, and even writing these details on the ‘PCN’ letter.
- Writing to the registered keeper to charge £100, including various irrelevant notes about bailiffs, credit reports and so on.
The system is so crap that even a driver who knows about these forums, specifically searches for previous threads, finds out where on the Tesla display the warning should appear, double checks the Northampton site for comparison, triple checks on the Tesla web listing as well as in-car, does a car park walk around specifically looking for explanatory signs, enrols two others to search for signs for most of the 25 minutes of charging, tries to gain access to a locked hotel door, and asks a member of staff in the grounds, still receives a fine.
Have rung hotel. Pleasant enough and they will undo it. So this isn’t a rant at the fine per se. It’s just the completely unnecessary effort required as a driver / charging user, by the hotel, and by the third party parking company. All the steps involved seem completely unnecessary. Why not just let drivers know what steps are necessary? Or, recognise that a Tesla entering the supercharger for less than half an hour and then departing, is pretty likely to be charging.
