REVscene - Vancouver Automotive Forum

thumper · 12-06-2006, 01:00 PM

wiggins is a real collections agency. they have an online website (google it). i had the misfortune of being a victim of their lousy business practices... i got a threatening voice mail message from them the day before rememberance day which went into a long weekend, so there was no way to call them back. the message had little info, other than i owe money, but for what i wasn't told. so i had to sit for 3 days wondering why i would get a call from a collections agency. when monday finally came i called them and found out they were trying to collect on impound fines for the coquitlam municipal pound for holding my dog... which was news to me because i don't own a dog. i find out later wiggins called every person in the phone book with my last name, which was the only information they had as the owner of the mutt. i was so pissed i complained to the BBB but i don't know if that would make any difference.

levelzero · 12-13-2006, 11:39 AM

Just a warning to tohers. I park in a Impark lot and once got a ticket for having my parking stub upside down on the dash.

MR_BIGGS · 12-15-2006, 10:50 AM

Hey,

I just got a letter in the mail from Diamond Parking.
The date says Nov 4th for the violation. Its like a $81 dollar fine.

However, I think it was $50 and they added on $30 because it wasn't paid by a certain date.

Now I remember parking there (the Safeway on Broadway and Commercial) on the date Nov 4th, but I didn't have any ticket on the windshield. I'm thinking someone took it off my car, so I had no way of knowing about it.

So I got the letter yesterday.

Anyone know if I can just debate it and say I was unaware of it, and they'll lower. I actually want to debate the whole fine because I remember I didn't go into Safeway first, I actually grabbed some things from the Shoppers acoss the street first then went to Safeway.

No way I'm paying $81 and change, especially now during the shopping season....

Anyone know what I can do? or any personal experiences..

Thanks

wing_woo · 12-15-2006, 11:57 AM

yeah...learn from that experience is the first thing. When parking in a Diamond lot...always walk into the store you're parked at first and then come out 5 minutes later. They don't care that you went in after. However, if you have receipts proving you were at Safeway, then scan them and send them with the notice and dispute it.

Amaru · 12-16-2006, 11:37 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by TheJuggernaut
When I see my uncle who's a lawyer next, I will finally try to remember to ask him about the legality of these threat tactics. I can understand towing someone that is on your property and charging them for the tow - it's private property. I can understand a province revoking your privilege to drive on its roads for violating the rules and not paying the fine (and removing the car off the roads if the person is caught there again, at their expense). But I don't get how any of these people can put ANYTHING on your credit record. I never entered any contract with the parking lot or the province, agreeing to pay this fine (definition of credit). What is the description of the debt that they give to the credit bureaus? "We demanded that he give us money and he didn't."? What is the difference between that and me giving the parking lot a fine for littering on my car, and reporting them to the credit bureau for not paying it (or something even more ridiculous, you name it)?

Sorry, this is an old post but... I figured I'd reply to this anyway. When you park in their lot, you enter into a contract - you agree to pay for their services (space in their parkinjg lot). When they provide you with this service and you do not pay, it goes to collections. Granted, you may not have signed any peice of paper, I guarantee you on the sign in the parking lot, in the small print, is a detailed description of what parking in that lot means (in legal terms). It's kind of like getting a cell phone, using it for a month, and then never paying the bill. You used the service, but never paid for it - of course its going to collections.

That being said, I'll never, ever, ever pay a parking ticket. I got a ticket from Diamond in Seattle, and there is no chance in hell I'm paying for that one.

BNR32_Coupe · 12-30-2006, 05:46 AM

i've been ticketed for parking in a diamond parking. theyve sent me 2 threatening letters so far. however i think its wrong that i received the ticket because i was misled.

as you can see in this skillfully drawn detailed image, this is the mcdonalds in front of night market. "Sign A" was a large banner, with a huge arrow saying "Night Market Parking" with a huge arrow pointing north (blue arrow pointing left). so i was led to believe parking for night market was in this general area. I parked around the blue X and get ticketed. i later find out i parked in a Diamond lot and night market parking was the full lots. does my story sound desputable to you guys?

BNR32_Coupe · 01-24-2007, 02:56 PM

okay so they're now calling me. does anyone think i have a good defense?

misteranswer · 01-25-2007, 07:30 PM

I went to McDonalds.

baddabing · 07-02-2010, 08:00 AM

There is an easy way to get these people to stop calling.

According to the BUSINESS PRACTICES AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT;

(4) A collector must not continue to communicate with a debtor
(a) except in writing, if the debtor
(i) $has notified the collector to communicate in writing only, and
(ii) $has provided a mailing address at which the debtor may be contacted,

see this link: http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bcl...eside/04002_09

Simply send the collections agency a fax stating you wish to be contacted by written correspondence ONLY and state the mailing address at which they can send mail to you. Provide your full name and be sure to clearly note what matter pertains to (i.e. parking ticket for license plate number ABC 123) sign the fax, and record the date you sent it. Keep the fax. You also need to send the same fax to the creditor (i.e. the parking lot company such as Diamond Parking).

If by chance they are calling you about a parking ticket from Diamond Parking, in the same fax, tell them you wish to dispute the ticket and all related charges in court. They wont take you to court because it's your word against theirs, they won't win. Even if they tried the cost of pursuing the matter in court far exceeds the sum they can hope to recover.

Lastly, a parking ticket and fine from a private parking lot WILL NOT and CAN NOT affect your credit rating. You did not borrow money from them and not pay it back. Parking tickets from the city or a government entity, however, is a different story.

izzy99 · 07-02-2010, 08:10 AM

This is the best answer so far.

Quote:

Originally Posted by baddabing

There is an easy way to get these people to stop calling.

According to the BUSINESS PRACTICES AND CONSUMER PROTECTION ACT;

(4) A collector must not continue to communicate with a debtor
(a) except in writing, if the debtor
(i) $has notified the collector to communicate in writing only, and
(ii) $has provided a mailing address at which the debtor may be contacted,

see this link: http://www.bclaws.ca/EPLibraries/bcl...eside/04002_09

Simply send the collections agency a fax stating you wish to be contacted by written correspondence ONLY and state the mailing address at which they can send mail to you. Provide your full name and be sure to clearly note what matter pertains to (i.e. parking ticket for license plate number ABC 123) sign the fax, and record the date you sent it. Keep the fax. You also need to send the same fax to the creditor (i.e. the parking lot company such as Diamond Parking).

If by chance they are calling you about a parking ticket from Diamond Parking, in the same fax, tell them you wish to dispute the ticket and all related charges in court. They wont take you to court because it's your word against theirs, they won't win. Even if they tried the cost of pursuing the matter in court far exceeds the sum they can hope to recover.

Lastly, a parking ticket and fine from a private parking lot WILL NOT and CAN NOT affect your credit rating. You did not borrow money from them and not pay it back. Parking tickets from the city or a government entity, however, is a different story.

Gnomes · 07-03-2010, 04:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by baddabing

Lastly, a parking ticket and fine from a private parking lot WILL NOT and CAN NOT affect your credit rating. You did not borrow money from them and not pay it back. Parking tickets from the city or a government entity, however, is a different story.

According to Amaru's post, parking in their private lot means you are agreeing to their terms of the contract.

I wonder how can a parking company prove that you park in their lot. Do they take pictures of your car timestamped? They are not peace officers - they are just regular citizens so in the court, it's your words vs theirs (unless if they have evidence).

hchang · 07-03-2010, 01:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Gnomes

According to Amaru's post, parking in their private lot means you are agreeing to their terms of the contract.

I wonder how can a parking company prove that you park in their lot. Do they take pictures of your car timestamped? They are not peace officers - they are just regular citizens so in the court, it's your words vs theirs (unless if they have evidence).

Some parking lots have Cameras.

mkchoi0801 · 07-07-2010, 12:47 PM

Sorry to bring up a rather off-topic question, but are authorities (security officers, or parking patrols) allowed to give you a parking ticket if you don't turn off the engine and stay in the car? I sometimes just sit in my car waiting to pick someone up and always wondered about this.

zulutango · 07-07-2010, 01:45 PM

The MV Act considers this..

When vehicle stopping prohibited
189 (1) Except when necessary to avoid conflict with traffic or to comply with the law or the directions of a peace officer or traffic control device, a person must not stop, stand or park a vehicle as follows..

So in their view, stopping, standing or parking are all the same. IMHO, sitting with your engine on could be either described as stopping or standing.

mkchoi0801 · 07-07-2010, 03:36 PM

So like how life usually works, the exact scenario just happened 5 minutes ago. Go figure.
I left the girlfriend with the control of my car, stopped at a parking lot then came back within 10 minutes. I saw girlfriend pull out and there was a security patrol writing down information. I don't know if he was writing down my car, or the car beside us. Girlfriend says that she left as soon as she saw the person looking into the car next to us.
So in conclusion, we didn't get a ticket, but I think a ticket could be mailed to my address. Is this a likely scenario? Will reasoning that my girlfriend dropped me off, looked around for parking, and only used the spot to change direction work?
Funny how life works haha.

BrRsn · 07-08-2010, 11:34 AM

Those parking lot guys that ticket you are basically paid on commission, so of course they're desperate as hell. I have a parking pass for the broadway and commercial parking lot and during the olympics it was insane. They can ticket you at their own discretion if you don't go into safeway first. I've been ticketed several times, all I've had to do is send a fax with the ticket and a copy of my parking pass and everything's fine.

BallPeenHammer2 · 07-14-2010, 11:13 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mkchoi0801

So like how life usually works, the exact scenario just happened 5 minutes ago. Go figure.
I left the girlfriend with the control of my car, stopped at a parking lot then came back within 10 minutes. I saw girlfriend pull out and there was a security patrol writing down information. I don't know if he was writing down my car, or the car beside us. Girlfriend says that she left as soon as she saw the person looking into the car next to us.
So in conclusion, we didn't get a ticket, but I think a ticket could be mailed to my address. Is this a likely scenario? Will reasoning that my girlfriend dropped me off, looked around for parking, and only used the spot to change direction work?
Funny how life works haha.

They can't do anything.

BallPeenHammer2 · 07-14-2010, 11:19 AM

BTW, few months ago a friend of mine got a ticket for not being in the parking lot of the blenz at #3 and westminster in richmond. (diamond parking). He was there half the day, shopping, coffee, etc. He's winning that one 'cuz the coffee shop owners are vouching for him.

a few weeks later, I was at same said coffee shop. Dude tried giving me a ticket WHILE I WATCHED HIM at about 20feet away, at Blenz.
man.......did I rip into that unfortunate dumb@$$.

zulutango · 07-14-2010, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BallPeenHammer2

They can't do anything.

Read post # 39. The car was stopped on the property up to 10 minutes and I believe that a ticket would be valid. Just because it was occupied does not mean that it is not parked.

BallPeenHammer2 · 07-14-2010, 04:45 PM

wow even up to 10 minutes? So is it that as soon as your car is stopped, that's it?

I remember when I worked for impark for a short while, and the policy was never like that. Generally we'd just ask them to buy one or stop elsewhere or give a bit of leeway, as to not start a potential conflict. =op

Man. Diamond Parking's pretty rough. Then again, I should know. Read post #43.

wing_woo · 07-15-2010, 09:06 AM

Yeah, I got a ticket from Diamond Parking before. I parked to go to a restaurant that was cash only. I had to drop by a bank machine first which is just around the corner to get cash. After eating and getting back to my car, there was a ticket on my windshield. I ended up just emailing a picture of my receipt that states that I was in the restaurant between 9:30 and 10:30 and the Diamond ticket had a time of 9:45. They cancelled the ticket. The restaurant told me that next time, go into the restaurant first and then go out to get money at the bank machine.

BeRtz · 07-25-2010, 09:52 PM

Diamond parking fails my mom had a ticket for 54.xx and she parked LEGALLY on Alexandra road. We ignored the ticket for a while and then they sent us another letter but not to our house but to my aunt's house for some odd reason.

And I called in to see what was going on and they said they had our address at as my aunts. And we still continued to ignore it till this day haha nothing's changed over the fact that they tried getting us to pay for a ticket that never existed.

Gee.Tee.Ar · 07-26-2010, 08:22 PM

i was wondering how diamond parking can get your address?

BeRtz · 07-26-2010, 08:38 PM

Diamond parking claimed that they did a "Background check" on my mom and said that we lived at my aunt's house which was a complete lie.

svelt · 08-12-2010, 12:09 PM

lol baddabing is a man on a mission... all his posts are to do with preventing calls.

I was curious how they actually get a hold of your phone #? -> through a contract with ICBC I suppose? I work primarily out of my primary phone line and would prefer not being harassed out of that. My insurance renewal's in a few days and ICBC's never really contacted me for anything... can I just change the phone number that I have registered with ICBC to my secondary line so that these clowns can call that number instead (which, conveniently automatically goes to voicemail)? Or do they get the number & address from another source?