I received a parking ticket today for parking supposedly “more than the time limit”.
Backstory – I parked at a grocery store where it has an hour limit as long as I put my blue time shield. I placed it at 6pm and when I got to my car, it was 6.47pm so theoretically should be within that time frame, so I didn’t understand why I got a ticket.
The lady who’s issuing the ticket literally just left to go towards another car, so I walked up to her and ask what’s going on and why did I get a ticket. So she said I parked over the time limit, to which I said I didn’t. I went and get my blue shield, didn’t change anything and she said she has a pic that clearly shows I placed it at 5.30pm instead. The thing is, that pic was taken at an angle so yes, it shows 5.30pm and I can’t argue with her about it. But I showed her my time shield and she just didn’t care and said “nothing I can do, you can just email xxx (the email on the ticket and try your luck since I can’t take the ticket back. I was dumbfounded.
What am I supposed to do now? Pay the ticket? The companies issuing these tickets are well known to be asses (to put it nicely, otherwise scammers). It’s a lot of money cos it’s 40€ for a mistake that I didn’t do. I know getting lawyer involved is costly, since I don’t have insurance for that. I’ve since tried replicating the same angle that the lady to showed me, so I really wonder if I stand any chance at all to navigate that I’m still within my time limit?
https://www.reddit.com/gallery/1tv02au
Posted by jwandering
16 Comments
Einspruch einlegen I guess🤷
Nice Parkscheibe. For a first time see German/Czech version
[removed]
Just pay.
I know, it’s shit.
But it would be basically impossible for you to prove that it was standing on 6, and even on your picture it does seem like 5:30 and you acknowledge that. They have a picture showing 5:30ish while you don’t have anything.
For the future, get a electronic Parkscheibe.
They are legal and much better. They set the arrival time automatically when you turn the engine off / stop the car and the time is displayed digital.
Since I got mine 2 years ago, I’ve never got a parking fine again.
First off, wow what a stupid Kackziege.
But I think you wont be in trouble since the photo she took is the only evidence and its not usable since she took it from a wrong angle.
Good luck
Just tell them it was not you, the owner of the car, who drove it that day, but somebody else. They can only legally charge the actual driver.
Note, that after a recent ruling by the supreme civil court BGH, you need to disclose the actual driver.
But maybe the driver on that day was a relative or friend living in another country.
I did that once and just wrote them that my brother who lives in the USA visited me and used my car.
Never heard of them again.
Just call them and tell them the story. I got tickets removed a few times for stupid shit. Those poor people doing these jobs also sometimes have “I don’t give a sh*t” days and will do kinda “meh” jobs
So first off, according to StVO, the Parkscheibe should be set to the next half-hour. Her picture of you setting it to 1800 at 1730 is therefore no evidence for any wrongdoing.
The “evidence” these companies produce is often half-assed or straight up faked. Most of the tickets they produce will never see a civil court as they know their chances are terrible and a process may cause scrutiny to their methodology. Their business model is essentially relying on bullying drivers into payment.
Get a Rechtsschutzversicherung.
That happened to me as well. I contacted them via email and proved that I was there for shopping. They removed the fine without any hassle. Give it a try.
There are a couple of things you can do if you don’t want to pay…
* You can contest your “ticket.”
* You can write the supermarket-manager and explain the situation and get them to help you. They usually hire those companies and don’t want them to piss off their customers.
Or you can just not pay it.
If it’s one from a Parkraumüberwachungsfirma, aka. a closed lot, owned by the supermarket, it’s not a ticket. It’s a contractual fee for breaking a contract that you silently agreed to when you entered the lot. However, it’s on THEM to prove that it was YOU driving the car and thus agreed to the contract.
You can just deny that you drove the car at the time and also refuse to give another name.
That’s it, nothing they can do. Maybe they can send you an Unterlassenserklärung to sign, but there are also ways to fuck with them. The latter is especially easy if you just don’t intend to go there again anytime soon.
Sometimes you can send in the Bon (Kassenbeleg)from one of the shops you visited and bought something from. My mom once forgot to put a Parkscheibe, send in the Bon (Kassenbeleg) and the ticket got dropped, since she could provide evidence that she was shopping and not just parking there.
These tickets can be rescinded. Got one at a literally empty parking lot in a supermarket in Aachen before closure even though the guy saw us stopping for five minutes to get some soft drinks, in a rental car. Went inside, talked to the cashier and she said don’t worry send the claim to the email and it will be cancelled. And it was. Thankfully.
There should be an e-mail adress on the ticket.
Write an e-mail, state the number of your parking ticket. Explain your story, include your receipt of purchase from the store in copy.
It should be dropped 99%.
And learn how to properly set your Parkscheibe 😉
Are we talking about park and control or some company like that? Is it a Parkeverstoß (issued by the city/Ordnungsamt) or a Vertragsverstoß? Do you have a paper that has the Parkverbot sign in der Background or a (in most cases) yellow paper slip?
If it is a Vertragsstrafe/yellow paper slip you do not need to pay. Ignore the Ticket and do not get into touch with the company. They will send you a letter (assuming you are the holder of the car) saying you need to pay, yada yada. You write back that you are not in violation of their rules and that it wasn’t in fact you who parked the car there. They’ll pressure you to either pay or give up the name of the driver, just repeat what you said before, you didn’t drive and you won’t tell them who did. They’ll send you an email or letter with some legalese and saying you need to sign a Unterlassungsverfügung and pay like 600 Euro the next time your car is in violation of their contract. Refuse to sign, tell them they don’t have any standing against you personally. If they persist (they never did with me) just state again they do t have any claim against you. Then it’ll fizzle out. They won’t go to court as the 40 Euro fine is way too much trouble
You can also try getting in touch with a manager of the grocery store; in many cases, they have direct access to the system and are happy to remove fines for genuine customers (and other service providers that they work with).