The case was described to us by a married couple from Bolesławiec. The incident took place on 7 March. The couple parked their car in the car park by the Stara Mleczarnia shopping centre in Bolesławiec, took a parking ticket and went to a Media Expert store.
When they both left the store after shopping, they noticed a parking attendant who had left some kind of note on their car. They asked him what it was about. He explained that he had issued them a fine because there was an error in the registration number on the ticket: “DB” had been entered instead of “DBL”; all the other details were correct.
Importantly, the couple had not yet exceeded the free parking period.
Following the parking attendant’s instructions, the couple decided to appeal the fine. Our Reader did so via a form, explaining that he had taken a ticket but had made a minor mistake on it. Soon afterwards, he received a response, which stated, among other things:
(...) we would like to inform you that the basis for occupying a parking space is taking a parking ticket signifying the beginning of the rental period for the parking space, in accordance with the Regulations for the Unattended Car Park. (...) The fact that purchases were made in the store does not exempt anyone from the obligation to comply with the Car Park Regulations. (...) Failure to have a ticket results in the issuance of a Notice to Pay an Additional Fee.
It went on: “We are very sorry, but in view of the above, we cannot accept the request to cancel the fee – the notice remains in force.”
And towards the end, there was another passage: – To prevent this type of situation in the future, please remember to take a parking ticket after parking your vehicle and place it behind the windscreen. This is the only action that authorises you to occupy a parking space.
The response made no mention of the fact that the ticket had in fact been taken. Nor did it mention the error. The couple suspects that the response was generated using AI.
The Reader wrote once again to the address from which he had received the information about the consideration of the complaint. Among other things, he wrote:
The parking ticket was taken by me and is inside my car; in no way did I intend to cheat the car park owner. I complied with all the requirements of the car park regulations; I made only a typographical error when entering the ticket at the parking meter. This can be verified, and all that is needed is an ordinary human approach to the matter.
This time, he did not receive a reply.
In June, the man received a pre-litigation demand for payment. The couple explains that this is not about the money, but about principles and not profiting from minor human mistakes. They would rather donate the money to a worthy cause, such as an orphanage. They also do not rule out taking the matter to court.
On Tuesday, 16 July, we asked ATPark about the matter. Today, we received the following response:
(...) we kindly inform you that ATPark Sp. z o.o. is the operator of the parking system at 3 Jeleniogórska Street in Bolesławiec – the “Stara Mleczarnia” Shopping Park.
Our company’s parking-management activities are carried out each time on the basis of agreements concluded with our clients, including the car park regulations and price list, whose content is displayed on generally accessible information boards. This is also the case here; those using the car park have the opportunity to read their content freely. We make every effort to implement the provisions of the agreement reliably, professionally and in accordance with good practices and the principles of social coexistence; however, we must always implement the provisions of the agreement concluded with the client.
We always take action guided by the “pro-client” principle; however, in order to verify and address the issue raised and described in the (...) correspondence, please provide complete information. Merely providing the voivodeship and county identifiers—the first letters of the registration number—is not sufficient.