This has probably been done to death but,,, I received a ticked from them after overstaying by 15 minutes. This was a genuine mistake due to a 4 year old and a dodge tummy! I have ignored initial letters on advice from local forums but received a Peter today threatening court action if I don't pay £120. Should I pay up? Getting scared now! Thanks

Latest advice for PE is not to ignore, see here. I presume you're past the normal appeal timeframes?

So you either carrying on ignoring - they might issue court papers - or pay. We don't recommend the latter.

I agree. You don't need to pay, if you have missed their deadline for an 'appeal' - just keep ignoring. If court papers ever arrive you still will be within your right to argue that PE never provided the ground for reasons why you should pay, like naming the creditor. In any case, if court papers (small claim) ever drop through your mailbox, you would get the help here - just don't delay and post your update in this thread.

Thank you, seems to be lots of conflicting information at the moment, is it likely I would have to go to court?

if it does get that far - and nobody knows as this mob is dishing out so much paper they just can't have the manpower to deal with all the putative cases - then its just small claims
no wigs, no pomp, no fear. just folks around a desk.
It isn't even a summons, its just a claim.

Would I then have to pay a ridiculous amount ? It's all scary and confusing.

nope.
no wigs !
point of small claims is to keep it quick and cheap
no one would take claim for small claims if the legal costs were massive HMCS wouldn't get any small claims business would they
http://www.justice.gov.uk/courts/procedure...part27#IDAKBTBB

PPC 'business model' relies on scaring people.

it works lol thank you for your support I will keep posting as things develop

not on here it doesn't

Disagree strongly. The OP should now send a strong appeal letter to PE and to the retail park making it clear she had a poorly 4 year old. A busy mother with a young child doesn't need to be hounded by debt collectors and possibly through court when this could potentially be nipped in the bud at an early stage with a correctly worded appeal.

Also, PE don't seem to do court (at this stage) for cases where the debtor has been in contact. By ignoring them, you invite possible legal action and also weaken your own defence in court.

I would agree if she was still within appeal timeframes but she's not. She's getting debt collector letters as far as I read it.

My advice is IGNORE if getting debt collector letters, for the reasons I outlined in post #15 here:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=74154

Daft IMHO to raise your head above the parapet at a point where there is no appeal.

Have I made a mistake putting my head in the sand? Wish I'd just paid the bugger now

No - the advice has only changed in the last few weeks. Paying is not the answer - you are succumbing to their business model - which is based on fear, don't feed them!

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

Ignoring the fake PCN is still a perfectly legit option. I have ignored 2 fake PCNs myself (pre POF Act but would do so again if too busy to do the POPLA thing) and I have advised personal friends to ignore fake PCNs (even those issued since October) for an easy life, as long as they don't PANIC when they get the usual threatograms...

So...don't panic when you are just getting the usual threatograms!

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=2329119

We tell people this every flippin' day right now - there are ENDLESS threads on here with people who've chosen to ignore but later, wobble at some random Debt Recovery Plus piece of crap. What is it about the latest templates that's so scary, I don't geddit?

Look at the repeated replies I linked in my reply to this thread as every other thread at the moment seems to be the same:

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=78129

Ignoring this whole letter chain is a tried and tested choice, has been for years and it's perfectly safe. You are more likely to win a fortune on the lottery than for a PPC to actually try a small claim. And a PPC trying a very rare small claim DOES NOT mean the PPC would win. They'd give up when they see a pepipoo defence, just like the case mentioned on the forum today (East Kent Hospitals). Threw in the towel of course.

I agree

I think we've been a bit quick to ditch the "Ignore" advice, based on the activities of one company.

It prevented the OP providing information that could be twisted against him and had something like a 99.9% success rate.

Appealing the tickets has the merit that it costs the PPC £27 IF it goes to POPLA and there's some chance of cancellation when the PPC realises that the OP knows the game.

It does, however, require the OP to make the effort to draft a proper letter to ensure that it doesn't result in the very situation that "Ignore" was intended to avoid

exactly.
part of the reasons for the prominent select proclivities I imagine.

Thank you all all much