A while ago, I parked my work van in a loading bay to load my work goods. I know I'm allowed to do it, you know I'm allowed to do it, but TFL gave me a fine anyway. I appealed it, thinking the first person with a brain, perhaps a supervisor, to see my appeal would sort it out. Alas, I was being overly optimistic, it went through about 10 people at TFL while they took it all the way to the Parking and Traffic Appeals Service, where thankfully there are people with brains, and I obviously won the case. In the interim I continued to park in the aforesaid bay, because there is nowhere else for me to park, and received a further 7 fines. I think I should be able to sue those Bar Stewards at TFL for costs for the 10 or so letter I have had to write them defending these fines. Does anyone have any experience of this ? And what could I realistically claim for each letter I have written, and for background research etc? It just seems wrong that our taxpayer pounds pay the salary's of these morons who unfairly fine us, and then try and persecute us with legal threats when they don't even have a smidgen of a case against us !

Well I got my money back for the premium for the breakdown insurance. But is was a very snotty letter from the AA, and they refused to admit that the van exclusion was not prominently displayed on the website. In other words, any one else who takes out this insurance erroneously, will loose there money unless that are prepared to write a letter of complaint to the director of the AA. This basically proves that are quite prepared to use this misleading policy as a source of revenue. I have told my story to everyone I meet, and it seems fairly commen knowledge that the AA, since it's takeover, is only concerned about making money. If I had the time, I would organise a campaign to get people to complain to the Advertising Standards Authority that the "AA is your Friend" advertising campaign is totally misleading. Campaigns have been pulled by the ASA after only 60 complaints. If the campaign was pulled, not only would it cost the AA millions, but the publicity would make more people aware of what kind of organisation the AA really is. Does anyone have the time and energy to do this ?? I will be joining the RAC when my AA policy expires !

Hi Kerry, If you read the success stories section in this forum, you will see that they usually only settle a few days before the court date, so don't go shopping just yet!

Thanks Mate - I will do that !

I joined the AA earlier this year, and after entering my "car" details on the website, and specifying that it was a van, a popup appeared asking me if I wanted breakdown repair insurance which would cover repairs to the car if I broke down. There was a summary list of conditions which I read very thoroughly (and says nothing about vans), and a full list of conditions which was about 10 000 words, and I read as thoroughly as I could. It turns out the word "van" appears once in the document, slipped in after "caravans" and "motor homes" as an exclusion. It is hardly prominent! So of course when I claimed for a breakdown they refused to pay. Fair enough I thought. But when I said, seeing as you are not insuring me, can I have my money back for the policy, I was not expecting a "No - it's your fault for not reading the policy." My point is I thought the AA was a fair and reputable organisation, not an organisation who goes around screwing it's customers on legal technicalities. All I can say is please join the RAC instead, do it for me