Haringey do or don't refund parking permits ... depending on who you ask ... and how

The other day I was hurriedly buying some parking permits for a visiting plumber. In error I purchased a bunch of dailies (don't ask!). Not thinking it would be any probem, I set the issue aside and later wrote via the online contact form explaining my mistake and asking for a refund:

Today, buying hourly visitor permits, I accidentally bought dailies. Those were bought in error. I wonder if you please cancel them and refund me.

In a timely manner, (the manner always seems timely with Haringey when you're getting a rejection), I received the following Haringey classic:

Hello,

Thank you for contacting the Permits Team.

Please be advised that the daily visitor permit cannot be converted to hourly permits as these have already been allocated onto the permit account.

If you need to reply to this message, please use our Online Service:

Account Login

Kind regards,

Haringey Customer Services – Parking Team- HKO

I assume from the redolence of the communist party charm and efficiency that "HKO" is the Hong Kong Office! (Well, what else am I to assume?).

The far-flung office wrote that my permits had  "already been allocated onto the permit account". Well, bloody well unallocate them, I thought.

Not discouraged, I pondered what I'd do if this was a company I'd bought something from and checked on the relevant consumer legislation. Having found what I'd need, I decided to write again. Unable to find any email address for the parking team (of course - few people who serve anonymous customer groups today make contact on anything but their terms easy),  I dug up that of the Chief Exec and attached a .doc letter to an email to him, quoting what I hoped was the relevant law. Keen not to jeopardise any chance I had of success, I omitted mention of my previous exchange with the parking team

Andy Donald

Chief Executive

London Borough of Haringey

Civic Centre


High Road


Wood Green


London


N22 8LE


Dear Mr Donald,

Re: The Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013




On 9th May 2025 I ordered the following: 


XX daily parking permits (Receipt Number XXXXXX)


I received the permits on 9th May 2025.



The permits were bought in error. Under the above Regulations, I would like to cancel the order and ask you to provide a full refund within 14 days.


Please contact me within 14 days to arrange a return of the permits.



Yours sincerely,
 
 


I was pleased to get a polite response the next working day from his Executive Support Officer. My heart sank however when I saw that my issue had been referred on the nether-world of the Parking Team. I sat back to await a further rejection.

The cynicisim beaten into me by too many years of council correspondence was however confounded today when I received the following email.

Thank you for your email to Andy Donald that I have been asked to respond to.

Your refund is being processed and will be sent back to the original method of payment.

I hope this is helpful.  If you require any further assistance, please do not hesitate to contact me directly.

Kind Regards

Irene Kirtley

Lead Information Officer

By the end of the day yesterday, the refund was back in my account. 

Thank you Andy, Irene and anyone else who had a part in reversing this decision. I appreciate the intervention. I'm not sure why my second request was successful. Had I found the right law to quote or had Mr. Donald made a decision in the interest of fairness or simplicity? Either way it would be nice to know. 

I don't write this post to crow or sneer (much as it may seem that I do), rather I write to point out a significant failing in the operation of our council. I worry that at best I've been treated with undue fairness and possibly with just random good luck. Either way, I judge the wider working of the Council to be at fault here. 

Whilst I have no gripes about being fairly treated, my fear is that those without the time or capacity to claim such fairness get a bum deal; not to put to fine a point on it, they get shafted. So I am writing to shine a light. I am writing to ask that our Council treat us with fairness (and, I believe in this case according to to the law of the land)

[With a full appreciation of the irony of the situation, I should add it's the exact same motivation that led me to point up the scandal of the abolition of daily visitor parking permits! (Thankfully that decision was reversed).]