About a year or so ago, following numerous problems with people parking in others spaces and general members of the public using it whilst popping into town, the business centre owner decided to employ a private car park form. This company were introduced to us all and at the time seemed like a decent setup. The firm are called CPS Midlands Ltd who are based in Nottingham.

For a good year, all seemed well and they appeared to be doing their job properly and we had no issues whatsoever. Then, for some reason they started going all pear shaped.

CPS Midlands Ltd, over a six month period have;

1. Ticketed cars WITH valid passes in the window, claiming no passes were on display.
2. Ticketed clients cars who were DISPLAYING valid visitor passes.
3. Ticketed cars who’s passes had expired, yet failed to replace them with up to date ones (despite requests)
4. Stuck clear wallets (with tickets) over the driver side windscreens making them really hard to take off and leaving glue on the screen making the view for the driver ridiculously dangerous.
5. Ignored requests to issue new parking permits

What has gone wrong I do not know, but they certainly stopped doing things right and were constantly screwing up and upsetting tenants and various visitors!

Now, according to some internet searches, CPS Midlands Ltd claim to be registered to Unit 20 North Notts Business Centre, which is impossible as the company that occupy that very office are an Accountancy Firm called Accountancy Solutions. In fact, Companies House also states that CPS Midlands Ltd are registered to that office, strange!! On their website their address shows as Mercury House, Shipstones Business Centre, Northgate, Nottingham. I believe this is a virtual office and doesn’t actually have a physical person working in the office.

The phone number of 08432 898721 which I tried to call several times is just an automated voice message which informs you that they cannot take your call at the moment and asks you to call back another time. This has been like this for months now and today, still does exactly the same! Surely, this is not allowed, can they really just hide behind an email address and a fake address?

I am now in receipt of a Notice Letter, which has been sent to my girlfriend’s address as I was using her car at the time when a ticket was issued, it appears that CPS Midlands Ltd are allowed to purchase personal information from the DVLA and send you threatening letters!

After doing a little search I found a post on Money Saving Expert listing a number of letters that others have received from CPS Midlands Ltd, it seems we have more to come! Despite reporting this to them and highlighting my concerns about not having an up to date pass I shall have to wait patiently to see if this actually gets resolved.

Pretty pissed off right now though that I have even had to waste time, yet again, sending them an email and felt the need to write this blog post!!

]]> http://www.realdave.co.uk/cps-midlands-ltd-car-parking-nightmares/feed/ 1 http://www.realdave.co.uk/white-house-security-official-photo/ http://www.realdave.co.uk/white-house-security-official-photo/#comments Sat, 30 Jul 2011 10:34:31 +0000 dave http://www.realdave.co.uk/?p=527 Continue reading »]]> So Rio Ferdinand had his phone swiped/hacked just to remove an image he took of the White House Security staff, is it REALLY that much of an issue?

What would have happened really if a photo was released, their are already loads on the internet, what is the big deal Obama?

I visited the White House Washington DC back in January and met with various members of the White House security team, some were really funny guys and some just pure assholes. They did tell me not to take photos or videos but what they forgot to check was the glasses I was wearing at the time. Yes, I took spy glasses into the White House with me and managed to get a few sneaky images of the White House security team. Until now I had no reason to post these up, but after all this farce I thought I would give it a go.

I could get into some serious shit here but here goes, below is an image, taken from the White House of the security team, handsome chaps don’t ya think?

Smoking causes a number of diseases not to mention making you stink most of the time! Some smokers are totally hooked right now and will probably never change their ways and will likely smoke until their lungs give up.

Some can literally throw away the fag packet and move on. No more smoking!!

For me, it was not so easy….

However, what made me stop smoking was an e cigarette, believe it or not they work!!

So, I get into the office, sit down at my desk, turn on the laptop and then head into the kitchen to make myself a brew!

What was sat on the fridge glaring back at me with bulging eyes and what appeared to be a growling noise…

A fricking Orange flavoured South American WikiBee….

Instead of running back into the office and calling the association of rare and distinct bees I locked the monster in the kitchen and am hoping later today to head back in there and maybe open the window! I have not seen a orange flavoured south american wikiBee before, it scared the shit out of me to say the least.

I shall give you all an update later and maybe a video of when I head back into the kitchen. I might just get someone else to go and do it, that thing looked hungry!!

After a quick scan of the net and speaking with a few manufacturers I decided to go with a budget kit to see just what all the fuss was about. I could not find a Prosport Coilover review anywhere online so had to physically speak to people, glad I did like.

I do not know what coilovers were like before now but after driving the car for a few months I actually love the ride feel and improved handling. Everyone that I have spoken to who owns a MK1 or MK2 Golf and have bought Prosport told me they are happy so far

Here is what the car looks like now