Future People "Problems"

born2play86

Ok so ive been currently doing a coarse held by future people.
IT Customer Support and Sales
When we started the coarse the building where it was being held has FREE parking facilitys, and were told this at the time we signed the contract (which i did) previous to the start of it, but the venue changed to the inner city to a building with NO PARKING for students, so ive been parking illegally for seven weeks as there was no parking facilitys sourced for new building and there is no local free parking availible and i dont have the funds to pay full days parking.
Everything was ok for the 7 weeks until it came closer to christmas when the parking warden came out in force and ive recived tickets, which i feel im not in a position to pay because of the first contract.
When i approached them about the issue i was told by a tutor it was not fair and provide copys of fines and that she would get them to refund me for the tickets and also recive a supplement to park my car legally in a car park, i thought everything was sorted out and being this close to christmas quite relived that i didnt have to pay, she talked to the managing director <SNIP> and she said he would get back to me.
I recived a phone call from him today and he said that they would not pay the fines nor pay supplement for parking and to take the issue up with Solus, i feel this isint fair or right because of the contract and the building that was planned to be used when signing it.
It leaves me in a difficult position this close before christmas as it has been 5 days for a reply from them and the tickets need to be paid in 9 days or the fine will increase.

spurious

I think this might be better in Consumer Issues.

Oryx

The organisers of any course cant be responsible for your car, your driving or your parking.

Did they stipulate in the contract you signed that parking would be provided, or was that an assumption on your part? When the venue changed were you given the option to drop out?

homer911

The time to bring this up with the course organisers was when the venue was changed, not after you have parked illegally and received multiple tickets. Most people in city areas do not have access to free parking and consequently use public transport - I could not imagine their employers paying their parking fines if they chose to do the same as you

slimjimmc

As above plus who is your contract with, Solas or Future People?
Also, I take it from your post that you only brought up the parking issue 7 weeks later after you got the parking ticket? Did you not complain about it in the first few days when it became clear that there was no free parking?

born2play86

Oryx wrote: »

The organisers of any course cant be responsible for your car, your driving or your parking.

Did they stipulate in the contract you signed that parking would be provided, or was that an assumption on your part? When the venue changed were you given the option to drop out?

They said that they were to provide parking, the only assumption i made was that they would be true to what they said.
Yes ive been asked twice to "drop out" but the coarse finishes in about a month,i dont think it would be to my advantage to do that.

born2play86

homer911 wrote: »

The time to bring this up with the course organisers was when the venue was changed, not after you have parked illegally and received multiple tickets. Most people in city areas do not have access to free parking and consequently use public transport - I could not imagine their employers paying their parking fines if they chose to do the same as you

It was brought up at the time by the student driving to the coarse, they sought free parking and said we could park in a hardware shop car park, Future People didnt ask the hardware shop and when students asked the shop they were told that if we park there we can be clamped as they were unaware of what students were told. this was all about 6 weeks ago and because we could park illegally and have no issues they left the situation.

born2play86

slimjimmc wrote: »

As above plus who is your contract with, Solas or Future People?
Also, I take it from your post that you only brought up the parking issue 7 weeks later after you got the parking ticket? Did you not complain about it in the first few days when it became clear that there was no free parking?

im sorry i didnt clarify that in first post, it was brought up at the time at the venue change and they sought parking for us, which they tried to do and told us to park somewhere where they didnt have knowledge of that, and student were told we could be clamped for parking there.

Thanks for the replys, keep them coming please.

slimjimmc

Who is your contract with?

PatrickHere

I am also a student of Future People in this same course.

Just to shed some light on this.

We were told via a verbal contract that free parking would be provided for the duration of the course before we signed on for the course.
We even have a document signed by 20 individuals in the course that this was said.

When there was a change of venue, I brought up the issue of parking, their answer was to park illegally in a well known DIY car park.

Because three of us simply could not afford parking we had to park illegally.

We were told by an employee of Future People to retain any parking tickets and parking tickets and to send these into Future People and they should be paid for us, but then later we were basically told by a person in management that, it's not our responsiblity take it up with Solas, goodbye.

As far as I know the majority of training centres have been provided with free parking.

I think a company that is co-funded by the European Union and the Irish Government should be able to provide free parking.

They should at least try to get in contact with the local city council, but after asking them to do so, they wouldn't even try to get in contact with the city council, to see if they could provide some kind of permit for us for the duration of the course.

Most education facilities, colleges and universities that I know of, provide free parking to their students.

The moral of the story is:
We were told that free parking would be provided and this was not the case.
Therefore they broke a verbal contract.

And the legal aspect isn't the case I'm trying to point out, it's just the fact that they lied, which I think makes them an untrustworthy company.

Now it's about three weeks to Christmas and the three of us that got parking fines have to pay over €200 worth of fines, and we are now forced to pay for parking also.

slimjimmc

What does the written contact say about a change of venue. I'd surprised if there wasn't something there which states they cannot guarantee parking or certain facilities in such circumstances. Such a written term could probably negate any prior promise of free parking.

PatrickHere

As far as I am aware, there was nothing said in the written contract about if there was a change of venue.

This is a quote from the citizen information website under consumer rights:

"Contracts may be written or oral. It is easier to know what the terms are in a written contract but an oral contract is also enforceable in law"

And because we were told prior to signing the contract that free parking would be provided, they broke this contract.

The citizens information website also states under the Consumer Protection Act, 2007:

"Under the act it is an offense for any retailer or professional to make a false or misleading claim about goods, services and prices"

So I believe we should be entitled to have the parking fines paid for and a supplement for parking for the duration of the course.

Cabaal

Whatever about parking fees, expecting parking fines to be paid is a pretty unreasonable request.

Anyone who got fined made a informed decision at the time to park illegally. You were not forced to do this.

Expecting anybody to bail out such a poor but informed decision is just plain silly.

dudara

I had to agree with Cabaal here. If I turned up somewhere and was faced with option of parking illegally, I'd take my car home, or find somewhere else to park it. I don't like tickets and fines. You chose wilfully to park illegally and therefore earned the fine.

As a previous poster said, expecting them to pay parking fees is pretty reasonable, parking tickets not.

ardmacha

What do you want them to do, allow you withdraw from the course and get the rest of your money back? If a university or IT changes its parking arrangements it certainly would not pay compensation to students, whatever their expectations were. Perhaps the course could give you bus tickets?

beauf

PatrickHere wrote: »

...We were told via a verbal contract that free parking would be provided for the duration of the course before we signed on for the course.....

Out of curiosity. By whom?

Not that make it makes much difference, you can't park illegally.