Hi all,
Grew up in Maine, live in CT and work in NYC. I wanted to cross-post this one from the NYC group because it seems like there are more people in this group who are in and around NYC in this group than that one!
I own a construction company based in CT, and all of my work is currently in NYC, so I've had the distinct privilege of getting tons of parking tickets built into my budgets and seeing what sticks when it comes to disputing tickets!
If you've received a parking ticket, you may have noticed that Ineos Grenadier is NOT in the system, so you've got a lot of places they will often make errors writing the ticket, which puts you in a good place to dispute them without much effort at all!
First off, get the mobile app "Pay or Dispute" - I have the iOS version, so I can only vouch for that, but I was able to dispute a lot of tickets relatively quickly, but I do have to say I found it kind of dumb that you could only add one image at a time.
The alternative is using this website: https://nycserv.nyc.gov/HBWNonCommercial/index.jsp which I like a lot more.
What I do is print out my tickets and mark them up - then I start looking for mistakes, which I x-out mistakes, circle empty areas where information is missing and then write notes such as under the VIN heading below. I snap a photo and put this in as an image that I submit.
Here are the main areas where they will make a mistake:
MAKE: This is limited to only entries already in the system - I've received JEEP, NAV, BMW, and N/S, which means "Not Shown." This is the best possible place to reference "This summons should be dismissed because it does not comply with Vehicle and Traffic Law 238, in that the summons inaccurately describes the vehicle's registration make."
COLOR: My car is Scottish White, which is clearly white, but I've gotten OTH and TAN as well, so use this in a "furthermore, the officer didn't accurately describe the color of the vehicle, etc." PARTICULARLY if you have the mushroom color!
YEAR: I always mention that the 10th digit of the VIN # is the year and that anyone who is trained to generate revenue for the city of New York by issuing summons should be familiar with decoding this part of the VIN that is clearly visible on the driver's side dash by using the attached chart."
BODY TYPE: They always choose SUBN, which I assume is suburban, but I wouldn't lean on this too hard; one judge focused only on this when I said it should be SUV (don't even try to tell NYPD that it's actually a station wagon!)
VIN#: I have gotten so many tickets that I selectively use this against the people who started doing the right thing and putting in a partial VIN in this section. Pay a few of these and get all of the others when they are being lazy dismissed. "Please see ticket #xxxxxxxxx-x, paid x/xx/xx, where Officer 'Doe, J' took the time to document the vehicle properly, so I paid this ticket. This [subsequent, prior] ticket was hastily written and did not contain the necessary information to comply with Vehicle and Traffic Law 238, but if the complainant took the time to properly document the vehicle, I would have paid it like last time."
COMPLAINTANTS COMMENTS: If they leave this blank and make all of the errors above, you may be in good shape. Even if they do put in the last 6 digits of the VIN which is the serial number, I've gotten a ticket dismissed by saying "It was a nice gesture and much more than previously attempted, but not enough to satisfy the requirements of Vehicle and Traffic Law 238
I attach photos of the following:
registration to show vin, make, model, year, color and body style tying back to license plate
a photo of the license plate and dealer frame that says the dealer and ineos grenadier
grenadier badge that shows "built on purpose"
vin on the dashboard
ineos badge on the rear door
grenadier lettering on hood
Vin to Year chart
vin decoder explanation
I think you have to make these into JPEG because they don't like PNG
I've had a couple of tickets adjourned to provide more evidence in person, but I don't have time for that. I would recommend paying it right away and not letting another cent of penalty accrue on this.
Also another note - you can dispute up to a year after the ticket, so if anything looks fishy, do it! It takes very little time to do and it holds the city to a higher standard. I actually have seen some behavioral changes in the way my tickets are written at my current job site on the west side of 57th street and as much as I hate wasting money, I would prefer that its legitimately extracted from me and not in a lazy way in the interest of meeting quotas.
If you end up doing this, let me know how it works for you!
Best,
Jack
Grew up in Maine, live in CT and work in NYC. I wanted to cross-post this one from the NYC group because it seems like there are more people in this group who are in and around NYC in this group than that one!
I own a construction company based in CT, and all of my work is currently in NYC, so I've had the distinct privilege of getting tons of parking tickets built into my budgets and seeing what sticks when it comes to disputing tickets!
If you've received a parking ticket, you may have noticed that Ineos Grenadier is NOT in the system, so you've got a lot of places they will often make errors writing the ticket, which puts you in a good place to dispute them without much effort at all!
First off, get the mobile app "Pay or Dispute" - I have the iOS version, so I can only vouch for that, but I was able to dispute a lot of tickets relatively quickly, but I do have to say I found it kind of dumb that you could only add one image at a time.
The alternative is using this website: https://nycserv.nyc.gov/HBWNonCommercial/index.jsp which I like a lot more.
What I do is print out my tickets and mark them up - then I start looking for mistakes, which I x-out mistakes, circle empty areas where information is missing and then write notes such as under the VIN heading below. I snap a photo and put this in as an image that I submit.
Here are the main areas where they will make a mistake:
MAKE: This is limited to only entries already in the system - I've received JEEP, NAV, BMW, and N/S, which means "Not Shown." This is the best possible place to reference "This summons should be dismissed because it does not comply with Vehicle and Traffic Law 238, in that the summons inaccurately describes the vehicle's registration make."
COLOR: My car is Scottish White, which is clearly white, but I've gotten OTH and TAN as well, so use this in a "furthermore, the officer didn't accurately describe the color of the vehicle, etc." PARTICULARLY if you have the mushroom color!
YEAR: I always mention that the 10th digit of the VIN # is the year and that anyone who is trained to generate revenue for the city of New York by issuing summons should be familiar with decoding this part of the VIN that is clearly visible on the driver's side dash by using the attached chart."
BODY TYPE: They always choose SUBN, which I assume is suburban, but I wouldn't lean on this too hard; one judge focused only on this when I said it should be SUV (don't even try to tell NYPD that it's actually a station wagon!)
VIN#: I have gotten so many tickets that I selectively use this against the people who started doing the right thing and putting in a partial VIN in this section. Pay a few of these and get all of the others when they are being lazy dismissed. "Please see ticket #xxxxxxxxx-x, paid x/xx/xx, where Officer 'Doe, J' took the time to document the vehicle properly, so I paid this ticket. This [subsequent, prior] ticket was hastily written and did not contain the necessary information to comply with Vehicle and Traffic Law 238, but if the complainant took the time to properly document the vehicle, I would have paid it like last time."
COMPLAINTANTS COMMENTS: If they leave this blank and make all of the errors above, you may be in good shape. Even if they do put in the last 6 digits of the VIN which is the serial number, I've gotten a ticket dismissed by saying "It was a nice gesture and much more than previously attempted, but not enough to satisfy the requirements of Vehicle and Traffic Law 238
I attach photos of the following:
registration to show vin, make, model, year, color and body style tying back to license plate
a photo of the license plate and dealer frame that says the dealer and ineos grenadier
grenadier badge that shows "built on purpose"
vin on the dashboard
ineos badge on the rear door
grenadier lettering on hood
Vin to Year chart
vin decoder explanation
I think you have to make these into JPEG because they don't like PNG
I've had a couple of tickets adjourned to provide more evidence in person, but I don't have time for that. I would recommend paying it right away and not letting another cent of penalty accrue on this.
Also another note - you can dispute up to a year after the ticket, so if anything looks fishy, do it! It takes very little time to do and it holds the city to a higher standard. I actually have seen some behavioral changes in the way my tickets are written at my current job site on the west side of 57th street and as much as I hate wasting money, I would prefer that its legitimately extracted from me and not in a lazy way in the interest of meeting quotas.
If you end up doing this, let me know how it works for you!
Best,
Jack
