APCOA Rail Parking - Help Needed!!

mtbboi

My Girlfriend paid for three days parking at an APCOA rail car park, on re-arrival she found she had three 'APCOA Civil Parking Notice' tickets amounting to 80 pounds each, for reason'03-Parking in a restricted area', there were no markings in the space in which she parked , but a small sign on the fence infront of the space, that was next to a lot of other signs and didnt say no parking but just Zipcars live here, she didnt notice the sign until that point.
It said on the slip that you can appeal within 7 days so we constructed a letter appealing showing photo evidence of the parking space in question, we straight away called the company with our dispute and the guy on the phone (who wouldnt give his name) said that if you dispute it then ignore anything they send back they wont take it to court, much like you are saying on here, so we did just that.
A reply came a few weeks later saying ok we will accept £50 - in my view that is their mistake by agreeing to settle for less, admitting they are wrong?? and that we have a solid case for a wrongful penalty, so we took the advise and ignored it but my girlfriend has just received a letter from a debt collecting agency demanding that she pays £128 within 14 days, and she is getting really worried, any comments on what i have written and what i should do now, and also the legal status of this case would be really appreciated.
Many many thanks,
Karl

ManxRed

Do not confuse Debt Collectors with Bailiffs.

Debt Collectors have no more powers than you or I. They cannot affect your credit rating, they cannot sieze your goods, they cannot do ANYTHING.

They are a well-known part of the letter chain. There may also be a letter or two from a fake solicitor to come, but without taking you to court and winning, they haven't got a leg to stand on.

They won't take you to court either. APCOA have never taken anyone to court, and they know they'd lose.

Just keep ignoring.

BASFORDLAD

Don't get scared over scam letters

The_Slithy_Tove

Unless the ticket refers to Railway Byelaw 14, there is no legal statute behind the ticket, and you can simply ignore it.

pustit

Have you thought about asking Zip cars if they were inconvenienced by your parking in their space.
I would expect they will simply say they parked in the next available space and didn't think any more about it. And if they say that it will help.

I feel i should change my name to Giveapcoafa.

Coupon-mad

mtbboi wrote: »

My Girlfriend paid for three days parking at an APCOA rail car park, on re-arrival she found she had three 'APCOA Civil Parking Notice' tickets amounting to 80 pounds each, for reason'03-Parking in a restricted area', there were no markings in the space in which she parked , but a small sign on the fence infront of the space, that was next to a lot of other signs and didnt say no parking but just Zipcars live here, she didnt notice the sign until that point.
It said on the slip that you can appeal within 7 days so we constructed a letter appealing showing photo evidence of the parking space in question, we straight away called the company with our dispute and the guy on the phone (who wouldnt give his name) said that if you dispute it then ignore anything they send back they wont take it to court, much like you are saying on here, so we did just that.
A reply came a few weeks later saying ok we will accept £50 - in my view that is their mistake by agreeing to settle for less, admitting they are wrong?? and that we have a solid case for a wrongful penalty, so we took the advise and ignored it but my girlfriend has just received a letter from a debt collecting agency demanding that she pays £128 within 14 days, and she is getting really worried, any comments on what i have written and what i should do now, and also the legal status of this case would be really appreciated.
Many many thanks,
Karl

Oh dear, this is NOTHING TO WORRY ABOUT!

What a waste of time to even think you could 'appeal' a scam fake PCN. And everyone gets those letters, that's what the second to top 'sticky' thread on the forum is telling you about!

You are not liable to pay and you must not 'appeal' any more either. This is a private company with an unsolicited invoice, dressed up to impersonate a parking ticket. Useful links below, show these to your girlfriend please:

Tick off the threatening letters Here.

Watchdog clip with expert Solicitor's opinion here.

Barrister's opinion here.

Please follow and read those links, now, so you know what it's all about and can just play a nice game of snap with the template threatogram letters.

Nothing else will happen, it really is just like deleting a series of phishing emails.


HTH

Trotwom

Thanks we've had exactly the same with parking at Oxford station. We sent in appeal, I took time out of the teaching in the classroom to phone and check they had received in time and they had.

We then received nothing until a letter from Debt Collectors on Saturday! I phoned First Great Western to check who was their operator (not City Council) and APCOA are.

Now we will ignore - is that right?

Coupon-mad

Yep, as I said above. As long as this was a ticket without the word penalty on it. A parking charge notice?

Did you look at the links?

I laughed at two fake PCNs myself - and I also work in education, like you. I tell everyone in the staff rooms about this scam!

They are like phishing emails, think of the letters that way = SCAM. You took a scam seriously at first but no harm done by being duped into 'appealing' (lots of our posters here fall for that old chestnut at first because the piece of paper mimics a parking ticket and you believe it...at first!).

Read up on the forum to learn about this. Glad you came here.

A 'Parking Charge Notice' is NOT a real PCN but a fake one.

Just ignore it.

No private parking company (PPC) can actually issue a real fine or penalty on private land, retail car parks etc. Nor can they affect your credit rating nor send a bailiff round without the small matter of winning a Small Claim in Court first! And that won't happen, see this link to allay any fears about that (it's an oldie but still correct info):

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=24362

The most that will happen is even more junk mail letters that you can ignore, over the coming months. The registered keeper gets the letters, so if that's not you then educate them about this well-known scam and show them the links & info we are giving you here.

Please read on...

We have so much info on here to help newbies understand and be ready for the letters. See my signature if you aren't used to forums - just one click from here & you see all current threads here, most of which are about the 'fake PCN' scam.

Second from the top, click on 'PPC letters & threats'.

1. Watch the Watchdog clip on there, and then

2. scroll down to the pics of your fave PPC's threatograms, then

3. Play a nice game of snap with each matching templated threatogram, then

4. If you like legal stuff and want to understand why PPCs are very unlikely to win any small claim now, read the links on this CAG thread.

5. Tell your friends & family, colleagues, strangers, everyone! about the fake PCN scam so they never pay one.