APCOA Parking Enforcement Notice

ciscosurplus

Hi all after a bit of advice.

I have a Temporary Company Car, which is provided via our fleet company from a hire car company (Thrifty).

On the 10 July I got a "Parking Enforcement Notice" from Apcoa.

I forgot my phone, so I used a colleagues phone to pay using his account, which the phone system accepted and promptly debited the money from my card. This was at 9:30am.

At 17:00 I returned to the car to find the notice on it! Time stamped 14:58.

I got my Colleague to forward me the invoice, which was all great. Except the parking time (on the email invoice) was due to start exactly 24 hours from the time I called in.

This was not made clear on the in any way on the phone, and whats more I tried to repeat the process (i.e. book parking to start at a set time in the future) and its physically not possible. As he booked his parking using his own reg, its hard some sort of software bug.

In my eyes I made payment so was parked Legally, so no way I am paying them £60.

the issue is that the hire company apply a charge, then the fleet company and it ends up being £100s.

Should I pre-empt this and write to Apcoa refusing to pay?

ManxRed

You could:

(a) Write to your Fleet Manager and ask him to check with Thrifty that speculative invoices (i.e. private parking tickets) are NOT included in the terms and conditions as being paid automatically. The Ts & Cs will normally only cover authorised penalties and fines issued by relevant authorities under traffic legislation, which of course, APCOA's tickets do not fall under.

If Thrifty seem likely to ignore all advice from their Trade Body - the BVRLA - who advise on not paying these, then:

(b) Send them a letter saying that a ticket (reference it or photocopy it) was attached to my car, can you explain what for? Hopefully they will then write straight to you and ignore Thrifty.

Stephen_Leak

A pre-emptive stike is always better than asking, or suing, for your money back after they've paid the invoice on your behalf, added their so-called administration charge and taken the money from your account. It also means that the PPC doesn't get paid.

Coupon-mad

This thread has all the links you need:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3748269

MacBudman has 'been there done that' already and has told his Lease Co about this scam.

He is now ignoring the fake PCN and all the letters are going to him I think.

So you must take urgent and clear, assertive action using the BVRLA links and Fleet News link to tell the Fleet Manager that this is all a scam and you ain't paying if they fall for it.

ciscosurplus

Thanks all that thread looks good. Pre-Emptive it is.

The kicker for APCOA is I park there 3 times a week (£5.20 per day), Ive decided to use the travel lodge now instead.