Southampton west quay Britannia car park pcn

codeye02

My girlfriend received a Letter from Britannia for a supposed Parking charge notice dated over 6 weeks ago! It says she overstayed on her free parking ticket, they have enclosed photos of her car with the notice on but she never actually saw the notice herself on her windscreen ! There is no way she could of missed it if it had been on her windscreen! So,someone has either thought it was funny, and took it off her car or they never left it on there purposely. They also have a picture of an expired ticket, which could be from any car and a tax disc but can't work out any details on it.

The letter states that the time to pay the discounted £40 has lapsed so she now owes £70! Can she appeal this on the basis that she never actually got the PCN in the first place? Or should she just ignore it completely like older threads on here suggest.

Thanks in advance

Coupon-mad

She should challenge it but not on the basis you suggest. Challenge the actual basis of the charge itself and that the driver was a genuine customer. We do not advise ignoring but it is an option seeing as Britannia are pretty tame and have never sent more than 3 chase up letters and never tried a small claim.

But the first port of call should be back to the shop (if it was a shop) and complain to the Store Manager about this harassment. She should go in waving the letter and a pile of receipts from recent weeks (or copy of Bank statement proving herself to be a genuine customer). She should dress smartly and wear heels and be very assertive but icily/scathingly polite about this scam fake PCN and harassment.

Most Store Managers can cancel a fake PCN with one phone call to retain a customer. IF IT'S A RETAIL PARK THEN PHONE UP THE MANAGING AGENT OF THE RETAIL PARK AND TARGET THEM WITH THE COMPLAINT.

If complaining doesn't work then second option is to challenge it to Britannia, with a short challenge like those shown here (nothing about the allegation of overstaying and nothing about the PCN not being on the car):

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showtopic=80125&st=20&start=20

...you do not write it as 'the driver' you write it as the registered keeper who has just got this letter, feels harassed and angry about this and knows that 'the driver' (write it all in the third person) was a genuine customer on the day.

The last stage appeal is POPLA if Britannia reject the challenge and send you a code. That would be a stage to take time over and you should read up on POPLA appeals in the meantime so you are ready and informed about what works. We can help at that stage so let us know how you get on.

Best case scenario is that the complaint to the retailer works.

codeye02

Thanks for the reply, I will certainly have a look into all of the above.
It was in a retail park so I will contact their management . It was actually at mothercare and she had our new born baby with her .il see if she can dig out Some receipts and wll let you know the outcome.
Thanks once again

Coupon-mad

codeye02 wrote: »

Thanks for the reply, I will certainly have a look into all of the above.
It was in a retail park so I will contact their management . It was actually at mothercare and she had our new born baby with her .il see if she can dig out Some receipts and wll let you know the outcome.
Thanks once again

OK then she also has the Maternity Protection afforded to her by the Equality Act 2010 and if she was breastfeeding, women are now explicitly protected from unfavourable treatment as regards provision of services (i.e. she had to be allowed longer to park if the delay was due to nursing the baby!).