Advice for a new member

Jon1927

I am newish to this site having visited once before at the start of my saga but have read as much of the newbie information that has been provided both then and now. My purpose in posting is to check that the next step I am going to make is the right one - so any clarity would be gratefully received.


My wife received 2 PCN’s, dated within a day of each other for two parking occasions that were 6 days apart. It was in a multiple retail outlet car park in Wales. She is the registered keeper, although someone else was driving the car . (I must say that if the driver knew they were in the wrong the first time I am sure they wouldn’t have parked there a 2nd time?).

I wrote to the company NEW Generation Parking on the 29th September 2013 explaining I wanted to appeal after visiting this site and to date I have still not had a reply. I hadn’t chased it as I just thought it was a slow process bearing in mind the time they took them to notify of the offence and according to them it has 35 days to reply.

Anyway on Wednesday this week, two letters arrived in the post from a debt collecting agency demanding payment for £320 in total (£160 for each PCN) – these notices were both dated 30th October 2013. I have had no reminders from the company or notification of an accepted or rejected appeal.

Am I right in thinking I need to send a letter akin to the one in this thread and it is the landowner and not the shops it needs to be directed to. I have spent a lot of time reading all the advice on here and this is the nearest to my situation I can find

"G24 appeal on-going but just received debt collector letter HELP! "

Sorry it won't allow me to post a direct link but if you paste that thread title in the search engine it will find it - I tried to find it and refer to page but couldn't


Thanks in anticipation of any responses I get.

Coupon-mad

Hi Jon,
Welcometo MSE!

I have seen the thread you mention and your case has some similarities, but differences too as you don't have the Equality Act angle. What you do have is a valid complaint that NGP did not reply to your appeal and so you never got a chance at POPLA.

I would send a complaint to the Retail Park, yep, especially if you have receipts for those days. Similar to the thread you found, in 'very miffed customer mode' and asking them to step in and cancel these charges. I would also pop in and speak personally to the Store Managers - particularly if you have receipts but even if not! We have seen a few kind Store Managers cancel these tickets even when a person wasn't shopping there, because they realise the effect of good customer service on future shopping decisions.

Also I would read this sticky thread below, which you may have already seen but I would encourage you to complain to the BPA about NGP not replying to an appeal nor offering POPLA. Send it to Steve Clark at the email shown here in the sticky thread, but remember the BPA are not 'on your side' as they actually represent the PPCs, but they can also dish out a clout to a rogue member which has seen PCNs cancelled several times:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822

If so far you appealed as the registered keeper, not naming the driver then stay in that mode for the complaints, because if you end up with a POPLA code your position is stronger as keeper (with no driver identified).

Hopefully the retail park managing agents or landowner or Store Managers will step in....or the BPA might agree with you when they investigate this AOS member.

As far as the debt collectors are concerned, they are nothing (just pen-pushing middle men with no powers to take someone to court in this situation where there has been no default on any real debt, no credit agreement). But the sticky thread linked does set out your choices for 'debt collector' letter situations which can either be ignored or robustly responded to (your choice). Examples & links are on the sticky thread.

Jon1927

Thank you so much for the advice – I really appreciate it. I have drafted a letter to the retail park management company using the similar themes but not about breastfeeding!! I have focussed on the no right to appeal or recognition of my appeal that I lodged and I have included reference to the fact that the notices were for events 6 days apart and if they had been quicker with the notice I could have avoided the hassle of having two to deal with, which obviously looks worse. I will send it tomorrow by recorded delivery.

I appreciated the difference in the equalities element although I did have a broken ankle at the time!!! Hence me not being the driver!! Not sure they would be too sympathetic on that point so I haven't mentioned this in the letter to the retail management company nor in my appeal letter originally.

In relation to the other details you raise, I will definitely write to the BPA re: not having the reply from NPG.

I don't have receipts for the day that I can find and in hindsight I wish I had sent my correspondence to NPG recorded delivery - I am from a Human Resources background as well so I should have known better.

I live 40 miles away from Cardiff but I will certainly take the opportunity when next there to speak to the retailers themselves

As for the debt collectors I think my wife has images of the mitchell brothers of eastneders coming around and demanding monies with menaces!!

Thanks again for the clarity of the advice and hopefully they will find favour and will do it quickly so I can put my mind at rest

Coupon-mad

As for the debt collectors I think my wife has images of the mitchell brothers of eastenders coming around and demanding monies with menaces!!

Lots of people fear the same but that's bailiffs, completely different!

Let us know what response you get to your complaints. You could ring the Store(s) and ask to speak to the Store Manager 'about a serious complaint' or, if they are national chains just post a complaint on their facebook or twitter account or email their CS Head Office. The sticky thread about 'successful complaints' (near the top of the forum) has lots of examples of success using that route of complaint; some Social Media Managers of national Retail Chains are very quick to step in when a complaint is made public on their facebook page.

Coupon-mad

He doesn't need to worry about any of that! This is ONLY debt collector letters, completely different!

And he has complained to the BPA so this should either be cancelled or result in a POPLA code so he'll need to gen up here on the winning words at POPLA stage.

RobertoMoir

johnsmith56255 wrote: »

blurb snipped

If you're going to post advice about bailiffs on every thread about people owing money that you can find it would be just super-de-duper if you would go ahead and learn the difference between a bailiff and a debt collector first.

You know it makes sense, not just for those of us who will be bored to tears by reading you repeating the same stuff everywhere, but for the people you are presumably trying to help.

RobertoMoir

johnsmith56255 wrote: »

their all one and the same as far as I am concerned.

That's nice for you, but the differences can be very important, and if you're just trying to help people then I'm sure you won't want them to put themselves in a worse position because they misunderstood something you wrote, would you?