Civil PCN Received - circumstances not straightforward.

LikesWhisky

PCN charge cancelled. Thanks to all posters here for your help.

I sent an email to the PCN company, based on the templates given in the replies above, modified to the circumstances. Also sent an email to the retailer asking them to help. Both replied, confirming the charge was cancelled.

In addition to the advice given in this thread I would add that it pays to make your appeal as relevant to the actual circumstances as possible. Spend a bit of time on it. Just repeating a template might encourage a rejection, to see if you have staying power. After all, if you can't be bothered spending some time on your correspondence at the start, they will think it worth spinning you along to see if you'll give up and pay.

I was polite, firm and factual with the PCN company, and appealed in a softer style to the common sense of the retailer, achieving a result at the first stage. Good result - thanks again.

Coupon-mad

Well done - and I am glad you didn't just use the template verbatim.