APCOA Ticket at Station Car Park

VicM2014

Hi

I am a regular user of the station car park at Royston which is now managed by APCOA. I normally pre purchase my parking using the APCOA Connect Website. I did this last week as usual, but when I arrived at the car park, many spaces were cordoned off for no apparent reason and the car park was full. Having already purchased my parking and in danger of missing my train I parked at the end of a row., and was careful not to cause any obstruction, and had parked behind another car. On my return that evening I had a ticket on my windscreen for £85 (reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days) for not parking in a marked space. Any advice on how to handle this? Since I am registered on the APCOA site they will be able to look up my email and mobile phone, but I don't believe they have my address. This seems very unfair as I had paid nearly £8 for the parking and the only reason there was no space was due to the spaces being cordoned off. This has never been a problem before.

Should I just appeal or wait for the letter and then appeal as indicated in this forum.

Thanks for your advice and help,

VicM

bod1467

Please read the NEWBIES sticky thread, then come back if you're still unsure what to do.

VicM2014

HI

Thank you for your reply. I have read the NEWBIES thread, but I'm unclear if the fact that I prepaid for a space and am registered with the APCOA site would make any difference.

Many thanks

Vic

nigelbb

The fact that APCOA have breached their contract with you by not providing the space that you paid for will be a very strong point for your appeal. Personally I wouldn't wait for the Notice To Keeper as you are both driver & keeper (I assume that you are & that this isn't a lease car). Appeal the Notice To Driver that was left on the car raising the issue that you had paid for a space but none was provided. If they don't uphold your appeal on those grounds then they will be obliged to provide a code for you to appeal to POPLA where your appeal will be successful.

VicM2014

Thanks Nigel.

That makes sense.

My only reservation is that when you pre purchase online you tick a box to say you accept their terms and conditions. I suspect that somewhere in the T&C's there's something that says a space isn't guaranteed and it's an offence not to park in a marked space.

Anyway, I've appealed and we'll see what they say!

Regards,

Vic

nigelbb

In the case of a train ticket then not guaranteeing a seat is OK provided there is still the option of standing but in the case of parking it would be a nonsense not to guarantee a space as there is no alternative. If they don't uphold your appeal then POPLA definitely will on the usual grounds of no GPEOL, no contract, poor signage etc. Yu could always mention that if forced to pay this charge you will be issuing a counter claim to cover the cost of paying it as it's only because of APCOA's breach of contract that you were obliged to park as you did.

Redx

my opinion (not legally trained) is that they offered a service and you paid for that service, then only when you got there did you find out that it wasnt available , so to me they are in breach of the service offered

you then had to take action that then resulted in a PCN, so you appeal, surely they should take into account there failings on this and look at it with common sense and decide it is not in their interests to pursue due to their own breach of contract ? (space or no space)

just seems to me that common sense has gone out of the window when these things get past the first appeal stage because they have hidden clauses to hide behind , not only that they are biting the hand that feeds them and alienating the very customers they are trying to help and at the same time line their own pockets

some steward comes down a train and takes your order for a bacon butty and a coffee , you pay , he goes away, doesnt come back , you go find him and he says "sorry sir, we have no bacon , no bread , no coffee so I could not fill your order , by the way, I am now charging you for stopping me serving other customers so you now owe me another £90 !!"

not quite the same but you get the gist of it

they should not be offering the service if they cannot ensure its available , so they should be ensuring the space is free before selling it , same as a match ticket for a seat at your local footy stadium, its a tangible item and should only be offered or reserved if available

VicM2014

Thank you for the feed back.

Here is the text of the letter I have sent them:

Dear Sirs,


Re Penalty Charge Notice No.xxxxxx VRM xxxx Dated xxxxx
Notice of Appeal – Without Prejudice

I write to challenge the above parking charge.

The facts are as follows:

1. I am a regular user of the Royston Station Car Park, and am registered with APCOA Connect and frequently purchase parking in advance.
2. On DATE, having purchased parking in advance, on arrival at the station I found that many parking spaces had been cordoned off for no apparent reason.
3. Consequently there were no free marked spaces.
4. With my train departing imminently I parked my car at the end of a row being careful not to obstruct the access road in any way, and not blocking access to any marked spaces. If you have photos, then they will confirm that the car was parked perfectly reasonably.

Hence, having entered in to a contract with you to park my car at the station, and no advance warning having been given that the parking spaces were restricted on that day I consider this a totally unreasonable and unacceptable charge which I therefore reject.

Given the above, your parking charge does not represent a genuine pre-estimate of loss to yourself or the landowner, since I had fully paid for a space and was not denying access to any other potential customer. In every case where a motorist has raised similar issues POPLA have accepted the appeal. You are therefore fully aware that there is no prospect of your charge being upheld.

If you do reject the challenge and insist upon taking the matter further I must inform you that I will claim my expenses from you. The expenses I will claim are not exhaustive but may include the cost of stamps, envelopes, travel expenses, legal fees, etc. By continuing to pursue me you agree to pay these costs when I prevail.

If you reject this appeal, I require within 35 days a POPLA verification code for me to appeal independently as per the requirements set out on the POPLA web site, further supported by the BPA Code of Practice.

You have been given the reasons for the appeal above. I have nothing further to currently add, and will not respond to any correspondence from your company unless it contains the POPLA code.

Be aware that there will be formal complaints to POPLA and to the BPA if there is no POPLA code on any rejection that you supply.



Lets see what they say!

Vic

Coupon-mad

Don't forget you have the 'complaint option' up your sleeve as well, as covered in the 'Successful complaints about PPCs' sticky thread. In post #3 in that sticky thread you will see that railway station car park tickets with various PPCs have been cancelled by complaining to the TOC in each case, and Passenger Focus have been particularly helpful.