APCOA Parking Charge - Months and Months Later

jamez91

Hi All,

Was on the verge of paying this charge but came across this forum which seems very helpful and seems like I am not the only stuck in this mess with the parking charge bullies.

Last september I received a Parking Charge from APCOA - the reason being was it was one of the car parks which you were given a blue chip coin and you put it in on return to the car park and then pay for your duration. So yes, we paid for our parking and a receipt came out which we thought was all completed and we just put the receipt in the exit slot to enable the barrier to lift up, however once we returned to the car we realised as we got to the barrier we needed the chip coin to get out.

So i parked back up & went back to the machine where our chip coin was not there and there was a small sign saying take your chip coin with you to get out of the car park. The chip coin should have come out where the change comes out - & we DID get change from our payment so we would have picked it up with the change if it was there, but as it wasnt we naturally thought the receipt would get us out of the car park.

We approached a member of staff with whom we had a large conversation/argument with and also called a supervisor who was no help at all they demanded we paid for a lost chip coin...for which their machine had eaten!!! We asked for them to check the CCTV to prove we put the coin in the machine but it wasn't taken out after wards (like we would steal a useless coin anyway) yet the said they didnt have access to the CCTV and we HAD to pay. (Yeah right) The charge they were asking for was £12.50 (ridiculous too I know).

Anyway after a long drawn out argument and us refusing to pay they invoiced us. After a few letters threatening legal actions etc we didnt hear anything. However recently 10 months later I received a phone call (which another member of my household took) asking for me from APCOA parking - I wasnt available though. And I Also received another letter threatening action and also my credit rating would go down too.

I have never known them telephone you up chasing for payment and sending letters threatening your credit rating.

What do you think I should do as I was close to paying just now until I came across this forum??

Help much appreciated.

Dee140157

This is a strange one and I don't know the answer.

What I can say is that The only way your credit rating will be affected will be if you get a CCJ. And is will only happen if APCOA take you to court, you lose and you don't pay what you are told to by the judge.

So unless they take you to court this will not affect you.

As for sorting it out, what paper work have you actually received?

Redx

its probably debt collectors chasing this , not apcoa

as for the "what happened" story, its all totally irrelevant when appealing these things

the cold facts are that they have up to 6 years to invoice you and then demand payment, if necessary to take out an MCOL (small clains)

this is true for any invoice, not just a parking invoice

as I said in another thread today , you have no control over this process as you are the appellant (or defendant) - the PPC or landowner has control over this for 6 years due to the small claims court procedures

I suspect there is no "sorting out" , its wait and see as detailed in the newbies thread , especially the debt collector section

if you have not appealed to apcoa, send the template letter to them, assume they reject it, then wait it out for another 5 years checking for any LBC or MCOL (the important letters)

after 6 years the statute runs out on debt collection or enforcement

no CCJ can happen unless you lose in court and fail to pay the judgement within 28 days

jamez91

Ok thats fine so the credit rating won't be in danger. I thought that they could literally just file it under as unpaid and that owuld go on my credit record for other people to see.

They have sent probably 3 letters around 1 per month after the actual incident 1 was the actual invoice , 1 was a polite reminder to pay within a certain amount of days and the other was a threaten of legal action. And as mentioned just now (10 months later) I have received a 4th letter asking for payment (the charge hasnt gone up despite expiring their 30 day payment terms). The thing that bothered me was the phonecall asking for me, and I have never heard of this happen before so it triggered a thought that they were onto me inparticular.

Can anyone give me any advice over an appeal letter then towards APCOA?

Redx

the template letter for any PPC is in the newbies sticky thread, as are all the other answers to the often repeated questions we see on here daily

those debt collector letters have been going on for years and its only after 6 years that the statute runs out , hence there have been many thousands of them in the last 10 years and this will continue unabated

jamez91

Thank you for pointing me i nthe right direction. I have just googled the APCO appeals page and the page cannot be found conveniently. It says in the site map description on google that APCO are currently not accepting appeals from anyone at this time. Would a postal appeal be better?

Also I have just noticed on my latest letter from APCOA It says "You are in default of the season ticket agreement signed with APCOA Parking UK"

And just looking at their website it seems that this is a package they offer to get parking for a block of set weeks/months - apcoa.co.uk/products/season-tickets/online-season-ticket-form.html

So to me it seems that their most recent letter is very inaccurate too?

The_Slithy_Tove

I would write to APCOA in response to their initial invoice, simply saying that their invoice has no merit, you deny that you owe them a penny as it's their own systems at fault, and if they think otherwise over £12.50, then see them in court.

fisherjim

Jamez91 how did you get the barrier to lift up to let you out without the token?

jamez91

I would not want to deepend myself to challenge them to court though does that not sound like you want to take them on in court and they may do so?

I argued that much with the operator and supervisor at the time they said well if you are not going to pay here and now then we will just invoice you and they took my details before I left - eg address, drivers licence number etc

If I appeal and it is rejected will that make it worse?

Redx

no, any court will have expected you to have appealed and tried to settle the invoice , so your appeal is the start of that process (even if they reject it)

jamez91

Well at the moment i definitely do not want to contemplate having to go to court just to "beat" these companies. My charge i only £12.50 as it was down as a lost coin - rather than a full on fine.

Is it worth doing it all the time and effort putting appeal after appeal back and forth or is it a quick process?