Parking Charge - Armtrac

NFA

Hi There,

Firstly, I have only just discovered this place and it's an AMAZING resource. Thank you to everyone involved!

Sooo... I have a parking charge from a private car park and I would like to dispute it. However, I would like to get the opinions from people here as to whether I should dispute it or just pay it. Here's what happened.

I borrowed a large camper van from a friend. We parked in the the said car park and parked across 2 bays (the back end was hanging over the 2nd bay). When I came to pay, I assumed that there would be a "large vehicle" fee or something to similar effect. There wasn't and so I paid the "maximum vehicle fee" as I assumed this would suffice. We were only staying for 3 hours and the maximum fee covered an entire day.

I would like to point out that nowhere on the signs did it say that you must pay per bay used.

I returned to my vehicle a couple of hours later and it had a ticket on the windscreen. The reason that was stated on the ticket was "causing and obstruction or parking outside of the bays". The person that wrote the ticket had also added "PARKED IN TWO BAYS BOUGHT ONLY ONE TICKET".

My wife has appealed against Armtrac and obviously that has been declined. We now have a POPLA appeal number but if we use that, we loose our "discount" on the original ticket.

Although it does seem obvious now, I genuinely didn't realise that I need to buy 2 tickets. it didn't mention anything like that on the signage. It was all geared towards "per vehicle" not "per bay".

In addition, Armtrac said that they would respond to our appeal with 35 days. They actually took 57 days. Not sure if that makes any difference?

So what do you all think, should I be paying this or not? If I'm not, what is the best way to go about it?

Many thanks in advance!

Coupon-mad

I would like to get the opinions from people here as to whether I would dispute it or just pay it.

I haven't even read further - I stopped there to tell you NOT to pay Armtrac! EVER.

You have a POPLA code so look at the 'NEWBIES READ THIS FIRST' thread near the top of the forum, go to post #3 of it and click on 'How to win at POPLA'. This is not won on the story of what happened so forget ALL of the above and look at the examples for windscreen ticket cases as shown in the hyperlink. Adapt one to suit your case, edit & proof read it to ensure it all makes sense and only talks about Armtrac, then show us what you have cobbled together.

You will win using our version of a POPLA appeal, suitable adapted. You would lose if you write about mitigating circs like you have so far.

Oh, and please, check the date of the reply letter and the date on the envelope, and check the POPLA appeal code expiry date in post #3 of the Newbies thread 'POPLA code checker'. Look what Armtrac keep doing:

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.php?t=5125975

Have they done the same to you? Obviously I have already explained how to address it if so.

NFA

Thank you so much for your reply. I really really appreciate it!

I did wonder if there was a scam behind sending the letters out late and it would appear so. Scumbags!

I am going to fight this. I don't see why I should give £100 of my hard earned cash to a company like this.

I'll let you know how I get on...

Guys_Dad

NFA wrote: »

Thank you so much for your reply. I really really appreciate it!

I did wonder if there was a scam behind sending the letters out late and it would appear so. Scumbags!

I am going to fight this. I don't see why I should give £100 of my hard earned cash to a company like this.

I'll let you know how I get on...

Good to hear. But Please follow the advice in the NEWBIES thread to make sure you win with a tried and trusted route. :beer:

NFA

I just wanted to check - Regarding the inevitable debt collection fees, will they just lump a load on to make it worth taking me to court to pay the fees?

I am totally happy to see this through but the wife is less keen. Money is tight and all that. I think she's just prefer to pay it and get it over and done with. I'm a little more stubborn.

NFA

OK, I'm reading the newbie thread. Maybe just ignore my last post

ezerscrooge

Check your POPLA code is valid, the Parking Prankster has reported cases where Armtrac sit on the letter for weeks whilst the POPLA clock ticks away.

You can check your code on the link below..

http://www.parkingcowboys.co.uk/popla-code-checker/

If your code is close to expiring then follow the advice in the link below...

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2014/12/armtrac-security-services-use-dodgy.html

Don't be payingthem, fight and win with the advice on here. Do post your POPLA appeal here (redacted) for comment before sending.

Parking-Prankster

Please let us know if the date on the letter is close to the date you received it. If not, I will add it to my blog post. Hopefully you have also kept the envelope and can check the postcode.

bod1467

Parking-Prankster wrote: »

Hopefully you have also kept the envelope and can check the postcode postmark.

Fixed that for you.

NFA

Parking-Prankster wrote: »

Please let us know if the date on the letter is close to the date you received it. If not, I will add it to my blog post. Hopefully you have also kept the envelope and can check the postcode.

Hi there,

No the date that the letter was written was on the 1st of November and I received it on the 28the of November. We have ket the envolope but odly enough it doesn't have an date stamp on it and it's a hand written envolope. Weird.

bod1467

So the envelope isn't franked?