Parking Collection Svs

lordsnooty01

:mad::mad:




Ladies and Gents,

Great information on here, but I think my situation may be slightly bespoke now due to me discovering it far too late

I received a PCN and effectively challenged on the basis (via POPLA) of the following apologies up front - this is the letter I sent and its quite long..................

"The PCN in question and alleged parking offence was issued on false grounds for the following reasons:

The user of the car park within the car in question WAS willing and able to pay for the parking. Due to the time of day, the user had no change for the machine, the machine located at the facility ONLY accepted coins. Not being one to avoid what is due for a facility, the user opted to use the 'pay-by-phone' facility offered by the facility owner.

When calling the 'pay-by-phone' facility, you are asked for the location number of the car park. The location number for this car park is not visible to users of the facility and is not located by:

(a) the coin machine
(b) near or within the vicinity of the coin machine
(c) near or within the vicinity of the ground floor which is where the car was parked
(d) on or near any pillars within the facility
(e) at or near the entrance to the facility

Without this information, users are not able to use the 'pay-by-phone' facility. The operator does not have a facility to pay online.

Being a law abiding and morally strong citizen, I went above my duty as a user and proceeded to contact the providers 'helpline' as to pay the charge due for parking. I was advised by the operator that they did not know the location number so they would ask a representative / duty manager of the operator to call me as to advise within 30 minutes.

Calls to the pay-by-phone system were made at 20:14 and 20:16
Call to the helpline number was made at 20:17

The call return from the operator was not received, instead an on duty representative applied a PCN to the vehicle at 21:32.

I vexatiously dispute the appliance of the PCN to the vehicle on the following grounds:

(a) the user was willing to pay for the charges using the limited facilities of the operator. This was not a case of unwilling to pay or trying to avoid paying the car parking charges.
(b) the user did everything reasonable within their abilities of a facility to accommodate satisfying the car parking charges but was precluded from doing so by;

(i) lack of signage stating clearly or otherwise, the facility location number
(ii) owning and managing a 'convenience' method for users whilst it is known to be known that there are no clear or basic signs at the facility for users to reference if used, i.e. a call is made but user cannot complete payment due to the limiting factors of no signs - a basic responsibility omitted and could be interpreted as intentional for profit reasons
(iii) the operator did not carry out a reasonable request to assist a user by way of returning a call enabling the user to pay but instead opted for a PCN over common sense and customer satisfaction.

Photographic evidence showing the complete lack of signage at the locations (mentioned above) are available on request. Additionally, witnesses to the facts here can also be provided.

It is clear that no further action on the users part could be taken as to pay for the charges for the parking, something that is not, has not and was not disputed at any time. What is disputed is the PCN which based on the above is invalid due to the providers incompetence rather than the users unwillingness to pay."

I have just had notice from POPLA that they refuse my claim to dismiss.

Beggars belief but is there anything I can do to counteract this ridiculous situation?

Any help would be gratefully appreciated.

Thanks.

enfield_freddy

ok , lets start from the top


Parking Collection Svs , is that parking collection services (pcs)?


if so , that is a debt collector , WHO issued the ticket?


your appeal , was it to POPLa , or was it an appeal to scrotes united/PCS?


more info needed please

bazster

You are now in "ignore" mode. File and forget everything you receive unless it's a genuine Letter Before Claim (not a poxy debt collectors' letter vaguely threatening legal action) or real court papers.

lordsnooty01

enfield_freddy wrote: »

ok , lets start from the top


Parking Collection Svs , is that parking collection services (pcs)?


if so , that is a debt collector , WHO issued the ticket?


your appeal , was it to POPLa , or was it an appeal to scrotes united/PCS?


more info needed please

The PCN issued has the following on the back so assumed PCS was the issuing party - Parking Collection Services, Po Box 271, Ashton Under Lyne.

The PCN on the front has: Parking Enforcement & Security Services with 2 logos (Car Park Management) and (Security Services) - both of the logos look like a 2 year old designed them

The appeal was with POPLA who in short ignored the facts and simply sided with the operator by way of no ticket displayed :mad:

lordsnooty01

bazster wrote: »

You are now in "ignore" mode. File and forget everything you receive unless it's a genuine Letter Before Claim (not a poxy debt collectors' letter vaguely threatening legal action) or real court papers.

So based on experiences here, should I fight this based on the circumstance - if POPLA is anything to go by, they ignore the situation at the time and simply default back to 'no ticket was on display = contravene of terms and conditions BS!

Ralph-y

POPLA will only uphold appeals on points of law ........

your appeal was more mitigation.....

As Bazster said , once the POPLA appeal is used up your only option is to ignore every thing other than letters before court or actual court papers.

Ralph:cool:

lordsnooty01

So as much as it irks me, once the court papers arrive - assuming they do, I guess its pay up - lesson learnt, right?

bazster

What do you mean when the court papers arrive? Most private parking companies never file court claims, and those that do only file against a small proportion of people who ignore them (1:10 at worst, but mostly much better odds than that).

And even in the very unlikely event that you do get court papers it's very defendable. A small claims judge is likely to be much more sympathetic to your story of being frustrated in your efforts to pay than was PoPLA (not that I think it'll get that far).

Ralph-y

NO :eek:

please read everything again ........

AFAIK ..... PCN have never done court (please wait for some one to confirm)

You could put up a good case if IF IF it ever did get to court.

Ralph:cool:

lordsnooty01

Oh ok - thanks guys - I could feel my blood pressure rising at the meer thought of this con.

Well I will re-trawl the info here, which is great btw, and await to see what happens.

I guess I just ignore until or IF they issue court proceedings. :beer:

Redx

remember, that debt collector cannot issue court claims, only nasty begging letters for 6 years

its the parking company or the landowner themselves who may (or may not) issue a court claim via MCOL (over the next 6 years) - looks like CPM were the PPC in this , PCS are the debt collectors DRP

POPLA dont accept mitigation like your "story", doesnt matter how valid it is, it even tells you this on the popla website, so your appeal was doomed to fail even before you submitted it

however, had you come here for help with this popla appeal, we would have told you this and pointed you at the correct wordings for a proper popla appeal, one that would most likely have won

but too late for that now, lesson learned for the future, ask for free help before diving in next time, learn the rules of this "game" and use legal challenges in future, not mitigation

but, if it ever does get to court, your "story" is a valid one that a judge would consider, but legal challenges are even better, so you do both