VINCI Parking Fine - Advice please!

Redx

you wont get a summons, its a civil dispute about an invoice , not a criminal case

you may get bombarded with letters though, that is true , for up to 6 years under small claims court procedures (MCOL)

clicky link to pic

http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=t56ahk&s=8#.VaOZwvnkT4w

Louisecat89

Thanks Redx,

Is your advice to wait to hear back from them about my appeal? I have seen that Meteor Parking Ltd (c/o Vinci) are registered as BPA members. Does this mean that I will get a POPLA number?

I have been reading the NEWBIES thread, but I still worry that 6 years is a long time to 'ignore' debt letters :-/

Redx

you are waiting for them to either cancel the invoice due to you appealing it, or reject your appeal and issue a popla code (as BPA members they have to do one or the other)

if you get a popla code (10 digits), then you need to formulate and submit a popla appeal within 28 days, no missing the expiry date of that code

if they cancel, its job done

Louisecat89

Once I receive the POPLA code (it's very unlikely they will cancel the charge), would you recommend using a service like Parking Cowboys to write the appeal?

Why do parking companies put these penalties on cars if it's legal to not pay the fines? Surely nobody would ever pay for parking in private car parks?

Redx

you could use the appeals service but you would have to pay for that service , its not free, whereas doing it yourself is free

if you really want to debate the vagaries of these private parking companies, and spend several months learning the ropes and rules and that its an unregulated industry, please do so, by reading this forum and pepipoo forums for days on end , complain to your mp like I did, help Barry Beavis try to win his case in the Supreme Court next week (like I did) , help others in similar positions like yourself (like I do)

its all possible , if you learn the basics , but I am not qualified to answer your last question, so will bow out ( its like asking the question - why are we here ? )

good luck

Fruitcake

Louisecat89 wrote: »

Thanks Redx,

Is your advice to wait to hear back from them about my appeal? I have seen that Meteor Parking Ltd (c/o Vinci) are registered as BPA members. Does this mean that I will get a POPLA number?

I have been reading the NEWBIES thread, but I still worry that 6 years is a long time to 'ignore' debt letters :-/

Debt collectors have no power or rights to do anything to you. The only thing they can do is send you bog paper/firelighters./ It's very poor quality when used as the former so I am led to believe, but does make good firelighters.

They cannot take you to court, issue a summons, give you a CCJ, or send the bailliffs round. They simply cannot do this so stop worrying.

You have submitted an appeal to the PPC so now you wait for their reply. If they cancel the PCN, that's it, job done. If they reject your appeal they MUST supply you with a PoPLA code. If they don't, complain to the BPA and DVLA. If they do, find and use an existing PoPLA appeal from the many available on this site, modify it to suit your case, post it up here if you wish the experts to check it, then submit it.

Whilst you await the response to your appeal, search the site for PoPLA appeals using keywords such as Vinci and train station. Also look at the hundreds of posts in the POPLA decisions sticky thread at the top of the main page here.

Fruitcake

Louisecat89 wrote: »

Once I receive the POPLA code (it's very unlikely they will cancel the charge), would you recommend using a service like Parking Cowboys to write the appeal?

Why do parking companies put these penalties on cars if it's legal to not pay the fines? Surely nobody would ever pay for parking in private car parks?

It is not a fine as has already been explained to you.

Personally I would never recommend paying someone else to copy and paste and edit a few words, but that is entirely up to you if you feel unable to do it yourself.

We are discussing civil (contract) law not criminal law, so the term you should be using is lawful, not legal. This is why we encourage posters to read and understand the process and use the correct terminology. (Invoice, not fine for example.) Whilst it may not seem important at this stage, some scumpanies issue thousands of court papers each year where it really is important to use the correct terminology.

Louisecat89

Thank you Fruitcake, I appreciate your comments.

I shall await their reply and, if it the appeal is rejected, post my intended POPLA letter here.

Louisecat89

Hello again,

I have received a reply from VINCI by email regarding my parking fine. They have said:

Dear Ms Catmur,

Please forward your mobile telephone number used to pay for parking as well as the screenshots as these will help with our investigations.

Kind regards,

Adrian
Customer Support Advisor
VINCI Park Services UK Ltd
PO Box 2466
WATFORD
WD18 1XH


This was in reply to my initial email:
Dear Customer Support,

My name is Hannah and I writing to you to appeal a parking fine that I received on 9th July.

I have never been issued with a parking fine before, so this has come as a big surprise. I am fully aware of the payment procedure at Bletchley Train station and have paid and displayed many times before.

With a pre-booked train ticket, I had no purse on me, so used my usual payment method over the phone, I took a photo of the parking sign on my phone for reference (I have dated proof of this). First off, I rang through to pay for the parking with the number provided, but for the past week at Bletchley station I have had the same recurring problem on 2 occasions when the phone call is cut off after a message about "sorry, we are currently experiencing technical difficulties with this service". I tried 3 more times but was met with the same message. I then sent a text to the number provided on the sign, the first one didn't deliver, so I sent a second text with my parking details and time (as a previous user) which did send.

I have records of these calls and texts on my phone's billing account and as screenshots, which I would be happy to send to you as evidence of this.

I look forward to hearing back from you on this matter.

Hannah

Please advise if / how I should reply?