UKPC parking charge at Rom Valley Retail Park, reason: driver left site

man.united332

Hello All,

Rom valley retail park is just infront of Queens Hospital in Romford, my pregnant wife was admitted in the hospital the day i got this parking charge, that day about 10:30am i wanted to buy something for her and went straight to cark park , parked my car, entered B&M, tried to call her but couldn't get the signal so i left the car park and entered the hospital which is two minutes away from car park to ask her in person what she needs then came back after an hour , went straight to B&M bought my stuff, came back to my car to see the welcome yellow letter stick to my wind screen, still an hour and half to go for free 3 hours parking, i never thought i am not allowed to leave the car park, there is no ticket machine in the car park to buy ticket anyway.

parking charge date is 25 Nov 2015, fine is £90 reduced to £50 if paid within 14 days. i got my receipt as well from B&M.

i've checked the evidence on uk pc website and it only shows my car with different angle.

ukpc signage in the car park here, please copy paste the link in new window
tinypic.com/r/2lbhl06/9

my pcn here
tinypic.com/r/1zewg44/9

I haven't complained to B&M yet, do you think i still have time to do it?

today is day 21 and i've drafted my appeal please have a look if it is good to go. many thanks

Dear Sirs

Re: PCN No. xxxxxxxx

I challenge this 'PCN' as keeper of the car and I will complain to the landowner about the matter if it is not cancelled.

I believe that the signs were not seen/are ambiguous and the terms unclear to drivers before they park.

There will be no admissions as to who was driving and no assumptions can be drawn. You must either rely on the POFA 2012 and offer me a POPLA code, or cancel the charge.

Retailer receipt while the car was parked in the car park is attached with this appeal which proved the issuance of this PCN completely wrong so please cancel this PCN asap.

I have kept proof of submission of this appeal and look forward to your reply.

Yours faithfully,

Umkomaas

It's never too soon to complain to the retailer - get on with that straight away. Make sure you see the manager not a till wallah. Take your receipt for the day in question, but also other receipts or bank/cc statements which prove regular patronage (if that is the case).

The draft appeal is OK. If the UKPC website allows electronic appeals, you can leave sending this until around days 25/26 - if by email, cc to yourself, if via an appeals portal, take a screen dump proving that it's been submitted. If by snail mail, it needs to go earlier (and factor in Christmas postal delays), you need to get a free Certificate of Posting from your PO which will prove that it has been despatched. Only send a copy of your receipt - not the original.

While awaiting a rejection and POPLA code, familiarise yourself with issues regarding 'leaving the site' cases and understand the term 'mitigation of loss'. You can do this by reading the Ibbotson -v- VCS case. The following link will take you to the court transcript. Since this judgment I am unaware of any PPC that has tried their arm at court on a 'leaving the site' case.

http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?act=attach&type=post&id=16231)

The_Deep

If this ever got to court you could call the Parking Weasel as a witness and question him about what instructions he had about mitigating his employees losses, pond to a penny he was told to watch the transgressor leave and then issue a ticket.

man.united332

Hello Everyone,

Good news, UKPC have cancelled my charge on first appeal, see below the exact reply from them via email, I appealed on 18 dec and got reply today in about 20 days.

I am thankful to every single person who helped me with my appeal.

Thank you for your recent correspondence in relation to the above Parking Charge. We understand your frustration and appreciate the inconvenience this has caused you. It is not our intention to cause undue worry and frustration when enforcing our clients parking regulations.

We have investigated the appeal based on the information submitted by yourself and can confirm in this instance
that the Parking Charge has been cancelled.

We strive to deliver a high quality service that enhances the existing quality standards insisted upon by our client and ensure our Wardens are stringently trained to meet these expected standards.

On behalf of ourselves and our client we apologise for any inconvenience.

,

Regards.

Umkomaas

Excellent result, well done.

Did they cancel just on the basis of the basic appeal you posted in post #1? Or did you add anything more?

Did you complain to the retailer/landowner, and did they get involved?

It really surprises me that they buckled at just that short appeal, but your reply will be beneficial to us in building a knowledge base of what works with which PPC so that we can advise others.

Half_way

congratulations, however this is yet another reply full of false nice ness

What it should say

Thank you for your recent correspondence in relation to the above Parking Charge. [strike]We understand your frustration and appreciate the inconvenience this has caused you. It is not our intention to cause undue worry and frustration when enforcing our clients parking regulations.[/strike]

We have investigated the appeal based on the information submitted by yourself and can confirm in this instance
that the Parking Charge has been cancelled.

[strike]We strive to deliver a high quality service that enhances the existing quality standards insisted upon by our client and ensure our Wardens are stringently trained to meet these expected standards.[/strike]

[strike]On behalf of ourselves and our client we apologise for any inconvenience.[/strike]

What it probably really means is completely the opposite

[strike]Thank you for[/strike] We note your recent correspondence in relation to the above Parking Charge. We understand your frustration and appreciate the inconvenience this has caused you.as this is specifically designed to get people to panic and pay up It is [strike] not [/strike]our intention to cause undue worry and frustration As this helps us to make a profit, the bottom line is that we dont care [strike]when enforcing[/strike] about our clients parking Facilities, as long as our client lets up milk their customers we are happy to do so [strike]regulations.[/strike]

We have investigated the appeal based on the information submitted by yourself and can confirm that if we contest the information supplied, it will be too much of a headache for us to continue to pursue this, as plenty of other people will just pay up without us having to put in any effort in, and as as such your [strike] in this instance
that the [/strike]Parking Charge has been cancelled.

[strike]We strive to deliver a high quality service that enhances the existing quality standards insisted upon by our client and ensure our Wardens are stringently trained to meet these expected standards.

On behalf of ourselves and our client we apologise for any inconvenience. [/strike]We couldn't really care, now get on your bike and sod off so we can spend our time going after those who just pay without too much struggle

man.united332

yes, they cancelled just on the basis of my short appeal. i didn't complain to retailer or landowner ( i thinki i was just lazy). also i think they had no evidence to prove that i left the site, on the other hand i had the proof that i actually bought something from store at that time, thats why i always buy something even if its less than a pound for situation like this whenever i park in a free car park (nothing is free in this world). i also removed the words related to pofa 2012 to be used at later stage but thankfully pcn is now cancelled.

Umkomaas

There's another thread, just lower down the page where the exact same circumstances were in play and there's been a cancellation with minimal appeal effort (but they did attach a receipt).

I suspect that as both appeals had 'forum' written all over them, UKPC knew they were rumbled; they clearly have no evidence to back up their claim, and as they need to be on 'best behaviour' with the DVLA, the BPA and probably the Fraud Squad, following their time-doctoring of photographs, they've decided to bail out before more trouble follows them - into obscurity!

Underwriter86

Makes me wonder if leaving the site appeals are upheld by default because they know they haven't a cat in hell's chance of proving anything if the keeper hasn't admitted liability.

Coupon-mad

No they aren't all cancelled. I've submitted several POPLA appeals (wording which won but mainly re cases at old POPLA before September) where the alleged issue was leaving the site. Fairly easy to argue at POPLA stage because they have no evidence at all.

man.united332

do you think ppc read on forum like this while deciding about any appeal. ?