Indigo rail car park penalty notice/online appeal

Spacesimian2016

Hi-a newbie here who fears that they discovered this forum too late ie. after sending in an online appeal to Indigo after getting home today in an enraged state. Having since scanned the Newbie page and some threads is it wise to solicit advice by passing on details here now that I've logged an appeal? ie. do they search these pages and could it be used against me, even indirectly if they assume I am the same person? Just concerned that I could make a bad situ even worse but obviously want to do something about it - already broken the 'wait 3 weeks' rule so not off to a good start. If alright will pass on my situation, many thanks

Umkomaas

Let us have some background details, but no need for a long story. Please let us see a copy of your appeal.

Plenty of stuff on the forum to help you progress your case, do a search on 'Indigo railway' will give you enough for tonight's reading!

Some PPCs scour the forum, but I don't get the impression Indigo are avid viewers. Does your user name give any clue to your identity? It doesn't look like it to me.

Redx

the main issue is if you gave away who was driving in your hasty "appeal" , or not ?

Coupon-mad

I don't think Indigo read this forum.

They seem to find it impossible to beat forum appeals so if they are looking here, someone isn't very good at learning from what they read!

Spacesimian2016

Thanks for this.
I am a daily user of the Indigo rail car park at Sevenoaks - turned up with pre-bought ticket at 8.15am and it was full - which was down to the Southern rail strike and those commuters coming across to use the Southeastern service via Sevenoaks. I parked at the end of a row of cars - not an official space but not blocking or obstructing any cars or passage- and displayed my ticket. Came back at end of day to find a penalty notice with a breach code -3 - Parked in an unauthorised area. £100 or £60 if paid within 14 days. I had hoped common sense would prevail given the rail strike. I am an annual rail pass holder as well, so to have the rail service create this adds another layer to it. Looks like they had clobbered other cars as well, just gone for it.
I filled in the appeal form - as best I could given short word allowance - and then made a fuller statement in a Word doc attachment which included a picture I took of my car parked to show it was not blocking anyone - was in two minds about this but put it in. Also attached pics of my rail pass and the valid ticket. Unfortunately I ticked the driver box and compounded this with my Word doc statement:
TO WHOMEVER IT MAY CONCERN:
I am attaching this as a full statement given how few words are allowed by the initial appeals form-
I am an annual ticket holder on SouthEastern and use the Sevenoaks car park on a weekly ticket basis, as does my wife who is also a SouthEastern annual pass holder. I arrived at the Sevenoaks Station Car park 4 at 8.15am this morning (Tuesday 21st June) to find no parking spaces at all –it was already full due to the Southern rail strike with those commuters travelling to Sevenoaks station to use the Southeastern rail service. I made the best of a bad situation by parking my car in a way that was not obstructive nor blocking any passage or cars parked, merely alongside a car at the end of a row. Cars could still easily go around it and no parked car had impaired access. I displayed my ticket – a ticket that I had already paid for with the expectation that would be able to use it, based on my need to do so without fail on a daily basis.
As a rail and parking customer it is simply not right as well as being grossly unfair to be penalized in these exceptional circumstances caused by the rail strike.
I am assuming the parking warden was unaware of the Southern rail strike situation – otherwise one could think that this was greedy opportunism in their preying on the misfortunes of local daily commuters.
It is already a challenge to use this car park – it is expensive, it is often at capacity, it floods, the machines are challenging in what they accept as payment. Perhaps these aspects are being looked at - in the meantime I would hope the Southern rail strike creating an exceptional situation and the fact that I parked in a non-obstructive place result in the cancellation of this penalty to this regular customer.

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I got an email confirming receipt of the appeal saying they would respond in 14 days.
Have I shot myself in the foot already?
Thank you for all of your comments and help.

Umkomaas

Have you complained to South Eastern Rail? You'd bought a ticket, they couldn't supply the parking space. Check out 'frustration of contract'.

Threaten a counter claim against South Eastern Rail.

Coupon-mad

Have I shot myself in the foot already?

A bit yes. You've lost your big toe! A main appeal point, binned. That was a bit rash!

Never mind, you have other toes to dip in the POPLA pool later and Indigo can't take these penalties anywhere because of the messed up way they try to 'enforce' them. I am assisting a friend with several of these right now, she isn't paying them of course.

To see a few Indigo POPLA appeals that have been used recently (and won) search the forum for keywords: 'Indigo POPLA railway' would do.

Spacesimian2016

Thanks, will do. The ticket office have been historically useless on most parking related matters (in spite of them being vendors etc) so will try SE directly on the customer complaints side.

Spacesimian2016

Spoken to Southeastern Customer Services this morning.
Explained the situation and they kept referring me to appeal to Indigo as they issued the penalty notice, not Southeastern
I made clear that they were involved as they had sold me the ticket as well as it being a rail-related issue given the Southern strike creating the parking over-flow situation in the first place. Manager in the call office was hiding behind his staff but had spoken to the two people I was dealing with and passed on the Indigo line. Best I got was them registering a complaint which they then forward to head office (no names, no depts), following which they are meant to get back in 10 working days.
Not confident that anything will be done - I could augment this being passed on with my own email to them to make sure everything is clear but will let them come back first, let time pass on it.
So thats the SE angle - anything I can do on the Indigo front or is wait for their response and then feed back here as the best strategy? Many thanks again

Coupon-mad

Nothing else to do if you've appealed to Indigo, you wait for the rejection letter & POPLA code. You could read some other recent Indigo POPLA appeal threads for information because you'll need to follow suit.

Spacesimian2016

Cheers, will do. Based on my initial scanning of the POPLA threads it looks like I have the 6 month strategy to drag out as well as some research into bylaws and what the signage and warnings are in the car park - will need angles for the mail tennis to come I expect so I will keep reading on here. If any other or more immediate POPLA angles spring to mind in relation to this and could be passed on or certain threads mentioned that would be great as I will get right on with those as well. Thanks again for all the help on here, it is immensely appreciated. As is often the case it is deeply sickening when one initially looks into these things and sees how it is totally rigged by and between the operators against the customers - it is bad and then one really sees how dire it is in these situations. Thankfully this site exists to stand up against them, cheers