Britannia Parking

Monkey15

Hi, I will keep this as short as possible. We paid to park our vehicle for a full day £4.70, but only parked for 2hrs at a Britannia car park in Essex. A few weeks later we received a PCN for £100, £60 if we paid in a certain time. They provided pictures of our car & you can see the driver. I appealed, stating we had paid & they should double check their records which confirmed we had indeed paid. They then said we had entered our reg wrong (it was correct, but showed the second half of the reg twice on the ticket) they said because of the admin, we had to pay £20. I argued they should have checked that first before issuing the PCN? I appealed through POPLA (not knowing about this site) even though Britannia bullied if I did appeal & lost, we would have to pay £100. That seems wrong in itself! Britannia supplied lots of photos of signage, etc. But I argued there was no example ticket on show so how would I know if the ticket hadn't printed correctly? I also stated throughout to Brit & POPLA that the lady in front of me had trouble with their machine & indeed on getting their 'evidence' through, the entry before ours, showed only the last 3 characters of her reg. Probably PCN'd her too! And another machine was already out of order that day. Anyway, we lost through POPLA & Brittania now say we owe them £101.50! POPLA didn't give a reason, just said unsuccessful, which doesn't seem right either! It seems so unfair when we paid in good faith and if they had done their checks properly in the first place, it wouldn't have got to this. At no point have I identified the driver or keeper, only that myself, husband and children were present, but as I say, you can see the driver.
How do we proceed? Many thanks for reading & any help.

Coupon-mad

Monkey15 wrote: »

Hi, I will keep this as short as possible. We paid to park our vehicle for a full day £4.70, but only parked for 2hrs at a Britannia car park in Essex.

A few weeks later we received a PCN for £100, £60 if we paid in a certain time. They provided pictures of our car & you can see the driver.

I appealed, stating we had paid & they should double check their records which confirmed we had indeed paid. They then said we had entered our reg wrong (it was correct, but showed the second half of the reg twice on the ticket) they said because of the admin, we had to pay £20.

I argued they should have checked that first before issuing the PCN?

I appealed through POPLA (not knowing about this site) even though Britannia bullied if I did appeal & lost, we would have to pay £100. That seems wrong in itself! Britannia supplied lots of photos of signage, etc. But I argued there was no example ticket on show so how would I know if the ticket hadn't printed correctly?

I also stated throughout to Brit & POPLA that the lady in front of me had trouble with their machine & indeed on getting their 'evidence' through, the entry before ours, showed only the last 3 characters of her reg. Probably PCN'd her too! And another machine was already out of order that day.

Anyway, we lost through POPLA & Brittania now say we owe them £101.50!

POPLA didn't give a reason, just said unsuccessful, which doesn't seem right either! It seems so unfair when we paid in good faith and if they had done their checks properly in the first place, it wouldn't have got to this.

At no point have I identified the driver or keeper, only that myself, husband and children were present, but as I say, you can see the driver.
How do we proceed? Many thanks for reading & any help.

I've corrected the wall of text into paragraphs for you. On a forum please use paragraphs or no-one can read it or be bothered to try!

Anyway, you mucked up POPLA, which was a shame but not the end of the World. You do not write to POPLA with the story of what happened. You needed legal arguments.

You would have won it if you had used our template POPLA appeal words, so next time get it right.

At no point have I identified the driver or keeper, only that myself, husband and children were present, but as I say, you can see the driver.

Good that you didn't say who was driving, so what about the face at the wheel...doesn't matter, this isn't a real fine or the Police/Council! I've ignored Britannia myself. Luckily this is only Britannia, a tame firm who do not have the first clue about litigation.

You will merely be now in 'ignore the debt collector' mode, as you will have seen in post #4 of the NEWBIES PLEASE READ THESE FAQS FIRST' thread when you read that before you posted.

An easy stage that needs no help!

Monkey15

Thank you so much Coupon-Mad, really grateful for your reply. Read the newbie thread but just wanted others thoughts & if we should just pay it. I am loathe to, especially when we genuinely paid! Will ignore the DC letters! Thank you

Coupon-mad

Do not use the P-word!

No-one does that...keep your money in your pocket. A Britannia PCN is nothing, I've had three I think.

pappa_golf

nice of Britannia Parking to admit that you had indeed paid and due to "technical" problems , (faulty keyboard / bad lighting) a different number was recorded , imagine what a judge would say


"did he pay"
"yes"
"have you suffered any losses"
"squeak"
case dismissed




PS: £101.50 is an illegal amount


inform the BP)A of this figure (before debt collection)

Monkey15

Thanks pappa golf! So I don't mess up further is there correct wording to use with BPA or do I literally just write to them? Thank you

pappa_golf

await other answers , but the fact that they are breaking the law (POFa2012 = max figure £100) will not assist them , if brittania pursue this to court , they will be ridiculed http://www.bmpa.eu/companydata/Britannia_Parking_Group.html