Fistral Beach - day ticket confusion.

kwalke91

So earlier this year I received a letter from smart parking saying I had not paid for a stay at Fistral beach.

I had entered the car park 04/09/2016 and purchased a day ticket from the ticket machine. Unfortunately I wasn't the one who purchased this and as a result, the rules on the sign weren't read by myself and were misunderstood.
The ticket was printed and, if I recall correctly, showed an expiry time of around 11 am the following day (05/09/2016). I have had a look for the ticket since returning but it appears to be the only one that I didn't keep! typical! I believe the signs say that the ticket is only valid for the day purcahsed though which renders the ticket useless the following day anyway.

I spent around 5 hours at Fistral on the 4th and then returned on the 5th at 9.18 and spent another hour there leaving well before the 24hr expiry time.
Few weeks later I ended up with a ticket on my door mat.
I appealed right away and they declined my appeal. (Unfortunately I've only just found this site and can't recall what I said in the appeal!)
I received the letter around the 13th of October and completely forgot to pay, they extended the grace period until the 25th but I've only just remembered and now owe the full £100 :mad:

I was going to ring in the morning and see if the old 'been away on business' card would get them to extend the grace period but found this site after a quick google search.

Is there any point in me going through POPLA? Would I have any sort of case or should I just take it on the chin as a lesson for next time

Umkomaas

Did you receive a 10-digit POPLA code from them when they didn't accept your initial appeal? If so, what was the date of their rejection letter?

Fruitcake

Do not pay. If you got a PoPLA code, use it. If you didn't, complain to the BPA and DLA.

If you are outside the made up PoPLA appeal window, add this.

The UK Government has stated that Alternative Dispute Resolution must be made available for up to one year. ADR Regs here, ref Item 64.

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/288199/bis-14-575-implementing-alternative-dispute-resolution-directive-and-online-dispute-resolution-regulation-consultation.pdf

Procedural rules for refusing disputes 64.

Article 5(4) of the ADR Directive has a list of procedural rules which Member States can choose to permit certified ADR providers to apply. These procedural rules would allow certified ADR providers to refuse to deal with inappropriate disputes. The grounds for refusing to deal with disputes which can be applied are as follows:
- the consumer has made no attempt, in the first instance, to resolve the complaint directly with the business;
- the complaint is frivolous or vexatious;
- the dispute is being or has been considered by another certified ADR provider or a court;
- the value of the claim falls below or above a pre-specified limit (any monetary thresholds must not significantly impair access to ADR);
- the complaint is not submitted within a pre-specified time limit (which cannot be set at less than a year from when the complaint was first submitted to the business); and
- dealing with that type of dispute “would otherwise seriously impair the effective operation of the ADR entity”.

Since none of the above applies, PoPLA have no reason to refuse your application for appeal. It is the will of Parliament.

Construct your appeal from the most recent successful appeals in the POPLA Decisions thread. There are a number of template appeal points starting around post 2341 give or take a page or three. One template for each appeal point.
Sow us your draft before submitting it.

If PoPLA refuse, complain to the DVLA, your MP, and Mrs May. You should be complaining to the last two anyway about this unregulated scam industry. Ask why the government allows it to continue, and why they allow an alleged ADR body, PoPLA, to refuse an appeal in contravention of the UK Gov Regs.

If this got to court, it's something you can put to the judge about how unreasonable this scam is when Government Regs are ignored.

Half_way

Two things:
1 never ring or phone them
2 the grace period is nothing more than a sham designed to put pressure on you to pay up, follow the advice on here and you will pay nothing to them.

kwalke91

Thanks for the responses guys.

Yes i received POPLA code. What should I do with it? Draft an appeal using the POPLA decisions thread?

The date of the rejection letter was the 10th October.

Redx

yes, and you need to HURRY UP as its only valid for 28 days so has almost expired !!

ps:- never tell a parking company (or anyone else) who was driving