Been sent parking fee notice by PPS

dllive

Hi all,

I stayed at a car park last week. I paid my money at the machine (and inputted my license plate accordingly). Yesterday I received a parking fine notice from Premier Parking Solutions saying I owe them £60 for "unauthorised parking"! The letter included a photo of me arriving/leaving the car park.

Luckily I kept the parking ticket. I was really confused why I got this letter becuase I had legitimately paid for my space. Then I noticed on the parking ticket I had missed a character off my license number (basically keying in 6 digits instead of the usual 7).

Is this grounds for appeal? I have proof by way of the ticket that I paid for my time - the only issue is that I left off a character of my license plate!
Thanks

The_Deep

It is a scam, they are trying to say that you are in breach of contract, but you have paid, a simple human error is no basis for £100 "fine", read the stickies to see what your next move is.

dllive

Thanks, Ill check those out.

Ive just been reading this thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5545421 which is a bit disheartening. Looks like its not going to be what it should be (an open/shut case!!)

fisherjim

dllive wrote: »

Thanks, Ill check those out.

Ive just been reading this thread: https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5545421 which is a bit disheartening. Looks like its not going to be what it should be (an open/shut case!!)

It should be but nothing is straight forward or fair in PPC land.

Their rules are made up to trap, and trip people up.
The so called appeals system is also really designed to make the uninitiated think it's fair and above board but it isn't.

As you will find it's all about making money out of victims, nothing else, and you have been caught by their best scam yet ANPR.

This has no parking management value what so ever, it's just an automated, and fallible (always in their favour) way of maximising financial extraction with the least possible effort or revenue cost.

Follow the advice on here and fight these lowlifes!

dllive

So Ive been looking through the sticky post "**NEWBIES!! PRIVATE PARKING TICKET? OLD OR NEW? **READ THESE FAQS FIRST!** Thankyou!"

Premier Parking Solutions is an IPC member. In this sticky post it says

if this is an IPC member parking firm, see post #3, there is no POPLA for you, so consumers do not get a fair appeal. Instead, just send this letter or a version of it, writing ONLY as the registered keeper,

So my only cause of action is to write the letter? (version which starts "Dear {name of IPC member, only IPC members for this version!!!}"). Am I reading this correctly? (Sorry, Ive been trawling through so much stuff!)

Coupon-mad

Yep then read post #3 of the NEWBIES thread which explains why not to try IAS.

I had missed a character off my license number (basically keying in 6 digits instead of the usual 7).

You assume it's your error? WHY?! Was it the first digit missed, if so it's PPS' machines...covered in other threads, I recall.

Dodgy machines. This industry is terrible.

dllive

then read post #3 of the NEWBIES thread which explains why not to try IAS.

Ive just read that. So once Ive written the letter I need to complain to the landowner, and then write to the Consumer Ombudsman?

Carthesis

dllive wrote: »

Yes, it was my error - I missed a digit in the middle of the VRN.

Get this into your head (and I mean this in the nicest way possible):

STOP FRETTING ABOUT WHOSE ERROR IT WAS AND HOW AND WHY AND WHEREFORE! TOTALLY IRRELEVANT!

If the PPC were bothered about playing fair, they'd cancel this as soon as you send them a copy of your ticket. They won't though.

If they wanted, they'd make sure their machines didn't proceed unless a *VALID* VRN format had been entered (i.e X 111 XXX or XX 11 XXX). They don't though.

They deliberately leave all these little issues and mistakes and potential slip-ups in to catch people out.

Coupon-mad

dllive wrote: »

Yes, it was my error - I missed a digit in the middle of the VRN.

And you are certain one of the keys on the keypad wasn't faulty? We think that's more likely.

dllive

And you are certain one of the keys on the keypad wasn't faulty? We think that's more likely.

Was probably the keypad that was dodgy - I know my number well enough not to mistype it, but the buttons are very small. I thought the purpose was to show the parking inspector which car the ticket pertained to (to prevent the same ticket being passed onto another driver).

Coupon-mad

Never mind, it is still an unfair business practice (against consumer law) that these firms charge penalties for something wholly within their control. They have the VRN on arrival; they could link that to the machine so that as soon as you start typing in your VRN, it shows you your car image and 'time of arrival' and reminds you to calculate your stay from that point as shown. They don't. Guess why?

DO NOT PAY. You do NOT owe them a fine. Highly unlikely to proceed beyond some daft letters and it's defendable if it does:

http://www.bmpa.eu/companydata/Premier_Parking_Solutions.html

I am a BMPA (it's a charity) member and the recommendation for this operator is:

Ignore all but court papers but keep paperwork. Get pics of the site / signs if you do get a ticket and keep for later.