Do I have grounds for Mitigating Circumstances?

Premiereatpoo

On the 1st of October me and my wife parked on a Car Park in Falmouth. We chose this car park because the option to pay by phone was available and we were not carrying sufficient cash to cover parking. I initially tried to pay over the phone but was left on hold for over 5 minutes and told that 'no operative was currently available to take your call'

I then tried to pay via text but upon receiving the response from the service, we were told that we were unable to be parked as there was no payment card associated to our account (that we hadn't even set up yet) and were told to ring the same number as we initially rang. - The phone call and subsequent text exchange has cost us an additional charge on our phone bill.

Running out of options, My wife decided to go to the local Tesco to get Cash to be able to pay for our stay. Whilst she did this, I attempted to pay via their app. As I tried to register, it was insistent that we already had an account. So I had to go through their account recovery process for an account that we hadn't even set up. After doing this and gaining access to our account on the app via my phone number I was prompted to enter information about where we had parked and registration information. After moving onto the payment step, as I entered his card details and pressed the button to pay, the app logged me out, giving me an error message about either payment or registration details. This happened twice. I left a review on the App Store explaining the apps failures

Shortly after this, I phoned my wife explaining what had happened, and she told me that she was on my way back with cash to pay for the parking.We then paid for a ticket at 11:42, and left the vehicle parked for under 3 hours (the amount we'd paid for), returning to the vehicle around 5 minutes before the ticket was due to expire.

Looking at the Parking Charge Notice that we have been sent, the registered time that we entered the car park was 11:17; however due to circumstances out of our control (The parking payment systems in place at the Car Park) we were unable to pay for our parking until 11:42. This time between entering the car park and paying for our stay was what triggered the Parking Charge Notice.

If even one of the payment methods are unavailable or as unreliable as their mobile service has proved to be, it should be labelled as such on signage around the car park.

We received a PCN through the post and despite my first instinct to ignore it, my wife thought we should appeal. We sent an appeal through their appeal system - It was almost identical to what I wrote above, with pictures proving the call, the texts (including the password reset confirmation and payment method failures.) - Of course this was denied, and have been advised that I submit a complaint with POPLA - I'm aware that POPLA aim to resolve all disputes in a 30 minute window or so?

Can anyone please help me with wording/what reasons I should use for my POPLA dispute?

I can post the wording I used for my initial appeal/evidence and their response if needed.

Redx

mitigation wont work with popla, only legal technicalities and the law

complaining to popla wont work either, they only consider appeals, not complaints

also, popla wont resolve disputes within 30 minutes, it takes weeks before their decision is made, plus you get a 7 day rebuttal window later in the process

read post #3 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread and construct a popla appeal and post it below for critique

also read the POPLA DECISIONS sticky thread, reading from the last page backwards, find similar winning popla appeals and crib from those too

waamo

Where on earth did you here POPLA resolve issues in 30 minutes? They are the independent appeals service and do not resolve complaints. The POPLA process will take a few weeks not minutes.

Thankfully you didn't ignore this. Posters that have blindly ignored everything have ended up with a ccj.

You need to read the thread at the top of this board that tells Newbies to read it first. That will explain the whole process to you.

Umkomaas

Which PPC are you dealing with here?

The_Deep

Those are not mitigating circumstances, they are reasons, (which the PPC will deny), which prevented you from agreeing a contract with the company.

However, as PoPLA are also likely to grant your appeal, they take a very rigid line, you may have to rely on a judge's common-sense.



' o r
rcnes