NCP paid by card at machine or so I thought...

Sancho_Panza

I parked in the evening at an NCP car park. I went to the machine where a number of people were. The machine wasn't taking coins and one couple said they had phoned Ringo but it was still charging the exorbitant day rates. It looked as though it was taking card payments so the first couple waiting entered their details and asked for a receipt but it didn't print one, the second couple did the same with the same results, I then put in my details but didn't bother asking for a receipt because there was no need to display a ticket and it wasn't printing them anyway. I thought no more of it and went on my way.

Two weeks later I received a PCN. I immediately checked my statement and there was no £3.50 charge. I naively thought I could write to them and as it was obviously their machine not working and the fact that at least two other people at the same time as me would be in the same position it would just be overturned. My appeal was refused so I appealed via POPLA.

In the course of the appeal NCP provided evidence of transactions going through the two machines at the site showing they were working. However only one of the machines had transactions going through it. They also supplied information of when the machines were opened by a human. This was first thing in the morning, once during the day and then again at the end of the day, oh and then two other times out of hours during the evening whilst I was parked suggesting that someone had been called out due to problems with the machines. POPLA denied my appeal saying that I had entered into a contract and I hadn't paid.

Now BW legal want £160 from me and have sent me a letter of claim. I wish I had read these pages before admitting I was the driver. I am not sure how I should respond to BW legal. They have just sent me generic letters. NCP clearly know that my account is genuine. They will know that there was a spike that evening of people apparently not paying and they know that they paid for someone (probably at time and a half) to go out to that site to fix the machines. I have asked for this information but they have not provided it. I asked them to prove that the machine was working before they sent details supporting me! Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Coupon-mad

Now BW legal want £160 from me and have sent me a letter of claim.

OK I have a plan to try here...bear with me till later.

Umkomaas

Coupon-mad wrote: »

OK I have a plan to try here...bear with me till later.

You're in the very best hands anywhere in the country @Sancho Panza.

Coupon-mad

OK - I will reply later.

Sancho_Panza

Thank you for your help. They called on my ex-directory land line today but I was out. This feels like harassment.

Coupon-mad

Block their number. It is harassment, they do soft searches to find phone numbers.

Sancho_Panza

A couple of weeks on and another email received even though they have given me to 6th December to respond. This whole scenario is driving me slightly crazy. So I have a couple of thoughts:

I am an honest person and responded to their initial "fine" letter as such. First I checked my bank statement to see if any payment had been taken. There was a charge from "Ringgo" for £1.10 when I parked to go to the dentist for 20 minutes in a car park where there were no cameras. I pointed this out in my initial appeal. Why pay when the chances of getting caught are probably 1 in 10 but not pay when there are cameras all over the place? I detailed what happened (as per my original post) and when they denied my defence they said their "machines" were working. In my appeal to Popla, I said that I was unaware of "machines" (plural) but that the machine I used appeared to be working but I hadn't been charged. When you believe everything has worked why seek out another machine? NCP countered by showing the transactions through their "machines", something like five on one machine in the 30 minute window before and after my entry time and zero in the same time frame on the other machine. They also sent details of times when the machines had been opened as I have written about above.

My overriding concern is that I consider myself to be an honest person, I went through the process of paying at the machine whilst other competent adults were present. I had sufficient funds to cover the £3.50 they required for evening parking. The machine turned out to be faulty and there is evidence to support my account (supplied by them). They have the same information (and more, my defence was a gauntlet thrown down, show me that no one else was "fined" at the same time) as me so can see that the facts support what I have said. The appeals process saw all the information yet still seem to think that I hadn't honoured some unwritten contract. How can this be fair? Why should I have to now resort to finding a quirk in the law when the truth should be sufficient defence? If they are saying I am dishonest the benefit to me is a saving of £3.50 offset by months of grief, however if they are dishonest the benefit to them supports a multi-million pound fraud.

The_Deep

This is an entirely unregulated industry which is scamming the public with inflated claims for minor breaches of alleged contracts for alleged parking offences, aided and abetted by a handful of low-rent solicitors.

Parking Eye, CPM, Smart, and others have already been named and shamed in the House of Commons as have Gladstones Solicitors, and BW Legal, (these two law firms take hundreds of these cases to court each week, hospital car parks and residential complex tickets have been especially mentioned. They lose most of them, and have been reported to the regulatory authority by an M.P. for unprofessional conduct

The problem has become so widespread that MPs have agreed to enact a Bill to regulate these scammers. It has even been suggested that some of these companies have links with organised crime.

Watch the video of the Second Reading and committee stage in the House of Commons recently. MPs have a very low opinion of this industry.

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-07-19/debates/2b90805c-bff8-4707-8bdc-b0bfae5a7ad5/Parking(CodeOfPractice)Bill(FirstSitting)

and complain in the most robust terms to your MP. With a fair wind they will be out of business by in the not too distant future..

fisherjim

Unfortunately those appeal points were bound to fail, you are dealing with scamming greedy nasty people, not a nice, reasonable caring company that really listens and gives the benefit of the doubt, that isn't lucrative.


As you have thrown away your POPLA chance you are now in wait and see time and will suffer a barrage of ignorable debt collector's letters threatening that your world will cave in.


If you get real court papers then you will have to defend, but the additional £60 is another scam charge added on top by Debt collectors that they can't claim through the courts.

Sancho_Panza

They are taking me to court. I received the notice today!

KeithP

Sancho_Panza wrote: »

They are taking me to court. I received the notice today!

Can we assume from that, that you have received a Claim Form from the County Court Business Centre in Northampton?

If so, please tell us the Issue Date on your Claim Form.