CE Ltd popla appeal

Korhan_Karabay

Hi Everyone,

I'm super new to this forum and I wish I had checked here before I took any action what so ever. The advice on here is amazing, but I find myself in the situation where I took action and then came on here and I'm hoping someone can advise me of what to do next. I have made multiple errors and I'm not even sure if this is recoverable or what to do next. So close to Christmas £100 is going to really hurt

So my situation is that I visited a independant small supermarket. I looked at the signs and in the car park couldn't find a ticket machine. I spoke to some workers offloading a goods vehicle in the car park and they said not to worry about the parking as it would be fine as long as I was shopping in the supermarket. I purchased my goods and left.

I received a parking charge notice in the post and appealed against it on the basis of that I had spent more than the minimum £10 for free parking. Naturally this got rejected as their process was pay for a ticket and get a rebate at the till. The ticket machine wasn't in the car park but by the entrance to the supermarket which I did not notice.

So I then put in a pretty weak appeal as per below :

I was issued with a parking ticket on 26.10.18 but I believe it was unfairly issued.


There was inadequate signage with regards to where abouts of payment machine.
When parked I looked for the parking machine and there didn't seem to be any in the car park. The signs also didn't clearly state where the parking machine was. I looked all over the car park but there was no pay machines present. There was some employees off loading a delivery vehicle and I asked where the machine was kept. They informed me that as long as I spent more than £10 the parking was free.

I continued into store and spoke to the lady at the till by the entrance. Her name was Aisha not sure if spelling is correct. She confirmed the same as the employees at the car park. I continued with my shopping. When ready to leave and pay for my goods I went to the same cashier and asked her to confirm. She spoke to another blond lady by the alcohol counter in a different language then came back to me and said “No problem, no Problem” she asked for my name and registration and wrote it on a piece of paper.

I am a law abiding citizen and have never had and parking charge notices or penalty charge notices issued in my name previous to this. This was a genuine mistake. I should not have took the employee's of the land owners word for it. I have since familiarised myself with the location of the meter and will in future abide by its rules.

I am a father of 3 young children and my wife had recently been made redundant, being this close to Christmas and taking into consideration the above circumstances I would really appreciate it if someone could look into this case for me and make the decision that they feel is fair and right


Yours faithfully,

Signed with full name.


So now I'm at the stage where cel have submitted their section to popla and I need to submit my comments. Any advice of what I can and should do next. I've made so many mistakes already don't want to make any more. Should I just pay and be done with or is there a chance it can be turned around? I've got 2 days left to reply

Any advice would be much appreciated

Redx

you need to look through the evidence pack and find any and all errors or failures of the law or the BPA CoP, using thgeir own evidence against them, especially as you made a weak appeal and cannot change it


if you lose, you can pay then , or you can argue this in a future court case, your choice


you have 2000 characters (not words) for the rebuttal, so keep it short and sweet, post it below if you want advice on it, look at previous rebuttals from this year only (2018) for inspiration


check contract, signage , POFA2012 , BPA CoP failures etc

MistyZ

Have you complained to whoever owns or manages the car park land? That could be the store itself or a larger organisation.

As you undoubtedly now realise, your appeal consisted mainly of mitigation and pleading, neither of which matter one jot to the parking scammers. However all of it would form a good basis for a complaint to the landowner / manager in which you politely insist that they cancel the parking charge.

You really did try to pay for parking but were seriously mislead by the shop assistants. Definitely do not try complaining to them! You need to go as high as you can and the shop manager should be able to tell you who to contact, try to get an email address.

Don't ignore the POPLA side of things but please complain about this as well, with a view to getting the charge cancelled.

Korhan_Karabay

I complained to the store manager, but he didn't really seem interested

Korhan_Karabay

@redX

Im new to all this is there any chance you can point me in the direction of where I might be be able to find previous rebutalls

KeithP

Korhan_Karabay wrote: »

I'm new to all this is there any chance you can point me in the direction of where I might be be able to find previous rebuttals

There are some examples in post #3 of [URL="https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822NEWBIES FAQ sticky thread[/URL].

Look for the section of that post headed:

AFTER SUBMITTING YOUR POPLA APPEAL:

MistyZ

Korhan_Karabay wrote: »

I complained to the store manager, but he didn't really seem interested

I'm not surprised, given the ineptitude of his employees he's probably had a lot of practice at fobbing off irate customers in similar situations.

But who owns or manages the car park? If the store manager you spoke to owns the store, it could be him, but it is more likely to be a larger company. I would ask neighbouring businesses / shops who owns the land on which the car park stands. They should know this.

A lot of people don't realise how effective a good complaint can be. It is worth doing the detective work to find out who to absolutely complain your head off to! Be stern, firm, polite, wordy, clear .... demand that they cancel this charge! It's a two-pronged approach - the formal appeals AND the complaint to landowner.

Korhan_Karabay

Hi everyone,

I received my popla appeal today and my appeal has been refused.

What's progress opinions? Should I fold and pay based on the above or should I let it go to court?

I'm scared of further financial implications on myself if it goes to court and I lose

Le_Kirk

POPLA decisions are not binding on the motorist. Wait for debt collector letters (ignore) and/or Letter Before Claim (do not ignore).

Coupon-mad

Ignore them, and come back when you need to defend a claim, with a fair hearing.