Attempted unsuccessfully to buy a ticket, left car park, received PCN

pysspd

Great you won!

Let's not forget forget that 45% of appeals are uncontested by the operator - clearly part of their 'business model' ....

Section below from the POPLA annual report 2017.

P.S. anyone know where the POPLA 2018 annual report is? Google search isn't helping ....

'Of the 62,844 cases received between 1 October 2016 and 30 September 2017, 37% (23,277) of the appeals were not contested. March 2017 saw the spike in this figure with 2,627 appeals withdrawn that month, equating to a 44.8% share of all appeals submitted. When a parking operator decides not to contest an appeal and withdraws from the process, the motorist will “win” and the parking charge will be cancelled. However, we are conscious that a high number of appeal withdrawals could indicate a problem. There will always be the need to withdraw some appeals because a new piece of evidence may have come to light or some other factor may have only become apparent at the independent appeal stage. However, a high withdrawal rate could suggest that parking operators are not properly considering appeals at the initial stage and are waiting to see which of those will then take up the option to come to POPLA. This has potential to create a problem where motorists who receive a Parking Charge Notice do not have the confidence or understanding to bring their appeal to POPLA. If the parking operator has not properly considered their appeal, it could leave potentially innocent motorists paying a parking charge that has been unfairly issued.'

LoneStarState

pysspd wrote: »

P.S. anyone know where the POPLA 2018 annual report is? Google search isn't helping ....

Yep, link and file available in this thread. Makes for some mildly amusing reading. They seem to finally admit in writing that entry to a car park does not mean the contract has been accepted at that time. All the usual suspects are there although there does seem to have been an overall reduction in withdrawals as a proportion of total appeals. Not much of a reduction mind

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5937757/popla-2018-annual-report

Also, congrats on your POPLA win Nathan1958!!

Nathan1958

They think it's all over...

This doesn't seem at all fair! Any thoughts?

"Good Morning,

It was highlighted to POPLA today that evidence was missed during the assessment of your appeal.

Due to system issues your appeal document failed to upload with your grounds of appeal on. As such the operator was waiting for this to be located, and missed out on the opportunity to address it as we did not locate it in time. The appeal was allowed on the basis that no operator evidence was supplied, however this was a failing with the POPLA system not the operator.

As such we have now located your grounds of appeal and have had to restart the process again, allowing the operator 21 days to provide its evidence in response to your grounds of appeal.

You will be notified when the operator has uploaded its evidence pack onto the POPLA website so you can provide your comments.

I apologise for the inconvenience caused at this time."

jonehboy

Point POPLA to their own FAQ:


What happens after I receive my decision?

After POPLA has considered your appeal and issued a decision, it will issue the decision to both you and the parking operator. If your appeal has been allowed, you will not need to do pay the parking charge and the parking operator will not be able to pursue you for it. If your appeal has been refused, the parking operator may pursue payment.
POPLA’s decision is final, and it’s involvement in the appeal will cease once it has issued its decision. This does not prevent you from pursuing your issue through other channels, such as the courts.

Nathan1958

Brilliant thank you! - I've just pointed this out to them.

MistyZ

What the hell?? You just could not make this up.

Please let us know what happens!

Coupon-mad

Nathan1958 wrote: »

Brilliant thank you! - I've just pointed this out to them.

Seen this before and your protest will fall on deaf ears.

Come back at evidence stage and read about comments stage (NEWBIES thread).

Nathan1958

Appeal successful! (again). Unless people want me to, I won't put up CEL"s garbled cut & paste response to my appeal here as life is sometimes too short to engage with nonsense!

Here are my comments on their response.

"The response of Civil Enforcement limited to my POPLA appeal appears to be somewhat confused. It does not even attempt to address or answer the majority of points made in it, but addresses several points at length which are not in my POPLA appeal.

Nowhere in my appeal to POPLA do I make the case of inadequate signage, yet CEL’s response discusses this issue at length, almost to the exclusion of all others. I can only assume that this may be because in my - copied from the internet - generic initial appeal to CEL, this argument was used – however, my primary purpose in initially appealing to CEL was to obtain a POPLA code. The arguments put forward about signage are therefore irrelevant and should be ignored.

Similarly, I make no mention of Beavis in my POPLA appeal, this is also irrelevant and should be ignored.

Point 16 of CEL’s response (and attached report) shows that some people were able to successfully use the pay by phone option on the day in question. However, the report attached by CEL does not and cannot show those people who attempted to pay by phone but were (for whatever reason) unsuccessful. As stated in my POPLA appeal, the driver attempted to pay by phone 3 times & left the car park immediately it became obvious that this option was not going to work.

There is no reference or response at all from CEL, to points 2,3,5 & 6 in my appeal, which I will not repeat here for reasons of brevity, but trust that they will be duly considered."

And POPLA's response

"The appeal has been allowed based on no evidence of a landowner contract. The parking operator has also been made aware of the decision outcome.

Yours sincerely,

Ashlea Forshaw
POPLA Complaints Team"

The_Deep

They have wasted your time, now waste theirs. They have obviously tried to scam you so complain to your MP.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, and on 15th March 2019 a Bill was enacted to curb the excesses of these shysters. Codes of Practice are being drawn up, an independent appeals service will be set up, and access to the DVLA's date base more rigorously policed, and persistent offenders denied access. Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers.

Until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation.

http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted

Just as the clampers were finally closed down, so hopefully will many of these Private Parking Companies.

Nathan1958

"Until this is done you should still complain to your MP, citing the new legislation"

If my MP wasn't the inestimably incompetent (apart obviously from 'The Master' Chris Grayling) Daniel Kawczynski, I would do as you suggest. DK (as I phonetically like to call him) does nothing unless it gives him personal gain (allegedly).