UKPC - missed appeal stage but NEVER received the first letter!

drg0nz0

Hi, I wanted to post (having read several threads and the newbies sticky) as I was wondering if my situation is different.

On Saturday 1 JUNE I got a "Notification letter" dated 29 May from UKPC asking for £100 within 14 days and saying I'd ignored their first letter. WHICH NEVER CAME! The parking charge itself is for 22 April - so the first time I became aware of this PCN is 40 DAYS after the alleged parking violation occurred.

I spoke to the McDonald's manager (where PCN was from) at once and though apologetic and frustrated ("we've been getting a lot of these") he was powerless to cancel it as a mere tenant of the land / car park. The blasted UKPC letter didn't even state how long I overstayed - had to ask the manager and calculate from the photo on the letter - apparently it's 90mins and I overstayed by 12!

Thing is, I WAS going to appeal, but we went on holiday most of last week and literally just now finally having had time to sit down to do this crap online I get the message that the appeal period has passed. I must have just missed it. So I'm expecting DR+ letters, which I know the newbies section advises to ignore. I just want to know though - the fact that I never got that first letter, how can I use that to my advantage? Can it be cancelled completely somehow? I know it's their word against mine (we sent it / no I never got it) but letters get lost all the time.

Many thanks

Le_Kirk

Submit a SAR to UKPC. Check out the NEWBIE thread post # 2 for how to submit and what to ask for in a SAR. That should get the first letter for you IF they sent it!

The_Deep

UKPC are known fraudsters, read this

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11858473/Parking-firm-UKPC-admits-faking-tickets-to-fine-drivers.html

Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams so you mught like to consider complaining 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, persistent offenders denied access to the DVLA database and unable to operate.

Hopefully life will become impossible for the worst of these scammers, but 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.

drg0nz0

Hi, thank you for suggesting to submit a SAR. I will do it.

However, what I really want to know is: even if the SAR shows that they sent a first letter to me, and that it was within 14 days of the alleged event (this period is mentioned on the newbies thread - it was a postal notice charge, no windscreen ticket) - what do I do then??? How do I know that they don't even doctor the info they send me for the SAR? They've doctored people's parking photos!

I don't care that they may have sent it within 14 days - I did not receive it, whoever along the postal route is to blame! But now I am locked out of the appeal period, and I was going to appeal using the template wording in the newbies thread. So I feel mistreated because I never had the period of time the law supposedly gives me to act. The first letter I got arrived 40 DAYS after my parking! Yet there is now no way to enter into communication with UKPC, and I can only wait for the debt collectors' letter...

Coupon-mad

On Saturday 1 JUNE I get a "Notification letter" dated 29 May from UKPC asking for £100 within 14 days and saying I'd ignored their first letter. WHICH NEVER CAME!

Why not just send the template appeal anyway.

fisherjim

drg0nz0 wrote: »

I feel mistreated because I never had the period of time the law supposedly gives me to act. The first letter I got arrived 40 DAYS after my parking! Yet there is now no way to enter into communication with UKPC, and I can only wait for the debt collectors' letter...

Then complain to the BPA stating this.

The_Deep

Write bad stuff on the McDonalds Facebook page. If the manager really wanted to get rid of the scammers I am sure that he could.

drg0nz0

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Why not just send the template appeal anyway.

Thank you, however online when I try, it says time to appeal has gone and the matter has been passed to debt recovery. Is there another way to send an appeal - by mail? - which they are actually obliged to note and respond to, instead of binning it?

Coupon-mad

fisherjim wrote: »

Then complain to the BPA stating this.

As above, do this, to Steve Clark:

steve.c@bristishparking.co.uk

and copy in UKPC to the complaint:

appealmoreinfo@ukparkingcontrol.com

drg0nz0

Just wanted to provide a final update. Raised a complaint with BPA to Steve Clark, then Zoe Rudwick dealt with my case and liaised with UKPC. I got the impression they were neutral and trying to help me, but in the end they said UKPC couldn't be shown to breach any rules. And for my point about grace times not being shown on the sign, so I would assume them to be 20 minutes - which I found in the newbies thread - they said UKPC don't have to write them on a sign, and that it was 10 minutes as far as UKPC was concerned. The car was 12 bloody minutes over the limit.

Through BPA UKPC offered to bring the fine back to £50 and because my life is too busy and I was getting the final notice before they recommend legal action letters blah blah blah - I just paid the sodding money. I felt like my case was somehow on their radar, and I might not be one of the people for whom it just all goes away.

Didn't feel good at all but I simply wasn't prepared to waste my family time on this !!!!. I hope their industry is destroyed soon. And I hate McDonalds for completely blowing me off when I complained to customer services, such a total contempt for their customers.

Thanks to all who gave me advice.

Fruitcake

It is not a fine.

I'm sorry you felt the need to pay a bunch of scammers. It has not helped anyone except the scammers who now have more money to scam more innocent people.

It is strange that more post from PPCs goes missing than from any other industry in the country.

Without the scammers producing proof of posting they would be have been stuffed in court. The scammers say they posted the NTK and the BPA believe them without requiring seeing proof of postage. The BPA is a big part of the whole scamdustry.
Did the SAR response not help with failing the NTK dates or other PoFA requirements?

All you can do now is use social media to warn people about the scam at Mucky D's, and complain to your MP about this unregulated scam.