Smart parking PCN

Sweetpea08

Hi there!
I received a PCN from smart parking on 19/09/2109 the date of contravention was 11/09/2019.
They apparently have an ANPR in this car park which was the B&M store in Chatham, Kent.
I am the registered keeper but was not the driver on this day.
This was my appeal.

Dear Sir / Madam,

Though I am the registered keeper of this vehicle I was not driving the car at this time.

The vehicle was being used in a charitable way on behalf of a friend who had recently broken her ankle. She was finding it very hard to get around and so a lift was offered to get her to the shops. The vehicle was not left unattended and did not stop in any of the bays as the stay was only meant to be temporary. Due to her being only very recently injured she was much slower than was expected and the time overran very slightly.
However, as mentioned above, the vehicle was not parked as it was never left unattended, and it did not stop in any of the bays so it did not interfere with your business in any way. The overstay was only by a few minutes and for a very charitable and compassionate reason.

I do hope that this matter can be reviewed in an equally charitable and compassionate way.

With kindest regards,


After reading some of the threads I now realise that this was probably not the best appeal and I’ve not heard anything since.
I would be grateful for any advice on this.

Fruitcake

Your appeal says you weren't driving but this is contradicted by the comment about who overstayed by 18 minutes. If the driver's identity has not been given to the scammers then edit your post accordingly and only ever refer to The Driver and The Keeper.

What happened when the keeper complained to the store manager and/or landowner?

Did you get a PoPLA code with your appeal rejection from Not-so-Smart? If so you should use it by reading all the template point available to you from post 3 of the NEWBIES. Post your draft here before submitting it.

Get pics of the site and signage in readiness.

Complain to your MP about this unregulated scam.

Sweetpea08

Hi do I edit my post?
They didn’t complain to the store a manger as far as I know.

Umkomaas

Sweetpea08 wrote: »

Hi do I edit my post?
They didn’t complain to the store a manger as far as I know.

If you look closely you might find a little button at the foot of the relevant post, cunningly called ‘Edit’. Press it and see what happens.

Sweetpea08

I press it and nothing happens. Won’t let me edit or delete post.

Sweetpea08

Sweetpea08 wrote: »

Hi there!
I received a PCN from smart parking on 19/09/2109 the date of contravention was 11/09/2019.
They apparently have an ANPR in this car park which was the B&M store in Chatham, Kent.
I am the registered keeper but was not the driver on this day.
This was my appeal.

Dear Sir / Madam,

Though I am the registered keeper of this vehicle I was not driving the car at this time.

The vehicle was being used in a charitable way on behalf of a friend who had recently broken her ankle. She was finding it very hard to get around and so a lift was offered to get her to the shops. The vehicle was not left unattended and did not stop in any of the bays as the stay was only meant to be temporary. Due to her being only very recently injured she was much slower than was expected and the time overran very slightly.
However, as mentioned above, the vehicle was not parked as it was never left unattended, and it did not stop in any of the bays so it did not interfere with your business in any way. The overstay was only by a few minutes and for a very charitable and compassionate reason.

I do hope that this matter can be reviewed in an equally charitable and compassionate way.

With kindest regards,


After reading some of the threads I now realise that this was probably not the best appeal and I’ve not heard anything since.
I would be grateful for any advice on this.

The driver did not speak to the store manager as far as I am aware. The keeper has not yet had a reply from the appeal or a POPLA code.

Umkomaas

Sweetpea08 wrote: »

I press it and nothing happens. Won’t let me edit or delete post.

Are you working off a phone? No good for this forum, get yourself on a decent tablet, laptop or PC.

MistyZ

The Registered Keeper needs to complain to B&M now. Not Customer Services, not an assistant but the manager at the very least. Make it thorough, but to the point. Do not identify the driver but emphasise the mitigating circumstances. Be polite with an undercurrent of outrage! Insist that they cancel this charge. Landowner complaints very often work.

The RK must prepared to escalate the complaint to the CEO if they get fobbed off. Act swiftly, be determined and persist if necessary. This one looks like it's just waiting to be cancelled.

Sweetpea08

MistyZ wrote: »

The Registered Keeper needs to complain to B&M now. Not Customer Services, not an assistant but the manager at the very least. Make it thorough, but to the point. Do not identify the driver but emphasise the mitigating circumstances. Be polite with an undercurrent of outrage! Insist that they cancel this charge. Landowner complaints very often work.

The RK must prepared to escalate the complaint to the CEO if they get fobbed off. Act swiftly, be determined and persist if necessary. This one looks like it's just waiting to be cancelled.

What do you mean by landowner complaints? Should the registered keeper ring and speak to the manager? Write or go in to the store?

MistyZ

Sweetpea08 wrote: »

What do you mean by landowner complaints? Should the registered keeper ring and speak to the manager? Write or go in to the store?

'Landowner complaint' is just the term for complaining to a landowner or agent who has the authority to cancel the parking charge. I think the advice here is usually to go in and speak to the manager of the big stores. If contacting the CEO of B&M then email is best and I am pretty sure there are threads here with his or her email address .... it's worth doing a search for other B&M threads.

Sometimes it turns out that the store doesn't own or manage the land on which the car park stands. In that instance you can usually find who does have responsibility for the whole retail park by googling.

But really, this should be pretty simple - start with the manager. Ideally take receipts or at least a good account of what was bought on the day and any history of past custom.

Coupon-mad

Please don't try to use this forum on a phone - it just doesn't work like that.

It seems to have stopped you reading the NEWBIES thread properly, which tells you all about successful complaints to retailers and links to an entire thread about how to do it.

A Smart case is so simple to win at POPLA stage that there's no need for a thread at all, as Smart don't use the POFA. This is really, really easy to win.

A keeper who was not driving wins it at POPLA stage, hands down, as long as they just adapt another Smart POPLA POFA appeal found by searching the forum for those words.