Apcoa parking fines x7 at a railway car park gone very wrong

Hermo

Okay here goes
I am really anxious I am shaking
I have now received my 7th fine as well as my first appeal rejection
Earlier this month I received pcns from apcoa saying use of private car park without valid payment
When I saw it I was confused as u have a direct debit with apcoa to pay for the car park monthly. It is paid for every month and I have been doing that almost 2 years
Lo and behold in December I got a new car and didn't update my details on my apcoa account that I had a new car. At this point my old car is not parking in the car park it is gone sold on. I am just parking my one new car under the impression my monthly parking is covering it.
I appeal explaining this. I didn't know about the blue template so I wrote an honest letter that I forgot to update my details of new car. I did most of the appeals online through apcoa so I had to enter my details in order for them to accept the appeal in their website

Today I have received an email saying appeal was unsuccessful and I must pay or go through POPLA and i have been given a popla number in that letter.

Please please please can someone advise. I have appealed all 7 now but only hear back via email of the first one im sure the other 6 will be unsuccessful.
I am really shaking from the anxiety of what to do please someone help me pls

Coupon-mad

Have you appealed all of them as the admitted driver and told them it was a VRN error? If so, then APCOA are in breach of the new BPA CoP, which says:

Major Keying Errors
Examples of a major keying error could include:

Motorist entered their spouse’s car registration
Motorist entered something completely unrelated to their registration
Motorist made multiple keying errors (beyond one character being entered incorrectly)
Motorist has only entered a small part of their VRM, for example the first three digits
In these instances we would expect that such errors are dealt with appropriately at the first appeal stage, especially if it can be proven that the motorist has paid for the parking event or that the motorist attempted to enter their VRM or were a legitimate user of the car park (eg a hospital patient or a patron of a restaurant).

It is appreciated that in issuing a PCN in these instances, the operator will have incurred charges including but not limited to the DVLA fee and other processing costs therefore we believe that it is reasonable to seek to recover some of these costs by making a modest charge to the motorist of no more than £20 for a 14-day period from when the keying error was identified before reverting to the charge amount at the point of appeal.

Complain to Gemma Dorans at the BPA and tell her how scared you are, but that MSE forum informed you that it seems APCOA has failed to apply the new CoP rules regarding 'major keying errors' which effectively this is a clear example of, because it involves a 'wrong car VRN' like the 'motorist entered spouse's registration' example error:

gemma.d@britishparking.co.uk

Given that the BPA say ''we believe that it is reasonable to seek to recover some of these costs by making a modest charge to the motorist of no more than £20 for a 14-day period from when the keying error was identified'' then this covers the point at which this error was identified, and surely APCOA will recognise that you are a customer of theirs with a known Direct Debit to pay for the car park monthly, which has been done without fail for almost 2 years.

You are hardly a 'fly parker' or rogue motorist!

https://www.britishparking.co.uk/AOS-Code-Changes-2018

Include a link to the URL of this thread for Gemma to see that you are on MSE and for us to see how the BPA resolve this one.

I am hoping it will be all good, because you are clearly a customer affected by a 'major (but inadvertent) VRN error' and APCOA have also made a major error by failing to apply the new CoP which clearly covers people like you.

And we know the BPA are trying hard to make it appear that their members are 'playing nicely' to give a veil of legitimacy to the industry, in view of the new Act and the NHS car park changes. Right now it is all about how they are perceived.

IMHO the most you should be asked to pay by APCOA is £20, once, to more than cover the seven DVLA fees @ £2.50 a pop. IMHO you should NOT be asked to pay seven times that sum, as that would be a clear example of a BPA AOS firm's greed towards a regular, known, paying customer.

Do they want your future business or not...APCOA need to recognise THEY FAILED TOO.

Let's see. Popcorn ordered...tell us the outcome here this week, it will be quite a quick answer I reckon, once the BPA get involved. Do not start POPLA.

Now get some sleep and relax, this will be resolved and for a BPA employee, Gemma is one of the (sadly rare) people we see who doesn't fob complaints off and she is fair and gets results for consumers, in my experience.

The_Deep

[FONT=Times New Roman, serif][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]Nine times out of ten these tickets are scams, so consider complaining to your MP, it can cause the scammer extra costs and work, and has been known to get the charge cancelled.

Parliament is well aware of the MO of these private parking companies, many of whom are former clampers, 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.

[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]http://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2019/8/contents/enacted[/FONT][FONT=Times New Roman, serif]

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

Hermo

Thanks so much, haven't slept much still will be doing everything you suggested tonight and will keep you informed

Coupon-mad

Sleep well. Make sure you show Gemma Dorans a link to what we have said here by showing the above URL link in your email.

Hermo

I found on mse This guy accepted being driver and still won. You have commented on his thread it was March 2019,You're sure it's definitely better to go down the complaint route and not put in a popla appeal similar to his?

He won even after admitting being driver, also i understand the admin fee but even when i made apcoa aware it was a vrn error they have still breached new rule and continued to send more notices through and i understand the fee dvla costs but my mental health seriously deteriorated last night. Can't quantify how awful I felt. therefore I agree I shouldn't have to pay it 7 times over.
show you a draft before I send if that's OK?

Thanks so so so much for helping me through this dark time. This is the first time I've been able to see some hope about this
Thank you so much for your kind help

Fruitcake

Make the complaints as advised.

Appeal to PoPLA if this doesn't work. PoPLA codes last 32 days but don't miss that deadline. Use all the template points available to you from post 3 of the NEWBIES.
Post your draft appeal here for checking before you submit it.

PoPLA is a lottery and there have been numerous problems recently with ill-trained assessors incorrectly interpreting evidence, not being able to count to 14, and misinterpreting Acts of Parliament.

Do the complaints asap though. Point out that "someone" paid to park so you also want to know what has happened to your money.

Don't forget to complain to your MP about this unregulated scam as well.

Coupon-mad

You're sure it's definitely better to go down the complaint route and not put in a popla appeal similar to his?

Yes, Gemma will investigate this week.

show you a draft before I send if that's OK?

Yes how us all, and don't hold back telling her how you feel in the first opening paragraph but keep the complaint concise and 'on point' with a link to this thread and mention of the £20 (effectively a promise, in my view) in the new CoP. You just need to explain that this case clearly fits into a 'major keying error' due to the facts, despite there only being a virtual 'keying error' in not keying in the new VRM in time to update your data.

Mention being a customer of APCOA for 2 years! Pretty much as I said before.

Thanks so so so much for helping me through this dark time. This is the first time I've been able to see some hope about this
Thank you so much for your kind help

No worries. POPLA can WAIT.

Hermo

Gotcha, finally back home from work and going to draft something up and will send

Just feel like there are other people who made keying errors that didn't even pay the 20 pound because they didn't admit to being driver or did admit and still didn't pay a penny....

Anyway thanks again so so much.
Incoming draft letter soon

Redx

very true , if they get "off" on a different technicality , like driver not identified etc

but this new BPA CoP only came into force this month , and the description of yours fits this new CoP to a T, hence the advice above

Hermo

Okay guys..here goes it. let me know thoughts, Ive just written it as clearly as I can and as exact as I can

@Redx I understand just saw a POPLA win for a guy who had admitted being driver so gave me hope


Dear xxx

I am writing to you because I am struggling to cope as I feel I have been unfairly issued with 7 parking charge notices to date and don’t know what to do. I feel scared and like I am being harassed without being listened to by APCOA parking just being sent PCN after PCN. I struggle with mental health. I have been having frequent panic attacks since finding out my APCOA appeal was unsuccessful. I have been informing APCOA about how much anxiety I was getting with charges coming through and them not acknowledging I made a mistake via their online appeal portal. I have been under a lot of stress recently. I have self referred myself to talking therapies.
I have really strong suicidal thoughts because I am scared I will have to pay thousands of pounds for making a small error at a time where I was in a rush to buy a new car, burnt out at work ( managers can vouch for this) and becoming very unwell (have a doctor’s note for being signed off as well as an accident and emergency visit).
It was around this time that as I mentioned above I purchased a new car as my old car had no working heating and I was struggling with my asthma with sitting in the cold so I had to replace this quickly. Since the the old car that I had, I had been paying and parking at Slough train station for 2 years, I have a monthly direct debit that comes out itself which was registered under my details and I had put my car registration on there. So even when I purchased a new car with everything going on I just forgot to update my details for a while. I can’t remember the exact date I did it but I did update them some time after purchasing the car.
When I received the parking fine I was really confused as to why this was happening and realized there was obviously some delay in the new car being registered on their website. I sent an honest account of this to APCOA in my appeal and two of the 7 have been unsuccessful. The remaining 5 will also most likely be unsuccessful. They had given me POPLA reference numbers and as I was at a loss of what to do because I paniced. I researched online and I posted my issue on the MONEY SAVING EXPERT website online
I was kindly advised by one of the members on there to contact yourself to complain that infact APCOA are in breach of the new BPA CoP rules regarding VRN keying issues. I will post a copy of the thread from Money Saving expert to explain further the points that were raised regarding the New rules and consequences


(the website isnt allowing me to post the link in this message of this thread)


Also to add My Apcoa account is showing the right registration from December onwards from when these fines have been issued so I don’t know why I have gotten as many as 7 fines and am living in fear that I will continue to get more if they aren’t acknowledging the update on there still hence why i am worried the sum to pay will increase.

Please would you be able to look into this for me as I feel I have strong grounds to be able to say that APCOA are breaching and not following the new rules and procedures that have been set out

Yours Faithfully