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

Coupon-mad

Yes, we are all watching and the popcorn is on order...these need cancelling outright. Can't have people driven to suicidal thoughts just because they changed their car and private parking firms are (generally) moneygrabbing b'stards, devoid of humanity.

Prove me wrong please, BPA/APCOA...

Your friends you told are wrong. No paying these.

Sadly, too many people are weak and clueless when it comes to scams (sorry but such people are the reason why firms like these trouser so much dirty money).

Hermo

@Coupon-mad

I really hope one day I can raise awareness and give other people hope that end up in the same predicament as me. I wish my state of mental health was an exaggeration and I was able to cope with this better before I found this forum but to be honest even someone who didnt have issues emotionally and was stronger than me its the way these people word their notices it just really scares you and not everyone can afford to give away hundred of pound.

We work hard for our money, most of us are not millionaires, hundreds of pounds can not just be given like that especially when im paying 100 pound monthly to use the car park Jeez

Anyway I just wanted to add something that when I was in a state the other night and found this forum forgot to say

As it stands the first 4 fines have been put under investigation

The three other fines I got on the day I wrote on this forum, I responded to them before I started this thread and I had used one of the templates which was true for the recent three, I wasnt sure if it was the right template but I found a basic one, i was so desperate I used the one i thought fit my situation best whilst I was scrolling through other peoples cases

stating

"I dispute your 'parking charge as the keeper of the vehicle. I deny any liability or contractual agreement and I will be making a formal complaint about your predatory conduct to your client landowner and to my MP

There will be no admissions to who was driving and no assumptions can be drawn. Since you PCN is a Vague template, I require ALL photos taken and an explanation of the of the allegation and your evidence

-If the allegation concerns a PDT machine the data supplied in response to this appeal must include the record of payments made-showing partial VRNS and an explanation of the reason for the PCN because your notice does not explain it

-If the allegation involves the overstay of minutes, your evidence must include the actual grace period agreed by the landowner. if you fail to evidence the actual grace period that applies at this site or suggest that only one period applies, this will regarded as an attempt to mislead...etc etc"

so yeah that was to the more recent 3 fines and those are the ones they haven't responded to at all yet. As i said i sent those then started this thread and then got distracted with all the new info and didnt remember to say I had replied to those with a template

Will keep you all posted

Once again Thank you enormously

Coupon-mad

We work hard for our money, most of us are not millionaires, hundreds of pounds can not just be given like that especially when im paying 100 pound monthly to use the car park Jeez

Jeez indeed. You are paying APCOA for a service and they have failed you due to their own system not coping when people change cars and not anticipating that likely event, and not informing customers properly.

I hope the BPA are still reading what you are writing here. Your story is compelling.

Shame on APCOA for not having a system that, instead of issuing scary PCNs, asks regular customers to tell them if they change their car and actually has a human being looking at sudden PCNs like this and doesn't assume they have a rogue parker.

What's wrong with a warning notice coming out to first timers and saying:

'Are you a customer who has overlooked telling us that you've changed your car? If so, do this/that and the data will be changed for you, at no cost if you inform us within 1 month of this letter and tell us your old VRM and your new VRM so we can match up your visits and attribute your payments easily...'

BPA and APCOA, please tell us, what is difficult about that suggestion? What's wrong with that idea? Why can't consumers expect PPCs to learn a good customer service ethic?

After all you are paying them £100+ per month for nothing whatsoever, anyway. Here's something novel. Why don't PPCs invest a bit of that 'dead' (not exactly hard earned!) money in protecting the interests of regular payers like you?

This is why the regulars fight private PCNs as we do. The industry is broken and I will still say that, even after your unfair PCNs are cancelled or settled for £20.

Hermo

'Are you a customer who has overlooked telling us that you've changed your car? If so, do this/that and the data will be changed for you, at no cost if you inform us within 1 month of this letter and tell us your old VRM and your new VRM so we can match up your visits and attribute your payments easily...'

BPA and APCOA, please tell us, what is difficult about that suggestion? What's wrong with that idea? Why can't consumers expect PPCs to learn a good customer service ethic?

WHAT YOU ARE SAYING HERE IS GOLDEN! honestly its sooo basic but just so normal and so reasonable!

If APCOA want to charge me 20 pounds now.... I think I will fight even that on the grounds that they didnt resort to that rule in the first place until they had to be reminded , and fine they had to fork out for the dvla for admin cost and spend their DIRTY money that they leech out of hard working people then i call it retribution. That they lost out on a bit of money to do something that they bought on themselves because their own system cant accommodate for a simple change in vehicle

If they wanted to charge £20 pounds they should have been aware of that and played by the rules and asked for that in the first place!! this could have gone down much more easily for all parties involved. They need to be aware of what they should follow just like I should have been aware of having to change the reg as keeper of the Vehicle. Its 1 ALL,and it needs to be cancelled out. As well as the fact they have had my custom for 2 years ongoing 2 yrs and three months! They can let it go out of GOOD WILL. As you said customer service, Business ethic... HUMANITY?????

No instead they resorted to the usual scare tactics and denied the appeal getting greedy

Ill fight that 20 pound for 6 months if I have to. Ill write to my MP, Ill write to the Landowner. I will peacefully protest. Needless to say I think after all this SAGA ill probably be terminating my parking at APCOA. they could have had another 1200 pounds out of me for another year but no thanks.

Redx

and that is the bit these firms fail to realise, issue a pcn to somebody , or several , and they take their business elsewhere

I know somebody who got an Excel pcn for the Peel Centre car park , Stockport , some 6 or 7 years ago now. I came on here and helped them successfully appeal it at popla , then my lad got an Excel one at Gala bingo car park , ashton u lyne (he was going to blockbuster on the same site) - we successfully appealed that one too

neither of those car parks have had our cars in them since, the whole family + friends were warned off so those businesses have lost hundreds or thousands of pounds

Parking Eye tried to sc@m my sister in law not long after the above on a local retail park, we used shop receipts of over £100 spent on site for PE to rescind that one on initial appeal, otherwise that retail park would have lost our custom too

they dont realise the damage they do, the Beavis case car park when he was at Staples, lost Staples , never mind anyone else

if I went to ALDI or LIDL and got a £100 pcn, they wouldnt get my business again either

the government are well aware that council parking issues on town high streets has killed off many businesses


in Ashton recently the council lost tens of thousands on a pay by app system on the local high street , because nobody was using it , many probably didnt have smart phones or the correct app , the retailers complained about paying business rates when shops were empty , so they have now gone bak to park for a short tiime for free , and business is returning slowly to thos shops


all the council idiots had to do was ask me !!! lol

Coupon-mad

Ill fight that 20 pound for 6 months if I have to. Ill write to my MP, Ill write to the Landowner. I will peacefully protest. Needless to say I think after all this SAGA ill probably be terminating my parking at APCOA. they could have had another 1200 pounds out of me for another year but no thanks.

I am so happy to read this.

Hope the BPA and APCOA are still reading.

This is what your industry currently does to people:

- drives them to suicidal thoughts

- alienates genuine patrons and paying motorists

- ultimately you lose customers for yourselves and for retailers/landowners

- the industry CERTAINLY plays its part in pubs and shops closing.

The BPA know I have been doing this for over a decade and things have never been worse, and clamping was actually better than what is currently being 'allowed'.

And while I have the BPA's attention it has to be said again, your recent change to the CoP that REMOVES the observation period before paying, for those people who do decide to stay, is shameful.

To then trumpet in a press release about the woeful 10 min 'grace period' that you've restricted people to now (adding observation period to leaving period) as if it's new and a good thing? How do such people sleep at night?

How dare you even entertain the idea let alone vote it in and pretend it's good?

Hermo

Corporate greedy Businesses will never ever change even if they lose custom. It is just built in them to be unethical. It is the basis of their Business to be like Voldemort.

I will hopefully this weekend put some time aside to pen some letters to First great western rail who I think are the landowners of The Slough train station. I also buy a monthly pass from them for 2 years.Even if all my letter does is make them aware what kind of blood suckers are operating on their land and how they are operating then that is enough for me. Also same with MP just want to raise awareness that is all.

I just want to get through this day by day and battle this mentally and practically. I know I keep saying but you people are like heroes to me. The kindness you are showing is the only silver lining in this crap situation although still anxious Sleep is improving and I haven't had a panic attack since the day I wrote on here.

Goodnight all, Hopeful there will be good news the next time I write on here.

We fight the good fight x

Coupon-mad

Sleep is improving and I haven't had a panic attack since the day I wrote on here.

It's why we post here.

Hermo

@Coupon-mad

I would never have had the courage or even fathomed I could fight like this. for weeks I was punishing myself telling myself the only way I can fix this problem is to end it all. I work in the NHS really hard, Like I deal with blood sweat vomit and tears daily and I park here to go off to care for people...

I just thought I cant believe I messed up so bad, all my family, friends work colleagues were telling me how foolish i was to not update details and how id need to pay up for messing up. after just having spent so much on new car insurance road tax i just could not see a way out and felt like i had failed myself. PCN after PCN coming through.. stopped turning to people around me because theyd say it was my fault and I couldnt handle it. I was really bad... really dark time...the thought of being taken to court is still terrifying me if this all is in vain

But you guys and the amazing work you do on here are literally a beacon of hope for us. Please dont ever think that what you say or do on here is a small thing. It is epic and it is slowly giving me the confidence to fight for myself and stand up to bullies.

Because what you have bought up here is all feeding into enabling bullies moreso

"And while I have the BPA's attention it has to be said again, your recent change to the CoP that REMOVES the observation period before paying, for those people who do decide to stay, is shameful.

To then trumpet in a press release about the woeful 10 min 'grace period' that you've restricted people to now (adding observation period to leaving period) as if it's new and a good thing? How do such people sleep at night?

this is awful.

Redx

Network Rail will own the land

GWR will be leasing it as part of their TOC franchise


those issues I helped with against Excel and Parking eye are what made me a member here and set me off on my crusade , none of those companies made a penny out of their spurious pcn,s because they were cancelled or killed off at the old London Councils popla service , so were wrong from the outset ( sc@ms , all of them )


all that issuing pcn,s does is increase the number of warriors that fight back, help others and the industry kills itself by increasing the opposition, hence why Sir Greg Knight introduced his Parking Bill


on Parking Hell last night they eatured a PPS CAR PARK with the locals saying it was NOTORIOUS IN THE AREA AND EVERYONE AVOIDED IT LIKE THE PLAGUE


it was empty on the tv pictures, no wonder because P P S sc@m people all the time