Euro Car Parks POPLA appeal: Evidence comments

Le_Kirk

Interestingly the rational says “the operator has also provided a system printout, which shows the vehicle was registered at that car park on the day in question, along with any payments made.

And they still cannot spell!

Coupon-mad

Interestingly the rational says “the operator has also provided a system printout, which shows the vehicle was registered at that car park on the day in question, along with any payments made. The printout shows that the vehicle was not registered with a payment. I can also see that other payments were made at the site in the day in question”. Firstly, there was no printout shared with me in the operator evidence and secondly, a payment was definitely made and I have access to proof of this.

You MUST email the POPLA complaints email (you know, in their FAQS) and point that out, if you are sure. 

A PPC must provide the same evidence pack that a motorist sees.  Did you get access to the evidence via the POPLA portal or did the PPC email it to you separately?  How can you have seen a different evidence pack if it was on the portal?

The_Leopard

Coupon-mad said:

A PPC must provide the same evidence pack that a motorist sees.  Did you get access to the evidence via the POPLA portal or did the PPC email it to you separately?  How can you have seen a different evidence pack if it was on the portal?

I received an email saying operator evidence had been uploaded on a Friday afternoon. Logged on, there was a note saying it can take up to 13 hours to upload. 24 hours later on the Saturday still the same note and no evidence uploaded so I emailed POPLA figuring I’d get no response until the Monday leaving me only 4 days to give comments. POPLA replied on the Monday and sent the operator evidence to me via email in PDF and gave me 7 days from the Monday to respond. The operator evidence never did appear on the portal! Just checked back and it’s definitely not there.

I’ve been through the evidence pack again this morning, as you never know, I could have somehow missed a page saying nothing was ever paid but there is no reference to a print-out or non-payment. POPLA have either received additional information to what I did from the operator (which would be false) or the assessor is catching up on so many cases he has confused mine. Regardless, if you start processing a claim with the perception the driver didn’t attempt to pay for a ticket of any kind the rest of the evidence becomes pretty irrelevant and there’s no chance of getting the ticket overturned.

I’ll submit a complaint to POPLA. Would you expect them to review the case?

Coupon-mad

Yes, if you say that POPLA emailed you a different evidence pack than the Assessor looked at, and it was missing any 'printout' and the email is proof that you didn't miss it.  POPLA either imagined it existed/read a different case, or missed it out in their email to you.

Finish by saying that this is a procedural error and you demand it is put right.

The email shoud be SHORT and not worded that you 'do not agree' with the Assessor, nor go off on tangents about signage, nor asking them to 'review' it.  Use the phrase 'procedural error' and head it up 'formal complaint - procedural error - POPLA code xxxxxxxxxx'.

The_Leopard

Complaint submitted...

The_Leopard

So I received a response to my complaint... I think they’ve missed the point, ignored the fact that the assessor was considering info I didn’t get to see (or they imagine it!). No procedural error apparently. Below is POPLA’s response.

“I have reviewed the assessor’s decision and I am satisfied that no procedural error has occurred and the outcome reached is correct.

You have advised that the assessor has made a statement within the decision to advise the operator has provided a list of payments made by motorists on the date in question, and this list does not show any record of a payment made against your vehicle registration. You have advised that this evidence was not provided within the operators case file therefore, you were unable to provide any comments regarding this.

 I have reviewed the operators case file and I agree that this evidence was not included within the case file. I appreciate some irrelevant information was included in the decision and it is unclear why the assessor has included this within the decision summary. However, on review, my opinion is that this does not affect the outcome of the decision.

The PCN has been issued for exceeding the maximum stay, not for failing to make a valid payment. As such, the fact you did or did not make a payment is not in question. The evidence the operator has provided shows that the vehicle remained on the car park for 2 hours and 5 minutes. As per the signage on site, the site operates a 90 minutes maximum stay. Based on this evidence, it is clear that the terms and conditions were breached on the date in question. 

I apologise for the irrelevant information being included within the decision however, as explained above, this does not affect the outcome of the decision”.

If you believe someone hasn’t bothered to pay it becomes pretty easy to disregard the rest of the case I presented so claiming it didn’t affect the decision is not something they can state with certainty. Annoyed but not surprised.

Coupon-mad

Never mind.  No paying it, POPLA is irrelevant.