NCP Parking fine after paying on the app

mitomerc

Hi everyone,
Big fan of Martin Lewis and this is my first post on the forum so apologies in advance if I've made any mistakes.
While working away in Manchester I parked in an NCP car park on Monday in a work hire car and paid for the parking using their NCP Park Pass app, after completing the purchase for the parking I got a notification on my phone from my company Amex card for £0.01 as soon as I completed the purchase, when the full cost of the parking should've been £5. When I checked my emails later I received my receipt for parking from NCP, the American Express app later updated to show the full amount (£5). This was all fine.
The next Monday, everything was exactly the same but this time the notification from Amex was £0.02, I didn't check my emails as I thought paying for the parking was successful as I got the notification from Amex. When I got back to the car in the morning I found the fine on the windscreen for £60 (increasing to £100 after 14 days) when I should've still had about 12 hours left on the parking, so when I got to work, I screenshot my phone lock screen showing the notification from Amex for NCP Car Parks for £0.02 including the date and time of the notification. I later checked the American Express app to find that this transaction had disappeared and not increased to the full amount like before. Then I checked my email and found that I had not received an email from NCP including the receipt.
The reason for the parking fine was that there was no ticket displayed or any other payment method detected.
I appealed the fine online on the NCP website but it got rejected almost right away, their response didn't acknowledge anything I typed in the appeal and they just responded with the fact no payment method was detected, I also attached the screenshot of the transaction my company card recorded.
In the rejection email they said if I want to appeal it again I have to do it online with POPLA, as soon as I initiate the appeal with POPLA, the full parking charge will apply.
My question to everyone on the forum is: do I have grounds for appeal or should I just bite the bullet and give more than a day's wages to pay the fine before it increases to £100?
The screenshot is the only evidence I have and I'm not sure if it's strong enough because they might claim it could've been doctored or something like that.
The parking charges get reimbursed by my company so I'd have no reason to park without paying.
I know it's a long story and I might not have explained it in the best way so please ask questions if you need more info to help me out.
Thanks everyone!

Redx

none of the above story would win with NCP or at popla, despite the seemingly obvious errors or issues

non payment is non payment , whatever the reason and the driver should have verified that a valid payment was made, one of the issues with modern technology is when it goes wrong

in theory any issues are with the payment app or card and not with NCP, NCP failed to get money for the parking of the vehicle, known as bilking, even though its clear the driver intended to pay

when non payment has occurred, then the daily tariff applies, same as on a bus or train or tram

dont get me wrong, I do understand but you would need better arguments than the ones in your post, because POPLA do not accept mitigating circuimstances , they work on the rules, the BPA CoP and the law only

you may have grounds for appeal, but not what is contained in your story

Coupon-mad

No-one would pay this.  Try POPLA as per the 3rd post of the NEWBIES thread.

When Redx says it might not win at POPLA he is right, but NCP might duck out and so what if you lose?  Losing at POPLA is not a reason to pay a scam PCN.

I would also make a complaint to the BPA that NCP are using an App that your evidence shows, is failing to work properly.