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Oh Boy, I paid £100 for missing 0.10pence in payment

I wish I had come across this posts and guidances earlier. I just had my appeals rejected by Parkingeye and POPLA who simply stick to the T&C's as mentioned in many forums. Here is a brief recap of our nightmare.
  
On 03/09/2021 at 17:15:52 after a short staycation down the jurrasic coast we decided to visit Weymouth on our way back to our London home. We found a close to the centre
Weymouth West carpark in a derelict area of town and although it is a hard to read signage from the car we eventually were mislead by the 4 lamppost "How to pay signage saying "Pay at anytime before exiting the carpark". This gave us a false assumption of "peace of mind" and interpreted it that there would be the appropriate system in place to support that claim i.e. tell you how long you have stayed and/or provide payment options. So we left and it is only upon our return at 18:36'ish that we got the shocking discovery that it was a COINS ONLY operated system, hardly what one could call PAY AT ANYTIME solution unless you have a bag of coins handy...
  
We had everything except Coins. Needless to say that a cashless pandemic was not going to be in our favour. Despite a 20' minute frantic knocking on business doors, we eventually were given all what the local Londis had in their till £2.30 after been asked to buy 2 diet cokes and a bottle of water in exchange.
The then summer fee for 2 hours was £2.40. We were at a loss, tried to call both numbers displayed, which one of them is ironically the number to call to pay your fine and the second number to promote the business on a pre-recorded answer. We knew that that the clock was ticking since we lost track of the time we were parked and had no choice but to pay £2.30 (equivalent to 1h55 for a total parking time of 1h41 (including the 20'+ coin search mission) and leave.

We were issued with a PCN on the 07/09 and as may readers appealed to ParkingEye, which was rejected based on the fact that we did not pay the amount due and therefore were liable for the fine. Paid the £60 to avoid further prosecution and appealed to Popla. We were given then for the first time the full lay-out of the signage of the parking and found out that in 2019 the company had changed their signage from a clear and readable PAY AND DISPLAY signage with large letters to the less clear signage except for ONE situated by the machines mentioning a different payment instruction; i.e. IMPORTANT NOTICE - Please ensure you purchase a pay and display ticket to cover the full period of time that your vehicle is on site ( from time of entry to time of exit). We did not recall having seen this signage and claimed to POPLA that this was a confusing payment instructions and that if we had taken it for a Pay & Display carpark we would have noticed the coins only machines and would most probably left immediately. But POPLA disregarded this when raised in our comments as it was not submitted in the original appeal to ParkingEye. Of course POPLA did the same as ParkingEye and only refers to the T&C's.

I haven't paid the outstanding £40 yet and was wondering if this is a lost cause, or is there a chance or way to fight his?



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Comments

  • Le_Kirk
    Le_Kirk Posts: 25,078 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    You do know that POPLA decisions are not binding on the motorist don't you?
  • KeithP
    KeithP Posts: 41,296 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    Having already paid £60 of the alleged £100 debt a court may see that as admission of 'guilt'.
  • Looks like i have been had like a novice. It’s our first disputable PCN in more than 40 years.
  • Le_Kirk said:
    You do know that POPLA decisions are not binding on the motorist don't you?
    No did not know that since we never had to do an appeal or use POPLA before this event.
  • Le_Kirk
    Le_Kirk Posts: 25,078 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Photogenic Name Dropper
    Leopold2 said:
    Le_Kirk said:
    You do know that POPLA decisions are not binding on the motorist don't you?
    No did not know that since we never had to do an appeal or use POPLA before this event.
    Well it is true and only a judge can tell you to pay any or all of it and only then after a court hearing.  As @KeithP states, getting anywhere with this after having paid the £60 could be difficult.  Have you actually received a demand for the £40 or received court claim papers?
  • D_P_Dance
    D_P_Dance Posts: 11,592 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper
    If you recieve a court claim for £40 come back,

     PE's signs are pants, read this

    https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/5972164/parking-eye-signs-oxford-road-reading/p1

    If yoou hsd refused to pay and they took you to court it is possible that the case would have been thown out  Have you complained to your MP.?
    You never know how far you can go until you go too far.
  • I was naive enough to believe their threats, i am married to a British but on a settled status and any court cases scares the !!!!!! out of me in case it affects my future application for citizenship.
    Thanks for the advice, but I live in London so I can’t see how my MP can be involved when it happened in Weymouth?
  • Le_Kirk said:
    Leopold2 said:
    Le_Kirk said:
    You do know that POPLA decisions are not binding on the motorist don't you?
    No did not know that since we never had to do an appeal or use POPLA before this event.
    Well it is true and only a judge can tell you to pay any or all of it and only then after a court hearing.  As @KeithP states, getting anywhere with this after having paid the £60 could be difficult.  Have you actually received a demand for the £40 or received court claim papers?
    No just received an email from PE claiming the outstanding £40
  • Coupon-mad
    Coupon-mad Posts: 155,731 Forumite
    Part of the Furniture 10,000 Posts Name Dropper Photogenic
    Paid the £60 to avoid further prosecution and appealed to Popla
    Prosecution?!  It wouldn't have been that.

    Did you pay the £60 at a point when it was still available at that level?  If so, PEye are at fault for not telling POPLA and closing the process because you can't do both.  Complain to the BPA and see what they say.
    PRIVATE 'PCN'? DON'T PAY BUT DON'T IGNORE IT (except N.Ireland).
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