Claiming a Refund of Payment Following Cancellation of PCN By Landowner's Agent

wheeles

My mother received a PCN from CP Plus Ltd T/A GroupNexus on 16 December for an alleged overstay at a retail park on 1 December.  The date of issue was 8 December.  After much searching and a couple of emails I managed to find out the contact details of the landowner's agent.  I duly contacted them on 20 December requesting cancellation of the PCN.

However, on 21 December, my mother, who is in her eighties, succumbed to the pressure tactic of the early payment lower charge and made a payment using her credit card via parkingchargepayment.com for £61.50 (£60 charge + £1.50 admin fee).  It had been a stressful time for her, and she just wanted rid of the whole thing.  Fortunately she took a screen grab of the payment accepted screen and has the payment received email.

When I found out, I figured all was lost and any chance of launching an appeal on her behalf would be for nothing.  At that point I had not received any reply from the landowner's agent either, so considered it an expensive lesson.

On 13 January, I finally received an emailed response from the landowner's agent saying, "I can confirm that on this occasion we have asked for the parking fine to be cancelled."

From my perspective, since the charge had been cancelled by the landowner's agent, my mother was entitled to a full refund of her money.  

On 14 January, I sent a letter to the registered office of CP Plus demanding a refund within 14 days of the date of the letter.  I did not send it registered or signed for as various forum posts have advised when writing to parking companies.  I did get proof of postage.  I provided 3 methods for repayment (reversal of credit card charge, cheque or bank transfer), and stated that should they fail to comply with this demand, then I would take further action to recover the money which may result in them incurring additional costs.

I sent the letter to the registered office as this was in essence a Letter Before Action.  Should I have sent a copy of the letter to the PO Box address on the PCN, which appears to be where they receive appeals and payments?

Presuming that my letter is ignored or a full refund is not forthcoming, what should my next step be?  

Do I need to follow up my initial letter, stating that they missed the deadline and action will now be taken, possibly giving an additional deadline for payment?  

As the credit card transaction was less than 120 days ago, I am still within the time limit to initiate a chargeback.  Is that the next step given that I can provide the agent's email as proof of cancellation of the charge?  Do I instead go straight to small claims court?  

Should I notify the BPA first, claiming that CP Plus are in breach of the code for not issuing a refund to see if that achieves the desired result?

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts.

D_P_Dance

Have you read this?

https://www.citizensadvice.org.uk/law-and-courts/legal-system/small-claims/making-a-small-claim/

Have you complained to her MP?

WRT the admin fee this may be unlawful , if so complain to Trading Standards.

Coupon-mad

I'd do a chargeback and email Group Nexus to tell them she has done that because they failed to refund in a timely manner.

wheeles

D_P_Dance said:

Have you read this?

<link>

Have you complained to her MP?

WRT the admin fee this may be unlawful , if so complain to Trading Standards.

No, I hadn't read that.  I guess that if I choose to go to small claims court, then another letter would be required.

I've not yet complained to her MP.  If they refuse to refund then I certainly will.

wheeles

Coupon-mad said:

I'd do a chargeback and email Group Nexus to tell them she has done that because they failed to refund in a timely manner.

I'm inclined to try the chargeback route first.

On the PCN they fail to include an email address.  However, when looking at their website there is one for appeals prominently displayed along with one for general enquiries.

Should I email one, or both of these email addresses stating again the contents of my letter, or simply attaching a PDF copy of it, with a copy of the email from the agent, just to ensure they've got it?

Curiously, when I accessed their appeals system and put in the PCN number and registration, it still said that amount due was now £100 instead of £0 or having a status of closed or cancelled.

Umkomaas

I'd send to both.

patient_dream

A chargeback is the right thing to do. If you paid by credit card you use SECTION 75

Banks however will not understand the parking scam. You will need to explain that the charge was cancelled by the landord and that the PPC is refusing to refund

If you paid by Debit card the reason is the same but you can only claim a chargeback within 160 days

wheeles

patient_dream said:

A chargeback is the right thing to do. If you paid by credit card you use SECTION 75

Banks however will not understand the parking scam. You will need to explain that the charge was cancelled by the landord and that the PPC is refusing to refund

If you paid by Debit card the reason is the same but you can only claim a chargeback within 160 days

The payment was for £61.50 by credit card, so it's under the £100 threshold at which Section 75 kicks in.  In essence, this is a cancelled service for which they would have failed to refund. 

wheeles

Umkomaas said:

I'd send to both.

Done.  I received 2 auto responses confirming my email has arrived.  One stated that I should send my "appeal" to another email address, so I sent to that one as well.  They can't now claim they never received it.

In the likely event that I am ignored or a refund is not forthcoming, is it worth contacting the BPA to complain?  I note that their code of conduct states that refunds should be paid.  I am sure the PPC will try and wriggle out of it by trying to claim my mother isn't due one.

KeithP

wheeles said:

patient_dream said:

A chargeback is the right thing to do. If you paid by credit card you use SECTION 75

Banks however will not understand the parking scam. You will need to explain that the charge was cancelled by the landord and that the PPC is refusing to refund

If you paid by Debit card the reason is the same but you can only claim a chargeback within 160 days

The payment was for £61.50 by credit card, so it's under the £100 threshold at which Section 75 kicks in.  In essence, this is a cancelled service for which they would have failed to refund. 

OK, but a Chargeback is possible with either a debit card or credit card.

But you only have 120 days, not the 160 days mentioned earlier.

Have a look at MSE's Chargeback article.

wheeles

KeithP said:

OK, but a Chargeback is possible with either a debit card or credit card.

But you only have 120 days, not the 150 days mentioned earlier.

Have a look at <link>

Agreed.  According to the article, chargeback is for when you've exhausted the avenues to get your money back from the counterparty.  That's pretty much what I am doing by with my letter/emails.  I'm giving them a chance to refund the money and in a reasonable timeframe.  The less professional they act, the more damning will be the letter to my MP.