Heathrow drop off charge - have I messed it up by already contacting them?

Potatobanana

Hello all, my vehicle (trying hard not to ID driver here) recently entered the drop off zone at Heathrow, and the £5 drop off charge was not paid within the time limit. I have been through the Newbies thread and a lot of other useful threads on here and I think I'm ready to submit an appeal to APCOA, having received a parking charge notice through the post from them (I'm the registered keeper).

However, upon realising the charge hadn't been paid, the first thing my partner did was try and pay the charge online "late", this wouldn't work for some reason, so my partner made a payment over the phone. They then contacted APCOA via a form on their website asking for a receipt, as my partner didn't receive one when paying over the phone. My partner was informed that the payment they had made over the phone was made too late and a PCN would be issued.

My partner did give the car registration number in their message BUT did not identify who was driving the car.

Have we messed it up by contacting them, or can I proceed with the bog-standard approval process?

Redx

Carry on with a keeper only appeal , no blabbing about who was driving

POFA should win , no keeper liability

Umkomaas

Have we messed it up by contacting them, or can I proceed with the bog-standard approval process?

Doesn't sound like you have. 

Simply use the blue text template initial appeal from the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, first post, with an extra sentence stating they've failed to meet the strict requirements of the Protection of Freedoms Act 2012 (Schedule 4) for them to be able to hold the registered keeper liable. 

A further sentence to the effect, if they're going to reject your appeal, they must provide you with a POPLA code, where you will get this cancelled, and you want a full refund of the drop-off fee payment you've made to them, or you will be reporting their retention of the fee to Trading Standards, and you will be taking advice as to whether this action is tantamount to fraud, with reports being made to the BPA and DVLA. 

I'd anticipate them dropping this like a hot potato.

KeithP

As well as filing an appeal, you really need to write to APCOA insisting that they refund the money that they happily accepted over the phone.

They simply cannot accept a payment and then in the next breath claim that the payment was too late.
The time to announce that it was too late to pay was before accepting the payment.

Potatobanana

Hello all, thanks so much for your advice and for giving it so quickly. To be fair to them, I just double checked the message we received back from APCOA and they did offer a refund or the £5 we'd already paid could be used towards a future visit. Sorry for any confusion!

My partner responded back to them that it's all quite unfair...!

Umkomaas

Take it, then send the response above - without the 'refund' paragraph. 

Potatobanana

Thanks all - appeal submitted. Fingers crossed!

Potatobanana

I've received a reply from APCOA today - appeal rejected! It looks like a pretty standard template appeal rejected letter. They've given me a POPLA number - am I right in thinking my next step is to compile my POPLA appeal (probably using templates found on these forums)?

KeithP

Potatobanana said:

I've received a reply from APCOA today - appeal rejected! It looks like a pretty standard template appeal rejected letter. They've given me a POPLA number - am I right in thinking my next step is to compile my POPLA appeal (probably using templates found on these forums)?

Yes, your next step is PoPLA.
The third post on the NEWBIES thread explains how to go about that.

Fruitcake

Please show us your draft PoPLA appeal before you submit it. PoPLA codes last 32 days, but please don't miss the deadline.

Coupon-mad

Copy any other APCOA Airport POPLA appeal.  There are dozens.  Easy to do.  100% win.