NCP no reply to appeal results in inflated charge and no right to Popla appeal

35660

Hi, on 4th Jan I received a Parking Charge Notice from NCP relation to an unpaid charge at my local rail station.  I use this station regularly and alway pay for parking, however, on this occasion the app had let me down, possibly due to not having updated my credit card and the charge had not gone through.  I did not realise this.  I appealed the charge on this basis, sending screenshots of messages between myself and my wife confirming that I had paid parking.  Furthermore the following week I paid for parking that I did not use, and asked NCP if they could not, as a goodwill gesture set this payment against the one I had missed.  I heard nothing from them and assumed the charge had been cancelled. On 7th March I received a further letter saying that as I had not appealed the cost had risen to £100.  I emailed and pointed out that I had appealed on January 16th but received no reply. On March 24th I received an emailed response attaching an undated letter that they said was sent to me on January 31st rejecting my appeal.  They also stated in their email that as a goodwill gesture they would accept £60 but no timeframe was given as to when this offer would expire.  I replied and asked them to forward on to me the original email they said they sent on January 31st as I suspected it had never been sent.  Expecting to wait 14 days for a response I did nothing further, but then yesterday I received a letter from Trace recovery requesting £170.
I rang Trace and explained what had happened, they looked into the records and said that when I submitted the original appeal I made a mistake in my email address which is why I did not receive the original refusal.  
I do not know what to do.  The time in which I can appeal to Popla has exprired as the code was contained within the letter that they say was emailed to me on January 31st.  I have contacted Popla regarding this and they say they cannot help. I think I have been boxed into a corner and would appreciate your thoughts, thanks

Le_Kirk

Did you make a mistake with your e-mail address; that would be weird as anyone receiving an e-mail and wanting to answer it would just hit "reply" and it would go back from whence it came - not your fault at all unless you wrote a letter or filled in a form and wrote out your e-mail address thereupon.  Complain to BPA that NCP have failed to deal with your appeal by sending a reply, either in time or at all and are now refusing to issue a POPLA code.  sara.r@britishparking.co.uk

Fruitcake

Ignore Trace. Debt collectors are powerless and can do absolutely nothing except send poor quality bog paper.

What happened when you complained to the landowner?

You should also complain to your MP about this unfair and unregulated industry.

35660

Le_Kirk said:

Did you make a mistake with your e-mail address; that would be weird as anyone receiving an e-mail and wanting to answer it would just hit "reply" and it would go back from whence it came - not your fault at all unless you wrote a letter or filled in a form and wrote out your e-mail address thereupon.  Complain to BPA that NCP have failed to deal with your appeal by sending a reply, either in time or at all and are now refusing to issue a POPLA code.  sara.r@britishparking.co.uk

This is one issue, I have no way of verifying whether I incorrectly wrote my email address as it was on the NCP appeal form and you don’t get a copy of that back.  It’s annoying that NCP couldn’t tell me that when I told them that I had not received the appeal rejection as I would have probably paid the £60 then. It was Trace who told me.  They said as it was my error then it was my fault that I didn’t receive the appeal rejection letter and I had no come back. 

35660

Fruitcake said:

Ignore Trace. Debt collectors are powerless and can do absolutely nothing except send poor quality bog paper.

What happened when you complained to the landowner?

You should also complain to your MP about this unfair and unregulated industry.

I have complained to Greater Anglia but not received a response yet.

Coupon-mad

Seconded.  Complain to Sara Roberts at the BPA .