Invoiced for not paying airport drop off charge quickly enough

tenchy

This is an initial enquiry until I get more details. Young Mr Tenchy has fallen foul of NCP's scam at Gatwick. He was 24 hours late in paying the drop-off charge. You have 24 hours to pay online, but it took him a couple of days. The 'event' took place on 27 April, he paid the £5 fee on 29 April, then received an invoice for £100 (£15 discount for early payment) on 17 May. Are they out of time, and not POFA compliant, on this one? Thanks.

Umkomaas

Are they out of time, and not POFA compliant, on this one?

Without seeing the documentation, quite possibly. If so, it can be won at POPLA. Is young Mr Tenchy up for the work to save 15 quid?  If so, he'll need to be reading the NEWBIES FAQ Announcement, first post, to get himself started. 

KeithP

Umkomaas said:

Are they out of time, and not POFA compliant, on this one?

Is young Mr Tenchy up for the work to save 15 quid?

I think he stands to lose £85 if he wants to pay up.  

Coupon-mad

The discount can't only be £15 off.

Umkomaas

I read it as £15 (plus the £5 already paid) = charge for 'major keying error'. 

tenchy

Yes, total loss could be £100, and they do only offer a £15 reduction. I'm not sure of the legality of this. I'm waiting for Young Mr Tenchy to send me a copy of the documentation (he's watching some football or other tonight). When he belatedly made the £5 payment there was some statement (can't remember exact wording) that possibly amounted to him agreeing that they could still issue an invoice against him. Maybe this - him making the payment - negates any POFA protection? I'll post back here when I've got more details. Thanks.

prowla

I didn't realise you only had 24 hours - I dropped someone off a few days ago and I paid the next morning.

However, I think the whole scheme is a rip-off: "Hey - come and be our customer and we'll charge you a fee for the pleasure and fine you if you don't pay it!".

Coupon-mad

Total loss - what do you mean?  They can't claim as if it's 'loss' and they MUST discount by at least 40% (soon to be 50%).

Please show us this PCN (both sides).  But we get it that there might be 'some football' on...!

tenchy

Apologies for dragging this back after three days but I only received a copy of the NCP notice yesterday. It turns out young Mr Tenchy misread it. They weren't offering a discount of £15 for early payment, but rather they would just mug him for an additional £15 on top of the £5 fee he "voluntarily paid", to use their jargon, if he paid up, which he did. So for a two-minute excursion into the drop-off zone at Gatwick he's now paid £20 and that's an end to it (I think Umkomaas may have alluded to this above). I tried to persuade him not to pay, given that they may have been out of time with the notice - 20 days from 'incident' date to invoice date - but given his last experience of parking scammers (all the way to county court, he attended, and got a judgement against him) he decided to call it a day. His rationale was that it was his fault anyway and £15 extra was not the end of the world.

He pointed out the outrageous situation of the Gatwick drop-off zone. There's a £5 charge and it's managed wholly by ANPR spy cameras; no manned exit barrier. There's no way to pay on the spot, with the only option to pay later by phone or online. So how many people forget to do this? A large number, no doubt. Consequently the muggers will be getting three times the fee in a significant number of cases

He said that someone told him that the 14 day period can be extended by the scammers if they have to wait for the DVLA data breach, but I'm not sure. The suggestion was that the 14 days commences from when they get the data. I thought the scammers have a back door into the personal data held by DVLA such that they can data-rape you almost instantly. Perhaps someone could clarify this. In the meantime, here's the notice:

tenchy

Edit: haven't got a copy of the reverse, but I'm told there's nothing relevant on it - just ways to pay and how to appeal etc.

D_P_Dance

As he has paid an extra £5.00 he should ask them for a refund.  If they ignore, tell him to read this.

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

Has he complained to his MP?