Total Car Parks - input car park code one digit wrong

boldaslove

Hello,

I recently got a £60 ticket from Total Car Parks who stated I parked without paying. Initially I appealed it directly with them showing evidence I’d paid for a ticket, however unfortunately only noticed afterwards that I’d input the car park code one digit wrong (8035 instead of 8034!) when I’d paid for it.

I’m dyslexic so unfortunately I do sometimes have slip ups with wrong letters/numbers although this is the first time I’ve had a parking ticket as the result of it.

Total Car Parks have rejected the appeal and have directed me to pay or appeal with POPLA. I’ve found information about minor/major keying errors from the BPA but it only seems to relate to registration numbers and not any other details such as car park codes?

Has anyone successfully appealed based on getting the car park code wrong? I can provide evidence it was a genuine error and that I’ve used that car park for years while always paying the correct fee.

Thanks!

Half_way

Who's car park was this?

Where was it?

 did you mention dyslexia to the parking company?

boldaslove

It’s in Manchester on Rochdale Road, both car parks (the one I paid for and the one I intended to pay for) are opposite the road from each other, cost the same amount of money to park in and were nowhere near capacity when I arrived or returned. I had no idea I’d paid for the wrong car park until I got the appeal decision back from them today. The date I parked was 14th July.

I’m not sure who the owner is beyond Total Car Parks - it’s a piece of barren land just outside of the city centre so not connected to a business.

I didn’t mention dyslexia in my initial appeal unfortunately as I didn’t spot the incorrect digit at that point, which nicely illustrates how easily it happens to me! 

It seems that appeals related to incorrect car parking codes aren’t worth pursuing from what I’ve read on this forum so I’m not feeling too hopeful about POPLA at the moment as they seem to go by the book and I can’t see I have any mitigating circumstances in their eyes.

boldaslove

Just to add the fine is £60 and if I appeal to POPLA it automatically increases to £100 

Fruitcake

What happened what happened you complained to the landowner? That is always Plan A.
You should also complain to your MP.

The BPA CoP mentions registration numbers, but does not exclude keying errors when entering other data. I would include the points highlighted below in your PoPLA appeal, as well as using all the other points available to you from the third post of the NEWBIES.


17.3 No one wants to receive a parking charge for making a mistake when entering their vehicle registration number into a Pay and Display machine or parking validation terminal, when they have paid for the parking event. Motorists, car park operators, service providers and equipment manufacturers all have a responsibility in ensuring that obvious and inadvertent errors do not lead to unjustified charges.

17.4 The Code recognises that keying errors can be grouped into 2 main areas;
A) Minor Keying Errors Examples of a minor keying error could include:
• 0 instead of o.
• I instead of L.
• 1 instead of I
• Up to one letter wrong, removed, or swapped
• Up to one number wrong, removed, or swapped

The_Slithy_Tove

Fruitcake said:

The BPA CoP mentions registration numbers, but does not exclude keying errors when entering other data. 

This is a bit of a problem, and it's hard to draw the equivalence. If you miskey the reg in a car park, then the parking company or landowner is still getting the P&D revenue.

But if you enter the wrong location code into RingGo etc., the someone else receives the payment, and not the parking company/landowner of the car park you were in. So the PPC would have every right to claim they weren't paid.

[Combining the two, there's also the case of choosing the wrong car on the parking app, if you have more than one registered. In that case, it's akin to a keying error, as the revenue still goes to the right place, so there ought to be no "fine" once the error has been pointed out.]

KeithP

There are two car parks operated by Total Car Parks Ltd on opposite sides of Rochdale Road.
Their entrances being about 150 metres apart.

@boldaslove, are you saying that you used one Total Car Parks Ltd car park but actually paid to use the other Total Car Parks Ltd car park? 

If that's the case, then the car par operator received a payment and suffered no loss - much the same as if the number-plate detail had been mistyped by one character.

Coupon-mad

Appeal to POPLA as per the NEWBIES thread 3rd post examples, but add a first point saying you are dyslexic (attach evidence if you can) and say that this was a simple keying error. There are two car parks operated by Total Car Parks Ltd on opposite sides of Rochdale Road and TCP should have spotted this and cancelled the PCN.

boldaslove

KeithP said:

There are two car parks operated by Total Car Parks Ltd on opposite sides of Rochdale Road.
Their entrances being about 150 metres apart.

@boldaslove, are you saying that you used one Total Car Parks Ltd car park but actually paid to use the other Total Car Parks Ltd car park? 

Exactly that yes, and neither car park was anywhere near full although I unfortunately don’t have any evidence of this as I had no idea I had a ticket that day. So yes, you could argue that the company didn’t suffer any losses as I still paid them for parking! 

Coupon-mad said:

Appeal to POPLA as per the NEWBIES thread 3rd post examples, but add a first point saying you are dyslexic (attach evidence if you can) and say that this was a simple keying error. There are two car parks operated by Total Car Parks Ltd on opposite sides of Rochdale Road and TCP should have spotted this and cancelled the PCN.

Thanks for this, I’ve to-d and fro-d about appealing but it seems like it’s worth doing it. I don’t have any evidence of my dyslexia diagnosis though, it was diagnosed over 10 years ago when I was at university by an educational psychologist - it’s not something in my medical record (I did inform my GP at the time of the diagnosis who said something along the lines of “why is that relevant?” ). I’ve never had to show proof of it outside of university so I imagine any paperwork relating to that would be long gone by now. Not sure what else I can show to prove it? People tend to just believe you when you tell them!

Umkomaas

People tend to just believe you when you tell them!

Try it anyway. 

boldaslove

Thanks everyone - I’ve made an appeal based on the above and the advice on the Newbies thread. I’ll post again when I have an outcome!