APCOA are the pits. So frustrated. Any ideas?

Floop1977

Hi,

On Sunday 10th July 2022 at around 12.00pm I parked in the car park by my local train station, and attempted to pay the £2.40 daily charge using the APCOA parking app, but there were problems in the app and the process kept failing. I kept attempting this while on the train, no dice.

Anyway on my return at around 7.00pm when returning to my car I once again opened the app and attempted to make payment, which successfully went through at 7.15pm which is shown on my email receipt and the in-app history page, for £2.40, to cover the daily rate for that day which continues until 4.00am the following morning.

On 23rd July 2022 I receive a Penalty Charge Notice in the post stating that I owe them £170 for a contravention by using a private car park without making valid payment. The time of my alleged contravention is 7.16pm, exactly one minute after I paid!

I immediately appealed using their online submission where I provided full and clear evidence. I heard nothing more and assumed that my appeal was accepted, because if it was rejected they would have contacted me. Note, there is no way to contact APCOA beyond the appeals process on their website which I used.

Yesterday, Wednesday 21st September 2022 I received a demand for payment of an unpaid Penalty Notice for £170 from a debt recovery company.

Using the information provided I have discovered that Apcoa are claiming "You have already challenged this PCN/ECN and we replied on Mon, 1 Aug 2022. You cannot challenge twice", which is funny because I have NOT received any response from them between my appeal in July and yesterday. Nothing by post, and nothing by email.

Apparently, to take the matter to appeal with POPLA I require a 10 digit code from APCOA which would have been in the response, which I've not received and which I doubt was ever sent.

These guys are bullies, trying to intimidate people into paying. In my case, they want me to pay £170 for the non-payment of a £2.40 parking charge WHICH I PAID! 

And here I am at 1.00am losing my mind over these crooks. Arrgh. Anyway solidarity to anyone else who has ever been in this position. 

Bigwheels1111

Go onto the parking form.
You will get better advice there.

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/categories/parking-tickets-fines-parking

pogofish

APCOA are well known in the aforementioned forum - which is the appropriate place to be posting this.  

Start by reading the Newbies Sticky at the top of the forum to get a proper understanding of the private parking industry and how to approach challenging them.