APCOA issuing tickets erroneously - systematic fraud?

SeagullIan

I park regularly at Haywards Heath railway station, which is managed by APCOA.  I always pay by their app, and am religious about paying for a ticket when I park.

In the last month I have been sent two penalty letters.  I have then sent back the VAT receipt to APCOA who have then cancelled the ticket.  One with no explanation, one with some grumbling wording about paying late (since this ticket was paid ~2 hours after I parked but on the same day.)  Note that the terms and conditions have no reference to when you need to pay (i.e. within 10 mins, 20 mins, 1 hour, etc.) and the amount is always a 1-day rate so it makes no difference.

This got me thinking - if APCOA are sending out clearly erroneous tickets to me, are they doing it with others.  A quick post on the neighbourhood Facebook got 10 responses within 12 hours of similar things happening to others in Haywards Heath.

It strikes me that APCOA are issuing tickets based on entirely bad data.  I am now in the process of collecting as many examples (ideally where people have evidence and have appealed successfully) at Haywards Heath station car park, and possibly at other APCOA sites.

My assumption (being a computer programmer by trade) is that their systems and data are simply not very good - and thus letters are sent erroneously - what interests me in this case is that having had nothing for 5 years, I get two erroneous letters in 1 month.

If there has been a systematic error in issuing tickets, then either (a) APCOA internal controls are completely failing; or (b) they know about the data issues, but decided to chance their arm.  If (b) is true then this is a simple case of fraud.

So:

If anyone here has been given a penalty letter for Haywards Heath or another APCOA site for which they have clear evidence they bought a ticket (such as a VAT receipt from your APCOA account; or a bank statement line-item) then please get in touch. 

I am looking to assemble 20-30 specific examples (that are as clear as possible) before considering next actions.

Coupon-mad

I like your style and your username, Seagulls!!!!

Next action would be a report & complaint to the Train Operating Co that uses APCOA.

And get it in the Argus by emailing an Argus journo like Jody Doherty-Cove.

APCOA are easy to beat on appeal though and even if not, these railway 'penalties' time out after 6 months.  No enforcement.

Never pay one.