Parking eye fine, bought ticket, appeal failed

gingertrish

Hi everyone

Hoping someone may be able to help/advise/ been in a similar situation

Parked in car park,  husband bought ticket but the machine seemed to only let him enter first 4 characters of number plate before asking for money. Didn't think anything of it so Ticket bought and put in car.  

Roll forward 2 weeks and recieved a fine from parking eye,  usual £100, £60 of paid early. 

Used appeals process and sent photo of ticket showing we had paid and explained fault of machine.  

Recieved response that appeal has failed as we didn't enter whole number plate but we could pay £20 a gesture of good will or go to popla 

Part of me thinks they are pulling a fast one but don't want to risk paying a high fine even though we paid.

Has anyone got a similar experience,  or any suggestions as to the best route to take, appeal or pay reduced? 
If we go to popla will it be accepted? 

Any help,  information or guidance would be appreciated.  

gingertrish

Just to add when we arrived in the car park there were around 15 cars, only a few turned up while we were sorting out payment. 

Other people like us had to wait for the attraction to open to get change as the machine didn't take card I couldn't access their website. The attraction accepts this as they have a note to say they give cashback for parking. 

The carpark could only hold 100 cars max so the likelyhood of another car arriving in the timeframe between arrival and payment with the same 4 digits of numberplate that we could then somehow share a ticket to fool the system is highly unlikely. 

In case this happened to anyone else on the day it was Wye Valley Car Park on good Friday 

Umkomaas

Recieved response that appeal has failed as we didn't enter whole number plate but we could pay £20 a gesture of good will or go to popla 

It's not a 'gesture of goodwill', it's a standard requirement of the BPA Code of Practice - major keying error. If you appeal to POPLA, where there's a good chance you won't succeed, then you're looking at £100. PE are litigious, if they don't get their money, they will likely sue. 

PE will have had to incur some (small) costs to make contact with you. Personally, whilst it does stick in the craw somewhat, I'd pay the £20 and be done with it. 

B789

As @Umkomaas has pointed out, you have a choice. Personally, I would want to fight this all the way as I don't believe that one should be made to fund these scammers for problems with their technology. Then again, I would have plenty of spare time to do this and the challenge would be a useful learning experience.

If you decided to fight this injustice, then you have to follow the advice as given in the Newbies/FAQ thread near the top of this forum. That thread is a reference guide and should be referred to continually throughout the process if you are going to fight it.

Have you tried Plan A yet? A complaint to the landowner as they are jointly liable for the actions of their agents. You should also write to your MP and ask him/her to make a complaint to PE.

You have obviously lost your first appeal which was Plan B. POPLA is Plan C but you will need some good legal or contractual arguments to convince an assessor that the PCN was issued effectively. POPLA will not give any credence to any mitigating circumstances.

If you were unsuccessful at POPLA you would then move on to Plan D which is a county court claim. Again, as mentioned above, there is good chance you would not succeed. However, it is also going to be your best chance to get a truly independent arbiter to decide whether you are liable to pay what, by then, would be around £200-£250 if you were to lose.

So, decisions need to be made. How badly done by do you feel?

By the way, it is not a "fine". It is a speculative invoice for an alleged debt for breaking the terms of a contract you supposedly entered into with the parking company. Only "authorities such as police and councils can issue "fines".

Coupon-mad

If we go to popla will it be accepted? 

No.  Sorry, it 100% will not.  You do not have a winning appeal for POPLA.  Then it will be £100.

Complain to the venue.

I'd consider paying the £20 and shaming the venue on their social media pages (publicly) to refund you and seeing how many other people come forward saying the same thing.

gingertrish

Thank you for the advice its gratefully recived 

We have begrudgingly paid the £20 last, we haven't got the time or energy to fight and don't want to risk a loss. 

We will however do as suggested and feedback to the attraction and trip advisor of the problem we had