DCBL for UPC - I've proof I paid parking but input wrong car registration

BargainBuzzed

Hi all, I've read through a few posts and the newbies FAQs however I'm still unsure of the best action to take now. 

My partner received the DCBL (I used his car that day as the car I usually drive was in for repairs, I am a registered driver on his car but he is the registered keeper), we had not received any previous letters regarding the UPC, maybe due to moving house recently. My partner contacted the DCBL company to discuss the case, however they would not disclose when or where to the previous letters were sent.

The car park used is for a retail park, I've kept the paid parking fee ticket, however it shows I input my car reg instead of partners, honest mistake but still an error. My partner has made an appeal through POPLA, however he is very worried his job is at risk due to the nature of the letter we've received. He wants to pay the £170 demanded, however I think it would be very unfair to pay them this money. I am happy to pay admin up to £20 for my 'major error', according to the BPA regulations.

I've tried to contact the retailer used (Asda) however the e-mail address is no longer in use, seems twitter would be my best route. 

Any advice or reassurance that awaiting for POPLA decision would be greatly received.

Thank you

Coupon-mad

Partner emails DCB and gives your name and address as the driver.  That gets your partner out if the loop to stop them paying a scam.

DO NOT PAY.

Meanwhile you both complain to thd retail park and the agents that run the site will cancel it.

Retailers/ and or the managing agents whose name is probably at the entrance on the retailers list 'welcome' plinth, or easy to find when you Google the place.

A worked example:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6431234/ukpc-ukparkingcontrol/p1

If that doesn't get it cancelled then you will get the letters and will win if they try court.

B789

BargainBuzzed said:

My partner has made an appeal through POPLA, however he is very worried his job is at risk due to the nature of the letter we've received. He wants to pay the £170 demanded, however I think it would be very unfair to pay them this money.

I'm sorry but this type of reasoning really gets my goat. Is our education system so flawed that gullible victims of these ex-clamping thugs really believe that somehow their livelihood is at "risk" just because they received a speculative invoice for an alleged breach of contract from an ex-clamper, unregulated, private parking company?

You could remind your partner that paying these scammers makes them a part of the problem and just funds and encourages them even more. They also get marked as a "mug" for future reference.

Why on earth would your partner think that their job is at risk because of some scammer trying to pick them off as low hanging fruit from the gullible tree?

1505grandad

"You could remind your partner that paying these scammers makes them a part of the problem and just funds and encourages them even more."


And a very profitable scam it is too for the unregulated industry (1.3.2023):-
https://www.racfoundation.org/media-centre/private-parking-on-course-to-be-billion-pound-industry
"Steve Gooding, director of the RAC Foundation, said:
“If only the rest of the economy was booming like the private parking sector, perhaps we’d all be feeling more prosperous.
“Private parking looks set to be a billion pound-a-year business, if it isn’t already, with demands for up to £100 a time being sent out to drivers at the rate of more than one every three seconds."

BargainBuzzed

Thank you all for your replies, I couldn't agree more. I am unable to contact GroupNexus (who I paid parking fee too - conveniently the 'contact us' page doesn't work!), unable to go through POPLA as we never received the 10 digit verification code (I thought my partner had done this, but he'd just contacted BPA).

He has today received a letter from GroupNexus reminding him about the charge, and if unpaid within 7 days then legal action will be taken. I'm going to call them tomorrow to discuss having name changed to me, as I was the driver. I shall look into the retail site owner, hadn't thought of that, thank you. I've also tweeted Asda services to see if they will help at all, as I've a receipt to show I shopped there at the time.

Thank you so much for your replies, I'll update if and when I have one. The most frustrating thing is being unable to speak to anyone about this, even BPA say to go through POPLA, but they won't do anything without the 10-digit code, big tut!

Coupon-mad

I'm going to call them tomorrow to discuss having name changed to me, as I was the driver. 

No you can't do that. No calls and you are a third party anyway so they won't talk to you. Never ever phone a PPC!

If your partner wants to transfer liability to you they just do exactly what I said (YOU can't do this):

Partner emails DCB and gives your name and address as the driver.  That gets your partner out of the loop to stop them paying a scam.

If he can no longer appeal he just emails using their complaints policy page instead and transfers liability to you the driver, if you are the more robust person to ignore the scam £170 threatograms and defend in court later.

ALSO by transferring liability, they should send you a fresh PCN to appeal.

B789

A phone call is not worth the paper it is written on.

Grizebeck

why would you even phone Group Nexus?
If its a debt recovery letter from DCBL i would personally do nothing but then act when you get the letter from DCB Legal

BargainBuzzed

Grizebeck said:

why would you even phone Group Nexus?
If its a debt recovery letter from DCBL i would personally do nothing but then act when you get the letter from DCB Legal

I wanted to call GroupNexus to request they contact dcbl (as they are their client) and have they stop sending us these letters, to prevent it going any further.

Coupon-mad

BargainBuzzed said:

Grizebeck said:

why would you even phone Group Nexus?
If its a debt recovery letter from DCBL i would personally do nothing but then act when you get the letter from DCB Legal

I wanted to call GroupNexus to request they contact dcbl (as they are their client) and have they stop sending us these letters, to prevent it going any further.

But you are a third party and they aren't going to stop. These aren't reasonable people! Please no online 'Chat' or phone calls.

If your partner is more likely to cave into a scam than you, then your partner does exactly what I said above.  Then you should get a PCN in your name in the post.

B789

BargainBuzzed said:

I wanted to call GroupNexus to request they contact dcbl (as they are their client) and have they stop sending us these letters, to prevent it going any further.

Please treat this as friendly advice. You must try and get your head around the fact (and your father's) that DCBL is not a party to the contract you allegedly breached with GroupNexus. They can threaten as much as they like but cannot do anything more than that.  That is their modus operandi.  DCBL offer their service to bottom-dwelling ex-clampers like GroupNexus on a no-win, no-fee basis. They inflate the original charge from £100 to whatever is in their correspondence and rely on the victim's gullibility to capitulate and pay up.

Corresponding with them is futile. They are scammers whose sole objective is to scare their gullible victims into funding their scam. As I mentioned in my previous post, telephoning them is even more futile.

Likewise, corresponding with intellectually malnourished parasites like GroupNexus, outside of the appeals process, is an equally futile endeavour. Ex-clamper thugs who operate unregulated private parking companies and send out speculative invoices, dressed up to appear as though they are "fines" so that their credulous victims either pay up or become embedded in their scams, are not interested in anything except picking the low-hanging fruit from the gullible tree, as demonstrated already by your father's reactions.