Two adjacent car parks owned by the same company, ticket received.

baz995

Hello all,

I have read through the very comprehensive Noob guide which is really good but sadly I am still at a bit of a loss with an issue I have. Mindful of your time I will try to precis and get to the point....

I parked at Fareham Train Station, noticed that RingGo was an option and having parked there before pulled up the app, it listed the car park after using gps to locate and paid £13.50 for parking.

I subsequently received a letter from Napier Parking informing me that as I didn't pay for my parking that I am liable for a fine of £55. I sent them a screenshot of the payment on my app which fitted the time, date etc. I then received an email stating that my evidence was insufficient as I was parked in car park number 3199 but paid for car park number 2015. Whilst I admit that I didnt know the one car parking area was split into two separate areas I did pay.

I have been told that it is clearly marked etc, etc. Happy with that, lesson learned but I am hopeful that my integrity is intact as I did make payment in good faith. Interestingly I parked there again last week and pulling the app up the location given was car park 2015 but I was parked in number 3199.....

I am frustrated as there are no other ways to explain or appeal and I am being told pay up by the date given in the email reply or I will be charged £95. It further says I can use the IAS but reading the Noob guide it advises that this is nothing more than a kangaroo court. At the very least I would hope that the £55 charge would take into account he £13.50 I have already paid.

Does anyone have any thoughts on this please?

Coupon-mad

Yep just ignore Napier and the £165 debt demands. Tell them if you move house.

Come back if you get a court claim. No risk and you'd likely win due to poor delineation between the car parks that they've made into a 'concealed pitfall or trap'.

mczero

Hi - I am in the process of similar situation.  I booked a session while I was remote and selected the similarly named car park in the ringo app.  I think this should be regarded as a keying error but having difficulty getting the operator to agree (to put it mildly).  I like the idea that this might be seen as concealed pitfall or trap in the simiar naming too.  
Did they ever come back with court claim? as an aside the yellow one in your picture is owned by SWT - do we know who owns the land in red? 

Gr1pr

mczero said:

Did they ever come back with court claim? 

Napier have 6 years to issue a court claim, so this saga is in its infancy 

mczero

i appealed here (especially because I paid via Ringo) I suggested that the private parking sector code of practice states that notice should be “withdrawn on appeal if the driver has paid the tariff but made a minor keying error when registering their vehicle.” I said that, by selecting Fareham Station Car Park rather than Station Approach Car Park Fareham, this was a minor keying error.  Their reply didn't attempt to address then, and I am now being contacted by debt collector.   

Coupon-mad

Lovely. Threatograms. As expected!

Nothing needs doing then because you know from the 4th post of the NEWBIES thread which letters to ignore.

fisherjim

mczero said:

i appealed here (especially because I paid via Ringo) I suggested that the private parking sector code of practice states that notice should be “withdrawn on appeal if the driver has paid the tariff but made a minor keying error when registering their vehicle.” I said that, by selecting Fareham Station Car Park rather than Station Approach Car Park Fareham, this was a minor keying error.  Their reply didn't attempt to address then, and I am now being contacted by debt collector.   

Nice try but that isn't what is meant by a "minor keying error" it relates to your VRN

Le_Kirk

@mczero, suggest you start your own thread if this progresses any further so that you can get bespoke advice rather than us trying to help two different posters on the same thread. Ta

mczero

fisherjim said:

mczero said:

i appealed here (especially because I paid via Ringo) I suggested that the private parking sector code of practice states that notice should be “withdrawn on appeal if the driver has paid the tariff but made a minor keying error when registering their vehicle.” I said that, by selecting Fareham Station Car Park rather than Station Approach Car Park Fareham, this was a minor keying error.  Their reply didn't attempt to address then, and I am now being contacted by debt collector.   

Nice try but that isn't what is meant by a "minor keying error" it relates to your VRN

I completely agree that the VRN example is the only one provided in the code of practise, but that document doesn't address the use of parking apps such as Ringo. I will as suggested start my own thread for this one.