Downloaded app, set up bank details, checked pay on exit check-box

JackFlap

It w as late one night when we pulled into the Bexley Heath NCP carpark, underground below the Premier Inn. I had been to a family funeral with my parents and had sent them off to bed while I sorted the parking.
The carpark offered a remote payment system which I though might be of benefit in the future. With some difficulty, being below ground level, I found enough internet access to download the NCP App and enter my bank details, then check the box that said pay on exit. This took some considerable time to set up not to mention the use of systems of technology that would be beyond my parents but I thought I had enabled a them to, in the future park in NCP parks knowing that I would be debited as they left.
In spite of spending time searching for QR codes, which, according to the app, were displayed at the barrier but neither code or barrier can be found at Bexleyheath NCP. My understanding was that as we left the following day, the licence plate would be recognised and my bank would be deducted the £6.50 parking charge.
Some time later I had a message from my mum (it was her car) to say that we hadn't paid for parking and had been issued a PCN.
I returned to the NCP app and paid the parking charge for that night.
In the meantime their enforcement process had continued past the ombudsman and has now got to BW Legal threatening a CCJ.
Since I had no intention of not paying and until receiving the PCN, thought I had paid and with an NCP app on my phone and a debit link to my bank account have a relationship with this company that leaves a very bitter taste given the current level of threat to me and now the CCJ threatens my family's wellbeing.
To stop this getting really out of hand and involving higher authority, should I pay the settlement and continue with the dispute, to get my money back?

la531983

No!

Ignore anything now until, or if, you receive a court claim.