Debt collection letter help please!

TheDefiantOne

Hi all,

I posted previously about a pcn I received for fistral beach. I paid the majority of the parking however on exit when you can top up, the machines weren't working they had a service down message. We couldn't get signal for the app so we left. We appealed with popla. We weren't successful - I can put images up of the response but in a nut shell they said I was the driver (I wasn't as the cams would have showed it was my husband) and they said we could have paid on the app til midnight. Nowhere did it state that. I've had a debt collectors letter through the post today and am panicking as we cannot afford £170?! I don't know what to do now. You can't reappeal. Can I ring popla? Do I ring initial parking? I have the landowner details do I ring or write to them? I haven't paid on the back of the popla result as I've been ill with pleurisy and just lost time basically. I feel really lost, really upset and its just the wrong time of the year for all of this with the pressure of birthdays and Christmas   please be nice.

TheDefiantOne

Here's the letter we received. If you want any more info I can screenshot things 

la531983

Ignore the letter. The debt collectors have as much power as the milkman does.

Return here if you get a court claim.

Coupon-mad

Just read the 4th post of the NEWBIES thread.

And search for 'ignore £170 debt demands'.

No you cannot ring POPLA. You certainly DO NOT RING INITIAL PARKING.

No panic needed. This will go nowhere.

UncleThomasCobley

Read the Newbies/FAQ thread... carefully and repeatedly until you understand it. Stop panicking, you are in the right place. just help yourself a bit by reading the Newbies/FAQ thread.

TheDefiantOne

Thank you. I am panicking as I don't want to end up in court or with a black mark on my credit. I'll try read through, might have to get hubby too as I have adhd and struggle to take in big chunks of text! 

Is it worth sending a letter to the landowner? That is the only thing I haven't done yet as I missed that advice.

patient_dream

TheDefiantOne said:

Thank you. I am panicking as I don't want to end up in court or with a black mark on my credit. I'll try read through, might have to get hubby too as I have adhd and struggle to take in big chunks of text! 

Is it worth sending a letter to the landowner? That is the only thing I haven't done yet as I missed that advice.

Good idea to let your husband read this.

Contact the landowner, explain everything and that you are being harassed by a debt collector and ask them to cancel

No fear of a CCJ  OR YOUR CREDIT RATING BEING TOUCHED.

The idiot debt collectors do not have the power to do this.

UncleThomasCobley

TheDefiantOne said:

Thank you. I am panicking as I don't want to end up in court or with a black mark on my credit. I'll try read through, might have to get hubby too as I have adhd and struggle to take in big chunks of text! 

Is it worth sending a letter to the landowner? That is the only thing I haven't done yet as I missed that advice.

Contacting the landowner by letter or preferably by email is part of Plan A. In many cases, this results n a cancellation.

You can never get a "black mark" on your "credit". Even in the worst case scenario, which is highly unlikely, if you were to lose the claim, you would pay less than the original claim was for and as long as it was paid within 30 days, there would never be any record of it on your credit file. It is completely expunged from the record.

No matter what the stupid debt collector letters threaten, they cannot take you to court. They have no skin in the game and their only job is to try and scare you into capitulating and paying into the scam. If/when, eventually the PPC decides to try and take you to court, it is not what you may be imagining. This is not a criminal matter. It is a civil matter. There is no Old Bailey and judges in wigs and barristers in gowns. It is just you and a rep for the other party with a judge in a suit in an office. Or, even more likely today, it is all done by a video link.

All that is only a possibility and not likely if you follow the advice and keep up to date with what it tells you in the Newbies/FAQ thread

TheDefiantOne

second letter through. Still okay to ignore? 

Coupon-mad

What a hilarious letter, especially that list on the back!  Most amusing drivel.

Hate the top line where the so-called 'Abigale' says she's "looking after" your 'case' for you "to help you get a fair outcome".

Utter BS from DR Plus. Gotta be joking - fair outcome?  IMHO they only look after money.

Obviously ignore this trash.

TheDefiantOne

Thank you coupon-mad it did make me laugh a little but I also thought I'd check with the experts!