Ipserv PCN - Breach of grace period

Bigsparks

Hi
I was issued with a PCN November 23 which stated I had breached the T&C grace period. 

On the day in question, I parked my car and took note of the RingGo app location number used to identify the carpark. 
I did not have a RingGo account and had issues downloading the app / registering my email as the verification email / access into the app/website was not working. 

After numerous attempts and re-send of the verification emails I was able to pay for the time spent in the car park. 

Thereafter, I received NTK which appears compliant with POFA stating I breached the grace period. 

I appealed detailing the above, stating the only method of payment available on the day was via the Ring Go app and did so at the earliest opportunity once the app/website had accepted the new account. 

My appeal was dismissed by Ipserv on the basis that I did not purchase a ticket within the 10 minute grace period and that other methods of payment were available. 

Any suggestions on extra info for my POPLA appeal? 

I know it may not carry much weight but I feel it is very unfair to receive a penalty when it had clearly been my intention to purchase parking at the time.

Thanks for any input.

Coupon-mad

Sorry your post was missed due to the awful glitch the forum does, of suddenly not remembering or highlighting which threads are unread...

We will reply.

Bigsparks

Coupon-mad said:

Sorry your post was missed due to the awful glitch the forum does, of suddenly not remembering or highlighting which threads are unread...

We will reply.

Many thanks I look forward to it

Coupon-mad

Bigsparks said:

Hi
I was issued with a PCN November 23 which stated I had breached the T&C grace period. 

On the day in question, I parked my car and took note of the RingGo app location number used to identify the carpark. 
I did not have a RingGo account and had issues downloading the app / registering my email as the verification email / access into the app/website was not working. 

After numerous attempts and re-send of the verification emails I was able to pay for the time spent in the car park. 

Thereafter, I received NTK which appears compliant with POFA stating I breached the grace period. 

I appealed detailing the above, stating the only method of payment available on the day was via the Ring Go app and did so at the earliest opportunity once the app/website had accepted the new account. 

My appeal was dismissed by Ipserv on the basis that I did not purchase a ticket within the 10 minute grace period and that other methods of payment were available. 

Any suggestions on extra info for my POPLA appeal? 

I know it may not carry much weight but I feel it is very unfair to receive a penalty when it had clearly been my intention to purchase parking at the time.

Thanks for any input.

That last bit is not something to say in a POPLA Appeal except maybe at the end.

Can you go back with a passenger - who has never used this app before either - but park on street outside (or elsewhere WITHOUT SCAMMER SIGNS) and on your phone, video how long it takes to:

1. walk over to the sign,
2. read the sign
3. get out the passenger's phone
4. download this new app from scratch
5. enter all the signup details
6. attach their card to pay
7. then pay a nominal 50p or £1 for the car (that's not even in the car park).

Great POPLA evidence.  Do that if possible.  Recreate the scenario without actually parking your car in there this time.

Not_A_Hope

I avoid these type of car parks especially if you have to download an app to park.

A couple of years ago I found the limited car parking at a Premier Inn was pretty non-existent. The on street parking wasn’t an option as it was limited to a couple of hours and I needed to park overnight. The nearest long stay car park was an NCP 5 minutes walk away. On arrival and parking at the site I queued to pay but found those in front were struggling to pay by cash or card. When I tried I got the same result. We went to the only other pay machine and again got the same result. There was an NCP operative on site but he just shrugged his shoulders.

There was an option to use Pay by Phone. I managed to download the app but then found I had to set up an account that needed lots of personal and card details. I then had to provide car park ID, car details period of parking etc. The voice recognition software it used was hopeless and did not understand my accent. The details it repeated back were constantly wrong. It was also very hard to hear next to a busy city centre street. I had the option of using my phones numerical keyboard to input information. Great but not easy when inputting a number plate which consists of letters and numbers. Keying the number 2 once would be a 2. Keying 2 twice would be an A. Three times would be a B. Four times would be a C. Obviously a nightmare and potential for numerous errors to occur. I reckon it took 45 minutes to actually pay and the grace period was only 20 minutes. I took photos of all the signs in case a PCN was issued. I was fortunate and didn’t get one.

It would be interesting to time exactly how long it would take an average person to set up and pay for any car parking app. Some might be better than others but they all rely on having a smart phone and mobile signal.

The lesson for drivers is not to use private car parks wherever possible and only use app only if you have the app and an account already set up. This problem will only get worse as the 3G networks that many car park payment machines use close and they move to app only payments.

Bigsparks

Coupon-mad said:

Bigsparks said:

Hi
I was issued with a PCN November 23 which stated I had breached the T&C grace period. 

On the day in question, I parked my car and took note of the RingGo app location number used to identify the carpark. 
I did not have a RingGo account and had issues downloading the app / registering my email as the verification email / access into the app/website was not working. 

After numerous attempts and re-send of the verification emails I was able to pay for the time spent in the car park. 

Thereafter, I received NTK which appears compliant with POFA stating I breached the grace period. 

I appealed detailing the above, stating the only method of payment available on the day was via the Ring Go app and did so at the earliest opportunity once the app/website had accepted the new account. 

My appeal was dismissed by Ipserv on the basis that I did not purchase a ticket within the 10 minute grace period and that other methods of payment were available. 

Any suggestions on extra info for my POPLA appeal? 

I know it may not carry much weight but I feel it is very unfair to receive a penalty when it had clearly been my intention to purchase parking at the time.

Thanks for any input.

That last bit is not something to say in a POPLA Appeal except maybe at the end.

Can you go back with a passenger - who has never used this app before either - but park on street outside (or elsewhere WITHOUT SCAMMER SIGNS) and on your phone, video how long it takes to:

1. walk over to the sign,
2. read the sign
3. get out the passenger's phone
4. download this new app from scratch
5. enter all the signup details
6. attach their card to pay
7. then pay a nominal 50p or £1 for the car (that's not even in the car park).

Great POPLA evidence.  Do that if possible.  Recreate the scenario without actually parking your car in there this time.

thanks for your reply. I am not sure if this would suffice in the POPLA appeal as I exceeded the grace period by about 1.5 hours waiting for the account verification email to arrive. Once it did, the payment was made straight away to cover the parking charge. 

Not_A_Hope

POPLA may not accept your appeal but you can use your evidence of the time it took to verify your new account in court in front of a judge 

Coupon-mad

Not sure I'd bother with POPLA.  Sit tight.

No paying it to make the scam go away.  These cases are dead easy to defend; we do this every day.