Parking Fine Due To Time Of Payment - Discrepancy Between Payment Time and Parkingeye System Time

RGH1981

Hi all - new to this forum and finding it difficult to find information about this specific scenario. 

My wife parked at Crewe Alexandra FC car park 2 on 13th February and as per Parkingeye / Pay-by-phone guidance payment can be made up to midnight on the date of parking. The Pay-by-phone app shows parking was paid at 8:07pm on 13th Feb. We have received a parking charge notice from Parkingeye for that date and having challenged it with the receipt from Pay-by-phone received a letter back stating that the appeal had been declined due to an incorrect location or payment via a service that is not associated to Parkingeye.

I spoke to them via their WhatsApp chat function to ask for more details on what that means and they told me that their system says the payment was made on 14th Feb and backdated to 13th - not sure that’s even possible but the Pay-by-phone receipt shows that “parking started” at 8:07pm. I subsequently found out that my wife’s bank account records time of transaction (I didn’t know that when I sent the Pay-by-phone receipt as appeal evidence) and the bank account also shows that payment was made at 8:07pm on 13th Feb. I offered to send that to Parkingeye for them to reassess but they kept defaulting to “the claim has already been assessed and any further appeal should be via POPLA”. They have refused to tell me what time on 14th Feb their system says the payment was made.

Question is do I go to POPLA with my two pieces of evidence that payment was made on the date of parking and therefore in accordance with the terms of parking or do I need to challenge it differently?

Alternatively should I present the evidence to Crewe Alexandra FC as the landowner and ask them to get the charge removed?

As it stands we have an offer to pay a discounted charge of £20 but if we don’t and we lose the appeal the charge is £100.

Thanks for reading and let me know if any further information required. R.

Debszzzz2

Plan A first. What have Crewe Alexandra FC said? You've already done Plan B. Plan C is to appeal to POPLA with your evidence and all the other "kitchen sink" points that go in a POPLA appeal.

RGH1981

Thanks Debs for responding. I’ve not spoke to Crewe Alex yet - just scanning their website now for appropriate contacts. Let’s hope that works as the POPLA route is time consuming. I can’t believe I’m even having to have the argument with them!

Fruitcake

You should also complain to your MP about this unregulated private parking company. 

fisherjim

You have the evidence, but Parking Eye will carry on harassing hoping you will give in.

This once again exposes the fact that ANPR systems are not fit for purpose and are banned for use in authority car parks.

Carry on with plan A I am sure you will win this if PE take this to court, POPLA are quite useless and will side with PE who they will assume have looked at your appeal correctly but they will never accept an error in ANPR technology.

RGH1981

Thanks all. I’ve just sent all the details to a few email addresses I found in the Crewe Alexandra website along with screenshots of the receipt and my wife’s bank account. 

The ANPR hasn’t actually failed here I don’t think - it picked up the car leaving the car park at the right time on 13th February- they’re arguing that we somehow made a backdated payment on 14th Feb but won’t share with me what time they say that payment was made.

What a total waste of everyone’s time….except theirs I guess for the extra revenue if I pay the charge amount!

Will update if and when I hear back from Crewe Alex. 

R.

fisherjim

RGH1981 said:

The ANPR hasn’t actually failed here I don’t think - it picked up the car leaving the car park at the right time on 13th February- they’re arguing that we somehow made a backdated payment on 14th Feb but won’t share with me what time they say that payment was made.

Yes but they use ANPR/payment link that seems out of sync with each other.

I have just put my details into the Pay By Phone app you cannot pay for the day before, and it says:

You have until 11:59 on the day of parking to complete payment for your session at this location. (location number is 88626)

As usual Parking Eye are trying to claim they are always right everyone else is wrong!

RGH1981

See what you mean - learning more about parking charges than I ever thought I’d have to! I’ve spoken to Crewe Alexandra and they’ve asked Parkingeye to cancel the charge and confirm back to me that they have so I’ll await their notification before believing it will happen!

Le_Kirk

RGH1981 said:

See what you mean - learning more about parking charges than I ever thought I’d have to! I’ve spoken to Crewe Alexandra and they’ve asked Parkingeye to cancel the charge and confirm back to me that they have so I’ll await their notification before believing it will happen!

If I were you, I would send an e-mail to the person you spoke to, thanking them for getting it cancelled, as a phone call is worth the paper it is printed on - NOT!

Coupon-mad

And do a POPLA appeal if the PEye website doesn't show it as cancelled by this time next week.

RGH1981

Had a letter yesterday from Parkingeye confirming that the charge has been cancelled. No apology for the total waste of everybody’s time of course!!

thanks to everyone who replied with advice. Much appreciated. R.