Parking fine because it took me more than 5 minutes to pay - Can I get out of this?

muffingg

I recently visited the Premier Inn in Darlington and used the Feethams Leisure Centre Car Park. I entered the car park, parked up and went straight to the paying machine which only accepted coins.

They use a !!!!!! app called Connect Cashless Parking. The network connection there is rubbish, the app is super slow, I had to register from scratch, and it rejected my first 2 cards. meaning it took me between 10 and 11 minutes until I had paid for the parking.

Now, I received a NTK and PCN dated 10th May and I only returned from my holiday today so couldn't act on it earlier.

This looks like a clear rip-off because I have paid for the parking and stayed 2h less than what I paid for. Is there anything I can do? There are dozens of other reviews on Google from people in similar situations. How can this be allowed.

Gr1pr

Its allowed because the new government regulations have been delayed until later this year, none of which helps your case anyway 

Post redacted pictures of both sides of the PCN and pictures of the signage on site too, so we can see all the basics, no personal information but leave all the dates and times showing 

Coupon-mad

You do NOT pay this. Course not!  It's not a fine. IMHO this is a complete scam PCN.

I think if you Google or search the forum for Feethams Leisure Centre Car Park you'll find it discussed before. Which PPC?

muffingg

Front Side


Back Side


Payment Receipt

Coupon-mad

That says you paid at 11.48 but the PCN says the contravention was 2 hours earlier?

LDast

I don't think it does. The "time in" on the NtK is 23:38. The receipt shows it is valid from 23:47.

Castle

Coupon-mad said:

That says you paid at 11.48 but the PCN says the contravention was 2 hours earlier?

They're saying the contravention happened at 9.30am on the 4th May, (the next day); whilst the driver paid at 11.47pm the previous night, (3rd May).

If the driver hadn't paid, then 9.30am on the 4th would be correct. As the driver paid, the "breach", (failed to pay within X minutes), happened on the 3rd May. 

Trainerman

I am confused. If I read that correctly, you paid on the 3rd of May for  12 hours, ending 11.47 am on the 4th. You entered the car park (allegedly) at 23.37.56 ( on the third). . It seems you took ten minutes to pay, so how much time is allowed?? The time to purchase would be less than that when finally parked, engine off and able to access app.

THEN the 'contravention' time is given as 09.30 on the 4th, and at that point you had more than 2 hrs paid time remaining. On that basis you must have a very strong defence to this scam  invoice.

porridgestation

You were offered a ‘contract to park’ and you paid, fulfilling the contract offer. You have evidence of payment, you left prior to expiry and this parking company has absolutely no proof you committed any breach of parking.

Appeal it, then you’ll absolutely win at POPLA if Excel Parking behave in a childish manner as they will have evidence it was not issued correctly by way of payment invoice.

Most likely the payment processor (Pay by Phone, nothing to do with Excel Parking) never sent on the authorisation you paid to Excel Parking.

You won’t be paying anything. You’ll be winning at appeal or POPLA.

muffingg

Thanks everyone for your comments. I see what you're all saying:

Since the period of time which I didn't pay for was the first 10 minutes so on the 3rd, the penalty note seems wrong because it says not paid until 9am the following day.

Could it be that for some reason, it failed to register my payment altogether?

Or is it giving the time until 9.30am because the only evidence they have is of me entering and leaving (they don't have evidence of me not paying in the first 10min).

In any case, I'm really stuck on how to proceed. Is it fair to assume the payment didn't register at all?

muffingg

porridgestation said:

You were offered a ‘contract to park’ and you paid, fulfilling the contract offer. You have evidence of payment, you left prior to expiry and this parking company has absolutely no proof you committed any breach of parking.

Appeal it, then you’ll absolutely win at POPLA if Excel Parking behave in a childish manner as they will have evidence it was not issued correctly by way of payment invoice.

Most likely the payment processor (Pay by Phone, nothing to do with Excel Parking) never sent on the authorisation you paid to Excel Parking.

You won’t be paying anything. You’ll be winning at appeal or POPLA.

That sounds very reasonable. My only concern is that their counter-argument is probably going to be: "You were supposed to pay within the first 5 minutes after entering, which you didn't do, so you need to pay a fine".

Also, what's the process to take this forward and what do I need to do next?