County court claim form by secure parking solutions ltd

smbx

So, I have submitted the AoS on time and adjusted POC without VRM on forum.
Solicitor filling claim is DCB Legal.

Regarding the Issue date by dcb legal ltd: the first one was 28.12.23 (notice of debt recovery) £170.
Then final reminder on 18.01.24. And final notice of debt recovery on 19.02.24.
Then notice of intended legal action unpaid parking charge £170 on 15.03.24.
And finally, Letter of claim dated 26.04.24.
after that it is the Claim Form for CCJ.

Gr1pr

We are asking for the issue date on the top right of the claim form, the date next to the claim reference number , which is the only date you didn't tell us, after the last sentence in your list above 

The claimant is Secure Parking Solutions, the legal firm is DCB Legal 

Also tell us the date that the AOS was done too. ( On time is ambiguous and so meaningless. )

smbx

AoS was done on 18th June.
''On 30.05.24 I received a County court claim form by Secure parking solutions ltd, date of issue is 30.05.24''. (from my first post). Is this not the date you are aft4er, please?

Gr1pr

No , nobody is interested in the date you received it , which would not have been the issue date on the claim form, so not the same day. The date you received it is typically around 2 working days after the issue date , those 2 dates cannot be the same date, its impossible 

The date we want is the issue date on the top right of the claim form, as I said earlier 

If it was issued on 30/05/2024 then you did not receive it until a few days later , in june , but nobody is interested in when it arrived 

So we are thinking that the issue date was 30 may 2024 and the AOS date was 18 june 2024

Not sure why you couldn't tell us just that sentence instead of mentioning when it was received. ?

So your defence submission deadline is in a week , so you better crack on with it ASAP 

smbx

Indeed, I did not receive it on 30.05.24...sorry
Issue date is defo 30.06.24. And Aos was 18.06.24. 
and I have till Tuesday next week, 02.06.24 for defense.

EDIT: to Gr1pr, oh dear. Ok. Thanks
Issue date is defo 30.05.24.
And Aos was 18.06.24. 
and I have till Tuesday next week, 02.07.24 for Defence.
Looking at template/forum for it.

Gr1pr

Lol, still incorrect, issue date was deffo 30/05/2024 , not 30/06 , so typo , and the deadline is 02/07/2024 , not 06

There is no s in the word defence, so change your keyboard to UK English, not USA, they cannot spell properly!

Yes, I made it Tuesday next week, 2nd July at 4pm , so get on with your draft defence ASAP 

smbx

ok so here's what happened:
On 02.08.23, my car was parked at Prince Pub car park, Walsall, shortly after 5pm for circa 60 mins. (The pub has been actually closed for a while I found out. So, no chance to appeal to car park owner sadly). I was myself new to the area and that car park seemed quick and easy enough for me to have a look at the shops. I never intended to stay long.

Because that was the option to pay for parking, I tried on the day to register with the mobile option on Ring Go web using the number provided but was unsuccessful: I was just not getting the 4 digit code back to register online even after several attempts. Because I was with my 2 children (one pres-chooler) I had to rush and didn't get the chance to register online assuming I would be able to do this and settle the transaction later given that the car park had captured my details in any case and would be able to retrieve them. 

However, when I tried again and registered online with Ring Go, I found out on their web chat option that it was not possible to pay retrospectively because a PCN might have already been issued and that I had to contact the owner of the parking site in Birmingham.

Then from home, I called (using a number found at the car park on their board) but the automatic voicemail message said they had 'no agents available' and gave me the option instead of emailing to an email address for queries such as mine. 

I then emailed on 07.08.23 and asked if they'd be able to let me pay my charge before a PCN was issued.

After successfully registering with Ring Go, I even thought about buying a random parking ticket despite not parking there but I wondered if this would confuse matters. 

When I tried phoning again, I had the same voicemail, at whatever time of day and whatever day.

Then I received a reply to my email from Parking Solutions Ltd saying: ''Payments are not accepted retrospectively for parking''. And that was that.

Unfortunately, the PCN then came soon after. 

smbx

After successfully registering with Ring Go, I did buy a random parking ticket (despite not parking there on that day etc) and explained it was to replace the ticket for the failed payment. 

Gr1pr

Ok, so we have a bare bones wordy witness statement that you can adapt in several months time ( probably next year. ), at the WS + Exhibits future stage 

So now let's see the first half a dozen paragraphs from the defence template thread once you have adapted them, same as everyone else, using either the template defence or possibly the alternative version if those POC overleaf are woeful 

smbx

And this was my POPLA appeal - now I can see these people have no hearts. I will carry on the appeal etc despite.

I have mitigating circumstances that I wish to be taken into consideration in the appeal against the parking charge notice xxxxxx dated 02.08.23:

 

1/I did try and register with the Ring Go App on my phone on the day but was unsuccessful. Consequently, I took the phone number xxxxxxxxxx and email address Info@secureparkingsolutions.co.uk as indicated on the signs in the car park and contacted the Secure Parking Solutions both by phone and email (see files attached). This was to explain the technical issues I encountered to register and pay on the day and hopefully resolve them there and then. My calls were to no avail as the phone number offers no agent available to speak to, whatever the time of the day, and there is no mean to leave a voicemail. Also my email message was flatly acknowledged with a standard and rather negative answer that did not seem to take my circumstances into consideration. It made me wonder about the point of having a phone number and email address on display in the car park if there were no constructive exchange of communications possible between customers and site owners/administrators. It all seemed uncustomary. 

2/When I saw your car park I found it attractive in the sense that it was easy access, with the quick facility and clear signage of price and method of payment. Little did I think that might a technical issue arise, the seemingly straightforward transaction would turn into a minefield or a trap even to penalise its customers: contrary to anywhere else I had to faff to be able to make a payment – something made easy everywhere else nowadays. Why don’t you offer technical support at the end of the phone? Your swift parking option seemed rather sluggish.

 

3/After the lack of support from you despite my communications with you on several occasions as specified above, I did inform you in the letter attached that I made further attempts to register on Ring Go app and successfully did, and made a payment for the amount that I would have had to pay had there been no technical issues, a payment of exactly £ 0.90 which is the fee for the length of time my car was park on 2nd August at the Prince car park, for just under 40 minutes. In other terms, I did pay for your services.

 

4/The £100 penalty/parking charge notice is excessive for a stay of just over half an hour, for a custom that constitutes a first offence on that piece of land, and for which several attempts were made to try and make the payment despite technical issues.

 

5/I am a law abiding citizen, and you can see that through the facts that I explained I had a technical issue, which I did try to resolve with your support, using all the means that you offered to contact you - support that I never received. I am however fully aware of your parking restrictions now and your functioning of your customs and, I will in no circumstances try and get any close again to your premises - since it means it might cause me so much trouble.

 

6/I work in a customer service role in Walsall. The digital divide is a reality. Everything has been going digital rather rapidly giving us hardly any time to keep up with systems' updates and our take on all the services that keep on joining to the race of becoming digital/online. My customers’ range spans from the digital savvy to the ones that are feeling totally left out. You cannot offer a service going all digital without at the same time offering the support to get customers up to speed with that digital service. Expecting all of your customers (especially new ones) to be 100% confident with the use of your digital payment system via an app on their phone, and penalising them when they turn out not to be that confident, is not reasonable and is not good custom. It leaves the impression that you are unhelpful in the process of everything going digital and, willingly or not, predatory in your methods. I would like to urge you to consider reviewing your methods and offer more support to your Community in closing the gap in the digital divide by at least offering support to your new customers wishing to make use of your car park – ie. offering telephone support for instance.

 

7/I understand these fines and their rather high amounts have a useful role as deterrent to ensure unscrupulous people do not park their car for an unreasonable amount of time without paying the amount requested and possibly repeat such offence. But such method can backfire and discourage perfectly honest customers who, by no fault of their own, attempted to genuinely make use of the carpark as a trade customer but failed due to a digital technically, for which they did try to reach the car park owner and administrators but their attempts remained unmet or unanswered. The latest might very well reinforce the message that custom here is not sought and the customer will take it elsewhere, which I am sure is counteracting the object of this car park placed at proximity of a central and very busy commercial area, including the bus station, Tesco, the Hat Museum, and more. 

 

8/More personally, I am new in the area and was shopping for summer gear for my two accompanying young children before going away with my family that evening; I was pleased to find such car park near lots of amenities that I had not visited before. I would like to think that I will be able to come back and park there without having to remember such unpleasant experience as this parking charge notice, especially since that I now know and master the Ring Go App!

 

Now you can shoot..

I am willing to learn.