Smart Parking - rejected appeal

JehutyPrime

(Re-posting as I’ve committed a faux pas in responding to another thread)

I've had my first run in with these morons. Paid for a week's parking at the hotel I was staying; entered my reg no the tablet at reception; received multiple parking fines. Sent them the invoice from the hotel detailing my payment for parking; they refused to acknowledge it and told me I had to appeal. Each ticket. Separately. 

I did so and they rejected my appeal - despite acknowledging I had paid - because their system had no record of my reg number that is apparently on me. "This is the responsibility of the motorist to ensure that their full and correct vehicle registration mark is registered on the tablet provided".

Well I entered my reg number; I really don't see how I could have done more than that - there is no verification process and certainly no information stating that an incorrect reg number or system error will result in parking charges being issued.

These guys have been abhorrent at every turn - the person I've been exchanging emails with has never identified themselves and takes about a week to respond and has that smug air of someone who feels they are confident they are untouchable and can therefore behave like a scumbag.

I've got a fair amount of free time so intend to dedicate myself to making their lives as difficult as possible. So far I have:
Registered a complaint with the BPA
Registered a complaint with Trading Standards
Emailed the hotel chain HQ explaining this company is costing them business (their reception staff - bless them - are also appealing the ticket on my behalf ans said that they AS STAFF regularly receive parking fines they have to appeal)
I also found their CEOs (Paul Gillespie) email - paul.gillespie@smartparking.com Given how rotten this company is, I fully expect the rot starts with him; but I'll email him anyway, maybe some of you would like to do the same?

I'm considering setting up a website for Smart Parking victims to register their experiences; I'd ideally like build out a picture of all their sites where they have contracts to lobby every site owner, see if we can't lose them some business. Would be keen to get people's thoughts on this. 

Grizebeck

Complete and utter waste of time
Just use the winning smart appeal
End off
If you chose not to use it then you risk getting a court claim time any time in the next 6 years 

Coupon-mad

I agree with @Grizebeck

Just use the single line POPLA appeal used especially for Smart. Do it for every PCN.

JehutyPrime

Coupon-mad said:

I agree with @Grizebeck

Just use the single line POPLA appeal used especially for Smart. Do it for every PCN.

What is the single line appeal for them? I’ve been looking through some of the 69.7k hits you get when you search “smart parking” on here and it’s a fair amount to get through.

I’m certain it’s a stupid question, so apologies in advance.

JehutyPrime

Grizebeck said:

Complete and utter waste of time
Just use the winning smart appeal
End off
If you chose not to use it then you risk getting a court claim time any time in the next 6 years 

Under what circumstances is that likely? (genuine question, as people on here seem well informed). I’d read elsewhere that they are unable to enforce their “invoices” or to instruct debt collection, so would that court threat only be if they were inclined to try and sue me for their £300?

I’ve read dozens of posts on here about them stretching back to 2013 but haven’t come across anyone actually being on the receiving end of legal action. They seem to operate a similar business model to spam emails - low effort high volume and bank what they get sent but never put any real effort in.

Coupon-mad

Certainly don't search for just the name of the parking firm...you'll get nowhere with that!

Try adding POPLA landowner to the search.

JehutyPrime

Coupon-mad said:

Certainly don't search for just the name of the parking firm...you'll get nowhere with that!

Try adding POPLA landowner to the search.

Thanks for the help with refining the search  - it certainly reduced the number of hits (4.9k initially, reducing further to 500 by adding “single line”). 

The first dozen I checked have appeal text running to thousands of words; so unfortunately I don’t appear to be any closer. Any chance you could give me the single line version on here?

Grizebeck

The operator does not have a contract at this site to issue pcns

JehutyPrime

Grizebeck said:

The operator does not have a contract at this site to issue pcns

Wow. It’s that simple?! 😂 Thanks very much for posting it.

This is a universal argument I’m guessing? I’m not risking POPLA rejecting the appeal because it turns out in this particular case they DO have a contract at that site?

JehutyPrime

Looking on POPLAs site, there is a case study which further supports my situation where Smart Parking should have taken more care to identify my reg number - and if it's not there at all we're looking at a system failure. I can't post the link as a newbie but it's keying error scenario 2 on the first page of their case study section.

Is it worth throwing that in for good measure or will it just muddy the waters?

Gr1pr

You should do whatever you feel is warranted, its your case 

You should bear in mind that the knowledgeable people on here avoid getting PCNs, so never have to appeal to parking companies or Popla, we certainly wouldn't trust scenarios written by parking companies, trade bodies and popla 

The one shot appeal by Grizebeck seems to work, don't ask why, only Smart know the details and never tell anyone ( its a secret, like the recipe for coca cola. )

If you want to add the other point or more, put them after the single sentence point , or don't