Smart Parking PCN - Appeal rejected

pja75

I'm finding all of the information on here quite overwhelming, and was hoping someone could help me make sense of my best next steps.

On February 15th, I was with family when we parked in the Fiveways Multi-storey carpark in Birmingham. Both my dad and my brother attempted to pay via the Ring Go App, but both had an error message come up when they attempted to pay. I tried, and although I also got the error message, I did get a notification from Google Pay that I had paid £9.25. Happy that one of us had paid (though we were actually suspicious that maybe all three of us had), we left to continue our day.

A few days later my dad (registered keeper) got a letter with a £100 parking charge from Smart Parking. When I checked my bank to get my proof of payment, I realised I had a refund from Ring Go, for some bizarre reason. I'd not noticed it, because I of course wasn't expecting to get refunded for my car park payment. Frustrated, I sent off my screenshot of the error message (I thought ahead for that one!) and my screenshot of payment/refund, and appealed the PCN.

It came back a few days ago with a rejection. Their reasoning being: "Our payment system confirms that no payment was made for your vehicle registration for the 147 minute the vehicle was on site. The signage clearly advises motorists to enter the full correct vehicle registration into the payment machine to ensure that payment is made to cover the entire duration of the vehicles stay on site."

It feels like they didn't even look at my explanation, because as far as I was aware when I walked out of that car park, I had paid. Surely I have proof that it was reasonable for me to believe I had paid?

Unfortunately, I found this forum after the first appeal, and I am not sure I helped my case with what I put in the appeal. Here is exactly what I wrote, with personal details redacted:

On 15/02/2025 I was a passenger in my dad's car when we parked in the Fiveways Multi-storey carpark in Birmingham (B16 8BB).

After parking, we made two attempts to pay on the Ringo app. My dad and brother both received an error message, so I tried. I also received the error message, but afterwards I got confirmation that the payment was complete. We were actually concerned that we might have paid multiple times, but confident that we had confirmation of payment, we left.

I believed that I had paid for this parking session until we received the parking charge notice today. Having looked on my account, I can see that the Ringo app refunded me the money, presumably in error.

Clearly I attempted to pay this, and believed that I had. I took a screenshot at the time of the error, which I have sent to you. Never did we have any intention to park there without paying, and we are more than happy to pay what we owe. However, I do not think we are liable for this parking charge as we had no way of knowing that the payment hadn't worked.

I'd appreciate it if you could consider this appeal, and help us rectify this issue quickly.

I didn't identify my dad directly as the driver, but I did refer to being a passenger in his car. Do you think this counts?

Regardless, I am not entirely sure of my next steps. I can't find any threads with people who have had a similar issue with being refunded. Is this case winnable, or do they have me over a barrel? I'm tempted to just pay the £60 and get it out of my hair, but I feel really upset that the appeal was rejected, I thought that any reasonable person would see that I did my best to cover our parking cost and truly believed I had.

Thanks in advance for any help.

Coupon-mad

Once you get the rejection letter you just send the usual one-liner to POPLA and it kills it.

Read any other Smart Parking POPLA thread. I'm not linking them (never do)!

Gr1pr

Presumably somebody has received a popla code   ? So who received it  ?  You  ?

The recipient should use the one liner appeal to popla based on the previous information by ChirpyChicken recently 

No contract to operate etc

Coupon-mad

Read some Smart POPLA threads.

So easy. One line.

pja75

Gr1pr said:

Presumably somebody has received a popla code   ? So who received it  ?  You  ?

The recipient should use the one liner appeal to popla based on the previous information by ChirpyChicken recently 

No contract to operate etc

My dad as the registered keeper got sent the rejection which includes the POPLA code, though it does acknowledge that the appeal was written on his behalf.

I keep hearing about the one liner but can't actually find it anywhere. Does this really always work, or just most of the time? I cannot afford to risk having to pay £100...

ChirpyChicken

Of course it works.

pja75

Ah okay, I found the one line. It feels too good to be true, but you all seem very confident this will work so I will give it a shot!

Gr1pr

No point asking experienced forum members for advice if you fail to follow it 

Nobody here is lying to you,  so you should trust the advice given

pja75

Sorry, I didn't mean to imply that I think anyone is lying to me. It really does just seem too good to be true and for those of us inexperienced it is a bit of a leap of faith, that's all. But I will appeal via POPLA with the one liner as is your advice

Coupon-mad

Tell us when it works within days!

pja75

Just submitted, will be sure to report back! Thanks all.