Smart Parking

Little_Miss_Frugal

I received a PCN 27/12/24 from Smart Parking for a failing to pay for parking on the 08/12/24.  We had entered the car park drive round 3 times looking for a space but it was full so left and found another car park.  Unfortunately we were in the car park 12 minutes and didn’t realise you’re give 10 minutes grace to park.  

I appealed the notice online and received confirmation of appeal 29/12/24 by email, stating all action has been suspended and if unsuccessful, the PCN will revert to the amount outstanding at the point of appeal and payment terms would be extended.  I have received nothing further, until last week when I received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus requesting £150.  It is my mistake as I didn’t realise we only had 10 minutes to find a space but it’s the fact I’ve not been given a right to appeal further and they’ve just added all these additional charges.  

When I appealed I did not confirm or deny who was driving.
From looking round the forum it appears this is a common theme with this company and I’m not sure what I can do…to be fair it wouldn’t bother me paying the original £40 as I was in the wrong, but £150 is daylight robbery! 

Gr1pr

Go to the BPA AOS members list and look at Smart Parking on the list 

Complain about the lack of a cancellation or a rejection with a popla code to the appeal you made,  stating the pcn reference,  the VRM details and the date of the suspension etc

Ignore the powerless debt collectors letters 

Ps, it was a consideration period,  not a grace period 

Nothing was your fault 

Coupon-mad

Same as all these:

Something of a pattern, eh?

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6524829/smart-parking-no-response

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6524609/smart-parking-major-keying-errors-appeal-no-response-debt-recovery-plus

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80511826/#Comment_80511826

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6503076/smart-parking-not-responded-to-appeal

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80511533/#Comment_80511533

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80719312/#Comment_80719312

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6514685/smart-parking-pcn-not-received-escalated-to-debt-recovery-within-a-month

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6513559/smart-parking-notice-and-debt-recovery-plus

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6506021/smart-parking-and-debt-recovery-plus

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80514282/#Comment_80514282

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6489447/smart-parking-ltd/p1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6489424/smart-parking-didnt-responded-for-appeal

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6525173/smart-parking-penalty-error-and-now-debt-collector-letter

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6488533/smart-parking-never-responded-to-appeal-bpa-won-t-help

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81368746/#Comment_81368746

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/80760230/#Comment_80760230

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81368746/#Comment_81368746

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6553698/smart-parking-ltd-parking-charge-notice/p1

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6568195/smart-parking-again

I suspect this might be DR Plus causing it.  Smart have blamed DR Plus before. I suspect they do the back office appeals for Smart and just deliberately or negligently, they (or Smart) drop the ball in a lot of cases and overlook appeals.

Smart Parking had a similar 'problem' once before, and had to admit it to the BPA. They blamed their debt collectors for sending the wrong letter first.  I saw the outcome from Steve Clark at the BPA.

Update from one thread above (sorry if any are duplicates, it's hard to stay on top of all these!):.
"Smart parking replied to my complaint today and have cancelled my parking charge.
It was due to a "technical error" that a response to my appeal was not sent."

Little_Miss_Frugal

Thank you for your advice, 2 weeks ago I sent a complaint email to Smart Parking and they have now responded to say:

After investigation, we can see that an appeal was received on 27/12/2024. This has been looked into by our appeals team and an appeal response was generated to notify of the parking charge cancellation however due to a technical error this was not sent, this has been raised to our technical team. 

Therefore we can confirm that the parking charge notice has been cancelled, and no further action is required.

I suspect there was no technical error and they try their luck.  They need to sort their systems out, what a bunch of clowns!

ChirpyChicken

thats good news, its so common

Coupon-mad

Little_Miss_Frugal said:

Thank you for your advice, 2 weeks ago I sent a complaint email to Smart Parking and they have now responded to say:

After investigation, we can see that an appeal was received on 27/12/2024. This has been looked into by our appeals team and an appeal response was generated to notify of the parking charge cancellation however due to a technical error this was not sent, this has been raised to our technical team. 

Therefore we can confirm that the parking charge notice has been cancelled, and no further action is required.

I suspect there was no technical error and they try their luck.  They need to sort their systems out, what a bunch of clowns!

Same excuse as in the thread I linked. Seems they haven't sorted out the technical error in months/years.