Alliance parking - provided evidence of my parking ticket, but are persisting with PCN

duggie_flash

Hi,

Warning, long thread, but I have tried to be as detailed as possible.

Back in August 2023, I parked at Promenade Car Park in Perranporth, Cornwall. I paid for the ticket and I displayed on the lower part of the dashboard, to the right hand side of the driver side (if that makes sense) in a Peugeot 5008.

I was sent a PCN in September 2023 by Alliance parking, saying I had not displayed it, with only two pictures of the front of the car.

I appealed, showing I had paid for parking, I no longer had the ticket as proof. But I never heard from them again.

Nov 2024, I receive a letter from Trace debt collection, stating I owe £170. I immediately email Alliance parking, asking them why this has happened.

Their response -

"Thank you for your email.

Please find attached a copy of the appeal rejection letter that was sent to the email address that you provided when completing the online appeal form. I have also attached a screenshot of our software confirming that it was successfully sent.

Your appeal was rejected because you did not display a ticket on the dashboard for inspection. 

If you have not had sight of the appeal rejection letter, it can only the case that you failed to add our email address to your contacts list, as instructed when you submitted your appeal; which would have resulted in the email either being sent to your ‘Spam’ folder or rejected by your email provider all together*.

* Some email providers discard emails from unknown sources rather than send to Spam; therefore, checking your Spam folder is insufficient.

May I also bring to your attention the wording on the Parking Charge Notice in respect of appeals:

'Please allow 28 days for the outcome of a valid appeal, please contact us if you do not hear from us within 28 days; do not assume that your appeal has been successful.’

I have searched our records and I am unable to locate any emails chasing a response to your appeal.

Your Parking Charge has been passed to TRACE Debt Recovery for payment collection; therefore, all matters relating to your Parking Charge(s) must now be handled by them"

I promptly emailed them back (November 2024) with the following -

"Thank you for the reply and thank you for the additional photos you sent, of which you hadn’t included in the original notice (why withhold?).

 The one picture I have labelled “passenger side view”, which hadn’t been sent before, you can see my ticket on the dashboard as instructed by your car park signage (in front of my glasses, driver side) , which I have enhanced and attached as “picture with ticket” for you to see.

 Which means it was in view and had your parking attendant been efficient and looked on both sides , don’t understand why they didn’t?, then you wouldn’t have wasted this much time on admin.

 For the Appeal rejection PDF letter you have only just sent (for which, may I add, I work in IT, that screen shot you sent is no proof of delivery and your email address was not blocked as I received the acknowledgment of the appeal from that very address successfully, so you did fail to send a response within your 28 day SLA as outlined in your “appeal response email” which again, reiterating, I received successfully). The claims contained within said PDF are therefore unfounded:-

 There is clear and prominent signage at this location ('The Contract'), which details circumstances where a Parking Charge of £100 will be incurred.

·         I paid for my ticket (I have already shown you the bank statement proving that, attached again for your reference “parking ticket transaction”) and displayed therefore I have abided by your contract , so no parking charge can be incurred.

 Our photographic evidence confirms that the vehicle was parked in a manner that incurred a Parking Charge

·         No it doesn’t, your withheld picture taken from the passenger side shows the ticket, enhanced and highlighted in attachment “picture with ticket”. Again, parked in accordance with your terms and conditions.

 Appeals must be handled in a fair and consistent manner, therefore, in order for us to cancel any Parking Charge; it is necessary for us to find that the Notice was issued in error

·         Wasn’t really handled in a fair manner, one you withheld a photo, two only a photo of the passenger side was taken, your attendant should check both sides, not just one.

 Therefore, I fully expect this to be the end of this thread and again thank you in advance.

 As instructed, I have also added Trace Group to this thread, so they can also prevent  further admin costs being unnecessarily incurred"

----------

Received a delivery receipt for both mail addresses -

The original message was received at Wed, 6 Nov 2024 20:38:07 +0000 from host-92-18-134-80.as13285.net [92.18.134.80]

   ----- The following addresses had successful delivery notifications ----- <info@alliance-parking.co.uk>  (relayed to non-DSN-aware mailer) <hello@thetracegroup.co.uk>  (relayed to non-DSN-aware mailer)

   ----- Transcript of session follows -----  <info@alliance-parking.co.uk>... relayed; expect no further notifications <hello@thetracegroup.co.uk>... relayed; expect no further notifications

-------------

Got an auto reply from Alliance, but nothing from Trace.

I then received another letter from Trace in January, I spent a good 45 mins in a queue waiting for Trace to answer. I was caller number 26, when I got to caller number 1, I received a message saying there was no one available to take your call.

 I emailed them again and had an automated response from Trace this time-

From: TRACE Customer Service [mailto:customerservice@thetracegroup.co.uk]
Sent: 03 February 2025 11:23
To:
Subject: Thank you for your email to Trace Debt Recovery UK Ltd

 

Thank you for your email to TRACE Debt Recovery UK Ltd.

We have received your email, and our case handlers are in the process of reviewing the correspondence. If appropriate, our case handlers will provide a response in due course.  

We must advise that our client may choose to withdraw the case at any time for litigation action.

This email has been generated automatically.

 -----

From:
Sent: 31 January 2025 12:24
To: Hello <hello@thetracegroup.co.uk>; info@alliance-parking.co.uk
Subject: FW: FW: Appeal for 473416
Importance: High

Addressing to both of you again, as you have failed to respond to my previous email below and failed to pick up the phone when I have called.

Thank you

----------------------------

It has been complete radio silence, until Tuesday this week, where I received a letter from Moorside Legal, stating "they have been instructed by Alliance Parking to recover the £170 charge" with more instructions on how to pay, but no contact details on how to contest or talk sensibly with someone.

Do I just make a complaint to the parking authority, this is just annoying me now and what I don't want to end up with is a CCJ, I also don't want to pay them £170, as I fully confirmed to their parking policy so feel I am being pursued unjustly. I know I am just another number to them and they don't care.

What options do I have?

Can anyone advise please.

Thanks

ChirpyChicken

You ignore trace and get a court claim in Due course
You don't phone these people or expect a sensible conversation 
You simply fight them in court
Simple.

fisherjim

Which "parking authority" are you expecting to complain to there is no such thing, these are unregulated private companies that are members of the IPC which will support them in anything they do, it's all a scam including the appeal, and the debt collectors are in on it too.

Never phone any of them they won't help or be bothered they only want money.

You only have a speculative invoice from chancers, the whole sorry set up is explained in the newbies thread on here.

Moorside are also bottom feeders you don't owe anything let alone the extra £70 they have lumped on which a judge would throw out if you lost anyway.

The only way to get any fair play is if the dimwits try a court claim with help from this forum.

Fruitcake

Debt collectors are powerless and can safely be ignored. The only thing they can do is send you poor quality bog-paper.
Never, ever 'phone an unregulated private parking company or any of their agents.

Plan A is always a complaint to the landowner and your MP, and it is never too late to do so.

Other than that you are in ignore mode unless you get a letter of/before claim or a court claim. Come back to this thread if that happens.

As well as the above, please help us by signing the petition below.

Bring the Parking Code of Practice into law, as per the 2019 Act of Parliament. - Petitions

duggie_flash

Thanks all, petition signed, if I get a court claim letter, I'll be in touch.

Coupon-mad

duggie_flash said:

Thanks all, petition signed, if I get a court claim letter, I'll be in touch.

That's better.  You wasted lots of time in this. Nobody phones PPCs or DRAs. Your account shows why!

Also it's Alliance Parking: they are NOT a 'parking authority'! Far from it. Search the forum! Run by an ex-clamper called Kevin I think. You took him and his nasty company far too seriously.

Promise us you WON'T try phoning Moorside Legal "to have a sensible conversation". That's not how it works with this rogue industry. We beat them in court.

duggie_flash

I promise I won't be phoning Moorside!!!!!!

ChirpyChicken

duggie_flash said:

I promise I won't be phoning Moorside!!!!!!

Good!
If they ring block their number

Bazarius

Place a similar ticket on the dashboard at the exact place you can see in Alliance’s photo evidence. 

Do a video walk round from a vantage point of a person head as if you were the parking attendant. 

I bet it’s clearly displayed . 

Same happened in an old case of mine .  BW Legal dropped the case after the defence and counterclaim was filed .  Defendant agreed to do a “drop hands” due to personal circumstances with family in Poland.

if you can prove that the ticket was displayed correctly, do a counterclaim- Alliance is vicariously liable for its staff member’s actions. Taking low angle shots from the front is not a true reflection of parking event alleging that no ticket was on display .