Charging my EV at McD and later stung with PCN - POPLA ref expired

AD_Holland

Hi
Thanks for all advice on this forum I have been reading through it. I want to start a BEV charging thread.

Briefly the facts are these:
I parked my e-Golf in an Instavolt charging bay in a McDonalds car park when I was on a weekend city break, and proceeded to charge it to 100%. This took 2.5hrs when I had a McD and visited the city. I did not see any clear mention that the Car park had a 90 minute limitation.

Later I received a PCN from UKPC in writing. Like a NtK.
So I appealed it online on their website, stating that I was continuously charging in the dedicated Instavolt charging bays (I naively felt my contract is with Instavolt, not with UKPC). I also complained to Instavolt.

So I didn't see any acknowledgement from UKPC over the next 3 weeks, I checked email, nothing. 

Then I went on vacation, and didn't worry about it further - either UKPC would drop it, or they would send me a rejection.(I know, my bad)
Unbeknownst to me, UKPC rejected my email by email only, and the email was in my junk mail (it was a no-content email with a url link to see online a document - which I subsequently loaded in late August. 

So having the soft rejection, I tried to appeal to POPLA online but - surprise - the POPLA reference didn't go through because it expired.

I have tried a few times to get UKPC to issue me with new POPLA reference but they ignored me, the one time they replied to my complaint, they stated that the time for appeals was past, just pay up to  ZZPS collection agency.

I have also written to McDonalds corporate (UK) to complain - got a courteous response but 'no' - deal with UKPC
I have also written to Instavolt to complain - they furnished me with a proof of charging evidence to use in my appeal with UKPC.

So I'm kind of stuck, UKPC won't give me a code for my POPLA appeal, and I feel like it wasnt' reasonable if I didn't get the 4 weeks to appeal to POPLA if they emailed me and it went to junk mail (I was also away for 3 weeks, but apart from that I would still have caught it in 1 week).

My contract was with Instavolt, I paid £19 for charging, I believe they have exclusive rights to monetize their 2 parking spots. I don't have a contract with UKPC (or at least, that's how I felt).

I'm ignoring the ZZPS for now whilst I try to get updated POPLA reference.

By the way I'm OK to contest this at the CCJ / small claims court if UKPC want to take it all the way there.

Any advice on Battery EVs legitimately charging in Charging stations being then levied with this extra charge / invoice, on top of what we already paid to the charging company?

thanks in avance,
- Edward

AD_Holland

Oh and some details:
The stay in the car park was for 2h 31 mins
And yes I've tried step 1) which is I've complained to McDonalds (but head office) and to Instavolt, both. I cannot find the local number for the McDonalds branch manager - doesn't seem listed, though I would call them if I could.

Keep_pedalling

I will let others deal with your penalty situation, but you were actually misusing the charger, you should never be sitting on a rapid charger for 2.5 hours, it is not fair on other EV users to hog a rapid for that long. An e-golf can take a maximum charge of 40kW which enables it charge a fully depleted battery to 80% in 40 mins. After that the charge rate rapidly declines but the last 20% would not take 1h 50m so your car must have been blocking the charger for some time after it had a full battery.

This is why some charge networks hit you with overstay charges. Tesla, for instance will hit you for 50p per minute for an overstay (£1 pm if the site is busy) In future if you are staying away and want to charge up for the following day use slower AC charge stations (aka destination chargers) which you can use for an overnight charge. These are usually considerably cheaper to use as well. if you have to use a rapid, charge to 80% only. 

Coupon-mad

AD_Holland said:

Oh and some details:
The stay in the car park was for 2h 31 mins
And yes I've tried step 1) which is I've complained to McDonalds (but head office) and to Instavolt, both. I cannot find the local number for the McDonalds branch manager - doesn't seem listed, though I would call them if I could.

Just ignore UKPC (per post 4 of the NEWBIES FAQS thread) and await the stage shown in post 2 of the NEWBIES thread. 

AD_Holland

Thanks for the feedback re: charging.
I will bear that in mind in future. 
In mitigation it should be noted that there are 2 charging bays, and I didn't see any other vehicle charging during that time. 
The McD Car park also, was about 10% full. It was a low-traffic time (Sunday morning).  So very unlikely I that I would block a space.

That being said, I won't sit in the DC charging spots like that again, point taken.

Car1980

Presumably there is no signage near the chargers.

Ignore Popla. You missed the code and there was probably a 50% chance they'd reject anyway. They're not as bad as the IAS, but still crap.

UKPC makes claims via DCB Legal and always discontinue anyway. You can either defend a claim, or get aggressive with DCB Legal after they send you a Letter Before Claim.

Keep_pedalling

AD_Holland said:

Thanks for the feedback re: charging.
I will bear that in mind in future. 
In mitigation it should be noted that there are 2 charging bays, and I didn't see any other vehicle charging during that time. 
The McD Car park also, was about 10% full. It was a low-traffic time (Sunday morning).  So very unlikely I that I would block a space.

That being said, I won't sit in the DC charging spots like that again, point taken.

Unfortunately these are the things that no one tells you when you buy your first EV, certainly car dealers in general give BA advice on best charging practices.