Stanstead airport drop off paid before arrival still got a fine

Reptile11

Hi, got a small problem. Paid for drop off Stanstead. We were dropping our 2 boys off at Stanstead  airport, running late with traffic and work finishing late. Decided to book Stanstead drop off. we did the same thing at Heathrow 3 weeks before, without problem. Poor mobile signal so my wife tried several times to book drop off. Have to accept terms and conditions to proceed. Eventually succeeded and then got confirmatory email. Payment was accepted and went through. Arrived late by about 3 hours.
A few weeks later received a fine for non payment. Apparently you have to pay after drop off not before! We were not aware of this due to poor mobile signal, and unable to scroll through pages of terms and conditions. They do a car recognition system so must have been able to see payment was attached to this registration, just earlier on. Anyone have any advice for appealing or success in appealing something similar.
Comments welcome.

Coupon-mad

Reptile11 said:

Hi, got a small problem. Paid for drop off Stanstead. We were dropping our 2 boys off at Stanstead  airport, running late with traffic and work finishing late. Decided to book Stanstead drop off. we did the same thing at Heathrow 3 weeks before, without problem. Poor mobile signal so my wife tried several times to book drop off. Have to accept terms and conditions to proceed. Eventually succeeded and then got confirmatory email. Payment was accepted and went through. Arrived late by about 3 hours.
A few weeks later received a fine for non payment. Apparently you have to pay after drop off not before! We were not aware of this due to poor mobile signal, and unable to scroll through pages of terms and conditions. They do a car recognition system so must have been able to see payment was attached to this registration, just earlier on. Anyone have any advice for appealing or success in appealing something similar.
Comments welcome.

Yes: 100% win as long as the keeper appeals as per the wording in the Airport Drop off Group thread (which I won't link. Go find it!).

la531983

A minor point, but please spell the name of the airport correctly in the appeal

Reptile11

will do  correct spelling lol 'Stansted'

ChirpyChicken

la531983 said:

A minor point, but please spell the name of the airport correctly in the appeal

The airport name is not used in the appeal , since that is not how the appeal text works
do not any story to the appeal just use the text as given please @Reptile11

Reptile11

Hi Coupon-mad, are you suggesting not to appeal by stating 'I did pay' first and see what happens?

Have  found a formal letter in Heathrow drop off 'Current advice re Airport drop-off PCNs' (by your good self), I presume this is the one. Seems very strongly worded, not quite what I was expecting. May need to persuade the other person who paid that this is a good idea.
If so, do I appeal by going to APCOA website via QR code and fill in the details, or send a reply to their postal letter, parking charge.
Sorry not done this for a long time and will be involving the person who paid originally.    

ChirpyChicken

No you never appeal parking charges @ airports using the "what happened on the day story"
I wrote the text and its supposed to be strongly worded, that's why its worded (what exactly were you expecting ?, these are parking firms we are dealing and they need dealing with in a certain way.  They should hardly needed persuading since it always works as shown by the people coming back and saying the ticket is cancelled
Just log the appeal for them as the keeper , use their email address and details and log it here
https://payments.apcoa.co.uk/

Coupon-mad

The keeper appeals online using the standard words. APCOA will fold.

James_Poisson

You are dealing with a greedy firm working a scam, they want you to fail it's how they make gullible people swell their profits chest, why would you show any weakness to them?

Reptile11

So just to be clear here, APCOA can only claim against the driver and not the registered keeper. So a reply not divulging who the driver was, is sufficient! Can the driver later be identified and taken to court. Bearing in mind that the vehicle was photographed on camera as well as the driver, and they have provided images.

Coupon-mad

Can the driver later be identified and taken to court.

No because it wins at POPLA (if you even need to do both stages, either way the PCN is cancelled completely) and APCOA never sue anyone. They are believed to operate only as agents. Stop worrying!