Euro Car parks machine produced a ticket and conned me into thinking I have paid!

stop_robin_customrs

Hi
I need some advice regarding a fine from Euro car parks (ECP).  The letter to the CEO Below explains the full details.  I appealed to POPLA and they took the Parking company's side in a reply riddled with errors!  I have informed them (EPC & DRP) that I will not be paying the exorbitant costs which they are seeking (Debt Recovery Plus (DRP) at £170 threatening to go to £280 if I do not act and pay up) I have written to them and the company (ECP) and asked that they take this matter to court as I intend to fight this, in my opinion, it is their system which is at fault as I clearly have attempted to pay for my parking and have been dupped into thinking the payment has gone through with a ticket being produced, which I later found was not a ticket as it stated void (in small letters) on it.  Please can anyone tell me and let me know  if I have a case to defend here?  Thanks

Email sent to the CEO:

I write to you as a regular customer who has used your company dozens of times over many years.  I live in Manchester and when visiting the city centre, I always use your Browncross street site and have done so for years.  Early in April this year I used the parking as usual and was shocked to discover a parking charge notice which I received on the 15th of April.  It was a demand for £100 discounted to £60 if paid in a 14 days period.  This was issued because it claimed that I had not paid for the parking.  Being sure that I had, I check my car and found the ticket (please find attached) which I had collected on the day and displayed.  Upon closer inspection of the ticket, I was further shocked to discover that it stated in small letters the word "void" on it.  I wrote back contesting the charge, based on the fact that, on the day I recall that the ticket machine continuously failed to charge me and after several attempts finally it proceeded as normal to the end of the transaction and took me through the card payment process and produced a ticket.  It was after having received the notice that I realised that the ticket was not a ticket!  You see in all the years which I have used this site, I have always just paid and displayed and have never had occasion to encounter such a problem, so I assumed that if the payment had not gone through, I would not be presented with a ticket.  

As the CEO of the company, I would like to bring to your attention, this crucial factor, if the payment fails why does the payment machine, then produce a ticket?  Why does it simply not just take the customer back to the beginning of the process as it did several times on the day, with no ticket being produced?!  This has to be changed, I as a loyal and law-abiding customer, used your facility as usual and did what I have done for years, that is, use the payment machine to pay, which I clearly have attempted to do based on the evidence, only then to discover later, that the ticket produced is not a ticket!  Never having encountered the problem with the pay machine, naturally as usual, I considered it to be a genuine record of a payment made, totally unaware that this process of producing a receipt is also a way to let the customer know that the payment has not happened, despite the initial attempts clearly failing to produce this receipt!

 I wrote to your company explaining the issue and raising the point of contention regarding the totally misleading manner in which the system can dupe the customer who has gone through the normal process of operation to pay and received a ticket.  They replied back rejecting my defence which did not address one issue which I had raised and began with the words "Having carefully considered."  If careful consideration was given, then at least one of a number issues which I had brought up could have been addressed and replied to.   In the reply I did state that as I had clearly attempted to pay but due to the errors by the machine and the production of the ticket which had confused me into thinking payment was made as normal, I offered to pay the full cost of the parking price, which I clearly had attempted to do on the day and thought I had!  This was clearly not accepted and no rational reasoning was put forward, to ameliorate a situation with a regular customer of many years, to reflect the fact that this situation would not arise if the machine simply does not provide a ticket when payment has failed!

 I would therefore respectfully request that you intervene in this case and to overturn this injustice, since as a regular customer, I have demonstrated that I genuinely did attempt to pay and was misled by the machine in producing this ticket.  This I assume is a problem that many others would have encountered, therefore, respectfully, I would also ask that you please consider the proposal that no ticket is produced by the machine unless full payment is taken.  This will ensure that genuine law-abiding customers who genuinely have/attempted to pay are not bamboozled into thinking that they have, preventing customer dissatisfaction, such time wasting for all involved and most importantly maintaining a reputation of genuine customer care and service.  Unfortunately, the reaction to my communication from your company has certainly not displayed this and I hope that you will intervene and allow sense to prevail and right this wrong.  I genuinely thought I had paid based on my regular routing at this car park. I would not be put in this position, if the payment machine had simply not produced the ticket/receipt making me think that as normal this was proof of payment.  Neither I nor you as a company should be confronted with this position, which will not occur again with no receipt unless payment has been made.  I have raised this case with POPLA and will take it to a magistrate court if need be, but I hope that you can step in and prevent this becoming a big mess over this genuine and unintended situation.   I look forward to hearing from you at your convenience and I have included all details of the parking charge notice below.  Please do let me know if you require any further information.

 

elsien

There are less long-winded ways of going about this. 

if you read the newbies, it is standard practice for defences to be rejected at this stage.
Other  people will be along in due course to tell you how likely they are to actually get to the court stage. 

Coupon-mad

 I appealed to POPLA and they took the Parking company's side in a reply riddled with errors! 

Please post that decision in POPLA Decisions at the top of the forum, stating which parking firm and adding ten or twelve paragraph breaks before you post the comment (please don't post the POPLA wall of text 'as is').