Parked with wrong reg for 17 minutes then realised and repaid - parking notice incoming?

bournejason7629

The driver parked today in an Excel car park and instinctively entered their regular car's reg on the machine and paid for 2 hours of parking (trying to control their young child distracted them slightly!). Realized 17 minutes later and ran back to the machine, paying with the correct registration number for an extra hour (so effectively paid for two hours for a car that wasn't parked there, and then for an hour for my car which was there).

The driver is going to call Excel tomorrow and try to explain, but is it likely there is going to be a PCN for this (apologiees if the  acronym is incorrect here)? They can prove that both cars are their own and for the initial reg car there will be no record on the cameras of it being in the car park during any of the period in question. The driver has also retained both parking receipts which shows the payment being made on the same card.

Many thanks in advance for any thoughts people can offer.

kryten3000

Don't bother calling them.  Wait and see if they issue a PCN.  Provided the right vehicle was only on site for 1 hour then there should be no PCN issued, but Excel will try anything.  Luckily you're here before receiving any PCN so won't be paying

bournejason7629

kryten3000 said:

Don't bother calling them.  Wait and see if they issue a PCN.  Provided the right vehicle was only on site for 1 hour then there should be no PCN issued, but Excel will try anything.  Luckily you're here before receiving any PCN so won't be paying

Thanks for the response. Will wait and see what comes of it, and if the driver gets a PCN then more details will be added.

Gr1pr

Any postal NTK PCN letter will come by post to the Registered Keeper,  not to the driver 

bournejason7629

Gr1pr said:

Any postal NTK PCN letter will come by post to the Registered Keeper,  not to the driver 

Apologies for incorrect wording. Should have stated the Registered Keeper.

Coupon-mad

The driver is going to call Excel tomorrow and try to explain

Absolutely not!

bournejason7629

Thanks. That was the driver's initial thought but has been corrected on advice 🙂

Le_Kirk

soldave said:

The driver parked today in an Excel car park and instinctively entered my his/her regular car's reg on the machine and paid for 2 hours of parking (trying to control their young child distracted them slightly!). Realized 17 minutes later and ran back to the machine, paying with the correct registration number for an extra hour (so effectively paid for two hours for a car that wasn't parked there, and then for an hour for my car which was there).

Adjust as above, as what you have written could be construed as you being the driver (only matters if the PCN - if it arrives - is not POFA compliant).

Car1980

Alternative opinion. Don't call Excel, but knowing them, I would cover myself personally and create the evidence. 99% chance they'll send you a PCN.

I would email them with this and you have evidence of reasonableness should you need it:

"I am the Registered Keeper of AB1 CD2, which was parked at XYZ car park for 58 minutes.

The vehicle QY7 ZX9 was mistakenly registered for 60 minutes, correct action was taken and then vehicle AB1 CD2 was registered for 120 minutes. Please update your records with this information. You have received a £10 payment for 2 hours whereas the vehicle was parked for 1 hour so you have made no financial loss, and the excess covers any admin fee.

Payment proof attached."

bournejason7629

Car1980 said:

Alternative opinion. Don't call Excel, but knowing them, I would cover myself personally and create the evidence. 99% chance they'll send you a PCN.

I would email them with this and you have evidence of reasonableness should you need it:

"I am the Registered Keeper of AB1 CD2, which was parked at XYZ car park for 58 minutes.

The vehicle QY7 ZX9 was mistakenly registered for 60 minutes, correct action was taken and then vehicle AB1 CD2 was registered for 120 minutes. Please update your records with this information. You have received a £10 payment for 2 hours whereas the vehicle was parked for 1 hour so you have made no financial loss, and the excess covers any admin fee.

Payment proof attached."

And your thought is to pre-empt any PCN by the Registered Keeper sending this though now?

Car1980

It's for any future court claim. Excel are litigious I'm afraid.

Doing this helps convert their claim of "you didn't pay for your car because you're a thief and it cost us money in admin" into "ok, you paid, we didn't lose any money, so our claim is now reduced to "you paid us wrong""

They'll ignore you and send you loads of debt collection letters, but that just makes them look more and more unreasonable.

And the main weakness Excel have is shooting themselves in both feet by looking unreasonable: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/ce83n7j7p6po