Assumed I'd paid, then received a PCN

violetfemmes

Hi all,

I'm after a bit of advice please as I've spent hours going through the forums and can't find an issue the same as mine (and I've read the newbies section and appreciate that a PCN is a PCN and we're all in the same boat), or I can't word the search terms to be specific enough to get a result. Also I can't find any mention of a PCN at the same location.

I attended a football match at Loughborough University. After parking I went to the stadium entrance and never saw any signs to say you had to pay in the car park (admittedly this isn't the issue). I've attended football matches there several times in the past and never had to pay before so it wasn't something I was actively looking for, it appears that parking charges started in late 2023 and this was my first visit since then.

When I got to the turnstile there was a board stating that you had to pay to park (I'm fairly certain the charge was £1, it could possibly have been £2). The board had a QR code which I scanned and I went through the process of paying for parking, inputting my VRN and using face ID to pay through Apple Pay. My daughter who was with me said that she could remember me going through the process. I didn't think any more of it and assumed I'd paid for parking.

Jump forward two weeks and a letter arrives at home with a £25 PCN. I went through all of my bank statements and no money had gone out on that date. I contacted by bank who said that there were no failed or pending transactions on that date. Finally I checked the history on my phone to check that I hadn't dreamt it, and there are four entires for the APCOA website on that date.

I have already appealed to APCOA stating the above, which I now realise was a huge mistake without coming here first but feel free to ridicule me over that, and that appeal has been rejected. The rejection letter has now arrived and it has the option to pay £25 (increasing to £50), or appeal to POPLA.

My question is, is it worth appealing to POPLA with the same info as above (my only evidence is a screenshot of my browsing history), or would that be futile.

Sorry it was a bit long winded, any advice would be very much appreciated.

Thank you

Gr1pr

I believe that you actually received an NTK PCN for £50 from Apcoa,  not £25 ,  ( it had an early settlement figure of £25 for prompt payment, so 50% off as a discount  ( it doesn't go up, but the early settlement figure expires   )

If Apcoa didn't receive the money then I believe that both appeals would be denied,  so unless you won on poor and inadequate signage and no landowner authority etc, nothing would change 

Apcoa are extremely unlikely to sue so it may be wise to ignore them and ignore any debt collectors letters too

Coupon-mad

You have binned the 100% win the keeper had. That's a huge shame because it was nailed on and APCOA couldn't have won at POPLA.

But you can still try POPLA based on the usual points in post 3 of the NEWBIES thread, or just ignore APCOA completely. Nothing happens.