Parking at the NCP parking - entered a wrong code in the parking app.

dinth1906

Hi. A few weeks ago I took my 3‑year‑old daughter to a Railway 200 event at Upminster c2c station. We arrived at the car park about 15 minutes before the event, but by the time I had driven around and found a space (the car park is roughly 270 m long and 30 m wide) we only had about 5 minutes left to get to the event.

The NCP app I planned to use to pay for parking would not work. This was quite stressful because we only had a few minutes to get to the station, the car park was very busy, and there are no pavements or safe areas to walk or stand with a 3‑year‑old. Eventually I found a sign saying I could pay using the RingGo app (there are a lot of NCP signs around the car park but only three or four mentioning RingGo for the whole site), so I used that.

Unfortunately, I made an honest mistake when entering the parking location code and pressed 6 instead of 9. The parking name was something like “Car Park B,” and I paid £7.58 for one and a half hours of parking, so I had no reason to think I had done anything wrong at the time. A couple of weeks later I received a letter from NCP asking me to pay a £100 parking charge.

I appealed, explaining that I had made an honest keying error, that I had been stressed trying to keep my 3‑year‑old safe in a large car park with no pedestrian areas, and that the NCP app was not working. I attached proof of payment from the RingGo app showing that I had paid, albeit under the wrong location code. NCP rejected my appeal.

I then appealed to POPLA and they have also rejected my appeal, with what looks like a generic response and a few photos of signs. I am now waiting for the final POPLA decision, but I have heard they usually reject appeals in cases like this.

Would it be realistic to win in court if the POPLA appeal is unsuccessful, given that I paid the correct amount for parking but accidentally entered the wrong RingGo location code?

Gr1pr

I doubt that it will actually get to a court hearing

Le_Kirk

Wait now for a flurry of debt collector letters, which the NEWBIE thread (fourth post) quite rightly tells you to ignore, then you will/may receive a letter before/of claim and possibly a N1SDT claim form; all explained in NEWBIE sticky.

dinth1906

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81907849#Comment_81907849

This is something different, as i was confident that they are reasonable people sitting in NCP and already admitted that i was a driver, pointing out that:
- I was getting late to an event
- Tried using their app to pay. Their app just doesnt work and crashes seconds after opening it.
- I was searching for other signs explaining how to pay via app. While the signs about season tickets or paying by SMS are every 10 meters, there are only 4 small signs about paying via app on the whole 270x30m yard + one at the entrance
- All of that while having 3yo holding my trousers on a very busy (and long - cars driving really fast) parking, without any pavement or refugee islands.
- Pointed out how utterly terrible those parking apps are - and i know what im talking about, as i am an IT Security engineer.
- And at the end i did pay, just for a different car park location, but clearly im not a case of someone trying to avoid paying.

I incorrectly assumed that my first appeal will be accepted by any reasonable person and i will just hear a thank you from them for the list of things they can do better.

Jame4ters

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/81908138#Comment_81908138

They aren’t reasonable people by any definition. Just sit back and follow the guidance on the “Newbies” thread

Coupon-mad

You should never have tried POPLA. Complete waste of time and it isn't fully independent.

NEXT TIME, COME HERE FIRST.  

Ignore the letters from DRAs

Still unsure that we are right? Just click on the words underneath the little red 'MSE link' in the small 'Parking Ticket Appeals' banner at the top of this page which leads to the MSE Guide to fight PCNs.

Same info is shown in both this forum and in that Guide, as regards the debt recovery letters being a futile stage and ignoring these demands being risk-free as long as you don't miss or ignore a Court Claim (easy to defend).

Consistent advice here is easy to find and not just from random strangers. The MSE Guide is official 'Martin Lewis backed' advice.

Ignore the threatograms. You are not dealing with reasonable people but they are easy to see off once you get a claim form.