Failed Appeal

carolann312

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82100156#Comment_82100156

There isn't a barrier at this hospital. The camera sees when I enter the car park and then I enter the car reg into the machine when leaving and the charge for the time spent there is taken from my card and the machine took £1.

carolann312

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82099952#Comment_82099952

I have contacted Patient Relations and they have passed my email to Car Park Queries. No barrier system just a ticket machine and ANPR cameras. I put in car reg number, presented my debit card and the machine took £1.

GrannyKate

It will be interesting to see what they come back with. Machine will calculate charge (according to what is on website) and you paid that. If they come back and say you need to appeal to parking company go back to Patient Relations and ask them to escalate this as a formal complaint to CEO - they need to explain why the machines installed are not operating in line with the parking guidance on their website.

The website says:

All visitors and patients must enter their vehicle registration details into the pay stations before leaving the site, where they will be notified of the charge.

GrannyKate

I tried to adit to include this but not sure if it worked or not

The website says:

All visitors and patients must enter their vehicle registration details into the pay stations before leaving the site, where they will be notified of the charge.

Le_Kirk

I tried to adit to include this but not sure if it worked or not

@GrannyKate it did. There were quite a few of these issues all over the forum a while ago where posters were saying they input their VRM expecting the PDT to calculate the charge based on their entry time but were told it was £1 (or whatever the minimum fee was) only to discover they should have remembered/guessed when they entered and calculated their own fee! A trap if ever I saw one!

Coupon-mad

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82101578#Comment_82101578

The OP's PCN is proof that this sneaky 'pay on exit' system clearly doesn't calculate the time on site.

IMHO the parking firm has told the hospital one thing but installed another (a system that puts the burden on the driver to remember hours later, what time they might have passed the entry camera - guess - and change the hours with an unremarkable + button).

@carolann312

Read the blog I linked about the two systems. One is fair, one isn't.

You'll never have to pay this invoice because the terms are unfair: what you are presented with at the exit 'pay £1' is ambiguous at best, and certainly a trap.

Here's my post again because this IS what has happened:

Looks like the hospital thinks the system calculates your stay but UKPC have set up the other system, where the burden falls on the stressed consumer to remember (hours later after a fraught hospital visit) exactly what time they arrived.

The two systems were discussed in this blog years ago, by the Parking Prankster:

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.com/2014/04/bristol-eye-hospital-is-this-how-paid.html?m=1

GrannyKate

Yes _ I have read the old link. The strange thing about this one is that £1 is not a possible charge as minimum is 0 for less than 30 minutes then £3.20 for is first amount for up to 2 hours.

Coupon-mad

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82101800#Comment_82101800

Now that's odd!

I'll edit my post to make it clear that my advice was meant to be addressed to the OP, @carolann312