Smart Parking - Exeter

El-Nino_2 · 12 February 2018 at 11:32PM

My wife received a PCN from Smart Parking on 24 November 2017 starting that she had not paid the correct charge. We subsequently appealed this notice with the following email:

I am writing to formally challenge the above Charge Notice I received in your letter dated the 24th November 2017. I am refusing to pay this noticed based on the fact that I paid for a parking ticket on the 13/11/17, which you will clearly see from the attached picture, which evidences that The Range refunded me £1 for my car park voucher on the 13/11/17 at 11:45am. As my vehicle was parked well within the allotted time, as you clearly show in the photographs of my vehicle, that I arrived at 11:36am and left at 11:48am, together with clear evidence that I had a car parking ticket, please take this email as my formal response and evidence to prove that I shall not be paying the fine of £90 you are trying to impose as it is invalid. I was also under the impression that the court ruling of Parking Eye v Beavis case relates to a free parking car park and not a pay and display. For all reasons stated above, I look forward to receiving notification that the Charge Notice has been cancelled within 28 days.

A reply was received to this appeal on 28 December 2017 stating that Smart Parking were to uphold the original PCN. The reply also now stated that they acknowledged the evidence but we had actually entered the incorrect vehicle registration into the machine which was not mentioned in the original PCN.

This letter also included details of how to appeal through POPLA within the given 28 days.

However, on the advice of a family member no appeal was put through POPLA and we are now outside of the appeal process and today received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd stating the penalty was now £160 and should be paid in full by 22 February 2018.

My wife is now very upset about the whole thing and is terrified that it will go to court or leave her with a CCJ and is considering paying the penalty as we are hoping to get our first mortgage later this year and a CCJ would be a catastrophe to us.

She has visited CAB and been advised to contact the National Debt Line for assistance but I'm not too hopeful. Therefore can someone please provide me with some simply advice and guidance as to what we should do to avoid any more stress as we are currently contemplating paying the penalty to make it all go away.

Thanks in advance for any help!

KeithP · 12 February 2018 at 11:39PM

Disappointing that you let a family member swerve you away from PoPLA. This could easily have been won there.

What is that family member's current advice?

You are now at the debt collector's letters stage.

Post #4 of the NEWBIES FAQ sticky/pinned thread gives comprehensive guidance on how to cope with those letters.

Coupon-mad · 12 February 2018 at 11:41PM

on the advice of a family member no appeal was put through POPLA

Ouch that was dumb advice. Sorry, awful. We win at POPLA all the time v Smart.

My wife is now very upset about the whole thing and is terrified that it will go to court or leave her with a CCJ

They cannot get a CCJ against her, without the small matter of winning against her in small claims first! Not going to happen with Smart.

She has visited CAB and been advised to contact the National Debt Line for assistance

That is even more terrible advice than the family friend gave you. The CAB and NDL are utterly clueless about the scam of private parking tickets. She should never have gone to CAB, that was a waste of time. DO NOT contact the clueless NDL, we've even seen them appear on this forum and post useless and wrong advice.

They actually think these charges are 'debts' and do not have a clue about the scam.

What was the heinous crime, a one-digit mistake in the VRN, or a fault in their own keypad, maybe?

OF COURSE YOU DON'T PAY THIS!

Complain to the Store Manager. And complain to your MP. Have you watched the Parliamentary debate?

fisherjim · 12 February 2018 at 11:45PM

You don't have a "debt" or a "penalty" you paid to park but a scumbag private parking company is trying to scam you.

Take no notice of CAB they are totally useless when it comes to private parking charges, and you can ignore muppet debt collectors too.

Follow the good advice on here.

El-Nino_2 · 12 February 2018 at 11:50PM

Thanks for the advice and this is what was said in the reply to our appeal.

Incorrect VRM of ‘AOO8UWX’ means no payment assigned to correct VRM of AO08UWX’.

So they are talking crap as you only need to input final 3 letters in payment machine and as per their own letter they are the same as you don’t input all the VRM.

Do we go back to Smart Parking and appeal again on this new evidence?

Sorry all but wife has been trying to deal with herself and only just told me about it all today so I’m trying to play catch up.

Coupon-mad · 12 February 2018 at 11:57PM

So they are saying O and 0 are different, when they are not.

This is very clearly an unfair business practice (even the IPC don't let their nasty firms do this any more). You need to complain to the BPA (Steve Clark should get this trampled on) and your MP, as well as the Store Manager in no uncertain terms:

steve.c@britishparking.co.uk

Mr Clark reads this forum, please give him a link to this thread, and ask him to justify the 'O or 0' scam that even the IPC has moved to outlaw. On a UK numberplate they are THE SAME DIGIT.

NO phoning the debt collectors. Ignore those letters.

NO letting your wife pay.

NO contacting any CAB or 'debt helpline'.

Ask your wife to read this from one woman to another. We know what we are doing. This will be cancelled and would NEVER win in any court, not that Smart try court in England/Wales very often at all. Have you both watched the Parliamentary debate so you can see what MPs think of this scam?

El-Nino_2 · 13 February 2018 at 12:03AM

The daft wife says thank you very much.

So we will visit the store and make a complaint and notify them tomorrow as well as telling the BPA.

But what action do you suggest we take with Smart Parking at this stage in order to get this cancelled? Or will this happen through the BPA and store manager.

Coupon-mad · 13 February 2018 at 12:34AM

It will happen through Steve Clark and/or the Store manager I expect. If not then ignore the scam, ignore the debt collector drivel letters.

As a family, have you watched this for more confidence:

http://parliamentlive.tv/event/index/2f0384f2-eba5-4fff-ab07-cf24b6a22918?in=12:49:41

http://parking-prankster.blogspot.co.uk/2018/02/parking-bill-moves-to-next-stage-will.html

https://hansard.parliament.uk/commons/2018-02-02/debates/CC84AF5E-AC6E-4E14-81B1-066E6A892807/Parking(CodeOfPractice)Bill

Smart Parking were among those named and shamed last week(!), stick with it and watch it.

YOU have the moral high ground here, be confident and angry about being caught in the web of a rogue cowboy company (MPs' words in Parliament, must be true then!).

Tell your MP about your worries and about last week's debate, so he/she watches it if they missed it, and realises what this is about, and what an enormous con the entire industry plays out every day, impersonating parking fines and extracting money from ordinary shoppers and people parking at their own homes, place of work, hospitals, you name it, a protection racket exists there.

El-Nino_2 · 13 February 2018 at 12:59AM

Thank you Coupon-mad for your assistance and i have tonight sent an email to Steve Clark, our local MP and the store. So now i await their formal response and if i don't receive a response within the next week, i shall have no hesitation in contacting our local newspaper.

KeithP · 13 February 2018 at 1:09AM

Devonlive.com seem quite interested in Exeter parking:

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/almost-40-drivers-given-parking-805325

https://www.devonlive.com/news/devon-news/people-fuming-exeters-car-parking-1048359

Lydiaa232 · 23 August 2019 at 11:38AM

El-Nino wrote: »

My wife received a PCN from Smart Parking on 24 November 2017 starting that she had not paid the correct charge. We subsequently appealed this notice with the following email:

I am writing to formally challenge the above Charge Notice I received in your letter dated the 24th November 2017. I am refusing to pay this noticed based on the fact that I paid for a parking ticket on the 13/11/17, which you will clearly see from the attached picture, which evidences that The Range refunded me £1 for my car park voucher on the 13/11/17 at 11:45am. As my vehicle was parked well within the allotted time, as you clearly show in the photographs of my vehicle, that I arrived at 11:36am and left at 11:48am, together with clear evidence that I had a car parking ticket, please take this email as my formal response and evidence to prove that I shall not be paying the fine of £90 you are trying to impose as it is invalid. I was also under the impression that the court ruling of Parking Eye v Beavis case relates to a free parking car park and not a pay and display. For all reasons stated above, I look forward to receiving notification that the Charge Notice has been cancelled within 28 days.

A reply was received to this appeal on 28 December 2017 stating that Smart Parking were to uphold the original PCN. The reply also now stated that they acknowledged the evidence but we had actually entered the incorrect vehicle registration into the machine which was not mentioned in the original PCN.

This letter also included details of how to appeal through POPLA within the given 28 days.

However, on the advice of a family member no appeal was put through POPLA and we are now outside of the appeal process and today received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd stating the penalty was now £160 and should be paid in full by 22 February 2018.

My wife is now very upset about the whole thing and is terrified that it will go to court or leave her with a CCJ and is considering paying the penalty as we are hoping to get our first mortgage later this year and a CCJ would be a catastrophe to us.

She has visited CAB and been advised to contact the National Debt Line for assistance but I'm not too hopeful. Therefore can someone please provide me with some simply advice and guidance as to what we should do to avoid any more stress as we are currently contemplating paying the penalty to make it all go away.

Thanks in advance for any help!

I am sorry to jump on a quite old closed thread but I was wondering if you ever managed to get anywhere with this? I am in the same situation where the machine printed a ticket missing part of my reg and smart meter could not provide proof that the machine was not faulty at the time, I went through popla but my appeal was denied and I am still getting 'warnings' through the post to pay threatening court action.

So I was just wondering if they backed off following your complaints and if I should potentially look to take the same action.

Thanks!

Smart Parking - Exeter

Comments

Confirm your email address to Create Threads and Reply

🚀 Getting Started

Categories

Is this how you want to be seen?

Get our FREE Weekly email full of deals & guides - and it’s spam-free