It’s a parking fine one - thoughts please

[Purplecatshopaholic]

Ok, wondered what the MN hive mind thinks about this and if anyone has any knowledge on these matters.
I parked in an NCP car park. When I left, I put my registration number into the machine and a fee came up. I paid the fee asked, and left. A few weeks later I got a fine notice as i apparently paid too little. I had only paid for 2 hours when I was in the car park for 4. Presumably the machine had charged incorrectly as I paid what it asked me to. Should I be fined for this? If I bought goods in a shop that were incorrectly priced by the shop and I paid the asked-for price, I wouldn’t be fined would I? (Or would I?) I just feel a bit aggrieved and wondered what others thought.. I have appealed by the way but not heard anything yet….

You usually have to press a + sign to increase the number of hours to the correct total. Then the correct fee shows up. Just pay the fine - it's a fair cop.

I would say that all the ones car parks I have been to have a tariff showing. I know how longni want to park, and I know the tariff, so therefore know how much I expect to pay. If the charge is different, I would look for why.

In your case, I would expect that you would have seen the tariff, and that the charge was lower than you expected for the duration you wanted. This, it turns out, was a difference of 2 hours. As such, I think the mistake is on you, and that you should pay the fine.

I would expect the machine to charge me correctly if it's a pay when you leave car park.

Very different to paying up front and staying longer. Is it worth going back there and checking the info? Hope you win.

Hmm, it never occurred to me there might have been a button to press to increase the hours! There were no instructions to that effect, but that’s a possibility I guess….

The problem is, there are so many different car park payment methods that it’s almost inevitable you’ll make a mistake occasionally.
on Tuesday, car covered in snow, I entered a car park that reads your reg and you pay when you return to your car, put the reg number in and it tells you how much to pay. The machine wouldn’t recognise my reg. Luckily the man at the end of the call button said he’d let me through.
OP, you’ve encountered one of the machines that you have to increase the time you’ve been in the car part before it calculates the cost. You didn’t do so, therefore it charged you the lower amount.

Hope u win the appeal as that's very unfair. A lot of the time u just tap ur card. I've never heard of a machine that u have to manually increase the hrs urself. Kind of beats the purpose of getting a ticket and then putting it in for the machine to tell u a totally wrong amount to pay.

Yes it’s a pay as you leave car park, no tickets or anything. Your registration is monitored when you enter and when you leave and (I assumed) you are then charged accordingly. I am still not clear how I could have been charged the wrong amount other than through the machine making an error, and they haven’t explained why when asked….

I would appeal quickly . Where I live the parking machines come up with a number and then you do have to increase it if you want more time but it is more obvious than it sounds like yours was or maybe I am just more used to it. , but if not obvious on yours then appeal. I suspect there may have been a button but only you will know. I did go to a car park in the Lake District once and they did the - your reg no is taken on the way in and when you are leaving quite accurately.

You can’t increase the duration on a car park where you put the ticket in as you leave. That would require everyone calculating the entry and exit times plus the duration. How would that work for people with learning difficulties? Say you arrived at 8.47am, and left at 4.19pm? Nobody would stand in the Pay station of a car park calculating the amount of time you are there.

Those ticket machines are usually on pay and display car parks, not pay on exit car parks.

If you put a ticket in the machine on exit then the machine calculates the amount you owe, you shouldn’t have to work out whether it’s correct or not. You are totally right OP, not your fault at all.

Not on the type of pay on exit machine OP describes.

How long did it take you between paying and leaving?

We have an NCP near work that often has barrier faults which mean long queues of cars trying to get out. They have about a 10 min leeway between paying and actually exiting, after that sometimes when you put the ticket in to raise the barrier it says you haven't paid enough, you may have a slightly different system based on license plate recognition that prompted the ticket being sent to you.

Unless you took forever to get back to your car from machine or then sat in the car for ages before driving out, challenge it.

I’ve never seen a pay on leaving one like that- at any rate if that is the system then they have to put instructions to that effect on the machine.

@Purplecatshopaholic it’s bollocks but unless you have any evidence that you paid the full fee the machine asked for I doubt they will let you off. They aren’t known for being reasonable!

But if she hadn't paid the full fee that the machine had asked for, then surely she wouldn't have been able to leave?

Yeah, I think that’s unfair. Pay on exit means pay the amount it shows to me. Pay in advance - you control the time / fee you want.

That's when you pay in advance. Those car parks usually also give you the chance to pay on exit if you've stayed longer. Op was using a car park where it clocks the reg going in and tells you what to pay as you're leaving.

I'm going to update my post as I misread and thought this was a pay and display. Apologies @Purplecatshopaholic

If you were given a ticket on entry, and paid on exit, then I think you have a justifiable complaint.

Thanks all for your comments. I will update the outcome when I hear about my appeal, for info.

An update for those who responded..
I appealed to NCP who knocked back my appeal with no explanation, just ignored my queries and demanded money for a misdemeanour I felt was due to faulty machinery, ie not the customers fault.
I took it to POPLA (spelling?) the people you then appeal to. NCP make it very clear if you do this and lose your appeal they will charge you the full amount of the ‘fine’. My appeal was granted and the fine is cancelled. Yay! So I guess the moral is, don’t be railroaded into paying an NCP fine immediately - check they are actually allowed to fine you, and ask for answers. Glad I queried it now - I wasn’t going to bother and I would imagine a lot of people don’t.

Excellent news. Justice has prevailed. I guess they hear all sorts of excuses, but they should have given your case a little more consideration.

Purplecatshopaholic · Today 11:12

Good for you!

The simplest system is the one which some of the car parks in Newcastle have. You put your card in, after parking, along with your registration number, then put your card in again, as you're about to leave. No overpayment, or over-staying.

Have you ever heard of idiot tax?
We all do idiotic things which we are fined for, this is yours. Pay it and move on.

Just read the update.
Well shut me up! Good for you!

they have changed them all to apps to increase fines
When it happened to me I offered £6 admin fee to cover there expenses and they then cancelled it. Do not pay these insane fines - it is bullying and in no way reflects their costs.

They aren’t fines if on private property (not council). They are parking charges and are often not legally enforceable. It’s always worth appealing if you think they are on dodgy ground.