Parking ticket fine

[Girlinblue]

So me and my partner went for a meal on Saturday 28th September. We bought a pay and display ticket for 2 hours and were there for 1 and a half hours. We received a letter yesterday which is a £60 fine, I appealed it this morning and sent a picture of the pay and display ticket plus a screen shot of the transaction on my bank statement.

The appeal has been rejected because it is computer generated and there is no payment against my reg plate. The rejection email states there may have been a “keying error” which I am assuming that means maybe I entered my reg plate incorrectly. I can’t find any number to call them to explain. The fact of the matter is that I paid for that parking. I am now being charged £80. I want to explain to someone that if they check their system they will see a reg plate the same as mine but maybe off by 1 letter or number because I must have hit the wrong key or something.

What’s should I do in this situation? Do I just admit defeat and pay £80 for a ticket that I actually already paid for, or would I get anywhere if I kept pushing back and didn’t pay it? I just don’t think it’s fair for me to be charged this when my car had a ticket in it for the duration of my stay and I haven’t done anything wrong apart from human error, but still paid! Does anyone have any advice and know how on earth I contact euro car parks? My fine was £60 but because I appealed it they’ve added another £20 as an admin charge 😢 I don’t have the money and feel like this is very unfair

Be very careful. The costs go up terrifyingly fast- and the companies are absolute vultures. Sad to say, I think you should just pay it.

I'm just the doctor. I didn't make the needle sharp.

You have a ticket for the period in question, and a bank transaction that confirms you did pay that, you didn't just pick a ticket up off the floor.

I would fight this - I'd want them to prove that I entered just one letter rather than their machine only registered one letter. They cannot prove this, at all.

Dispute, ask for their proof that their machine was fully functional and that you mis-typed (And if they claim you mistyped they are agreeing you did purchase a ticket, so they can hardly claim they're out of pocket!).

BlaiseBaileyFinneganiii, I don't see where anybody is angry at you, just disagreeing with what you're saying having had their own completely different experiences which is fair enough.

OP needs to go to the experts to read up (MoneySavingExpert), we're just in support of her not being bullied by these money-grabbing oiks.

OP... go to the experts and get reassurance for yourself.

OP... any of us here can say we are anything at all, that we have this and that professional experience. It doesn't make it true. MoneySavingExpert should be your next port of call.

Good luck and keep your nerve.

You can disagree all you like. I have worked for a significant period of time with all kinds of parking and penalty charges, both in the UK and overseas. I know what I'm talking about.

I've got better things to do than pretend I have professional experience in areas I've never worked in. That would be an utterly bizarre thing to do. (Although this is MN so possibly someone would!)

I'd love to have said this has clearly been issued in error. Unfortunately, I can't. And I can't in all good conscience advice a course of action that is almost guaranteed to fail.

I don't know what else I can say 🤷‍♀️

This would count as a "major keying error" under the BPA code of practice and the charge should be limited to £20 to cover admin costs only.

Yes, this is definitely worth looking into. They won't cancel the charge, but POPLA should support reducing the charge to cover administration only.

I'm sure if you appealed it would be a relatively straightforward fight.

What are the odds that two cars with a licence plate difference by one letter that's probably adjacent on the keyboard park there at the same time?!

While a judge might well agree, would you really want to go all the way to court on a point of principle? Or simply pay the £20 administration charge that the British Parking Association recommends its members charge for a keying error?

It's amazing how many people accept that this is a legitimate charge. Its the worst kind of profiteering and if it's not criminally wrong it's definitely morally so! Its really sad to see how accustomed we all are to companies treating their customers like shit. And I'm not criticising- if I was in that position I'd probably just pay because I don't need the stress that appealing it would cause especially when you know they will probably win. 😒

BlaiseBaileyFinneganiii, I wasn't posting to you I was posting to the OP.

You've posted what your experiences are. Mine are different and just as valid. I've won against every parking company who attempted to 'charge' me because they failed to follow the law.

I don't think anything else needs to be said. I think OP should seek expert advice and MoneySavingExpert board is where I would recommend.

I'm happy for you. I can't comment on your individual charges as I'm not familiar with the circumstances but I'm glad you managed to get yours cancelled.

If anyone on that board suggests to the OP that she has a case to have this rescinded, I'd be very surprised though. She has a case to have it reduced, but rescinded entirely is extremely unlikely.

Whether Parking Eye is behaving responsibly is another matter. They're certainly registered with POPLA and entitled to request your data from the DVLA. And there's definitely a breach of contract here for which they've stipulated the consequences of not making the proper payment.

Personally, I'd let people off for this kind of thing but it's not my decision.

yes you are right, I received an email which said I owe £20 and I assumed this meant on top of the £60 charge, but it looks like it’s instead of!

Thanks so much for everyone’s advice, just to give an update I had another look at my rejection email once I had calmed down and stopped getting angry. It says my appeal has been rejected and I owe a £20 admin charge. I assumed this meant on top of my initial £60 because it doesn’t say anywhere that the initial charge is removed or reduced, it just says my appeal was rejected. But right at the bottom it says once the £20 has been paid, the issue will be marked as resolved. So I guess that’s all I have to pay now

I'm paying attention all right.

GroupNexus illegally tried to extract money from me and didn't respond to my protests in spite of my providing proof that they were in the wrong. Their signs had "2hrs free parking" in large letters and everything else (including penalties) in a much smaller font.

Spookily, they finally responded when when I informed them that they had illegally harvested my data and that I intended to countersue for harassment.

Do nor pay this!

Linger comment coming

Or just RTFT...

You just don't pay it and take it to tribunal.

to be fair OP

you had even totally missed that or only said “D” for the reg and you were convinced that you’d only missed one digit

i’m on the edge of my seat

i’m still not over DVLA selling driver details, without our permission.

Why were you so convinced that you’d only missed one digit?

GroupNexus tried to charge me because I had the temerity to visit a store one day and then nip in and out again the next day - the so-called "double dip" scenario. This was in a retail park which allows 2 hrs free parking. It is very well known that ANPR tech is flawed, which is why the firms which use it are supposed to have a human operative check all the footage.

According to GN, I was parked at the store for more than 23 hours.

On the one hand, you say that you've never seen anyone getting a parking charge for briefly entering a car park. On the other hand, the MSE forum is full of instances of just that plus the double dip scenario that I experienced.

I wasn’t convinced. If you look back at my replies, someone asks me if I typed it in wrong or not and I said I don’t know, I only assumed that was the case due to their reasoning of a keying error. I have only just got this car and don’t know the reg yet and had my husband stand and read it out to me, so I know I typed it all in. I wouldn’t have just typed in the letter D and left it at that