On the 10/03/2011 I parked at X Railway Station in order to catch a train to London. I had no coins on me and as it was 6am could not change my notes for coins in the ticket office. As a result I had to pay for my parking by phone. I was also in a rush to catch the train and so did this at the same time as retrieving my pre-ordered ticket from the machine.

As a result of this I made a tiny error. Instead of typing in the 4 digit code for X I got one number wrong and typed the code for Y station. This payment was accepted (I have a record of it leaving my account).

When I returned later that day I found that APCOA had given me a "Civil Parking Notice" for £80 (down to £50 if paid early).

I wished to query this so I telephoned them and spoke to a very reasonable man who assured me that my story would vindicate me as I had obviously acted honestly and with the best intentions, I had simply made a very human error. However, he told me that I had to appeal in writing.

I did this and my appeal was rejected.

Fine I thought, but I'm not letting them keep my £2.50 as well. Surely if they accept that as a valid payment (albeit for a different car park) they cannot also take a fine from me! They cannot have their cake AND eat it!? I wrote another letter requesting a refund. This has now also been rejected and they are still demanding £50.

They have also told me that "Should any further correspondence be received rearguing this matter it will be returned without comment".

What should I do? Many people seem to advocate ignoring these notices however I am wary of this.

Thankyou in advance,

S

APCOA is a Private parking company so just ignore and and dont contact them and dont pay seems to be the advice.

Others will follow this, I am sure, with Ignore Ignore Ignore!

Same with all PPC`s like NCP and Parking eye and the millions of others. I did!

Saved me hard earned cash and changed my anger to a smile when convinced!

so sent 10% of "dodgy fine" to help this website.

The thing to remember with these companies is that the so called appeal system is nothing more than a fishing exercise and should be totally ignored at all costs.

Simpy ignore future corespondence .

On a similar subject, If I get a ticket at Gatwick airportr from apcoa, can it also be ignored if they are employed by crawley council rather than BAA?

On a similar subject, If I get a ticket at Gatwick airportr from apcoa, can it also be ignored if they are employed by crawley council rather than BAA?

Did you receive one?

If you did, post it up with details removed, that will help us help you.

Jogs

Does it say

Penalty Charge Notice TMA 2004

Those are the ones you need to pay!

Jogs

No I didn`t but mate was close today. It`s just I think I read somewhere about private companies employed by councils etc would make a difference???

Wanted to know if to avoid like the plague or smile and collect another set!

Be very careful at Aiports as they are also governed by the Airports Act and normally Road Traffic Orders apply in all areas surrounding Terminal Buildings. Therefore it would be a Penalty Charge Notice and not a Parking Charge Notice that would be served.

ok thanks, airports are a law to themselves and an attitude to match...

Unfortunately I appealed to APCOA parking regarding my 'Enforcement Notice' and in doing so admitted that I was the driver. They have rejected my appeal. Can I still ignore the threatening letters or do they have a case against me as I admitted to being the driver.

Many thanks for any help

Hello neil. Just to let people trying help you know, I believe you have made the same post on your own thread.

It isn't likely to help you having duplicate posts. I'm sure your thread will have some replies soon.

My best, HB

I appealed too. dont worry just ignore it.

The name of the driver is a VERY SMALL part of the debate surrounding the legality of these invoices. IGNORE

can somebody advise me please?

my son received a 'Parking Enforcement Notice' London Luton Airport from APCOA in april

Today received a letter from Roxburghe Debt collectors stating it is a 'parking charge notice'.

does he akcnowledge it or just ignore it. As he is out of the country at the mo I don't want to do anything to give these vultures any leverage.

many thanks

Totally ignore

Thank you Crem. Thought that would be the case but just wanted to be sure. Many thanks

My car was parked at an APCOA car park next to a mainline station a few weeks ago and payment was attempted via text message, as had been done many times in the past and since. For whatever reason, the payment by text didn't go through. Two days later there was a "Parking Enforcement Notice" on the windscreen that said if the parking charge was paid within 14 days it "would be reduced to £40.00" (it didn't say what the non-reduced charge would be). I called APCOA the next day to explain the situation but was told I needed to put it in writing, which I did that day.

I didn't hear anything for a while until I received a "Notice to Owner and Final Reminder" from a company called Parking Collection Services, who stated they were acting on behalf of APCOA. This letter said that I now owed them £120! I called APCOA and they told me they had no record of receiving my letter (note that they didn't say they hadn't received it, just that they had no record of it being received) and that I had to deal with Parking Collection Services on the matter. LESSON: If you're going to send any written correspondence, make sure you send it registered post.

So I emailed and sent a registered letter to Parking Collection Services, for which I have proof of delivery. My letter requested a response within 3 working days of (recorded) receipt of the letter and I heard nothing back from them. Then over the weekend (over two weeks after Parking Collection Services received my letter) I received a letter from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd, which appears on the face of it to be a different company to Parking Collection Services although their addresses are almost identical. This letter now states I owe £140, which must be paid within 7 days!

If it were just me, I'd ignore this as unenforceable as advised elsewhere. However, the prospect of going through a debt recovery process has my wife extremely worried and so I really need to do something to sort this out. My instinct is to contact APCOA and explain the situation to them again and even offer to pay for the 2 days parking as has been done every other time the same car park has been used. In fact, over the last two years, I've spent almost £900 with APCOA with over £250 of this being via the text payment service! I'm not a crook trying to avoid paying for parking!

I'd very much appreciate any sound advice the members of this forum can offer!

@ macman

The best thing to do has been said numerous times in this thread already.

ie IGNORE IT.

They have NO POWER., only a court does, and they WILL give up.

Thanks oddjobber. That would be my approach, but the threat of a debt recovery process is making my wife sick with worry. I'm hoping there's something I can do that, while not acknowledging nor accepting their claim, means I don't have this threat hanging over us for the next few weeks.

Debt collectors can do nothing to you, stop worrying.

If you contact them in any way shape or form you just encorage them to send more letters.

If you IGNORE them they give up after only a few letters. There realy is NOTHING to worry about by ignoring them!

I speak from experience.

A debt recovery process must be based on there being a debt.

These people are not chasing a debt but a gift of money from you - albeit trying to make it look and sound both official and scarey to encourage you to make that gift.

They may say they are Bailiffs to really frighten people but a bailiff cannot act as a bailiff until it has been to Court and following that there has been a CCJ that was not paid within time limits. After that hollow threat they take paper out of the other stationery box marked Graham White Solicitor - who failed to show up the only time they tried going to Court. Although much huffing and puffing about Courts to frighten you even more, these people avoid Courts for fear of the publicity of it being found out the whole system in nothing but a money making 'skam'.

Read around some more threads for reassurance. Come back with any query and a "pep talk" when wavering!

Thanks SURFBOY. I'm willing to ignore it, but my wife certainly isn't. Would sending a letter based on one of the templates referred to elsewhere on this site (I can't post a link to the letter template thread for some reason) help expedite the situation, or risk making it worse?

no

ignore them totally.

get her to read this forum.

dx

Be very careful at Aiports as they are also governed by the Airports Act and normally Road Traffic Orders apply in all areas surrounding Terminal Buildings. Therefore it would be a Penalty Charge Notice and not a Parking Charge Notice that would be served.

the key to this is the words on the ticket

if it [ONLY] says:

Penalty Charge Notice

then its real

ANYTHING ELSE

its a PPC and can be ignored totally

dx

They are not interested in what you have to say and in my oppinion sending them anything will only encourage them to write to you further because they know they have got a "live one " who is on the border of giving them his hard earned money!

Ask your wife to have a read of this forum and lots of other internet forums, they ALL tell you to IGNORE.

Contacting them realy is a waste of your time and money.

Do some reading on this subject, the internet is a very informative tool.