I received 2 parking charge notices from Excel Parking for alleged contraventions of their conditions.

The first was for parking on 15/05/2017 and the PCN issue date was 06/06/2017

the second was for parking on 17/5/2017 and the PCN issue date was 05/06/2017.

There is absolutely no question that the appropriate tickets were purchased, displayed correctly and we did not overstay their duration.

On one occasion my partner purchased the ticket and the other I did,

so it would be doubtful if we inputted the wrong registration number although as the last letter of our registration is O it may have been possible that we both inputted a 0 (zero)

I appealed these PCN’s (and may have implicated the driver i.e. stating the purchaser of the ticket) but they have both been rejected on the basis that no similar registration numbers were found in their system at that time.

Their ‘independent’ appeals service is IAS who I believe from internet searches are an ‘in house’ company which rarely uphold appeals.

I have now requested logs from the machine as I have now discovered (from another forum) that other people have had the same issue during that period in May 2017.

I now have only a few days until the 14 day dead line for appeals is up before they increase the charge from £60 to £100 for each notice.

If I can get any help on this forum which will help me sort this situation I will happily donate half the saving i.e. £60 to the forum fund.

Don't worry about silly deadline.

They have lost numerous times in court

Type in peel centre in the search CAG box in the top red toolbar

as you appealed you have thrown away the protection the law gives you if you have indicated that you were either the driver or the ticket purchaser.

If you said the ticket purchaser and spoke about everything in the third party you are safe as they cannot infer anything

Both of these claims were too late for the POFA to allow a keeper liability

appealing is something you should not have done as it only encourages them to continue with their demands.

From now on you do nothing but you will come back here as soon as you get another letter from them or anyone else regarding this matter. You dont contact them before taking advice

Thanks for your reply dx100uk

I have followed the link and surprised by the amount of issues there are relating to this car park and Excel.

There is a lot of varying advice on these threads and I suspect some of it may be out of date as Excel's appeals are now dealt with by IAS and not the approved bodies.

Without wanting to prejudice yourself do you think my best option would now be to ignore all further threats until summoned to court,

when I could then request all the relevant information such as their authority to implement charges, planning permission for signage etc, etc

Or do you think i should request this in an appeal to IAS?

Any further thoughts would be really appreciated

you have been given the advice of doing nothing until they do something.

That is straightforward enough

If you read up on the IAS you wouldnt even be asking the question

Thanks ericsbrother

I feel such a fool having replied in such a naive way without thoroughly investigating the situation further.

My naive reply:

I have visited this parking site on 2 occasions recently and have received PCN notices on each occasion ( PCN ... 06/06/2017 the other occasion) and cannot understand the reason for receiving these notices.

We have definitely paid and displayed our tickets and not over stayed our time.

On the first occasion my partner obtained the ticket and on this one I obtained the ticket

so do not think we both could have made any errors with the registration number.

We are both in our sixties and sometimes find the machines which ask for registration numbers confusing and wonder if there could be any other reason why these notices have been issued?

Talk about shooting oneself in the foot!!!!!!

I would reiterate that parking tickets were definitely purchased

As registered keeper of the vehicle I have requested logs from the machines and stated that I believe the machine to be at fault

i will await further communications from Excel

I have researched the internet on IAS hence my post on here.

I genuinely thought the likes of Excel and IAS were reputable companies

problem with google searches is that they throw up all the stuff that the target co want to tell you first and then when you get through a few papges of irrelevant and outdated stuff you only find the bad news buried in other articles.

The keyword dynamics of the search engines bias the result toward those that pay them for their prominence.

You will need to tailor your searches more carefully to get only relevant info.

Have a read of the Parking Prankster's blogspot, you will find plenty about the IPC/IAS and their directors relationships.

now you have been woken up I reiterate my advice

- let thyem do the chasing for the moment,

it will cost them money to keep writing to you.

You may get letters from their pet debt collecting agencies like Debt recovery Plus but these people have no authority or right to do anything other than send out scary letters.

you will also see that the amout of money demanded increases because they have added a wodge to the demand without any lawful reason for doing so.

They do this because they think if you are fooled by the title of Debt Collector you will think that the extra money demanded must have some reasoning behind it.

Not true and they know it but it keeps the cost to the parking cowboys down.

afeter that they tend to use Gladstones Solicitors (who are the IPC in a summer frock) or BW legal and occasionally like to chance their arm by engaing with you directly again.

This is usually when you need to be strident in a response,

everything up to this point is hot air but we do like to let them know that no monies are due because their incompetence and dishonesty demanding some desnt automatically make it proper

I genuinely thought the likes of Excel and IAS were reputable companies.....

no PPC or ANY DCA are reputable

they are NOT BAILIFFS

and have

NO SUCH LEGAL POWERS.

they both solely exist to spoof people out of money

dx

Thanks again ericsbrother for taking the time to respond in such a detailed manner, it is very much appreciated.

Also thanks again to dx100uk for your unequivocal response.

Hi dx100uk and ericsbrother

An update.

Before benefiting from your valued advice ...

I requested from Excel logs from the ticketing machine (see my original post)

they have now responded to my request but failed to mention or provide the logs.

They have referred to my request as my ‘Appeal (Representation)’ and have given ME additional time to provide evidence of the ticket purchase before increasing their ‘charges’

I will continue to ignore

Here is an article from the Parking Prankster which you may have already seen but it does strengthen your hand.

Excel finally admit ticket was "issued in error" at Peel Centre

The Peel Centre, Stockport is the worst run car park in the whole country. It is managed by Excel Parking Services who are owned and run by Simon Renshaw-Smith. S R-S sits on the board of the International Parking Community, where he helps set policy.

The Prankster previously reported a mysterious error at The Peel Centre around the 13/14 May where charges were issued to motorists who purchased tickets.

Although early reports were that Excel was not cancelling these charges it appears they have had a change of mind. This post on MSE tells all:

My daughter appealed the ticket, and quoted the number of people on here and other forums who had been issued a ticket when using the same machine on similar dates.

The appeal has been upheld with the company withdrawing the claim as the ticket was "issued in error"

Prankster Note

Excel have not provided any information on what the error was, how they intend to fix it in future, or whether they will be refunding motorists who have paid in error.

The Prankster considers this is not acceptable.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster

I would be respopnding to Excel pointing out the prankster's postings

and let them know you are well aware of many of the other claims they have lost

and that although your letter was a statement of facts

and not an appeal

you wont be cowed into paying them monies that are not due,

especially as they know that it is their error that has lead to this in the first place

and you will be pleased to see their evidence in a courtroom if they are too lazy to look for it now.

Thanks for your comments lookinforinfo and ericsbrother, they are really appreciated.

I will compile a carefully worded response to Excel over the weekend noting the above comments.

Also stating the stress and anxiety this situation has caused me.

I will also forward letters of complaints to whoever runs the Peel Centre, Trading Standards, DVLA for divulging my information and any other relevant organisations i can find

An update on the 2 PCNs issued against my vehicle during May 2017.

I have written to Excel Parking Services quoting the numerous websites (including this one) that have recorded similar issues with the malfunctioning ticket machine at the Peel Centre.

I also repeated my request for the logs from the ticketing machine and stated that I was fully prepared to defend these notices in court and would not be bullied by threats of increased penalties and cost associated in pursuant of these false claims.

I have also written explaining the situation to owners and managers of the parking i.e. Peel Land and Property at Stockport and their head office at the Trafford Centre along with emails to Stockport Metropolitan Borough Council, Stockport Trading Standards and Stockport Citizens Advice Bureau

I have today received emails from Vehicle Control Services Ltd (same address as Excel Parking cancelling the Charge Notices

The reason stated:

After a thorough investigation of the events surrounding the issue of the CN, combined with the evidence held on our internal systems; we can confirm that the Charge Notice has been cancelled with immediate effect.

We trust you find this outcome satisfactory and thank you for your future co-operation.

Many thanks to everyone on this forum for your invaluable advice.

If I can be of any help to others please post on here or send me a personal message.

no post here PM advice is against rules

no post here PM advice is against rules

Sorry dx100uk no PMs but I will post any relevant info if it will assist other forum users

good win well done

It would be interesting to hear if Stockport Council and Trading Standards respond to your mail.

good result.

The power of advertising

- they knew they were stuck as soon as you made it known that you were aware of their ticket machine problems and chicanery.

I hope that TS look into this as demanding a penalty payment when they know that it is their actions that are wrong is close to being a criminal act

Thanks again everybody.

I don't think this is the end of the matter as far as Excel and Vehicle Control Services are concerned.

I will keep everyone updated on any further developments or responses from Trading Standards etc.

of course, you can sue them for improper access to your data on the DVLA database and unlwful processing of that data if you are so minded. bear it in mind when TS finally respond

Hi ericsbrother

Tried to send you a pm but I have not posted the requisite 30 times but be assured I am not dropping the matter.

Hi ericsbrother

Tried to send you a pm but I have not posted the requisite 30 times but be assured I am not dropping the matter.

You don't need advice by PM, peakview. Please continue to post on your thread and EB or others will help you. We recommend that all advice is kept in the public arena for various reasons.

HB

No advice sought by PM honeybee just an explanation to ericsbrother of my course of action. This may be legally sensitive at this time.

No advice sought by PM honeybee just an explanation to ericsbrother of my course of action. This may be legally sensitive at this time.

OK, I understand.

If you would like a message to be passed to EB, you could send a PM to one of the site team.

HB