Hi Marshmallow I remember that you said that you sent thema copy of the ticket that you had bought; did they acknowledge receipt of that as they did with mine or have they not acknowledged your letter?

Hi hwadsworth, could you change your name; I spat all over my screen when I tried to say it out loud . Not much to add since I posted the one above that you have read. Having received a demand from the debt people and one from their solicitor the following day, and replied I then rec another from the debt people threatening to give me to their solicitor so I replied that they had done that already and should read their correspondence properly and to please not send me any more threatening letters as I would only reply to their solicitor or the county court. That was 18th Nov and have heard nothing yet but that probably doesnt mean anything if they really do apply to CC. I stand by this; I bought a ticket and left the car park before the expiry of that ticket, excel have admitted as much and if they are want to waste court time with this they are feckin eedjits (sorry I grew up in Ireland!) and deserve everything the court is going to say to them. Did you actually receive the PCN (which I understand a private parking company cant issue) or have you just got the £100 one and lost your right of appeal? The only difference between our cases is that I had all the correct characters bar one on my ticket whereas you say you put in a completely different number; how does the timing on the ticket gel with the time given on your PCN? Will keep an eye on this everyday to see if you reply...........and will keep some screen cleaner handy

Hi Marshmallow First thing to say is dont worry about your crdit rating as it is not affected. Excel would have to obtain a County Court Judgement against you and then you would have to default on that before your credit rating was in any danger. That is written in stone so dont worry any more on that score. It appears that excel have conceded that you had a ticket but say that it is invalid because you put in the wrong number; this puts you in the same ballpark as myself and I have been researchng this since beginning of August with help from the other people on this site. Have you been onto the moneysaving site that I told you about? There is a list of codes and a violation of Code 94 means that you have parked in a pay/display car park without displaying a valid ticket; the regulations may require you to buy a ticket (which you have done) but the requirement to input reg numbers if personal to the parking company. Parks are patrolled by wardens which is why you have to display your ticket and if they choose to ispense with wardens it is up to them to use a monitoring system that works. I have found in my research that Private Parking Companies cannot issue a PCN. As to correspondence I never rec my PCN, just a demand for £100 and by the way, I had lost my right of appeal (if you trace threads you will find this is quite common with excel). Wrote back with copy of ticket and rec reply to concede that I had bought a ticket and they would cancel the PCN...........Oh, I had entered one wrong character on the ticet so they had admin costs including applying to DVLA for my address so send £10 or they would proceed with the PCN. Wrote back politely thanking them for conceding that I had bought a ticket but saying that I would not be blackmailed into paying £10 and requesting them to cancel the PCN immediately (incidentally I have found out from moneysaving etc that the DVLA charge is £2.50 and also that excel have once been banned from having easy access to the dvla although reinstated after 3 months. There has also been a BBC Watchdog programme on them and some other time I will tell you about all the trouble when they got the contact for the car parks in Wakefield which were previously run by the council). We have now been through the final demands and now getting letters from debt collection agency and their solicitor (both addresses on same street by coincidence). I am politely replying to them all and meanwhile have checked out their threats and County Court procedures and am quite happy to go forward. I am basically trying to cost these buggers as much as I can. Have lost track of where you are up to but if you let me know I will tellyou what I did next and what the response was. Basic thing not to lose sight of is that we bought a ticket, we paid our rent for that space for that period of time and that is it.

Marshmallow, sorry forgot to mention that when you go onto Martin Lewis you are looking at the Parking Ticket bit and following it through

Hello again Marshmallow Same thing has happened to me, bought ticket but got one character wrong on reg but first I knew was when got Notice To Owner to say I owed £100 within 7 days for nonpayment of PCN. I never rec it and you wil find this scenario is quite common with excel. Wrote back and sent copy etc and wont go into all detail at this stage but the lates is that I have replied to their solicitor suggesting they obtain copies of all correspondence between myself and excel; I have letters from excel admitting that I bought a ticket but wanting £10 to cover costs or else they will pursue the PCN. Look at Money Saving Expert: Consumer Revenge - Credit Cards, Shopping, Bank Charges, Cheap Flights and more. This guy is excellent for everything you want like car insurance etc, you name it he does it and he is very well known. Also look at what people on this site say to you and you begin to build up a picture. I am certainly prepared to go to court as this whole business with excel needs bringing into the public domain. Think about this - they are pursuing a PCN despite the fact that they admit that the contravention didnt take place and they are doing it to blag me into paying £10; I am reporting them to the ombudsman for this (and they have already been removed once from the list of people authorised to get instant access to the dvla records although reinstated later). They are therefore threatening to take me to court for £272 in pursuit of an alleged debt of £10, and incidentally it costs £2.50 for them to get your nmber from the dvla so the whole thing is completely excessive and they have already been chucked out of court for that. But th really interesting thing is that if you look at Martin Lewis he says that private parking companies CANNOT ISSUE PCNs as it is a private contract. Read his website. If you are interested I could tell you about the correspondence that has passed between us.

When you say "they want £60" did they send you a PCN?

When you say "they want £60" do you mean they sent you a PCN?

Hi Marshmallow At last someone in the same boat. Where did yours take place? Mine was in George Street car park in Wakefield and has been ongoing since July. Exactly what happened to you? If you follow through all the other threads you will see the things I have been posting but am keen to hear your story before you see mine and then we can compare notes

Had letter from collection agency Roxburghe (like the original PCN which never arrived the letter from arrived exactly 2 weeks after it was allegedly typed and was therefore 7 days beyond the "reply within 7 days" etc) so I have now had letter from solicitor called Graham Whites who is/are part of another solicitor called Martin Sobell

Hi Griff What was the outcome of your spat with Excel? I am in the throes of the same scenario having bought a ticket etc; only difference is I have hung onto my ticket and sent a copy. They have conceded in writing that I bought a ticket and paid the correct fee but are still going to court as I declined to pay a £10 fee to have the PCN cancelled. We are up to the stage of receiving letters from solicitors now

Hi Mossycat Why not do what I did; park in George Street, enter a character wrongly on the ticket, keep the ticket and see what happens in the next 5/6 weeks?

Hi Excel Hater Been away for few days so not been on computer but if you go back to my original when I asked for advice I seem to be fairly unique in that I had actually bought a ticket and even more incredibly still had it in the car ater 5 weeks. Most of the other comments seem to be from people who have been "done" and are trying to get out of it; despite my buying a ticket they are still trying to squeeze some money from me. Its only £10 and easy to pay for a peaceful life but I am totally hacked off because I see something far more sinister lurking in the depths; that is the number of PCNs that go missing in the post and are never received so that the victim gets done for £100 instead of £60. I have already sent the information to BBC Watchdog who have already done a programme on Excel and other parking companies and I was in the process of writing to Wakefield Express; I see you have already done that but I will as well.

Hi Battleaxe What was the outcome of your dealings with excel as I am in the middle of a session with them?

Barnsley Boy, you have to be in the health profession to use the word micturation!! Surely we havent stopped all the overseas doctors etc from coming into this country so that we are now having to rely on Barnsley? :D:D Seriously though as I said earlier today this is ludicrous for £10 and of corse it is not about that at all but about what excel are squeezing out of people by very dubious methods. Before I came on here I had looked on the internet and without making any connection until today I now notice that you were on this forum in Feb abou the same company. Checking further around he internet there are an awful number of PCNs going missing in the post so that people have to pay £100 instead of £60 but if they have misentered as I did but not had the fortune to find the original ticket they have no chance and I have a feelin this could be a fairly common occurence

surely the correct thing for excel to do would be to cancel the PCN, not use it for blackmail, and to send a seperate invoice for the £10 admin costs. Surely they dont think it wouldnt get paid?

Thank god for that; I was in Wogan mode and thought it meant Old Person!!!!!!!!!!!!

HI lamma Absolutely not althogh it is tendng to get very confusing/conflicting. By the way what is an OP that people keep referring to?

Hi Lamma Think you have missed an earlier point from me; they wont be pursuing the tenner, they have threatened that if I dont give them a tenner they will pursue the original PCN despite knowing now that I have the pay/display ticket in my possession and of course because I never received the PCN that they SAY they posted I lost all ight of appeal and they will be going for the £100. It is all too ludicrous for words

Hi Mossy At the back of my mind is always the thought that this isnot worth the hassle for £10 but then I think of all the other people this must be hapening to who havent been fortunate enough to find the original ticket on the car floor 5 weeks after the event. I understand what you are saying about entering into contracts etc and reading the regs but the PCN is for a "code 94" violation which requires me to buy a ticket for one hour or whatever to rent that little bit of tarmac and I did that. Sorry I made a mistake on the printing but if I make a mistake typing and click on the spellchecker it picks it up and says "did you mean this". Likewise if I google and put something in wrong it asks "Did you meann so and so". If excels equipment is cross checking numbers and tikets it will spew out a list of car numbers which apparently have not bought tickets; presumably it will also spew out a list of purchased tickets that dont correspond to the car numbers and an employee would then check through because believe me there are hundreds of people who enter their number slightly wrong. Have you tried using those things when there is a queue of people shuffling around behind you waiting to use it? The other thing that bugs me in all this is that if these people were honest they would send all their PCNs by recorded delivery so they have a pod. It is interesting to note that on the red notices that are the first thing you receive they say that "delays and losses in the post are at your own risk"; doesnt seem to apply to them though. I keep telling myself in all the arguments not to foret the basic fact; I bought a ticket which is what I was required to do and although I appeciate that they have paid a small fee to the DVLA for my details that does not give them the right to say "if you dont give us £10 we will pursue a PCN that we now know is incorrect". So what now? Do I pay these bandits £10 for an easy life or do I stand up for the 100s of people who have had to pay. I dont know if you trawled back up through the thread but I have seen stuff from last Feb at least about Excel and on different sites as well and it is very common for victims to receive the penalty notice of £100 as the first indication of anything wrong.

Hi letshelp Thanks for your input; however I see from previous forums regarding this company (Excel) that they have in the past taken people to court. The reason I am so furious about this is because I am not trying to weasel out of a PCN that might have been deserved; I had bought a ticket and still have it and despite acknowledging that I had bought a ticket they are trying t blackmail me into giving them £10 admin costs or they will proceed with the PCN which is absobloodywellutely ridiculous. I am going to write to the local paper to see if I can generate some publicity to warn people about this crowd nd their dubious practices.

Thanks for your help crem and letshelp; my only reservation is that one has to display a "valid" ticket - can they argue that because the reg printed on the ticket wast exact the tickt isnot valid? To give you the exact scenario my wife, insead of entering A123BCD had put n PCD123. I understand why their cameras couldnt get a matc but they had no trouble identifying it when I produced the ticket. This then opens up the bigger picture of my never receiving the PCN so that I would never have had the opportunity to pay the original £60 and if the pay ticket hadnt fallen under the car seat I would have had to pay £100 without a leg to stand on and I understand from various things posted on the internet including from BBC Watchdog programme that this scenario is by no means oncommon. Any for better or for worse thanks to you giving me a bit of confidence (I know from divorce experience that the law can be a very funny thing) I have told them to go ahead to court. Mind you they probably read all this!!!!!!!!

Sorry crem, sent mine before I saw your second message; thanks very muc feel easier now

Thanks crem; are you a knowedgable person in these matters as it begins to seem a lot of aggro for £10 but am furious as I didnt commit the offence in the first place and am sure the printing of exact reg on ticket is not a legal requirement?

Barnsley Boy Of course its Excel, in the George Street park in Wakefield!! How did you guess???!!! Have you had dealings with them?

Sorry not very comp literate so prob posting this in wrong place but here goes. 6th Aug rec final demand £100 for ignoring PCN issued 1st July at 12.38 (PCN allegedly sent in post) Never rec PCN and went to car and found the Pay/display ticket I had bought, however I had put in 1 character out of 6 wrongly which had confused their ANR cameras. Wrote with copy of ticket; they acknowledged I had bought a ticket and would cancel PCN.........oh, they had admin costs of £10 and unless I paid this they would proceed with the PCN for £100 (original was £60 I never rec it and apparently this is very common but of course most people wont have a display ticket from 5 weeks ago) Wrote back to say thank you for acknowledging that I had bought a ticket (ad not run out of time) and I would not be blackmailed into giving them £10 Rec letter back explaining how it was all my fault and reiterating that I must pay £10 or they will pursue the PCN Am about to tell them to go to court; any comments?