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Ford Fusion - Parking Fine - PercyGa

Hi I parked my car on or at Polegate Railway station and received a Fine from CIVIL ENFORCEMENT LTD on the 22/04/2015 This is the letter I wrote to them. I am sure they havent wread it at all. Allthey want is money! I believe this is a con.

Dear Sir/Madam

I received a Parking charge (See Attached) (I have left the attachment of on this occasion!)

Yes I parked my car at Polegate station. Two minutes after reading your instructions I phoned the number as requested I did not have or could not get my credit card out in time so the phone went dead. I phoned the number again Gave my registration number and my card details In fact everything they requested. The computer voice said my time starts now and there was some type of clock sound so I thought it was done. ????? Please read on but I would love to know what happened here????

My wife and I climbed on the train I then get a message saying that my car parking is not confirmed!!!! Below copy of message from them

6.55am"As you haven't confirmed your vehicle registration your parking session has not been booked, Please call the number on the signage"

Well I am on the Train ----No sign or car to look at!!

I phone the number only because its in my phone memory but it asks me what is the parking area number that I gave the first time. This I dont have.

So they send me another message

"There is no vehicle Registration stored to your account. To confirm parking, URGENTLY reply with your vehicle registration only." (So how come the first time I did all this they told me my parking starts now)

I send the following message

my registration number is .......... (removed to protect you - Avant)

They then send me another message

"THIS SMS IS NOT A BOOKING CONFIRMATION. Your vehicle is saved as FD09TWJ If this is incorrect please reply to this SMS with the correct details. Phone and Pay" (Please note they now have my registration number)

Because I am still calm and haven't got cross yet and all this because of a silly £4.00

I send a return message

7.14am Yes that is correct and it is parked at Polegate station.

Blow me I get another message from them

7.15am "Sorry. We cannot accept your message due to the incorrect input. Please resend in the correct format. See signs for information or number to phone" By now I am half way to London!!!! So what is the correct format???

The next morning I phoned them the lady "Jasmin" looked up the phone and text records and agreed I did everything and tried over and over again but she said I had to phone where I will only have to pay £20. Well I phoned them and left several messages!!!and said I won't pay any body anything I did everything I was asked to do, but just got stupid messages back. All this because you people think I tried to get away or get out of paying the £4.00 I don't deserve this sort of treatment from anybody.

I think this is just another way of getting money out of the public! Who is going to pay for all the text messages etc and the time to write this letter and postage etc. In fact while typing this I am just getting more fed up I think I should send a copy of this to a few other places ! They might find it interesting and find out how many other people have been involved in this sort of thing!

Kind regards

Percy Armstrong

Ps. If anyone is interested in talking to me my mobile number is

Edited by Avant on 22/05/2015 at 18:29

Ford Fusion - Parking Fine - FP

First of all, it's probably a bad idea to put your car registration on a public site - if it were me I'd ask the mods to remove it.

Secondly - take the appeal option, details of which should be on the paperwork you have been sent.

Ford Fusion - Parking Fine - daveyjp

Don't take Honestjohns recent advice to simply pay up.

Visit Pepipoo for full advice on how to appeal correctly.

Ford Fusion - Parking Fine - galileo

Our local council has now introduced a "pay by phone" system as an option for the on-street parking meters.

No doubt many people will welcome this, but I make sure I have enough change to stick coins in the slot instead. Quicker, slicker and not depending on any unproven technology or other humans.

Edited by galileo on 21/05/2015 at 22:50

Ford Fusion - Parking Fine - Bromptonaut

First of all was there a panalty/parking charge notice on the car when you returned to it? I not and one does not appear in the post (via the magic of ANPR) within 14 days then you're free in less than a bound.

While some station car parks are ferociously patrolled others are slack to the point of negligence.

Northampton station has a pay by text set up similar to that you describe. Far simpler than faffing with change or queing for a weekly/monthly permit. When I was working in London there were upwards of a dozen days over two years when I simply forgot to text/pay on boarding the train. Never got a ticket. There were anecdotes of people using the car park without paying or a year or more and getting away with perhaps one PCN - £40. An annual permit was over £800.

Ford Fusion - Parking Fine - concrete
Good advice from daveyjp. Go through the appeals procedure. I have used it successfully, even when some forum members advised me to 'pay up and move on'. Not when a principle is at stake. It is a long drawn out process but the Parking Adjudicator takes a sensible and reasonable view of the circumstances. From what you describe it seems a comedy of errors combined with a failure of technology. Most reasonable people would take your point and drop the matter. However the 'car parking sharks' are not reasonable. They only want your money and nothing else interests them at all. You will probably find that when challenged with determination they will back off. They will probably let you get all the way to the adjudication and then decide to concede, so stick at it. Keep us posted on the result and good luck.
Concrete