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#Post#: 66561--------------------------------------------------
Excel Parking PCN - phone payment invalid despite clear signage
- Nottingham
DIR By: ng1
Date: April 10, 2025, 5:53 pm
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Hi all. I'm having some trouble with formatting so apologies if
the post looks a bit weird. <br><br>
The driver entered the car park at 13:23 08/03/2025, tried to
download the app to pay but couldn't do so because the phone
reception was weak. The driver calls the number on the sign
(0345 434 8008) at 13:30 which went to an automated system. The
automated system stated the vehicle registration of the car, and
the driver proceeded to pay for parking following the
instructions on the phone. The driver left the car park at 15:05
on the same day. On 21/03/2025, I, the registered keeper,
received a PCN through the post. <br><br>
Naively I'd already tried appealing to the company before
seeking advice. I don't have a copy of my message to them, but
essentially I pointed out that the driver had paid for parking
through the number displayed on the sign in the car park. The
driver did not take any photos of the car park because they
didn't expect there to be any problems, but I managed to find a
picture of the sign on Google Maps which shows the post code of
the car park and part of the Excel logo. <br><br>
I attached in my message (and this post) photos of the sign
found on google maps, the call history on 13:30 on 08/03/2025,
and a photo from the driver's banking app of the payment being
taken at 13:31 on 08/03/2025. My appeal was of course rejected,
and I've attached their response. I've since found a photo of an
older sign with the same phone number, which I've attached to
this post. I intend to appeal to the IAS, so any advice would be
greatly appreciated :) <br><br>
Two points from their reply stood out to me. <br>
1) they claim that "the signage on site clearly advertise the
available payment methods" and "[phone payment] is not an
accepted payment method on site and has no affiliation to the
site the vehicle parked on". <br>
2) they "maintain that the signs on this site meet the
requirements set by the [IPC] Code of Practice". <br><br>
On number 1: The sign at the entrance of the car park states
"Refer to the sign(s) within the car ark for details" and "Pay
by phone or online only". The sign inside the car park clearly
states, under the "how to pay" section, "to pay by phone ...
call 0345 434 8008 and follow instructions", which the driver
did. If the signage on site clearly advertise the available
payment methods, then I believe any reasonable person would come
to the conclusion that phone payments are in fact accepted at
the car park in question through the number advertised. <br><br>
On number 2: I'm not familiar with the IPC CoP, but as can be
seen from the Google Maps photo, there are multiple fake/scam QR
codes on the parking sign. Upon getting a friend to take
pictures of the car park after reading the instruction on this
forum, it became apparent that the sign in question has since
been removed as of 07/04/2025. The most recent Google Maps
review has also mentioned the lack of signage inside the car
park. If the removal of the sign was intentional then that feels
like an admission that the signage was misleading, and if
unintentional then surely a car park with no instructions on how
to pay cannot be compliant with the Code of Practice? <br><br>
Google Maps link to the car park in question:
HTML https://maps.app.goo.gl/xG4WUP5iHNQLPAbg8
<br><br>
Phone log <br>
HTML https://i.imgur.com/EzuIbiB.jpeg
<br>
Phone payment (sorry for quality - the banking app doesn't allow
screenshots) <br>
HTML https://i.imgur.com/S69f39G.png
<br>
The whole car park <br>
HTML https://i.imgur.com/88Qfe7h.jpeg
<br>
Current sign at the entrance (the sign with the payment methods
used to be on the pole on the back) <br>
HTML https://i.imgur.com/fRihnUf.jpeg
<br>
The sign that the driver saw <br>
HTML https://i.imgur.com/vl9LVK5.png
<br>
Old sign which displays the same phone number <br>
HTML https://i.imgur.com/eMD9y1y.png
<br>
[attachment deleted by admin]
#Post#: 66613--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - phone payment invalid despite clear
signage - Nottingham
DIR By: b789
Date: April 11, 2025, 6:48 am
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That receipt you've show says payment was made to APCOA,
completely different private parking company!
Whislt the Notice to Keeper (NtK) is fully PoFA complaint, they
can pursue the Keeper if the drivers identity is not revealed.
However there are some technical flaws in the NtK that breach
the BAPiPC Private Parking Single Code of Practice (PPSCoP).
unfortunately, Excel are an IPC member and the only way this is
gong to be resolved is when the issue a claim in the county
court. That is a good thing for you.
Do you wish to fight this all the way?
#Post#: 66668--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - phone payment invalid despite clear
signage - Nottingham
DIR By: ng1
Date: April 11, 2025, 12:03 pm
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--- Quote from: b789 link ---
>
> That receipt you've show says payment was made to APCOA,
completely different private parking company!
>
> Whislt the Notice to Keeper (NtK) is fully PoFA complaint,
they can pursue the Keeper if the drivers identity is not
revealed. However there are some technical flaws in the NtK that
breach the BAPiPC Private Parking Single Code of Practice
(PPSCoP). unfortunately, Excel are an IPC member and the only
way this is gong to be resolved is when the issue a claim in the
county court. That is a good thing for you.
>
> Do you wish to fight this all the way?
>
--- End Quote ---
That's a good catch and I'm only seeing it now, but the fact
that the payment was made to APCOA wouldn't have been available
prior to making the payment. In fact, I've just tried calling
the number again and the automated system says "welcome to
connect cashless parking" which is also the name of the website
on the sign, so I feel like there would have been no reason to
suspect that it was a different company...
I'm willing to die on this hill but realistically I don't have a
lot of time right now. Any ideas on what the process would look
like or what the likely outcome would be if I do choose to fight
this?
#Post#: 66671--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - phone payment invalid despite clear
signage - Nottingham
DIR By: b789
Date: April 11, 2025, 12:12 pm
---------------------------------------------------------
To be honest, this is likely to end in a court claim which will
likely end up being struck out or discontinued.
Have you thought about whether you may have entered the code for
the car park wrongly? Could it be that an APCOA car park
somewhere has a similar code that the driver possible mistyped
in?
#Post#: 66675--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - phone payment invalid despite clear
signage - Nottingham
DIR By: ng1
Date: April 11, 2025, 12:30 pm
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My memory is a bit hazy now as it was a month ago, but I don't
remember having to enter a code for the car park at all. The
system even stated the registration of the car so it was assumed
this was automatically recognised from a camera in the car park.
What would the timeline look like? I understand I would need to
submit an appeal to the IAS within two weeks, but will there be
much more to do in the short term? From June onwards I will have
all the time in the world to fight this.
#Post#: 66677--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - phone payment invalid despite clear
signage - Nottingham
DIR By: b789
Date: April 11, 2025, 12:33 pm
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I never recommend bothering with an IAS appeal. It is a complete
waste of time and effort. If you did nothing at all, this would
probably lead to a Letter of Claim (LoC) in about 2-3 months and
then drag on for another year before concluding.
#Post#: 66685--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - phone payment invalid despite clear
signage - Nottingham
DIR By: BigBazz45
Date: April 11, 2025, 2:57 pm
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Not directly relevant to the appeal, but another thing that
leans towards the wrong service having been used is that the
tariff gives a minimum charge of £3.00 for up to 2 hours, but
the APCOA charge is only £2.35 - presumably including a
convenience fee.
I'm not entirely sure where the Driver paid for though, as I
can't find a location with the same code on their website. It's
definitely not in Nottingham, however.
#Post#: 68531--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - phone payment invalid despite clear
signage - Nottingham
DIR By: ng1
Date: April 24, 2025, 5:16 pm
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Sorry for disappearing - just wanted to say thank you both for
your input. I've submitted what I had on here to the IAS purely
because I don't want them to be able to hold anything against me
about not following the procedure etc. I'll follow up when I do
hear back from them.
As for the location code - I've just called the number again and
it still accepts the location code on the sign (2883), so who
knows where the call is going or where the driver paid for...
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