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#Post#: 90099--------------------------------------------------
Excel Parking PCN - Harrow/Wealdstone
By: Azura94 Date: September 15, 2025, 4:31 pm
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Hi all,
I, the registered keeper of the car, have received a PCN from
Excel Parking, requesting £100, or £60 if paid early. This is
because my vehicle was used in the customer car park without
paying for a parking ticket, and remained there for 40 minutes,
which is outside of the 10 minute limit, but not exceeding the 1
hour parking limit as stated on the signs.
I am not sure if any form of argument can be made since the
driver had simply missed the sign at the entrance, and hadn't
thought to check for other signs, having assumed it was another
free car park for Iceland customers, like all previous ones,
however I would appreciate any advice on if there is something I
am unaware of that can be argued, or if the text contained
within the PCN is not sufficient in some way.
I have attached pictures of the PCN that the registered keeper
has received, as well as pictures of signs in the car park. It
is frustrating since it would have only been £1 to park there
for the duration that the car remained there for, so I'm
wondering if there could be some sort of reduced payment as a
settlement?
HTML https://imgur.com/a/pcn-NfrO4ba
HTML https://imgur.com/a/pcn-NfrO4ba
Thank you.
#Post#: 90174--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - Harrow/Wealdstone
By: b789 Date: September 16, 2025, 7:04 am
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They are offering you a mugs discount of 40% which is the only
offer you're going to get from Excel. However, if this was a
genuine mistake by the driver and you were a customer of
Iceland, you should try Plan A, which email the Iceland CEO at
Tarsem.Dhaliwal@iceland.co.uk and explain the situation.
Normally, they are very good at getting these PCNs cancelled.
If you don't have any luck with Plan A, then you can fight it
but as the Notice to Keeper (NtK) is PoFA complaint, they can
hold you liable as the Keeper if the driver is not identified.
Any appeals/defence could certainly be framed around poor
signage.
The photos you've shown, if it was dark at the time, should be
shown without any flash or car headlights. If the phot comes out
without being to see the wording clearly, that is what you want.
Also, those signs appear to be at ground level. Why?
#Post#: 90252--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - Harrow/Wealdstone
By: Azura94 Date: September 16, 2025, 1:49 pm
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Thank you, I have just sent an email to the CEO explaining the
situation, hopefully he sees it.
I think the signage would be considered adequate to be honest -
it is at eye-level, the photos might be a bit misleading as
that's just the wall protruding, and it was evening so the
visibility was not that bad. The only problem with the signage
is that it was only at the entrance (on the left, not driver's
side) and walls surrounding the car park, and not in the middle
where the driver had parked, and was mixed in with Iceland
'Customer Parking' and 'Make sure you don't get locked in'
signs:
HTML https://imgur.com/a/cOe5EpV
Red are Excel Parking signs, blue are Iceland signs which don't
mention restrictions.
#Post#: 90315--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - Harrow/Wealdstone
By: b789 Date: September 17, 2025, 3:22 am
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That evidence would certainly have a good chance of winning on
lack of prominent signage. Can you get your own contemporaneous
photos of the signs, or lack of them?
#Post#: 90377--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - Harrow/Wealdstone
By: DWMB2 Date: September 17, 2025, 8:16 am
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Worth noting that the entrance is on a one way street, so this
is the view on approach:
HTML https://maps.app.goo.gl/pXbhvobGnFksf1Yu6
HTML https://maps.app.goo.gl/pXbhvobGnFksf1Yu6
The angle of the entrance signage, and it being so far offset
from the entrance itself worsens Excel's case.
#Post#: 90552--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - Harrow/Wealdstone
By: Azura94 Date: September 18, 2025, 1:56 pm
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[quote author=b789 link=topic=8067.msg90315#msg90315
date=1758097345]
That evidence would certainly have a good chance of winning on
lack of prominent signage. Can you get your own contemporaneous
photos of the signs, or lack of them?
[/quote]Unfortunately not, as I am in the middle of moving house
so don't have the capacity to travel back before tomorrow, which
is when the 'discounted charge' expires.
Google images has a relatively recent photo of the car park, and
I don't think much, if anything, has changed since.
Here's the view of the wall my car would have been facing as the
driver entered and parked; the sign in the middle of the wall is
just an Iceland one saying customer parking, while the Excel
ones are are in the corners - one next to the generator, and
another right at the edge, by the exit:
HTML https://imgur.com/f2zz4ip
Also, as DWMB2 says, the entrance signage was off-set for a car
who entered from the left side of the photo, as it was a one-way
road - I don't think it's reasonable for the driver to look so
far to the left like that as they were entering, especially with
a passenger obscuring the vision.
Unfortunately I haven't heard anything back from the CEO.
Is there a template I could use to write the appeal
tonight/tomorrow, so that I don't run out of time for the
discounted rate? (the post didn't arrive until a few days ago,
which is why this is so last minute). Also, by the time I
receive a response, I will very likely be at a different address
- is there a way to guarantee that they will send it to my next
address, and not my current one?
#Post#: 90611--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - Harrow/Wealdstone
By: b789 Date: September 19, 2025, 5:09 am
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Why are you even considering the "mugs discount"? You have
received a speculative invoice from an unregulated private
parking firm for an alleged breach of contract by the driver. If
I send you a speculative invoice for £50 for not wearing pink
underwear on a Tuesday but if you pay me within 14 days, I'll
discount it to £10, would you pay it?
If you want to fight this, then ignore the mugs discount. These
PCNs are easily beatable if you follow the advice.
If you are changing address imminently, then you MUST send a
Data Rectification Notice (DRN) to the Excel Data Protection
Officer (DPO). The DRN must instruct Excel to update their
records with your new address for service and to erase the old
address. The highlighted words are there for a reason, so make
sure you use them.
I also strongly advise you to use postal redirection, ideally
for a minimum of three months. We see many cases where this was
not done and several months down the line the Keeper is
surprised to find they have a CCJ by default because they know
nothing about the claim.
So, DRN is your very first priority. You only sent the email to
the Iceland CEO three days ago. A bit more patience is required.
If your only concern is to be low-hanging fruit on the gullible
tree and are going to be intimidated into paying at the mugs
discount because of ignorance or fear of the process, then I
won't bother wasting any more time on this.
#Post#: 90627--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - Harrow/Wealdstone
By: Azura94 Date: September 19, 2025, 6:49 am
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If you believe this PCN is beatable then I'll ignore it, just
wasn't sure if my points are strong enough to have a realistic
chance.
I'll have time over the weekend to go back and take more photos
- is there anything specific that I should ensure is captured,
or just general photos of each sign from a medium distance is
enough?
I've sent the new address to the data protection officer, but
there seems to be a technical issue on the Royal Mail site that
won't let me find a quote for postal redirection - even though
I've contacted the data protection officer with my details
before I've sent off my appeal, would I still be held liable if
it gets sent to the wrong address? Either way, I may be able to
get in touch with the new tenants to keep an eye on the post for
me.
#Post#: 90641--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - Harrow/Wealdstone
By: b789 Date: September 19, 2025, 7:50 am
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Do I believe that the PCN is beatable... yes.
If you've instructed the firm by DRN to update your address for
service and they then send something to the old address, then
that is nit you fault. As for are you "liable", that depends on
what you think you may be liable for? If the operator thinks you
are liable for a debt claim and it is sent to the wrong address,
then that has nothing to do with their allegation that you are
liable for the claim. However, if that were to happen, you have
an even stronger case to have any default judgment made because
of the defective service set aside.
#Post#: 90645--------------------------------------------------
Re: Excel Parking PCN - Harrow/Wealdstone
By: Azura94 Date: September 19, 2025, 8:00 am
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I've just managed to go and get a few more photos.
HTML https://imgur.com/a/xBYlsox
Note on the day of the incident, the Iceland van in the first
photo was parked one place to the left, further obscuring vision
of the machine upon approach to the entrance.
I've also taken a picture of the approach into the car park -
I'm not sure if the picture captures it well, but the sign is
bent away from the direction of the one way traffic.
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