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Civil penalty charge notices (Councils, TFL and so on) / Advice for Islington Case taken to London Tribunals
« on: November 29, 2023, 08:08:04 am »
BACKGROUND
I parked my car at Finsbury Square at 20.15 At 20.19 I was issued a fine. The issuing officer observed my car from 20.19 to 20.19. My call records (evidenced by screenshots) show I made calls to RingGo at 20.14, 20.15 and 20.21 to use the useless automated system which failed after 10+ attempts to understand my number plate. I finally got through to a human on RingGo at 20.21 and during a 7m48s call attempted to pay for the parking session but was told the payment was declined and subsequently that no charge was due for parking there, contrary to the signange.
Islington council rejected my appeal - I had made a mistake in the appeal stating that the payment was taken. So I have not taken this to the London Tribunal.
I have recorded 2 calls with RingGo: one showing me repeat my number plate 10+ times attemping to pay, and another that has the same and the conversation with RingGo's human operator advising that no charge is due to park at this location.
Here is my appeal to the London Tribunals for a postal hearing on 19th December:
---
I wish to contest Islington Council's decision to reject my representation against the PCN issued.
My grounds for this appeal to the London Tribunals are as follows:
1) The RingGo parking payment system is not fit for purpose when attempting to pay for the parking using voice. My efforts to pay for my parking session went above and beyond what could be considered reasonable, spending over 15 minutes on the phone to RingGo, navigating a maze of ineffective vocie recognition technologies until eventually speaking to a human operator. You will hear in the voice clip attached as evidence the quality of RingGo's system. There is another 6+ minute clip of the same problem should you wish to review it. During this process it hung up on several times so the recording is broken into small chunks. To save the Tribunal's time, I have attached only the most relevant voice clip as evidence, but can provide the other 6+ minutes of recorded audio to evidence RingGo's poor system if required.
2) Upon giving my payment details to the human operator, the payment failed and he advised that this was because there is no parking fee payable at that location. In the voice clip evidence at time stamp 3:20 you will hear the start of my conversation with a human operator at Ring Go.
I have such little trust in Islington council to act with integrity that all my conversations with them were recorded and I attach proof of both of the points above here (provided your form will allow me to upload these audio files without any technical limitations - unlike Islington Council's own technology). Also enclosed is a screenshot of my call logs to RingGo showing I contacted them 4 minutes before the PCN was issued. Please note the timings on my screenshot are 1hr offset due to me being in a different time zone at this point when the screenshots were taken.
The council may contest that I was not at my vehicle when the PCN was issued. I believe it is reasonable to take note of the phone number to pay for parking and the parking location and make the payment within a few minutes while on the move. This is what I did. But approximately 4 minutes after leaving my vehicle, a PCN was issued while I still on the phone to RingGo.
Unfortunately the process to pay was far from simple and I could only connect to a human operator around 12 minutes into attempting to pay for parking. this after approxiimately 10 attempts to say my number plate which the RingGo system should have been able to understand.
It is a sorry state of affairs when citizens have to carve out 2+ hours of their time fighting an overzealous council when every attempt was made to pay the £4.40 they were owed, the only barrier to which being the poor choice of technology and processes the council's leaders have chosen to adopt.
Please note the evidence I have uploaded contains PII and financial details. I highly recommend this call recording is securely erased to avoid the risk of financial theft and related risks.
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Do I need to change anything with my appeal?
What are the chances of winning?
I am travelling at the moment and don't have the PCN to hand. Unfortunately I can't download it from Islington's website either but have attached a screenshot with some PCN details.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]
I parked my car at Finsbury Square at 20.15 At 20.19 I was issued a fine. The issuing officer observed my car from 20.19 to 20.19. My call records (evidenced by screenshots) show I made calls to RingGo at 20.14, 20.15 and 20.21 to use the useless automated system which failed after 10+ attempts to understand my number plate. I finally got through to a human on RingGo at 20.21 and during a 7m48s call attempted to pay for the parking session but was told the payment was declined and subsequently that no charge was due for parking there, contrary to the signange.
Islington council rejected my appeal - I had made a mistake in the appeal stating that the payment was taken. So I have not taken this to the London Tribunal.
I have recorded 2 calls with RingGo: one showing me repeat my number plate 10+ times attemping to pay, and another that has the same and the conversation with RingGo's human operator advising that no charge is due to park at this location.
Here is my appeal to the London Tribunals for a postal hearing on 19th December:
---
I wish to contest Islington Council's decision to reject my representation against the PCN issued.
My grounds for this appeal to the London Tribunals are as follows:
1) The RingGo parking payment system is not fit for purpose when attempting to pay for the parking using voice. My efforts to pay for my parking session went above and beyond what could be considered reasonable, spending over 15 minutes on the phone to RingGo, navigating a maze of ineffective vocie recognition technologies until eventually speaking to a human operator. You will hear in the voice clip attached as evidence the quality of RingGo's system. There is another 6+ minute clip of the same problem should you wish to review it. During this process it hung up on several times so the recording is broken into small chunks. To save the Tribunal's time, I have attached only the most relevant voice clip as evidence, but can provide the other 6+ minutes of recorded audio to evidence RingGo's poor system if required.
2) Upon giving my payment details to the human operator, the payment failed and he advised that this was because there is no parking fee payable at that location. In the voice clip evidence at time stamp 3:20 you will hear the start of my conversation with a human operator at Ring Go.
I have such little trust in Islington council to act with integrity that all my conversations with them were recorded and I attach proof of both of the points above here (provided your form will allow me to upload these audio files without any technical limitations - unlike Islington Council's own technology). Also enclosed is a screenshot of my call logs to RingGo showing I contacted them 4 minutes before the PCN was issued. Please note the timings on my screenshot are 1hr offset due to me being in a different time zone at this point when the screenshots were taken.
The council may contest that I was not at my vehicle when the PCN was issued. I believe it is reasonable to take note of the phone number to pay for parking and the parking location and make the payment within a few minutes while on the move. This is what I did. But approximately 4 minutes after leaving my vehicle, a PCN was issued while I still on the phone to RingGo.
Unfortunately the process to pay was far from simple and I could only connect to a human operator around 12 minutes into attempting to pay for parking. this after approxiimately 10 attempts to say my number plate which the RingGo system should have been able to understand.
It is a sorry state of affairs when citizens have to carve out 2+ hours of their time fighting an overzealous council when every attempt was made to pay the £4.40 they were owed, the only barrier to which being the poor choice of technology and processes the council's leaders have chosen to adopt.
Please note the evidence I have uploaded contains PII and financial details. I highly recommend this call recording is securely erased to avoid the risk of financial theft and related risks.
---
Do I need to change anything with my appeal?
What are the chances of winning?
I am travelling at the moment and don't have the PCN to hand. Unfortunately I can't download it from Islington's website either but have attached a screenshot with some PCN details.
[ Guests cannot view attachments ]