Hi all,
I have £100 charge from group nexus for parking beyond the 30 mins free at a hospital in chesterfield. We were there 54 minutes. We were paying no attention to how long we were in there, as we were visiting a poorly family member. We simply intended to pay whatever we were asked to pay at the automatic barrier. There is number plate recognition and a card machine on the barrier and that's how we've always paid.
We approached the barrier with the window down to pay. Some generic message flashed up on a display on the barrier - 'thank you' 'no fee' or similar. The barrier raised and we drove away. So we just assumed we were still in the free parking allocation.
A few days later we get a fine through for not paying. So I go through the nexus appeals. Then poplar. All of which have rejected our appeal - seemingly without reading or understanding the context. They are claiming that if the payment machine/ barrier was faulty, we should have gone to another payment machine or used the app. However, there was simply no way to know it was faulty. We approached it to pay and the barrier raised and we drove home.
The fee we should have paid was £4.20.
I can't believe that any person who takes the time to understand this scenario can think that we are in the wrong for this. The internal and poplar appeals process seem utterly useless. The internal response is a proforma incorrectly filled in (insert date of incident etc) and the popla response seems to be AI. The evidence submitted by nexus shows us at the barrier where payment is made, so we demonstrably didn't exit over a verge or anything.
I'd happily give them the £4.20 but incurring fines due to their faulty equipment is not something I can stomach. Today, I have received a charge for £30 and a charge for £100 as well as threats for debt collectors.
If there something fundamental about my liability here that I have missed? Or can somebody help me firmly tell them where to go?
Thanks,
p
