Paid APCOA £80 "fine" then sold to ZZPS/Hassel - paid them £176 too! - help!

[Norbert Broadsword]

Hi - My daughter received a ticket from Apcoa at a railway station.

 

Although the photos in the accompanying letter shows that there is something stuck on the windscreen she swears blind that there was nothing there when she got back to her car.

 

She had also just moved so the letter came through to us here.

Rightly or wrongly she sent them a cheque for the £80 they were demanding.

 

Further letters had arrived from ZZPS (the phoenix which arose from Roxburgh?) saying that this had been passed to them and that she now owed £140.

 

She rang and said that it had been paid but they were their usual abusive selves and said that it hadn't and that they were going to come after her for the money.

 

A letter then arrived from their pet solicitors Wright Hassall who claimed that she now owed them £176.

 

She was really worried about this and again, rightly or wrongly, she paid them the £176.

She then checked over her bank statements and the original cheque she wrote out to Apcoa had clearly been cashed.

 

Where do we take this now?

 

I feel that ZZPS and Wright Hassall have conned her out of money and that Apcoa have caused a load of distress by moving this parking charge to them in the first place despite cashing the cheque. Any advice would be gratefully received thank you.

[dx100uk]

Ouch can she not cancel the cheques?

[Norbert Broadsword]

Sadly not. They've been cashed and banked.

[ericsbrother]

then a lba to recover the money from them. I would name APCOA on the caim as well as a co-respondent as they passed on the data that was incorrect. She may have to resort to a court claim but this is straightforward enough.

 

Now you see one of the problems in paying them at all, there will have been no lawful contract with APCOA in the first place so paying them for nothing doesnt always solve the problem.

[ericsbrother]

BTW, they dont sell on the debt, just pay these muppets abotu £15 to send out letters. That is why the bandits add a hefty slice on for themselves, no lawful authority to do so but they reckon anyone stupid enough to believe their lies will also pay them extra so they keep it under £200 or people will question it.

[Norbert Broadsword]

We've just send a polite but firm letter giving them the opportunity to refund in full within 14 days before we issue an LBA. If they don't or they try to stall by sending out any more guff letters then an LBA will be sent and we are quite happy to take this all the way. Cheers for your advice. We'll tackle APCOA later!

[dx100uk]

10/10