Excel Parking: Battling pensioner forces firm to drop £170 demand over technology fault
A Sheffield parking firm has been forced to back down after demanding £170 from a pensioner.
Excel Parking threatened John Batten with bailiffs after appeals were dismissed - despite him having his ticket as proof of payment.
Mr Batten had parked at the Feethams Leisure Centre car park in Darlington and paid £7.50 to stay for 24 hours.
Two minutes later, without his knowledge, the payment was refunded through Apple Pay.
Excel told the Daily Telegraph a void message would have displayed on the screen – but Mr Batten claims he only noticed the refund a day later, when scrolling through transactions on his phone.
He then called Sheffield-based Excel’s helpline to explain but alleges the operator told him they couldn’t "check the system or take any payment" and just to "keep the ticket in case you get a PCN."
But after receiving a Parking Charge Notice for £100, his appeal was dismissed by Excel and then the Independent Appeals Service, which is part of the International Parking Community regulator and funded by parking firms including Excel.
He was then sent a letter by bailiffs demanding the now £170 payment. This included a £70 debt resolution fee and is the maximum private parking companies can charge.
Mr Batten wrote to his local MP, Sir Oliver Dowden.
In negotiations involving the MP he was offered the chance to pay the original £7.50 ticket price and have the charge cancelled, which he did.
Mr Batten said: “After six months of appeals and writing to my MP they finally accepted the original £7.50 parking fee
“I will make it my mission to help anyone else who has fallen foul of this rogue company.”
Excel Parking did not respond to The Star.
Earlier this month, the firm lost a court case it brought against Julia Webb over a keying error.
She said the machine at its site on Newcastle Avenue, Worksop, ‘jumped forward’ to the payment screen after she had input one letter of her registration number.
By the time the case got to court the firm was demanding £430. But deputy district judge Kate Wilson dismissed the case, stating Ms Webb had attempted to input her number, had paid properly and no agreement or contract was broken.
In February, the private parking industry was banned from demanding £100 from drivers who took more than five-minutes, or at some sites 10-minutes, to pay for their ticket.
It followed an avalanche of complaints against Excel at car parks in Broomhill, Sheffield and Feethams in Darlington.
In 2023, Excel Parking was replaced at Berkeley Centre on Ecclesall Road, Sheffield, after years of complaints.
Private parking firms send Parking Charge Notices, which sound similar to Penalty Charge Notices issued by councils and police, they also have the same initials: PCN.
But many argue they are effectively letters demanding money for allegedly breaching terms and conditions written by a parking company.