Excel Parking: 'They are ripping people off' - Sheffield driver's fury at dodgy £100 demand

Excel Parking said there had been an ‘administrative oversight’ after hitting Claire Blank with threats of court and debt recovery action for alleged non-payment at Berkeley Precinct on Ecclesall Road.

The firm's records showed she stayed for 1hr 48 minutes. But luckily Claire found her ticket - which showed she paid for two hours. She appealed and the firm dropped its demands without explanation. When The Star intervened the firm offered Mrs Blank a £60 donation to a charity of her choice 'by way of an apology'.

Claire said Excel was ripping people off. She said: “If it was a ‘one off’ you wouldn’t think anything of it, everyone makes mistakes, but since I posted about my experience on our local Facebook community group I’ve been contacted by several people who say they’ve been fined by Excel even though they’d paid for a ticket. That makes me think it’s company policy to try and make more money.

“A quick search on Google shows that there are hundreds of people complaining that Excel has fined them when they’ve already paid, not just at Berkeley Precinct but all over the country. Some even claim to have been served with county court judgements. It’s disgraceful - if I hadn’t found my pay and display ticket in the car I could be in the same boat. The regulator needs to look into this and stop them from ripping people off.”

An Excel Parking spokesperson confirmed Mrs Blank had paid but claimed she entered a zero instead of an O when inputting her registration number.

They added: “Whilst we do highlight on signage that motorists should enter a full and accurate vehicle registration number when purchasing the parking tariff, we endeavour to check and identify minor keying errors before issuing a parking charge. Unfortunately, in the case of Mrs Blank, our process missed the check due to an administrative oversight. In such rare situations, our fall-back position is for motorists to use our appeals process and, indeed, this is what Mrs Blank did and we swiftly cancelled the parking charge.”

Zakir Mangera, of Workman LLP, which manages the plot on behalf of the owners, said they would be ‘reviewing the situation with Excel’.

Will Hurley, chief executive of the International Parking Community, which regulates private parking firms, said they were investigating.

He added: “Once this has been concluded we will be able to conclude whether there has been a breach of the code of conduct and, as required and in accordance with our sanctions policy, will inform the DVLA and Excel Parking accordingly.”

Excel depends on access to DVLA's database of drivers’ addresses. A DVLA spokesman said they were in touch with the IPC and they could suspend firms for breaches of its code of conduct.

Last month Louise Povey was hit with a £170 demand from Excel for not paying fast enough at Berkeley Precinct after she struggled with a payment app - although signs only state payment must be made 'on arrival'. Eventually Excel explained it meant 10 minutes. The firm dropped its demands after The Star intervened.