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Wednesday 3 December 2014

Armtrac postal problems

The Prankster previously blogged about Armtrac appeal rejections arriving late.

The Prankster has been in touch with POPLA and the British Parking Association regarding post arriving from Armtac with only one or 2 days remaining to appeal to POPLA. In addition the BPA is meeting with POPLA tomorrow and will be discussing this issue.

The BPA have also been in touch with Armtrac for an explanation.

The current situation is therefore this:

By default the BPA will be asking POPLA to give 7 days grace period for Armtrac appeals. To get this 7 days grace, the motorist should quote this reference between The Prankster and Steve Clark of the BPA:

BPA - 06439 - ArmtracAs a starting point, I will grant a 7-day ‘grace period’ for those motorists potentially affected by Armtrac that  you are aware of to get their appeals to POPLA if they wish – they should refer to this e-mail when they write to POPLA please.

Alternatively the motorist can contact Armtrac directly to get a new POPLA code which will be valid for 28 days.This post on MSE describes where a motorist has already done this.

 Armtrac's explanation for the problem is this.

Armtrac have confirmed they have been experiencing problems with the postal service in the area. Some letters are delivered within a couple of days and some are being delivered within a couple of weeks. If the operator is contacted regarding a late rejection letter being received, the charge is reduced back to £60 and a new verification code is sent out.
Armtrac believe it to be an intermittent thing and believe in the interest of being fair, new codes will be issued if any motorist receives their letter out of time. 
The Prankster is currently in touch with the fraud department of the Royal Mail to see if this explanation is plausible. For instance, if a letter is dated 1st November, would it really hang around in the Royal Mail until 25 November before being postmarked. Perhaps there is a serious problem with the Royal Mail in Cornwall. Or perhaps the explanation lies elsewhere.

The Prankster therefore asks motorists who have had problems to get in touch with him at prankster@parking-prankster.com and to send copies of the Armtrac letter together with the envelope it came in. The Royal Mail can then investigate the postmark, find the post office handling these letters and see if there is any dodgy goings on with their employees.

Happy Parking

The Parking Prankster


6 comments:

  1. They may be using another service such as UKMail or similar who do bulk mailing etc. and charge cheaper rates to RM.

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  2. with a special clause , 95% off for 1 month delivery

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  3. There's a possibility that Mick C(r)ooke took a dislike to the postie, broke his fingers and now the poor postie has difficulty sorting the mail ;)

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  4. What a load of bollox that Armtrac, BPA and POPLA feed each other. Shows how "independent" this whole farce is.

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  5. Occams razor might apply...RM are sh17 quite often.

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  6. Interesting that Steve Clark apparently believes that he can dictate to POPLA.

    Amusing that the secret 7 day extension is available only by referring to an email of which most victims will not be aware.

    Perhaps the BPA should require their members to refer victims to Parking Prankster?

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