A furious holidaymaker has vowed never to visit a seaside town again amid claims he had been 'scammed' by a car park operator.
Paul Spooner and his wife, Christine, travelled from their home in Lincolnshire to Sennen Cove in West Cornwall to pay a family visit. Paul, who works for the UK Government, says he paid £9 to park his car at the village's beach car park at 2.11pm on Friday, April 7 for a 24-hour stay.
But the machine, which took his car registration details, did not issue him with a ticket. Despite this, Paul thought it would still be OK to use the car park as other vehicles didn't have any tickets either, CornwallLive reports.
He was later dumbfounded when he was slapped with a £100 fine. And after trying to contact parking operator, Armtrac Security, to appeal the fine, he couldn't get through for two days.
He also emailed them armed with evidence of his payment for his stay and did not receive any reply until 21 days had passed and Armtrac told him his appeal had not been made within the 21-day period.
"They wouldn't even accept my proof of payment. They were rude on the phone and put the phone down on me twice," the 49-year-old said. "When I managed to get hold of them again, it was the same woman I had had before and she even denied ever speaking to me. I think the way these people operate is scandalous. It feels like a total scam."
Paul said the email address used by Armtrac did not correspond to the one on their website and the headed paper letter he received about his appeal being turned down had bits of information and further details covered with corrector fluid as well as information about a link car park users should use which led nowhere and didn't work.
Armtrac are part of the International Parking Community (IPC) but are not members of the British Parking Association which means motorists cannot take the matter to POPLA if the company rejects an appeal. POPLA is an independent appeals service for Parking Charge Notices issued on private land.
Paul said: "It very much feels like the appeal system is design to make you pay £100 and not appeal. I don't know what they expected me to do. Pay again at another machine in the hope it would issue a ticket.
"I've come to Cornwall many times. But it's the last time we'll ever visit Sennen Cove. I think the shops in the village need to realise that the way the car park operates will impact their trade negatively if people don't come any more."
CornwallLive has contacted Armtrac Security for a comment.
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