FixMyTransport: Take credit cards again at their station car-parks.

Description

Clive Page

The car park at Luton Airport Parkway station (and that at Luton Station, and as far as I know all car parks at FCC stations) has not accepted credit card payments since 1st June when FCC chose to replace NCP by Apcoa. They must have been planning this for a long time, so it seems totally incompetent that these machines (after 19 days) still only take cash. The fee for a day is 7 pounds, which needs a lot of coins. The FCC website claims the problem will be solved "by the weekend" but several weekends have passed with no solution. This is double incompetence.

Comment

Problem History

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1 Clive Page reported the issue on FixMyTransport. close 17:50 19 Jun 2012 #
2 Clive Page wrote to First Capital Connect close 17:50 19 Jun 2012 #

Here is the letter that Clive Page wrote.

Car park still not accepting credit cards

The car park at Luton Airport Parkway station (and that at Luton Station, and as far as I know all car parks at FCC stations) has not accepted credit card payments since 1st June when FCC chose to replace NCP by Apcoa. They must have been planning this for a long time, so it seems totally incompetent that these machines (after 19 days) still only take cash. The fee for a day is 7 pounds, which needs a lot of coins. The FCC website claims the problem will be solved "by the weekend" but several weekends have passed with no solution. This is double incompetence.
3 First Group Response responded to Clive Page close 18:00 19 Jun 2012 #

Thank you for contacting First Capital Connect. We confirm receipt of your e-mail and aim to forward a full response within 5 working days.

Please note that you will not be able to reply direct to this email, however if you wish to contact us further by email then please use the address below.

[First Capital Connect problem reporting email]

Thank you for contacting First Capital Connect. We confirm receipt of your e-mail and aim to forward a full response within 5 working days.

Please note that you will not be able to reply direct to this email, however if you wish to contact us further by email then please use the address below.

[First Capital Connect problem reporting email]
4 FCC Customer Relations responded to Clive Page close 23:46 25 Jun 2012 #

FREEPOST RRBR-REEJ-KTKY
Customer Relations
First Capital Connect
PO Box 443
Plymouth
PL4 6WP
Tel: 0845 0264700
Fax: 0845 6769904
Website: www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk

Ref: 6607393

Dear Customer

Thank you for your email of 19 June 2012 about the car park at Luton Airport Parkway station. I am sorry to learn that you are unhappy with the mode of payment for parking.

We appreciate that the reduction in payment opportunities has caused problems for some customers while a credit card payment option has not been accessible. Engineers have been working over the week to install the technology required to facilitate credit card payments. Regrettably the issue with credit card payments at Pay and Display machines took longer to resolve than we anticipated.

Credit cards will start running from 18 June 2012 on a site by site basis starting with the Thameslink route. We will see a gradual increase of stations coming on line as the contractor's progress across the route. I am sorry for the inconvenience caused while this payment facility was not available.

APCOA independently manage all our car parks. They provide staffing, issue tickets and collect any fines, so they're the people who handle all enquiries about car park quality, employees and any other specific issues in that area.

If you need to get in touch with them yourselves, their contact details are:

APCOA Parking UK Ltd
Customer Service Office
The Mall Car Park
Upper Level
Junction Road
Romford
Essex
RM1 3EE

Tel: 0845 319 4240

Thanks again for contacting us.

Yours sincerely

Rosy Das
Customer Relations Advisor

Avoid the queue go to FAQ. Lots of answers to everyday questions can be found on our website www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/FAQ

First Capital Connect Limited. Registered in England & Wales No. 05281077.
Registered office: 50 Eastbourne Terrace, Paddington, London, W2 6LG.

First Rail Holdings Limited. Registered in England No. 5154485. Registered office: 50 Eastbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6LG.

This message is confidential. It may not be disclosed to, or used by, anyone other than the addressee. If you receive this message in error, please advise us immediately.

Internet email is not necessarily secure. First does not accept responsibility for changes to any email which occur after the email has been sent. Attachments to this email could contain software viruses which could damage your system. First have checked the attachments for viruses before sending, but you should virus-check them before opening.

For more information on our range of services or to book your tickets online, please visit:- http://www.firstgroup.com

FREEPOST RRBR-REEJ-KTKY
Customer Relations
First Capital Connect
PO Box 443
Plymouth
PL4 6WP
Tel: 0845 0264700
Fax: 0845 6769904
Website: www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk

Ref: 6607393

Dear Customer

Thank you for your email of 19 June 2012 about the car park at Luton Airport Parkway station. I am sorry to learn that you are unhappy with the mode of payment for parking.

We appreciate that the reduction in payment opportunities has caused problems for some customers while a credit card payment option has not been accessible. Engineers have been working over the week to install the technology required to facilitate credit card payments. Regrettably the issue with credit card payments at Pay and Display machines took longer to resolve than we anticipated.

Credit cards will start running from 18 June 2012 on a site by site basis starting with the Thameslink route. We will see a gradual increase of stations coming on line as the contractor's progress across the route. I am sorry for the inconvenience caused while this payment facility was not available.

APCOA independently manage all our car parks. They provide staffing, issue tickets and collect any fines, so they're the people who handle all enquiries about car park quality, employees and any other specific issues in that area.

If you need to get in touch with them yourselves, their contact details are:

APCOA Parking UK Ltd
Customer Service Office
The Mall Car Park
Upper Level
Junction Road
Romford
Essex
RM1 3EE

Tel: 0845 319 4240

Thanks again for contacting us.

Yours sincerely

Rosy Das
Customer Relations Advisor

Avoid the queue go to FAQ. Lots of answers to everyday questions can be found on our website www.firstcapitalconnect.co.uk/FAQ

First Capital Connect Limited. Registered in England & Wales No. 05281077.
Registered office: 50 Eastbourne Terrace, Paddington, London, W2 6LG.

First Rail Holdings Limited. Registered in England No. 5154485. Registered office: 50 Eastbourne Terrace, Paddington, London W2 6LG.

This message is confidential. It may not be disclosed to, or used by, anyone other than the addressee. If you receive this message in error, please advise us immediately.

Internet email is not necessarily secure. First does not accept responsibility for changes to any email which occur after the email has been sent. Attachments to this email could contain software viruses which could damage your system. First have checked the attachments for viruses before sending, but you should virus-check them before opening.

For more information on our range of services or to book your tickets online, please visit:- http://www.firstgroup.com
5 Clive Page added an update close 09:36 26 Jun 2012 #

The wording is identical to that in a message they sent to me in response to my direct complaint. At the time I received it the problem had still not been fixed.

These machines have been taking credit card payments for several years. FCC chose to change contractor on a specific date. It is incompetence of a high order for that to suddenly stop payment machines working. Whether that is the fault of FCC or APCOA has not yet been divulged. It is a pity that these companies, though largely funded by the taxpayer, are not subject to Freedom of Information Act requests.
6 Myf Nixon commented close 11:07 26 Jun 2012 #

Hello Clive,

FixMyTransport Admin here.

There have been quite a few complaints about APCOA on this site, and at least one with a similar complaint to yours:

http://www.fixmytransport.com/campaigns/sort-out-apcoa-connect-parking

FixMyTransport works best when people get together, because several voices carry more weight than just one. You might consider commenting on / joining that campaign (and asking its initiator to do likewise to yours) - then you can get a discussion going about what to do next when you just receive a form response.

Out of interest, you might also like to see other APCOA complaints on different issues:

http://www.fixmytransport.com/campaigns/fix-this-apcoa-at-yatton-station--2

http://www.fixmytransport.com/campaigns/put-pressure-on-apcoa-to-respond-to

http://www.fixmytransport.com/campaigns/fix-this-apcoa-parking--2

http://www.fixmytransport.com/problems/309

Good luck!

anorak

admin
7 Clive Page commented close 19:03 25 Aug 2012 #

In response to my initial complaint FCC said they were aware of the problem and that it would be fixed within days. I have since passed the issue to London TravelWatch who don't seem to be able to get any sensible response from FCC; so much for the power of consumer watchdogs. After 3 months, it is still not possible to pay for parking at Luton Airport Parkway station with a credit card, except by calling in at the office (when there is someone there).
8 Clive Page commented and marked the problem as fixed. close 19:32 06 Oct 2012 #

It is the height of incompetence for such a trivial problem to have taken almost 4 months to get fixed.