Popla Reviews 

Popla is NOT an independent appeal service, DON’T waste your time.
Proof of payment at McDonalds was provided where I stayed with my family, yet they still unlawfully fined me - an absolute joke and disrespect to the public for using catering facilities and EV chargers on site.

Don’t waste your time lol. Provided 3 pieces of evidence to show i paid my parking and they sided with the parking company saying ‘there is no evidence’😂absolute joke

Incorrectly fined even though proof of payment was provided. POPLA sided with the enforcement agency.

Happening all over the country. Complete scammers!!!

I can't believe that POPLA is allowed to operate. They are NOT an independent company, as they are primarily funded by the BPA, who's members are private parking companies, and with only 40/42% of appeals being successful, this proves without a doubt that they are in favour of the parking companies and not the general public. I highly recommend that people contact Trading Standards and report their misconduct.

I received a PCN on the grounds that I did not pay for my stay. I provided the issuer with a bank statement receipt that shows payment at the car park location and on the day in question.

I was in total disbelief when their reply was pictures showing their parking conditions at the location I parked, backed by their statement that I did not pay for my stay, totally disregarding the evidence that I provided them which clearly shows that I did pay for my stay.

I obviously appealed their descion with POPLA, in belief that common sense will provale and that the PCN would be cancelled. How wrong I was!!!! They upheld the PCN on the same grounds as the issuer, stating that I did not pay for my parking, even though my bank statement receipt shows I did, at that location and on the day the PCN was issued!!!! What makes matters worse, POPLA stated that the issuer had acted favourably by reducing the PCN amount, and that they highly recommend me taking up their offer of a reduced PCN payment rather than paying the full charge.

How can a bank statement receipt be dismissed as none payment? For the transaction to be acknowledged and payed for by my bank, I would have to input my registration for payment to go through to complete the process.

This clearly shows that POPLA is not a genuine appeals service, and that I urge that the general public to lodge their complaints with Trading Standards, as POPLA should not be allowed to operate under the illusion of being an independent appeals service.

Dont waste your time. These are sudsidised by the very companys that your'e appealing against. You stand zero chance of a fair hearing. I struggle to understand how this is allowed inn a modern day society. As a father of a disabled daughter (displayed) this mattered nothing to the company that issued the ticket. This is nnothing more than a syndicate!!!

This company it’s absolutely ridiculous they admit they are sponsored by parking companies who they issue penalties so they clearly take their side and in fact they looking for every excuse to turn your appeal down worse than parking companies themselves.

So they are waste of time and I have not seen or heard anyone they have or had a successful appeal through them and look at all their reviews are bad.

In my opinion this company should be closed down and not waste people time and money.

They will pretty much side with the parking company no matter what. They will not apply common sense or use discretion. If a car park sign says you must purchase valid a ticket and stand on one leg, if you do not stand on one leg then you will be fined and Popla will agree with the fine. Despite providing proof that a ticket was purchased for the duration of the stay, they still upheld the fine. To add insult to injury the minute you apply to Popla for appeal, your parking fine will revert back to the maximum fine. As much as it pains me to say this, just pay the reduced fine and don't bother appealing to these robots as I'm afraid "computer says no"....

Post Review note - Generic response from Popla which is used numerous times but fails to address the issues motorists face when using their service.

I have recently received an unsuccessful appeal from popla which in summation, didn't address the issues and conditions of the fine.

I used a payment app to pay for parking, which displayed £0 payment (free parking). I booked parking, but received a fine for not having a valid ticket. In the evidence, I shared the ticket information, clearly showing a ticket purchase, although at £0.

The appeal response was, the parking company is not responsible for app errors, even though signage states otherwise and that I should have paid at ticket machine, even though I had a valid ticket purchased.

So the expectation set by the judgement is a parking company can disregard app parking tickets as a 3rd party and issue £100 fines, their defence and upheld by Popla is payment apps aren't binding and if they decide, they can fine for not purchasing tickets at machines even though they market them as options.

Absolute disgraceful company. After appealing a parking fine that I provided full evidence of paying they sided with the other company.

No stars. Would obviously agree with everything already said. They are a waste of time, certainly not on the side of the motorist. By appealing you simply give them the chance to extort more money, you'll never win !

POPLA shows a shocking lack of due care when reviewing evidence. It feels like decisions are made with a default bias in favour of parking operators, regardless of the facts presented by motorists. Evidence is either ignored or selectively interpreted to justify rejecting appeals.
The process gives the appearance of independence, but when POPLA is funded by the BPA, it’s hard not to question how impartial it really is. The whole system feels like yet another money-making scheme dressed up as fair adjudication.
Appealing through POPLA is largely a waste of time and effort. It creates jobs for people with no skills who seem unwilling or unable to properly assess evidence, while motorists are left frustrated and unheard.
I would not recommend relying on POPLA if you expect a genuinely fair review.

Absolute joke of a company! Back in October I received a £60 fine for apparently not paying for parking at Stanstead Airport. I did pay the £7 charge but the website allocated the charge to Gatwick. This is an admin error. When you pay the charge at Stanstead, the app doesn't give you a choice of which airport to pay, it is automatically allocated. Appealed to Popla and have just received the report that my appeal has been unsuccessful. The idiots at POPLA (which I strongly believe are part of the same company issuing the fine) are unable to deduce this. The ridiculous thing is that Stanstead and Gatwick are the same company so they have taken money from my account for the wrong car-park. Is this theft? I will not be paying a penny to this joke of a company and look forward to my day in court when, hopefully, common sense will prevail.

Waste of time appealing. Bethan Wenham lied in her report saying I provided no evidence on lack of signage when I had provided pictures of the main entrance with no signage and one nearby I hadn’t used across the road that had clear signage. Total waste of time. I would just pay the reduced amount. Don’t waste your time with these people.

The Cornish Wreckers were well known for alluring ships onto shore or rocks by shining welcoming lights showing non existing harbours. At Kennack Sands on the Lizard there is an example of many still happening in Cornwall today. The private carpark run by Initial rips people off by giving a PCN for minute overstays or non compliance, even if you pay in cash and their machines are not working, solely by ANPR. POPLA (financed by the BPA) generally tends to agree. (Only 42% of all appeals are won.) No wonder POPLA have such a high (94%) negative review rate with no positive reviews. I know times are hard and I did live in this area for 20 years over 30 years ago and times were even harder then. But come on £60 for half an hour parking is not a joke. Next time if I ever go back (unlikely, another lost visitor to Cornwall) I will use my Blue badge to park on the yellow lines in the road!

I was very dubious before using POPLA as the reviews were bad and many sad they nearly always side with the parking company.
The reviews were correct. The parking company pays them so the will continue to find appeals "unsuccessful"
Absolute waste of time.
I intend to see the parking company (ParkingEye) in court.
REPLY TO POPLA RESPONSE.
Another standard reply to these reviews. POPLA are there to ensure the parking company have done everything legal and not to listen to common sense from the motorist. 95% 1 star rating - that should tell you something. The parking companies are paying POPLA. I went through the channel I was FORCED down by the parking company. They will only listen to POPLA and no other independent appeal. I wonder why? I already knew the outcome before any decision was made.
My local MP is now involved and after seeking legal advice, I will have my day in court.

Modern day mafia that works with car parking fines. They exort money from innocent law abiding citizens. The law and government are allowing this to happen in broad daylight and no one can help.

Don’t bother just pay the reduced fine. If your appeal is rejected which it must probably will be your fine increases to £100.00. I sent an actual copy of a paid parking ticket whereby my 75 year old father had just put in some random numbers instead of my reg. I explained this and also sent in a bank statement proving payment. I was so confident a bit of common sense would be applied here considering the reason for the fine was ‘no valid pay and display/permit was purchased’ and I could prove I had purchased one. But no just got some sort of legal jargon response from popla who sided with euro carparks. Euro carparks are like legal crooks making their money when people make mistakes. My debt has now gone to a debt collector and currently sits at £170.00 over a parking ticket that cost me £2.50. All these companies Euro car parks, POPLA and debt recovery plus are all in it together and members of the BPA. Interested to know if anyone with a similar situation to me had an appeal in their favour? Queue the generic response from POPLA that they are independent and review all evidence……..UPDATE: What a useless response provided by POPLA to this review. All evidence was provided first time around, you just chose to ignore it and side with the company that funds you.

Take 3 months to respond. Will fail an appeal even if a parking company has dropped the charge and admitted their signage was misleading. Not sure who works for POPLA or what they are supposed to do there, just another pointless money spinner.

Very useless organization, not worth useing them as of what they say they would help seeing things from all angles etc... maybe best to give them a cut as their steps guide customers that way.....as who knows what waits them the other end.....unprofessional, useless for noting......❌❌❌ 👎👎👎 shouldn't have been granted name & license to do this job or service for customers / citizens as their not doing the right thing.....unqualified so called company 👎❌

This trust alliance group is useless. Have the EVER come down in support of the motorist? I believe that they work in conjuntion with the car park operators. I had a valid case but it was still unsuccessful!!