APCOA parking app…

[Fatboyslim]

Hi I’m not the biggest poster on here. Has anyone had issues with the APCOA parking app?

Long story short. Needed to park at local station so downloaded their app. All went well until it came to book on the day in question, it said card expired (it hadn’t). Loaded details again, to then spend the next six hours looking at a frozen app saying “processing card information”. Obviously I didn’t take the risk of parking. Had to contact mate and re-plan the days arrangements. I’ve contacted the TOC and they are at a loss what to suggest. And APCOA just replied by saying if I have parked and did not pay, I’ll receive a fine. Nice.

Been parking at the local station for best part of 40 years, and normally manage busing it in, this time I wanted an earlier departure before first bus. There is no on street parking nearby. Any suggestions please?

I’m not a technophobe, I’m at a loss what to do.

Many thanks in advance.

 

[Puffing Devil]

Workaround: Take a trip to their website too see if your location supports pre-booking, or pay by phone. https://www.apcoaconnect.com/

On your phone: Try deleting the App Data and restarting with your payment information when on a stable connection.

 

[Halwynd]

Was there no machine at the car park where you could pay by card - or are they forcing people to use app/web/text?

 

[riceuten]

Yes. It just doesn't work. It won't authenticate. Deleting and redownloading doesn't work either. No other way of paying at Hertford North Station, unless you call an 01895 number, and pay by card. Hefty fee for doing this. To be fair, it remembers your details (including car reg) after the first time so you don't need to re-enter them

 

[baz962]

I never have a problem with their app. Also you can pay upto 24 hours late at many of their carparks for 10p more. Apcoa latepay

 

[barringtoncem]

I also have never had a problem with the app the website has a live chat function would this be worth you trying ?

 

[riceuten]

I am sure it’s the model of phone or the iOS that’s causing the issue. Life’s too short to spend anytime on it

 

[ainsworth74]

Was there no machine at the car park where you could pay by card - or are they forcing people to use app/web/text?

Almost certainly no machine. Northern (who use RingGo) and TPE (APCOA) both seem to have ditched machines from their car parks. Indeed TPE have also stopped you paying for parking at the ticket office as well.

 

[Kite159]

Almost certainly no machine. Northern (who use RingGo) and TPE (APCOA) both seem to have ditched machines from their car parks. Indeed TPE have also stopped you paying for parking at the ticket office as well.

Same with SWR, although they do have the option of buying parking via the TVM, which is useful for a couple of stations where the mobile signal for one of the major operators is next to useless.

All in a push to get in bed with the parking parasites whose idea of car park management is putting up CCTV cameras to capture numberplates of vehicles coming & going, rather than employing someone to actually drive round to check the car parks, to check that nobody is abusing the disabled parking areas, nobody is doing a Homer Simpson and parking lengthways across multiple parking bays etc.

 

[talldave]

My one personal experience with APCOA's app on Android left me losing the will to live. I gave up but fortunately the car park did have a machine, although that was only marginally less c**p than the app.

My usual warning about early parking - at my local TfL/Overground managed stations, the parking day starts/ends at 4:30. None of the signage mentions this, but arrive at 4am and pay for a day's parking and your parking will expire 30 minutes later, leaving you in the firing line for a "ticket". Check that APCOA don't play a similar game where you are.

 

[basfordlad]

Apcoa are easy to beat

Parking tickets, fines & parking

Confused about parking penalties and fines? Get help with all kinds of car parking problems.

forums.moneysavingexpert.com

 

[Halwynd]

Almost certainly no machine. Northern (who use RingGo) and TPE (APCOA) both seem to have ditched machines from their car parks. Indeed TPE have also stopped you paying for parking at the ticket office as well.

Thanks for that, it's a while since I've parked at a station. Sadly it seems to be the way things are going with car parks these days. The railway isn't doing itself any favours by joining in with this lark, just creating more hassle and frustration for passengers.

 

[jon0844]

All in a push to get in bed with the parking parasites whose idea of car park management is putting up CCTV cameras to capture numberplates of vehicles coming & going, rather than employing someone to actually drive round to check the car parks, to check that nobody is abusing the disabled parking areas, nobody is doing a Homer Simpson and parking lengthways across multiple parking bays etc.

They should still be doing checks on occasion, but I have no idea how often they do. As you say, there are disabled bays, premier parking bays and the like - so ANPR isn't sufficient without some manual checks and people understanding that there are manual checks - which means they should have clear signs up to warn people.

 

[Flange Squeal]

They should still be doing checks on occasion, but I have no idea how often they do. As you say, there are disabled bays, premier parking bays and the like - so ANPR isn't sufficient without some manual checks and people understanding that there are manual checks - which means they should have clear signs up to warn people.

The local stations I frequent have car parks run by APCOA using automatic number plate recognition, and now and again I’ve seen penalty tickets on cars, so they must still go around from time to time to check disabled bays or people using two bays etc.