I was fined £100 for not being able to use a parking app… even though I didn’t park: SALLY FIXES IT

I was planning to take some women from my Women’s Institute group to visit wildflower meadows in early May. The small parking lot there requires drivers to use the RingGo payment app. I’d never paid for parking with an app before, so I thought I’d check out the system before departure.

I was planning to try it out in the car park below our local Marks & Spencer, so I downloaded the app onto my phone. I drove in and parked in front of the sign with all the RingGo details and the number to scan.

Standing next to my car I tried three times to make the payment this way, but to no avail. Frustrated and embarrassed by my lack of technical knowledge, I left and went to another car park where I used pound coins. I was very surprised to later receive a £100 fine from Smart Parking, which manages the car park.

I am a 77-year-old widow and I have problems with technology. I appealed to the company and Popla, the private parking appeals system, but after waiting six weeks for a decision, I was turned down. Why are they so hard-hearted?

SB, Sevenoaks, Kent.

Your valiant attempts to implement parking payment technology stalled at the first junction, but you expected a little more understanding from Smart Parking, and so did I.

You didn’t leave your car for the 17 minutes you tried to pay through the app. The parking attendant knew it was 17 minutes because a camera had recorded you entering and leaving.

You told me you were suffering from anxiety after having a stroke and thought maybe you should just pay the fine and move on. But you felt so offended by how you had been treated that you came to me for help.

I asked Smart Parking to reconsider her case and waive the fine. After investigating, a Smart Parking spokesperson said the company adheres to British Parking Association guidelines and has numerous signs posted in the car park outlining the conditions of use. She said the RingGo app was working on the day of her visit and the site has payment machines that accept cash.

I reiterated the point that you were having trouble accessing the app for the first time, not that there was anything wrong with the app itself that day.

I also mentioned that it was clear you hadn’t actually parked and argued that if you had gone shopping and not paid the fee, I would have taken a different view.

I am pleased to say that after my second intervention, the company cancelled the charge.

You are not alone in the struggle to use parking apps: in some areas of the country no paid alternative is offered at all, a move that has been criticised by charities such as Age UK for digitally excluding older drivers. Age UK has published two guides to using apps. Visit ageuk.org.uk.

After the M&S car park incident, she asked her grandson to help her work out what had gone wrong. He discovered that although he had downloaded RingGo, he had forgotten to tick a box that allowed him to activate it. This enabled him to pay for parking during his trip to the wildflowers.

On 31 July this year, I applied online for a one-year fixed rate cash ISA with Shawbrook Bank, paying 4.85%. I wanted to transfer £61,530 that I had in my Nationwide ISA. Due to unforeseen circumstances, I needed to cancel the transfer and I thought it would be simple as no money had left Nationwide. I called Shawbrook on 12 August to let them know and they closed the new account.

I also asked Nationwide to stop the transfer. I was informed that no money had been transferred and that a cover note would be placed on my Nationwide account to confirm my request.

As an added measure, I also visited the Nationwide branch in Basildon, Essex, three days later. There I was told that an email would be sent to the Nationwide transfer team. The next day, I was horrified to discover that all the funds had been transferred to Shawbrook after all, and that my balance at Nationwide read £0. This account was then closed.

My money was in limbo. I have been looking for help but no one from the transfer team is responding to me. Can you help me get my money back?

Detached house, Chelmsford, Essex.

When he contacted me, he was desperate and had called and emailed Nationwide numerous times. A call operator helped him set up a new account with Nationwide, so his money would at least have somewhere to go once he found it.

You said that the phone banking team could only email the transfer team, which seemed non-urgent to you, so you tried to speak to this team directly. You never received a reply.

She became concerned when, in a call on 21 August, Nationwide claimed there was no evidence that Shawbrook Bank had returned the funds. She called Shawbrook and was told the money had been returned to the building society on 16 August. It was at this point that she turned to me.

I asked Nationwide to check what had gone wrong and put things right. The building society discovered that the note alerting the transfer team not to proceed with the change had not been added to her account. Nationwide said its efforts to speak to the ISA transfers section failed because the team is not “customer-friendly”.

However, on the day I contacted Nationwide, her funds were located and transferred to her replacement Nationwide ISA.

Nationwide has paid her £75 for lost interest, as well as £250 in compensation. A spokesperson said: “Due to an error, our ISA team was not initially notified of the request to cancel the ISA transfer. We apologise for any inconvenience caused.”