Pain by phone - my experience of the PayByPhone app

Last month I had the pleasure of meeting a friend for breakfast in the quaint market town of Berkhamsted in Hertfordshire.?

We went to a new establishment called Plates, an all-day restaurant recently opened by the artisan coffee shop, Fred and Ginger Coffee (Highly recommended).

But that’s not the point of the story. The story revolves around the issue of parking.

The Water Lane carpark, situated behind Tesco in the centre of the town, is run by the local borough council of Dacorum.?

There’s a pay machine, but I had previously downloaded an app on my android phone, PayByPhoneUK, that I had never used before.

I clicked to pay for 2-hours parking for that car park, costing ￡1.75. But then I got an error message to say that ‘personal id’ was missing, so the transaction wouldn’t proceed.

So instead, I went to pay at the machine, using my card, where the charge was ￡1.60.

I thought nothing more of it and went for breakfast. Only afterwards did I check my phone (as everyone knows it’s not smart to check one’s smart phone during mealtimes!)

But my phone showed that the payment to PayByPhone had gone through. I had ended up paying twice for the same parking.

I wrote to the PayByPhone app and thought this tiny issue in the scheme of things (Brexit, climate change, world hunger, possible invasion of Ukraine by Russia, etc etc) would be promptly resolved and quickly forgotten.

I wrote:

When I attempted to pay for two hours parking at 10am today at Water Lane Car Park, Berkhamsted there was an error message saying payment could not be processed because of missing personal id. So I instead paid for parking at the machine.?

However, I now see that you processed the payment anyway, which means I paid for the same parking twice. Can you please arrange a refund?

There then followed copious correspondence, first with the phone app, then with Dacorum Borough Council. All over ￡1.75 and, more importantly, that the app had not worked for me.

PayByPhone? This became PainByPhone.?

All I can do is simply relay to you the correspondence, and you can judge for yourself if the phone app, and the local council, handled this to their credit or not.

? PAYBYPHONE REPLIED:

Hello,

Thank you for reaching out to PayByPhone Support,

Please note that PayByPhone is a cashless parking payment solution for customers to use in order to book their parking. The parking operators are in control of the parking regulations and maintain the on-site machines/meters/cameras.

Please be advised that we are unable to check both payments and issue a refund as we are able to see only one payment.?

I would advise you to contact the parking operator Dacorum Borough Council on 01442 228000 as regards this matter. They can check the payment on the machine and the payment made with our system.?

If more assistance is needed, please get back in touch,?

Kind Regards

PayByPhone?

? I FIRED BACK A QUICK RESPONSE (I type at 80-words-a-minute; I think faster. This was done in seconds!)

You should not have taken the charge when telling me the payment was not being processed. Your system should tell you that I had a message saying the payment could not be made. A refund is in order.

Regards

Jon Danzig

? PAYBYPHONE WROTE BACK

Hello,?

I totally understand your point but as we can′t check your payment on the machine this is the process to follow.?

Please contact the parking operator Dacorum Borough Council on 01442 228000 as regards this matter. They can check the payment on the machine and the payment made with our system.?

If more assistance is needed, please get back in touch,?

Kind Regards

PayByPhone

..........................................................................

Clearly, the company was trying to blame the local council for the fault on their app. This was not about ￡1.75 – it was about a problem with their app in which I had lost confidence.?

? I WROTE AGAIN TO PAYBYPHONE

No, I think you miss the point. Although I did pay the machine parking by credit card for the same parking, that is irrelevant.?

Once you sent me an error message to state that the transaction could not go ahead because of missing personal ID, I could have simply driven away.?

The fact that I chose another method to pay for parking is not material to this. You advised me that the transaction would not go ahead, and then it went ahead.?

You should pay a prompt refund.

Regards

Jon Danzig

? PAYBYPHONE REPLIED

Hello,?

Yes I totally understand and I wish I could help you more with it but this is the way to proceed in this type of situation.?

Please contact the Parking Operator on the details mentioned in the other mail.?

Apologies we can′t assist further.?

Kind regards,

PayByPhone

? I WROTE BACK TO PAYBYPHONE?

It’s a very small amount, so that’s not the issue.

I will write an article about it. Would your press department like to let me have a quote??

Usually, the organisation making the mistake should fess up and made amends promptly.

Regards

Jon Danzig

? INSTEAD OF ADDRESSING THE ISSUE, I got this rather irritating standard response

Hello Jon Danzig

We’re always interested in your feedback. We’d like to know how you found the support you received from on our customer support team. If you click on the link below, we’ll ask you a few questions that will take no more than two minutes.?

How would you rate the support you received?

• Good, I'm satisfied
• Bad, I'm unsatisfied

PayByPhone

? I THEN DECIDED TO COMPLAIN TO DACORUM BOROUGH COUNCIL USING THEIR ONLINE FORM

I attempted to use the Pay by Phone app (for the first time) to pay for Parking at Berkhamsted for two hours for my car registration xxxxxxxxx.?

The app said the transaction could not proceed because of missing personal ID. So, instead, I used my credit card to pay at the machine.?

Then, later, I had email notification that PayByPhone had taken my payment, even though their message said the transaction could not go ahead.?

When I complained to PayByPhone, they said they cannot refund the money and I had to contact you. I am disappointed with PayByPhone and will not use that service again.?

I should receive a refund for the PayByPhone parking charge, as I paid for parking twice.

? DACORUM BOROUGH COUNCIL REPLIED

Dear Mr Danzig,?

Thank you for your email concerning the PayByPhone app, which has been passed to me for a response on behalf of the Councils Parking Services team.

I am sorry to hear that you have experienced an issue with the PayByPhone app as shown in your complaint below. I have contacted PayByPhone and asked for them to investigate the matter.?

PayByPhone have contacted me today and explained that they cannot see a payment made for a parking session on Monday 17 January 2022 for vehicle *******, and that there was no reported errors on the day.?

I have noted that you had received an emailed notification from PayByPhone, are you able to provide this to me so that I can confirm that the payment was made on the 17th January 2022?

Many thanks,?

Dan Rodger, Parking Operations Officer, Dacorum Borough Council

? I WROTE BACK TO DACORUM BOROUGH COUNCIL

Dear Mr Rodger

Thank you for your email. Please find attached a copy of my credit card statement showing the payments made for parking. There is no doubt that PayByPhone took payment from me.

Please note that the parking session was on Tuesday 18 January and not 17 January; if I had written before that it was 17 January that was a mistake. However, my email to PayByPhone clearly stated 18 January.?

I am very concerned by the attitude of PayByPhone when I contacted them and the protracted correspondence that followed, which I can share with you.

I look forward to hearing back from you.

With regards

Jon Danzig

? DACORUM BOROUGH COUNCIL REPLIED

Dear Mr Danzig,?

Thank you for your supplementary email.

I have contacted PayByPhone and they have explained to me that there was a valid session made on Tuesday 18 January 2022, please see below:

?[IMAGE SHOWN OF MY PARKING SESSION USING PAYBYPHONE]

Since Dacorum started the PayByPhone service as a payment for booking a parking session on 1 August 2021, I can confirm that I have not received any contact from other PayByPhone customers with the same issue that you have stated.?

PayByPhone have also explained to me that they have no reported service issues for Tuesday 18 January 2022. Therefore, I can only put this down to an isolated incident.?

I have noted your request for a refund, and I can see that you made a payment using the IPS payment machine on the day.?

Dacorum Borough Council do not issue refunds for pay and park sessions or PayByPhone parking sessions. The Parking Service are unable to verify an incorrect payment to a vehicle unless issued with a Penalty Charge Notice and overpayments are accepted.

However, I have noted your comments and as a gesture of goodwill, and on this occasion only I have contacted PayByPhone on your behalf with the request for a full refund to be paid back to the account that made the payment.?

I hope that you will find this of assistance and I hope that this unfortunate incident does not deter you from using our car parks in the future.

Yours sincerely,?

Dan Rodger, Parking Operations Officer, Dacorum Borough Council

? I REPLIED TO DACORUM BOROUGH COUNCIL

Dear Mr Rodger

Thank?you for your email and for arranging a refund.?

This was the first time I had used PayByPhone, and I will not use them again.?

I agree that the transaction was successful, but before that happened, I got a message on my phone saying the transaction could not go ahead because ‘personal id’ was missing.

I naturally assumed the transaction had failed, put my phone back into my pocket and paid at the machine instead. I did not know until later that the transaction with PayByPhone had gone ahead after all.

I am nonplussed that an issue over ￡1.75 should have generated so much correspondence. I note that you are only offering a refund as a measure of goodwill as this would not normally happen.?

However, I have no confidence in the PayByPhone method of parking if they will not promptly rectify something when it goes wrong. The amount of my time that this has now taken pales the ￡1.75 into insignificance.

In any event, the primary reason I had contacted you was not only for a refund, but to alert you to a problem, which it seems you have dismissed, as you stated that since Dacorum started using PayByPhone around 5 months ago, there have been no similar issues.

In the years I had used your previous service provider, Ringo, there had never been any problems.?

I wish to write an article for publication about this incident and would like to quote from your emails for my report.?

Regards

Jon Danzig

? DACORUM BOROUGH COUNCIL REPLIED (some days later)

Dear Mr Danzig,?

Thank you for your email.

Firstly, I must apologise for not explaining that PayByPhone were indeed looking into your reported problem so that they could prevent this from happening again. I must apologise for this omission in my earlier email.

I can confirm that PayByPhone have made an investigation after first hearing of your issue and they have now emailed me with the following:

*******************

Hi Dan

Apologies for the delay in getting back to you.?

We have made some internal enquiries relating to the information provided by the customer: ‘personal id’ was missing. This isn't a message we are familiar with - we are aware of other messages that may appear; however, this isn't something we've seen before.?

After checking the customers logs, we can see they first went onto the app at 8:43am and accessed the app multiple times until 12:04.?

The final time they accessed the app on the day was 13:49 and we can't see this particular message appearing throughout these times.?

A successful payment was made at 10:01am - this was the first payment made on the account (the customer originally registered the account in October 2021).?

We have also checked the original communication from the customer to our Customer Support team.?

The agent advised the customer to reach out to Dacorum Borough Council, as PayByPhone do not cover machine payments and there is no way of validating/checking without proof. Our agents can only issue refunds if they can see duplicate payments made through PayByPhone.?

For this particular scenario, the agent should have requested the customers proof of machine payment in order to submit to Dacorum Borough Council for refund authorisation; however, in this case, the agent advised the customer to reach out to you directly.?

We will ensure further training and advice is provided to all agents to ensure the best level of customer service, especially in these instances.?

Do you know if the customer was able to take a screenshot of the ‘personal id missing' message, as we may be able to escalate to our developers for further investigation?

*******************

I am sorry for the amount of time this has caused to you and I thank you for your correspondence in helping to prevent further similar instances from happening again.?

PayByPhone have explained that they will ensure further training and advice is given to all agents, especially in this instance, which I hope you will be pleased to hear.

As you can see from their email to me, PayByPhone have also requested a screenshot showing the ‘personal id’ error you received.?

It would be great if you were able to provide this to me so that I can pass it onto their development team, but I can understand if you are unable to due to the amount of time you have already spent on this issue.

I note that you are going to write an article for publication about this incident. I would be interested to receive a copy, or alternatively, I would be keen to know the publication in order that I may read your article??

Should you have any further enquiries concerning your article please can you contact the Councils Communications team who will be happy to help you. You may email them using the address [email protected]?

I hope that you will find this information of assistance.

Yours sincerely,??

Dan Rodger, Parking Operations Officer, Dacorum Borough Council

….................................................................

Oh my, such a lot of correspondence over a tiddly issue of ￡`.75 and a phone app that didn’t work for me.

And no, I did not take a screen shot of the PayByPhone transaction. Isn’t the purpose of such apps to make life easier?

Also, wouldn’t it have been simpler and saved a lot of time if PayByPhone in the first instance had just written back to say that they were sorry for the inconvenience, they will arrange a refund, and investigate what went wrong?

But no. A tiny issue became a convoluted protracted parking issue.?

Is this a symptom of broken Britain? It’s certainly a symptom of something.?

At the time of writing, other issues – Brexit, climate change, world hunger, possible invasion of Ukraine by Russia, etc – also remain unresolved.?

But is it any wonder?

• Report and graphic by Jon Danzig, who is an independent campaigning journalist and film maker who specialises in writing about health, human rights, and Europe. He is also founder of the information campaign, Reasons2Rejoin
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