First Parking Reviews 209

Only method of paying was via the RingGo app or calling RingGo, neither of which were working. I sent screenshots clearly showing I was attempting to pay but the app was displaying an “error” message, and calls were unable to go through due to the rural location. The inability to pay was not my fault but they rejected my appeal with a blanket statement. My 1 hour visit which I tried over and over to pay for turned very expensive - more money in the pockets of the greedy.

I received a parking fine for parking at my place of employment. On my last employment day I went to work on-site as usual, only for a week later to be fined. I was previously paying a monthly parking subscription for the area, but emailed to cancel it after my last employment day. They fined me for the day , claiming I was not covered. I could not provide email evidence as my work email was deleted after I left. I appealed the charge explaining the mistake, but appeal was rejected. The reason for the rejection amounted to "signage was clear", which had nothing to do with my appeal, as I parked there thinking I was still covered. Absolute heartless jokers

The give you 14 days to appeal but not when they issue a letter on 2nd April and it arrives on 14th April just before the 16th April deadline.
Okay maybe the Royal Mail had a problem but late delivery only benefits one party so surely they should have some contingency built in.

Be aware that you can be charged for parking for a vehicle registered in another state that has the same registration as your registered vehicle. When I raised this with them to get a refund (awaiting that to be processed), I was confronted by a rather condescending and rude young Man (Josh). Despite my registration being "unique" (Rego number qualified by the state indicator) I was still charged for someone else's parking (same registration different state). They say they cannot guarantee this wont happen as they are not a government entity !!!!!

SOUNDS LIKE A FIRST PARKING problem not a customer problem. Have you not heard of AI or thought to add a STATE qualification on the number plate reader software.

BE VERY AWARE everyone and keep checking your nominated credit card or parking history - or SIMPLY remove your account and park elsewhere.

Completely ignored request for contract of landowner and rejected an appeal when the vehicle had a legitimate right to park.

Terrible experience with First Parking.

My family visited Bewl Water and, before leaving the car park, we asked a staff member whether we should pay for 4-hour or all-day parking. We were advised to pay on the way out once we knew how long we had stayed.

We followed this advice and ultimately paid the full-day parking charge before leaving. Despite this, First Parking still issued a £60 parking charge notice. We appealed and provided proof that the parking had been fully paid, but they rejected it anyway.

There was clearly no attempt to avoid paying, yet they still pursued a penalty on top of the parking fee already paid.

This feels like a system designed to generate penalties rather than apply common sense, which they state on their website

If you are a landlord or a company looking to use first parking please DO NOT. They are very harsh as I am a driver and I wanted to deliver parcels to residents in the property, it was my first time I made a honest mistake of not knowing where to park and they rejected my appeal and made me pay £60. Now I have informed people to avoid any places with first parking meaning residents will suffer delays due to first parkings lack of support and understanding to drivers working.

Terrible company ethics. No chance to discuss or explain.

Very disappointing experience with The First Parking. I paid for two hours of parking and only overstayed by 10 minutes, yet I was issued a £85 parking charge.

At the Tooting location, the payment machine was not working, which meant I had to spend extra time downloading their app and registering before I could pay. This delay was completely out of my control, but it was still used against me.

I appealed directly to The First Parking and then took it further to POPLA, but both appeals were rejected despite providing this explanation.

This feels unfair and unreasonable, especially when the issue was caused by faulty equipment. I would strongly advise others to avoid parking at First Parking sites if possible, as there seems to be no flexibility or consideration for genuine circumstances.

The payment machine was not working in maternity nottingham city hospital so I paid at the barrier and was charged 10 pound for a 2 hour stay should have been 5 pounds need a refund but won't hold my breath

First parking (university of Birmingham )is a steal from the staff permit holder, I pay monthly fee ,but can't guarantee a parking space ,no clear parking bay, cars parked everywhere ,First Parking will decided what they like to give "who " a Parking fine ,as they are private owned ,no warning sign for not parking on the space ,but it's rule for pleasing themself ,WASTE time to appeal ,it's their own decision, unless you pay other company to appeal it -extra cost !!

Terrible. unfair appeals process only accept complaints in writing to put people off.

Paid for parking and got a penalty notice!!

I paid online for parking with First Parking, and they sent a confirmation that I had paid (Evidence no. 1). On arrival I gave them my reg number and they checked their system and let me in. (Evidence number 2)

They then put a PCN on my car and said I hadn't paid.
They confirmed that I had paid when I boked therefore they are either completely incompetent or scammers!

It’s scam tottly fraud and steal money from people.. the government must review the company and issue ticket to people like scam and steal money and blackmail the people by DCBL

First Parking are running a dirty money-making scheme. Their so-called “grace period” is just 5 minutes – even though they know it takes longer than that to get a lift upstairs, collect an item, and return to your car.

Yet they claim 8 minutes and have slapped me with a £100 fine. This feels like a deliberate setup to squeeze money out of people at any cost. A fair grace period should be at least 15 minutes, but instead they use unrealistic limits and inflated timings to trap drivers.

This is not about fair parking – it’s about profit. Avoid any car park they manage, and think twice about living in areas where they operate, as their dirty tactics will target your hard-earned money.

I joined the loyalty program last night after looking at their advertised rates of $12 for two hours. I parked there this morning and stayed for an hour and a half and was charged $20.80 I went back to the website to check it had gone up to $15 I wrote an email to complain and was told it was the correct rate. Here’s a photo. I went back to the website and the rate altogether had gone. There was no two hour rate. So sneaky and disgusted with this company.

The way how some private parking areas in London are managed is appalling, just a money making machine and not helpful at all with customers. I have been fined outside my building ,while having an emergency for having parked the car for 12 minutes.
Even if I sent an explanatory email, my reasons have not been considered at all.
Customer service not existent, nobody you can talk to directly.
Be very careful when you park in areas managed by this company.

Scammers. Last year they took over parking operations at Sussex University. Somehow several people within a small business centre on the campus (where I work) managed to have their car registration numbers recorded incorrectly on their system resulting in PCNs being sent. I received three PCNs as my car registration number had an additional digit included within it incorrectly. Their website doesn't offer any simple protection to new users e.g. enter car reg twice to make sure they match and stop errors, no confirmation email that might alert you to the wrong car reg being registered.

We were instructed to use the business centre team to sort any issues during the parking transition. I did this and was told it was sorted and PCNs voided but one of my three PCNs remained unresolved and got escalated up to over £300 in fine.

Disgusting company as are the collection agency that they use - no one is interested in reasonable discussion and resolution. They just want money. Even more disgusting when they feast on locations like universities and hospitals where they rob people of money who have low incomes or that are forced into infringements due to emergencies or longer than expected stays where maybe they can't get back to a ticket machine or f**king about on some hard to use app is not a priority when they are in the middle of a health crisis.

Even when you look at this TrustPilot site they have lots of 5 star reviews that are all written in a foreign language - my guess would be that these are phoney reviews that they organise and potentially pay for in order to keep their aggregate score rating at a medium level. Honestly, who spends the time to write 5 star reviews for a parking firm?!

Disgusting company and one of many in this space. They should be more highly regulated and their practices reviewed and audited. Would love to know what proportion of their revenue comes from fines vs regular parking fees, my guess would be fines are a huge part and any attempt by them to be consumer focussed would result in a significant drop in revenue / profit.

Absolute scam artists. Charged me a fine for parking at a university in which I was working. An embarassment of a company.

My 18 year old son had gone everyday in May and June during his A levels to the University of Hertfordshire Library to study. The parking was set up on the First Parking App and the payment made each day automatically. On 1st June the car details disappeared from the app which resulted in three days where the parking costs did not go through and he was issued with three separate parking fines by First Parking. He appealed with evidence to show that all the days in May the payments had gone through and for some reason beyond his control, the car details were not on the app and the payments did not. He got a rejection for the three days (1st - 3rd June) resulting in an 18 year old student studying for his A levels being levied with a total of £240 fine.
They should look at their own systems before penalising young students.