Parking permit failure to renew

[Adrian Essex]

Frustrating business. Does any one else have problems? Adrian Essex	17:41 (0 minutes ago)
to [e-mail]

I want to renew my parking permit. I have satisfied all the details set out on this page http://www.haringey.gov.uk/index/environment_and_transport/parking/...

My details have not changed - same car, same name , same address. I have no pcns outstanding. I have failed none of your tests. I want to renew online. you want me to renew online because it saves money. I know my old permit number, I know my applicant number. There is nothing in your criteria wrong with this application.

Enter Permit details

Please enter the permit reference number and your applicant ID.

• This permit is not currently at a stage that can be renewed online. Please contact us by email at [e-mail] if you feel this is incorrect.

 

[Adrian Essex]

Apparently it is only possible to renew parking permits consecutively. I am not allowed to park elsewhere for a few weeks and still renew online. I am now a first time applicant again. If only they'd told me that I could have gone through the other system days earlier.

But - when I use the first time system it does actually recognise me. It knows where I live from my previous application and from council tax account number. I wonder why I still have to upload a scanned document as proof of my address?

It knows that my car is still the same car as before. Insurance companies know the make colour and date of first registration merely from the registration. I have to tell them all these things, and upload a scanned copy of the log book!

Having done all these things I come to make the final payment:

What sort of system is this?

[Adrian Essex]

I thought I'd try it in Internet Explorer - it all went very well until I got to this point, after all the validation and the passwords - I get this:

[Adrian Essex]

To Nick Walkley CEO Haringey

Sir

I have been trying to renew my residents parking permit number RS02151968.

I have today had occasion to talk to the customer services telephone helpline. I will say that the young lady trying to help me was polite, and calm and certainly tried to be helpful. Unfortunately she was completely powerless.

I have tried to use your online system to renew. I no more want to take up the time of counter clerks in Tottenham or Wood Green than you want me to. 

As far as I am concerned, and your web page confirms, this is no more than simple renewal of a lapsed permit. Unfortunately your system does not agree saying " This permit is not currently at a stage that can be renewed online. Please contact us by email at [e-mail] if you feel this is incorrect. " but without giving me the slightest clue as to why. I have not yet had a reply to my email pointing this out.

Today one of your phone operators has explained that my account was deleted 5 - 9 weeks after the permit lapsed. This doesn't seem to be true - as soon as I supply my personal ID number 198225 the system knows all about me. From my point of view this is once again a simple renewal. Nevertheless I continued to jump through all the hoops and continued to upload an image of my council tax bill, (even though the system had asked for and recognised my council tax account number) and an image of my log book, even though the DVLA and every insurance company in the land have all the details in their computers. 

I got as far as clicking on a button labelled 'Payment' whereupon the system responded with the following:

This is hugely frustrating after a considerable amount of scanning and uploading.

I thought to seek help again from the phone line. During the 17 minutes waiting for a reply I attempted the transaction using Internet Explorer. The result was a bit different - it should not be, your programmers should be capable of transactions which are not browser dependent. This time I git as far as submitting my credit c\rd number only to get the following contradictory and unhelpful response

So I still do not have a parking permit.

What I would suggest you do as recompense for my wasted time and effort and mental anguish, is to issue the new permit free of charge, and have one of your front line staff run it round here tomorrow. 

Yours faithfully

Frustrated

Crouch End

-- 
Adrian Essex

07970705411

[Lyn Weber]

Hi Adrian

Don't risk parking in the area during CPZ hours. 

If a parking warden notices you have an expired CPZ permit they will issue a penalty notice regardless of the difficulties you are having to renew your permit.

 

 

[Adrian Essex]

Of course I did not expect to get a free permit from Nick Walkley so I went this afternoon to 48 Station Road, where, to suit our great computer, we are all nobbut numbers waiting for a female robot to call us to a numbered desk , where cloned clerks clatter keyboards clandestinely on the other side of a 30 metre long bank of office furniture. Mine was a bit supercilious to start with but soon came up trumps. "Did you know you've got a permit on the system that expires on 13th October 2015?" she asked. I didn't. I was delighted. "Could you print it for me?" "Certainly" "Thank you".

Wouldn't it be lovely if it's the one for which I paid £0.00. Or maybe Nick had already had it issued and I'll get his email in the next day or two.