We used the NCP car park in Little Berrington Street, Hereford, one evening. The car park is not particularly well lit and it was dark. We went to the machine and inserted coins to cover the period of parking and the vehicle reg. Imagine my amazement when I received a £100 parking fine. I disputed this. NCP replied advising that the facility to pay by cash has been withdrawn. We did not see any signage to indicate this, and the machine swallowed the money. I was offered a reduction in the fee, 'as a gesture of goodwill', which meant the fine was £20. There was no offer to refund the parking fee which had been paid. I was still unhappy. You are able to dispute this via an appeal process, with POPLA, but if you do and lose then you have to pay the full £100 fine. Basically this is like blackmail and they have you over a barrel. As a country we have the Ombudsman Services to report such happenings, but NCP also advise you that they do not participate in this service you have to use POPLA. This again is wrong, the Ombudesman is an indpendant appeal system, what right have they to tell you that you can not use it. I know due to Covid some parking machines are only taking cards, but some do still take cash. This is usually detailed clearly on the machine, since they didn't state this and the machine took the cash how can I be in the wrong?? I was able to send one appeal, when they came back and said that the machine was card only, I could not go back and further appeal giving more relevant facts, that I did not realise were crutial when I sent the original appeal, I was just saying at that stage that the parking charge had been paid. It is a complete con.