Initialparking Reviews 

649
TrustScore 1 out of 5

1.1

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Review summary

Created with AI, based on recent reviews

Considering 116 reviews, most reviewers were let down by their experience overall. Many customers reported receiving fines despite having paid for parking, often due to issues with payment machines not accepting transactions or incorrect registration number input. People frequently found the payment process confusing, with unclear signage and systems that were perceived as leading to unexpected charges. Reviewers also expressed frustration with the company's service, citing rejected appeals even with proof of payment and the rapid escalation of fines to debt collectors. Customers were particularly critical of the car park locations, such as Newquay Airport, where they felt the pricing was unreasonable for short-term stays and the technology was outdated. Many also noted that the company does not allow a grace period after the paid parking time, leading to fines for being only a few minutes late.

What people talk about most

Payment

Users describe negative interactions with payment, often encountering issues with machines being out of order... See more

Price

Reviewers mention negative feedback about price, with many expressing dissatisfaction over unexpected and... See more

Location

Reviewers highlight negative aspects of location, with many expressing frustration over car park experiences... See more

Claim

People report negative experiences with the claim process, with many appeals being rejected even with... See more

Service

Clients share negative opinions on service, with many reviewers expressing extreme disappointment. Customers... See more

Reviews shaping this summary

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

We were actually working for the car park's owner when we got fined by their scamming car park management company, Initial Parking. Even though we appealed on that basis they still would not retract t... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

To our surprise Initial Parking made a new claim that Beacon near Lewes was a fee-paying car park. One of us paid £2 by card and has the bank statement showing that IP had received it. They denied... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

DISGRACEFUL SCAM - As many others I was fined £100 for parking in St Mary's Church Car Park in Betws-y-Coed Wales. Had poor GPS signal and only one machine was working. They combine your consideration... See more

Rated 1 out of 5 stars

St Mary’s Church car park - Betsw y coed. This company are a disgrace. The ticket machine doesn't accept your full reg number - but does take payment. A week later you receive a £60 fine for not key... See more


1.1

Bad

TrustScore 1 out of 5

649 reviews

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1.1

All reviews

(649)

101 reviews in the last 12 months

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Rated 1 out of 5 stars

I reported them to trading standards

I parked in the designated area of the car park in Scarborough to charge my EV .no signs to say I had to pay while charging.I received a parking fine letter a week after -not even a phone number to call for clarification,just an email address.I appealed the notice and waiting to hear from them ,I attached my receipt for payment for the charging session.I also reported them to Trading Standards because they should have a camera aiming at the EV chargers ,not just in the entrance. They should have checked their payment records before issuing a parking charge.I find their behaviour very suspicious. They are harassing people to pay fines they should NOT be issuing.I told them that they are scammers and I reported them so that they don’t continue harassing people. If they acted in a similar way please report them to trading standards,through the citizens advice helpline .The more complaints then trading standards will have to investigate. Unacceptable behaviour.

1 August 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Modern day highway men

Stayed small amount of time too long at car park at caernarfon castle. Very expensive to begin with. Nothing to say how to pay for extra time. £60 fine. Car parking firms like this should be out lawed

25 July 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Unable to extend car parking session

My son, a new driver parked in Gulls Rock Inn Car Park, putting a ticket onto his car, over running he went back and added another to extend it. From what we can see the ANPR couldn't cope with that and just fined him for the first car parking offence, ignoring the second ticket. To rub salt into the wound the offence was on the 10th July, notice issued on the 15th and only received on the 25th giving us just 5 days to deal with before the £60 fine rises to £100, completely done on purpose to catch you out. Wish these companies did not exist as they are nothing short of rip offs, personally I avoid these car parks and think companies and councils that use them need to think again, would avoid!!

10 July 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Paid for the car park and was charged a…

Paid for the car park and was charged a fine for violating car park conditions. Together with rental company processing fee-128GBP
It seems like I didn't type in the whole reg number (missing last digit). I provided the proof of payment and they still would not issue a refund (of the fine I fully paid thinking I must have parked in the boats space or something else). Disgraceful company

20 June 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Abersoch Village Hall Saturday 10th…

Abersoch Village Hall Saturday 10th May. No slot to pay cash. Credit card reader not operative. Loads of people trying to download the "Initial Parking" which took ages.... and then wouldn't accept £3.20 bank authorised payment (screen grabs as proof). Tried again later to find it would accept £1.20 (1 hr) not £3.20 (3hr). Deliberate? Appeal made and acknowledged.Appeal ignored for over two months - assumed with the overwhelming evdence given it had been dropped - got a debt collectors letter yesterday demanding £170.00 as the "opportunity to appeal has now passed" Er...? Fortunately I have hard copies of everything. Anyone else scammed by Abersoch car park that day because of total absence of a means to pay, please reply via trustpilot. It refuses to accept my email for you to reply. Class action?

10 May 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

discresful scam company

discresful scam company; avoid parking there. ticket paid genuinely but due to faulty ticket machine fine was issued. No NCP note delived, case passed to Debt Recovery, no one seems to will to cooperate despite hard evidence delivered

28 May 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Scam parking company

3 days ago
New
DO NOT PARK here...it's a pay & display car park BUT they have anpr cameras on entry & exit...
so by the time you have found a space, parked, walked to the ticket machine, queued & actually paid, then returned to put the ticket into your car - you think you have the ticket time as purchased to enjoy Abersoch. You then return back to your car, make your way out to the exit and at that point the anpr camera clocks you going out. Basically you don't just pay to park here, you pay for the time you enter & exit the car park...so BEWARE it could cost you £100 just to enter here!!!!!
SHAME ON ABERSOCH VILLAGE HALL FOR SUPPORTING THESE CROOKS!!!

8 July 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Avoid parking here

Avoid parking here, it's a scam!
Use the Parking for Snowdon further down the road as it is cheaper and legitimate. Staying in your car for more than 10 minutes will result in a £100 fine.

9 July 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

DISGRACEFUL SCAM

DISGRACEFUL SCAM - As many others I was fined £100 for parking in St Mary's Church Car Park in Betws-y-Coed Wales. Had poor GPS signal and only one machine was working. They combine your consideration to park and grace period in one which meant my time ran over when I collected my car. Even after appealling to POPLA I was unsuccessful. I will be reporting this company to Gov.uk for unlawful practices.

22 April 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Dishonest spivs

I thought I was pretty street wise, clearly not though as it turns out. There’s a lovely village in Wales called Abersoch. It has a village hall which has a car park. Sadly they employ a team of scammers to run their car park. The scam is quite ingenious. They scan your vehicle as you drive in. You park and buy a ticket. There is no internet connection or phone signal so you go back to the car for change. You buy a ticket and it has an expiry time. You think that’s the time you need to return by. But no they record the time you physically leave and even when this is before the expiry time you get a fine of £100. Why, because they base it not on the time on the ticket but that on the camera.

Seems this is common practice with the company concerned who run car parks all over the UK.

What bothers me most is not the sharks who run the company it’s Abersoch village hall. Surely you know what is going on, a minute on trip advisor will show this.

8 July 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Fistral Beach car park Newquay…

Entered Fistral Beach car park Newquay at 15.45pm , both machines did not accept cash , after typing in vehicle information the machine said no contactless payment cash only , so I returned the the car , I did not have enough coins , returned to the pay station , used the app and paid via the car park number on the sign for 2 hours , walked on the beach came back to the car before 18.00pm , as we had removed our footwear, we cleaned the sand from out feet , replaced trainers , got in the car , typed in sat nav so we knew which way to leave . Left the car park at 18.13pm , received a fine for over staying the car park as we found out later you are charged from the minute you enter the car park to the minute you leave ,
Appealed turned down with in 40 mins we received a reply the next morning,
Poor inconsiderate service, never use a car park run by them again .

26 June 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Just had a parking fine of £100 through…

Just had a parking fine of £100 through the door from parking in Holywell bay, luckily I’d kept the ticket so appealed and got a reply from these scammers saying because of my evidence they wouldn’t pursue the fine, firstly I payed for my parking I remember thinking how shocked my Dad would’ve been £8 for parking !! secondly they didn’t apologise at all, they must get so much money taking advantage of people especially the most vulnerable, absolute disgrace.

5 July 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

We were actually working for the car…

We were actually working for the car park's owner when we got fined by their scamming car park management company, Initial Parking. Even though we appealed on that basis they still would not retract the charge. They don't read your letters, the response to mine rejecting my appeal came by email at 4.30 in the morning proving it's just an automated system set to auto reject.

30 June 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

No point appealing, these scammers will still get you

Even though we paid, provided evidence of the payment via bank statement AND produced the ticket and then appealed to POPLA, the appeal got denied because of an error on our ticket.
As MANY others have stated here, this is due to a faulty machine printing only the first 2 digits. How would anyone even know that the machine part printing your reg is a mistake and not because of privacy??? Why are motorists now being held liable for faulty or incorrectly set up machines?

Appalling that POPLA are not concerned, stating that this falls outside their role.

Note the owner has multiple such businesses, and a little digging into their reviews, shows MANY to have the same thread....SCAM! These guys need to be reported, but I suspect just like POPLA, they wont care.

9 July 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Excessive Fines

Initial seem to have created a system to generate parking fines.

They use camera systems but purely to catch you out rather than allowing you to pay the correct parking fee when leaving.

We made a genuine error and were slightly late back to the car resulting in a £60 fine which felt excessive.

24 June 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Extremely Disappointed and Treated Unfairly

In April I parked my car at St Michael’s Mount & Long Stay Marazion Car Park and attempted to pay the £5.10 fee via the JustPark app. I selected the duration and hit "pay," but due to poor signal (and rain, while managing my child alone), I didn’t double-check for a confirmation. It turns out the payment didn’t go through, and despite explaining the situation honestly and apologetically, Initial Parking still rejected my appeal.
As a single parent traveling with a child in challenging weather, I did my best and have a clean 6.5-year history of always paying for parking, including every other stop on this same trip (with proof). A friend who parked with me at the same time completed their payment in the app, and we only realised later that mine had failed.
I wasn’t trying to evade payment-just made a genuine, understandable mistake. I even offered to pay the original £5.10, but they showed no empathy or flexibility. It's deeply frustrating to be treated like a serial offender over a first-time, human error.

Would strongly advise others to avoid this car park if possible. One mistake and there’s no room for fairness or compassion.

18 April 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Appalling company.

No option to pay online as stated, resulted in 30 minutes outstanding which I offered to pay and appealed this. Was told to either pay the fine or if I appeal again they will raise the fine from £60 to £100. This is a scam.

13 June 2025
Unprompted review
Rated 1 out of 5 stars

Lowther Street Parking

Lowther Street Parking - Carlisle

Paid to park in town to go and give blood at local blood donation. Returned back to car with couple minutes to spare and left. Was held up leaving car park due to how busy the car park was. People struggling to park their massive SUV's in the smallest parking spaces known to man.

Was apparently over my parking by 10 mins.

Disputed the parking charge and was told it was still valid as i could have bought additional time before leaving.

I wasnt parked i was driving around the 1 way bloody car park trying to leave.

Over £100 to go give blood. THANKS!!!!

24 June 2025
Unprompted review

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