Hang on, who's the scum? The parking company who are paid to monitor and charge people? Asda who choose to employ a parking company? People who know the rules but ignore them because they think they can do what they want on other people's land? People like your mum and Selby who's shipping has taken a long time should be 'let off' obviously but the whole situation has come about as a result of one thing and one thing only and that is people taking the piss, parking up and then going elsewhere meaning that genuine shoppers can't find spaces. The signs are clear, they're all around the carparks and if people choose to ignore them then that's their own fault really. As I said this doesn't include people who have accidentally gone over the time. If somebody printed off a ticket at a machine saying they had to leave by x o'clock they wouldn't complain if they got a penalty for being there later but because the same information is on a giant board instead of a P&D machine they think they can ignore it, park up and go where they want. As I said, I'll never understand that. What supermarkets should do is make it easier for people to go to customer services at the time and explain that they have gone/wil go over their time and why and get an extension or something. Not sure how but I bet it would be easy to implement so the genuine shoppers aren't treated lie the arses who take the piss Though I'll also never understand how shopping in one shop can take you 4 hours either your mum needs to go on pontys course.
I'd use the sensible advice above and couple it with a bit of social media pressure. Tweet/Facebook start it summat like "The true cost of shopping at Asda". I got a ticket written off and a 50 quid voucher from Tesco with said tactics.
Almost certain they can't fine you anyway so contest it. As far as I'm aware the only people who can legally fine you for parking is the local council or the police. My mum was telling me about someone who got a fine from the Asda a few weeks ago, they'd clocked her car going in, but not coming out of the car park until she went back in the day after to go to McDonald's. They sent her a letter saying she'd been parked for 27 hours or something. Contest it mate, probably not worth a the paper it's written on. Sent from my SM-G900F using Tapatalk
The parking companies. Setting out to deliberately mislead and extract cash from people. Its close to extortion and surprised its even an accepted method of operating a business. Valid reasons but no concern of yours really. They claim to have no power over it but i wouldn't be surprised if they got something out of allowing these companies to operate on their land.
It's not enforceable in the same way as a PCN issued by the police or the Council but these companies can pursue you for it as a civil debt. If you have no valid defence you'll end up having to pay for it, plus fixed costs.
You've got to accept though that it is private land you are parking on and they do need some way of controlling the parking there, to stop people from abusing it.
They do. Take the relationship between athena anpr and lidl... Athena paid lidl a small percentage to 'manage' carparks and lidl got wind of how much they were making and changed how the relationship worked. Ie lidl now get a greater chunk. I do agree that carparks do need a modicome of management but to fire out invoices for upwards of fifty quid a time when the retail outlet has suffered non financial impairment. . Thats a scam.
This is true. How many people in shopping centres, supermarkets and service stations notice the A4 stickers on a couple of lamposts. What's wrong with the not-so-old fashioned barrier entry? Pay your quid or whatever, and let the retail outlets who occupy make it their prerogative to refund the quid based on what you spend. The reason this no longer happens is that someone, somewhere makes a hell of a lot from the current method ....... you can see why folk call it a scam.
I've just had same trouble with Lidl £90 quid fine you only get 10 minutes in there, you have to register your vehicle in the shop little did I know, however after submitting a bank statement with transactions from the date of the fine they cancelled the parking charge.
The signage is generally quite obvious or at least it is at all the major supermarket carparks I go to. Tesco have signs dotted around and a giant one at the entrance, lidl have obvious signs and signs in the shops too, Morrison's have signs around the carpark and a large one at the entrance, meadowhall have signs in al pedestrian areas of carparks and dotted on walls too, asda have signs everywhere. In fact from the entrance to their carpark (the bend where you can turn left or bend to the right by McDonald's) you can see no less than 6 large signs.
^This^ The days of old where the parking companies were only able to threaten you with letters because they werent allowed to ask the DVLA for the registered keeper details. Now they can and they have been taking people to court for the last couple of years. Please take the advice above and speak to the parking company as well as Asda to explain the situation and hopefully they will cancel it. There are plenty of examples recently where the charges have gone up in excess of 1k from an initial £40. Get on it pronto, the parking companies are vultures and will take you to court and add extra costs on. The days of throwing them away have gone.
Thing is Lidl changed from 1 & half hours to 10mins grace, signs look same as before without inspecting them closer.
Non-financial impairment? If the car park is full and a potential paying customer can't park but there are cars parked who aren't even shopping there they may lose that paying customer for that shop. It's an extreme example but not impossible.
The carpark doesn't even have to be full for them to lose a customer, it only has to be perceived to be full or actually the shop only has to be perceived to be busy for people to turn away and go elsewhere. At that point the shop has lost out significantly and depending on the shop that can be £100 lost easily.
The rule which is used is breach of contract and in effect they sue for damages - and reasonable costs of collecting those damages. However there must be a demonstration of loss in the first instance before a single penny can be collected - but once they've demonstrated you've cost them money they can claim back other costs - which can quickly rack up. Whilst the point you make may be technically correct they have to demonstrate that people actually turned away - not potentially turned away - actually turned away. In addition they have to demonstrate that it was your vehicle that was the tipping point - if they shop was genuinely full of people within the terms of the contract and the car park was at a point that it was "perceived to be full" demonstrating at which point this occurred and that your car is the tipping point is nigh on impossible. The only logical point when this can be reasonably shown that a car parked in breach of contract is impacting the shop is when the car park is actually full. In addition if like some posters on this thread they were shopping for many hours the store has to show that it has lost more money from the next customer than it made from you.....and if you've spent £400 and the average spend in the shop is say £30 then they're going to have a tough time. In my view people should be human about these things. Parking enforcement should "reasonable" and a first offender should get a friendly note rather than an immediate bill. Claims for damages should be for real abusers not those caught in nefarious traps and people who car share and leave one at a supermarket should only leave them in car parks that they know is demonstrably within capacity day in day out. But in all honesty I couldn't live with myself working for one of these parking enforcment companies. I hope all their employees get nits.
It's very unlikely you will get taken to Court and your Credit file will not be affected. It's not credit. I am in a similar situation where I paid monthly in advance for my parking, £5. My permit dropped off the mirror on to the floor of the car and I was given a ticket for £65. I now have debt collectors, branch of same company, chasing me for £115 which they have dropped to £80 if I pay up now. I just keep e mailing them to say "come on then lets go to Court" but they just keep sending the same old letters saying pay up to avoid legal action. They just try to scare you into paying. I have sent them a photocopy of my permit and the receipt I paid for it with but they are still chasing me for it.