Parking fine at Sainsburys superstore

That article on MSE, is TWELVE YEARS OLD, and it is bloody appalling advice. I have never read such rubbish. As I said, I know that MSE are very helpful a lot of the time, and can give some really good advice. However they do not always get it right. And THIS is an example of when they did not get it right. The 'advice' in that article is dreadful! 😬

@MyCheekyEagle Do NOT take any advice from that TWELVE YEAR OLD article in that link!!!

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https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822/newbies-private-parking-ticket-old-or-new-read-these-faqs-first-thankyou

Thank you @nancy75 MUCH better, sensible, helpful advice, than 'don't pay it cuz I heard some random on an internet forum say you don't have to!' 🙄

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Again, advising someone to NOT pay a fine is ludicrous, damaging advice. The OP may have strong grounds to challenge it, but not paying it at all (if Sainsbury's won't cancel it,) is a stupid idea. And it's ridiculous to suggest someone does that.

It's not 'silly' to pay it, and your 'advice' is terrible! @MyCheekyEagle Please do not listen to posters telling you to not pay it. Pay it, and then challenge it!

I work in a place that has this kind of parking & I'm the person who deals with the tickets!

1. Do not ignore it - these companies can & do take people to court.
2. Contact the store, show them your receipt/bank with transaction on it. Parking companies differ - some allow you to cancel a certain amount of tickets a month, others let you reduce to a smaller fee (usually £20)
3. What is the appeals process on the ticket - with proof of purchase the parking co will usually cancel/reduce the ticket if the store can't help.
4. The same as 1 DO NOT IGNORE! These companies are ruthless, they will chase payment and add extra fees.
5. The sooner you speak to someone in-store, the more likely they are to be able to help you.

It's not actually. OP may well have very strong grounds to challenge the invoice. Those grounds disappear once she pays but then wants to retrospectively challenge it.

Paying now - or paying if Sainsburys refuse to help - would be silly from the OP's perspective.

@ConveyancingHelll I, and several others have said to contact the store first! But to suggest just not paying it because someone on the internet said so is ludicrous advice.

My local Tesco has a ONE HOUR limit if you visit after 10pm at night!! One hour! It’s a large megastore type place.

I usually go after 10pm as it’s quieter and I can browse in peace. I spent 1 hr 35mins in there on a big shop - which included 15 minutes on the phone to DP as he wanted me to pick up something that I couldn’t find. Plus no cashiers at that time of night so a good 15 minutes or so scanning, packing etc.

Anyway, got a fine. Tesco uninterested. Said the car parks weren’t operated by them - even though they are the only shop there so clearly they’ve allowed the operator to run them on their behalf.

I was moving house and forgot to pay (I am also shit at life admin). Ended up costing me more than £200.

Also, parking restrictions at other times of the day are three hours. The one-hour limit was new. They had updated the signage but as it was a Tesco I’d been going to for over 10 years, there was absolutely no reason for me to cross the car park to check the sign (where the one-hour limit was written in small text at the bottom). I mean, who checks the sign at a local supermarket every single time you visit just in case there’s been a change?! You don’t walk past the signs to get from the car park to the door.

It would have been good customer service to have a notice on the door or even just a warning to say “car park times have changed” - because then I would have checked.

It was technically my fault so I paid but I’m still absolutely adamant it was shitty customer service and what supermarket limits you to a bloody hour?!

Anyway. Solidarity OP. Try taking your bank account in to show Sainsburys - fingers crossed they give more of a shit than Tesco.

It's not a fine. It's an invoice.

OP should 100% not pay it yet. First port of call should be to get Sainsbury's to cancel it. Second port of call should be to appeal it.

Ultimately, I think OP would be well advised to not pay at all and let them threaten her. Most of these are dropped when the car park company encounters someone who won't back down, and those that aren't are very often lost because the car parking company hasn't complied with their own obligations.

Also, as long as you don't ignore a court order to pay something, you won't end up with a CCJ. That is scaremongering nonsense.

No one should ignore it, but they also shouldn't just jump straight to paying it.

OP - how big is the car park? The new code of practice allows 5 minutes consideration period for smaller car parks and 10 minutes for larger car parks; plus ten minutes possibly for a grace period depending on the terms and conditions. So you might actually have been within the allowed grace periods, or just barely outside them. There's also a good chance the signage in the car park is not adequate.

Other point - at no point should you ever tell the car parking company who was driving. Their obligations are different if they can't prove who was driving and if they have to hold the keeper liable instead, and they often fail to meet those obligations.

But in the vast majority of cases, they DO have the ability to get a fine cancelled. All shops do. The parking charge company work for Sainsburys (and this applies at most other stores of course.)

They can get it cancelled by contacting the parking charge company they employ. They don't have to, but it's nonsense to say they can't do it. They can if they want to. It's their car park, and they employ the people who issue the tickets.

If you are a customer there/have spent money in their store, and can prove you did (which most people will be able to with a receipt or bank statement,) most stores will cancel the charge. It's ridiculous to not at least ask them to do so.

You're all under the impression that it's within Sainsburys' power to cancel the parking fine, but what if the carpark is run by a private firm? Our local Sainsburys' carpark is. The info boards about this are high up and in very small writing!

Taking the advice to pay a fine and then challenge it later, is a much better idea than taking the advice to avoid paying it.

Do you have a link to this 100% concrete, absolutely gospel information on MSE that says you can avoid paying fines, (and not get into any trouble/have action taken against you) by any chance?

Yes indeed. I have even known of NURSES, getting parking tickets for not paying the parking fine for staying too long on the hospital car park WHEN THEY WERE WORKING, ya know, actually bloody saving LIVES!

They didn't pay the fine (after being advised not to by well meaning people giving the wrong advice,) and they ended up 1000s of pounds in debt and with a broken credit record. It's terrible advice to say 'do not pay.' I don't care what MSE says. MSE, as good and helpful as it is, does get it wrong now and again........

Ok then. You do you, but don't say my advice (aka Martin Lewis's advice) is terrible when you haven't even bothered to read the detailed, legally informed thread created by one of the most respected and trusted teams on all matters financial in the UK. I mean I haven't lately heard anyone complain that they followed Martin Lewis's advice and ended up being worse off or with a CCJ, but if people want to follow your advice instead that's fine by me.

Sainsbury’s closed all their fitting rooms didn’t they? Don’t use that as an excuse when you appeal

This has been my experience. Whenever I’ve asked the supermarket about it, they’ve always said it’s nothing to do with them because they don’t own the land for the car park and have no ability to cancel the charge.

Exactly. If in doubt, (or they refuse to cancel said fine) always ALWAYS pay it. If you don't it will escalate, and it will escalate fast. The amount will double within about 2 weeks, then if you don't pay, it will be passed on to debt collectors.

Them, as @VanCleefArpels said, it will affect your credit rating, and will result in difficulty getting credit, loans, credit cards, car finance, mortgages, and even phone contracts and insurance and the like...

Always ALWAYS pay. You can always dispute it/challenge it later on...

I prefer not to take advice from a website forum, rather speak to the actual law and my personal experience of advising people who have found themselves in trouble from not paying parking tickets.

Same thing happened to me but I overstayed in Morrisons by 9 mins over 2 hrs. I was able to download a pdf bank statement showing my debit card transactions for every week I'd done the weekly shop in their store over the past 12 months. I went to the kiosk and she sorted it. We did park there, do the weekly shop and then walk round the local shops as we did everything week but the day i overstayed the local Costa had shut down and we'd had coffee in their cafe which had caused us to overstay!

That is not even remotely what i was advising. Have you even read the thread on MSE which outlines the exact legal position and the exact steps you need to take at every stage depending on the exact wording of the parking fine and your own situation? It sounds like you are saying it's terrible advice to do what is outlined in your post (agreed, it is) and aren't even in a position to comment on what I advised because you clearly haven't read it.

I had this happen; did a shop in M&S then bumped into a friend from abroad who was unexpectedly home and we went for a coffee. All transactions recorded over the period on my credit card and I had receipts.

When I was accidentally a few minutes over my time i did approach the M&S store manager and ask them to intervene but they said they could do nothing to help.

I paid the fine and now I set an alarm on my phone when I park. It was extremely annoying. Looking at you, M&S!

They (Sainsbury's) can get it cancelled, which they will do for a proper customer. It's to prevent people parking there and going elsewhere, it's not for people who need longer to shop.

What typically happens is this:

1. parking ticket
2. read something /hear something about private carpark tickets being unenforceable
3. Don’t pay, smugly ignore letters with ever increasing amounts payable and/or
4. Don’t Keep DVLA updated with home address and/or fail to set up post redirection on moving house
5. find out there’s an unpaid CCJ when applying for credit
6. panic call to CAB asking for advice

All this for the lack of paying £50

Did they follow the procedure outlined in the thread on MSE to the letter? I bet they didn't.

I am curious how you were able to try on the clothes when I thought Sainsbury's had closed their changing rooms. Is the one in your store open?