Parking fine at Sainsburys superstore

I was in Morrison’s and was taken ill. My daughter and I spent time in the cafe until I started to feel better. I got a parking fine! I rang their head office and they sorted it out for me straight away. You could do the same?

This happened to me. I had taken my disabled Dad shopping and didn’t realise that there was only an hours parking. I ended up paying it but have not been back to Sainsbury’s since.

@MyCheekyEagle, I'd go into the shop with my bank statement/credit card bill to show that I'd spent money there on that day and ask for their help. You won't be the first person to ask. I would expect them to be able to arrange to have it cancelled.

I would pay it and then go and speak to sainsburys afterwards to explain, showing your receipts etc. The problem is that Sainsburys don't actually own and operate these carparks, they are owned by a separate company, I would imagine they can't be of much help.

Just go in and speak to someone they have the ability to cancel them on your behalf

I think you’re better off just paying it OP. I had this at a nearby Iceland shop. The time allowed was 10 mins. I was only going in for one thing, it wasn’t a busy time of day so thought I’d be in and out very quickly. But because what I went in for wasn’t on the shop floor, staff had to get it from the stockroom. I was in there 16 minutes. It cost me £60. A lesson learned but I won’t shop there again. The shop is in a really deprived area, I’ve never seen the car park full so I don’t know why they thought it was a good idea to get a private company to take over the car park and have a ridiculous 10 minute parking allowance.

Have to say I agree with this. I always see the advice that they’re unenforceable because they’re ’not a fine’. However by parking in a private carpark you are agreeing to certain terms and if you don’t you may be ask to pay a penalty amount. If you don’t they may take you to the small claims court.

One piece of good advice I got was to google the parking company to see how litigious they are. Some won’t pursue anything other than to send out a few threatening letters. Others will take it all the way to the small claims court. Unfortunately mine were very litigious. There was one car where the poor bloke had put one wrong digit from his vrm into the machine, they took him to small claims and won! He had paid for parking and it was clear what had happened but he broke the terms of the contract so they won and he had to pay up.

It will have just been sent out automatically for you. My mums done this numerous of times all she did was appeal it with the receipts and they cancelled the fine.

The letters may have stopped because they have started court proceedings!

This is terrible advice - I have spoken to many people who have ended up with CCJ’s and consequential impact on credit rating because of this kind of “wisdom”. It is not worth the risk

Talk to Sainsbury’s, they will not want to lose a good customer. Go to customer services and ask to speak to a manager.

Another anecdotal story but we had similar situation 18 months ago at a retail park in South London. We’d been shopping with our toddler, had had lunch there with him and were just a little over the time limit. Partner (his car) received threatening letters for months, but on looking for advice online (I know!) decided to ignore and letters stopped a while ago now. TBH though, I think the best idea would be to approach the supermarket as others have done. Never occurred to me to do this at the time , but it’s not in their interests to allow genuine customers to be punished for spending time shopping

This happened to me once in Morrisons. I also did not have the receipt but could prove I had shopped and how much I had spent with my Bank statement- it was cancelled and I didn’t have to pay the fine.

Well, yes. But OP specifically asked for anecdotal stories like this, so I shared mine.

How long was the max parking time? Ours is 3hrs! I too was going to suggest talking to the shop, but if you don't have the receipt, I'm not sure what you can do.

I had this happen at Morrisons in another town some time back - 2 years ago maybe - and I was only in there 7 minutes past the 'allowed' time. I had spent £79 in Morrisons, and was/am a regular customer.

I rang the store and told them I was upset by this as it was a £100 fine, and I only ran over by 7 minutes. (And I am a regular customer.) I said I hadn't just used them as a free car park while I ran around the town for over 2 hours. I did look around the town for an hour and I admitted that, but I did a bunch of shopping, and had a coffee and a cake in the cafe.

The woman I spoke to was very nice, and said she will contact the company who issued the fine and get it cancelled. She did, and I got a letter a week later from the parking fine company saying the fine was cancelled.

So contact the store @MyCheekyEagle

Pay it but if it happens again go back in store - we had this happen once and store got it sorted straight away - it’s done to stop people using it as an open ended freebie car park

Similar happened to me at a Toby Carvery. Contact the store, you can share a screenshot of the card transaction and even your activity section of your Nectar card showing you were there and spent money. Hopefully they can settle this for you, much like Toby Carvery did for me.

I would go to the customer service desk with date of transaction and card you paid with, they can look up the transaction (I have done this before to get a copy receipt), and likely cancel your fine.

Yes don't pay it. Go to money saving expert forums and it will tell you exactly how to not pay it.

Everyone will have anecdotal stories like this but ultimately it’s a risk - you might be lucky and it will get dropped, or they will pursue and the costs will escalate massively!

As above, if you go to the customer services in the shop they should be able to contact the company and get it cancelled. I wouldn't worry too much about the receipt, just go in and ask them.

I used to work in a supermarket and you registered your car reg on their system, but if you changed cars it would take a few days to update and you'd get fines - which customer services could then get cancelled.

I got a ticket for over staying at Pets at Home. I didn't notice it had a time limit. I didn't pay it and nothing came of it. I got threatening letters for about a year, but they eventually dropped it.

Do not ignore it but do not pay it yet either. Show the store your banking transaction and ask that they get it cancelled.

I'm guessing you're in England? In Scotland you can just ignore them because they can't enforce them, a few letters are sent then they stop. They're a bunch of chancers.