AIBU to appeal a private car park fine for leaving site?

I paid the one I got for parking in a shopping centre whilst I visited dh in hospital (as for many hospitals parking on site is horrendous) as absolutely I knew I had gone offsite. Interestingly the evidence photographs showed my car but not me actually leaving the site so I guess I could have dishonestly argued it. Anyway the second day I saw wardens monitoring cars I wandered off to a shop first and went offsite a different way. No fine for this one. I have since then managed to find somewhere different I could park easily and legally so not tried this strategy again. It was very annoying though as the shopping centre carpark has had masses of empty spaces anytime I have visited so I was not stopping anyone use the shops.

not everyone shops on cards. i have two friends who still use cash (as big brother is watching and they don’t want anyone knowing who they are/their business -personally i dont think itll work).

So you could be one of them, and in order to shop at farm foods you required cash. hence your visit to the cash point prior to shopping. (if the receipt says you paid by cash).

even if they didn’t tell you yet, they will know what time you came back though so if you were away for ages they will know you were doing somwthing other than that however your receipt from farm foods proves you were indeed a shopper there, the purpose of the car park.

people park in our free tesco car park and then shop in the town centre, rather than pay for that car park.

it is annoying when i cannot get parked at tesco because it’s full of m&s customers that could park there but were too stingy to pay a pound. in our case they need a tesco exit barrier and someone checking receipts and if no tesco one you pay a pound so youre no better off parking there than near the town. they dont need a parking company charging exorbitant fees. sledgehammer to crack a nut.

@Rosesandthorns66

I detest these parking parasites.

I would try writing to the store manager, and hand deliver it. Say you went to the bank to get cash to pay! You have the receipt and you have spent a lot of money with them in the past. Please can they help as paying the fine will result in financial hardship etc.

The contract is with the parking company, but I have successfully sued parking companies for predatory tactics and seen contracts where stores do have some discretion.

However, the sign is clear (though awful) so you won’t get anywhere with appealing to the parking parasites. The appeals process is all the same people anyway.

I used to be a regular contributor on the Martin Lewis Parking Forum. It is really good.

Please act quickly as these PP’s love to add extra costs.

Surely you’re allowed to withdraw cash that you’re spending in the shop?

have a go at appealing. Perhaps the store can locate ypur purchase and print a receipt/ photo of you paying

Send ypur receipt or screen shot of bank statement proving you shopped there

Oh, I'm not saying that this would be the case in your situation; but just that if other people were accused and fined, they wouldn't necessarily have proof of legitimately having been in the shop if they hadn't bought anything.

Do you have a local paper? If so, it might be worth your while approaching them, as they're usually keen for any local stories. A headline saying 'Farm Foods customers fined for using the store car park' will sow a seed in many people's minds that it's maybe a shop that it isn't now worth their while risking using. You won't be the only one, and other people will add their own similar negative experiences in the comments on the paper's online site.

FF will be aware of this and will then be forced into action to mitigate the effects of the bad publicity on their business. You may even find that the parking cowboys company 'apologises for the confusion and has cancelled this shopper's fine'.

I mentioned credit card exploitation before; and this has now reminded me of the time when the then-government forced banks to stop charging £20, £25 or more for sending you a letter to tell you were overdrawn or over your limit. As I recall, they capped it at £12 - which, if a penalty is justified, I would say is a much fairer ballpark figure.

£60 is absurd and in no way fair compensation for the loss that they have (not) suffered. This kind of extortion should be automatically officially considered a scam and outlawed - but it won't, because many local councils run the exact same scam in their car parks.

Unscrupulous tradespeople are roundly condemned as rogue traders when they charge multiple times what a job 'should' reasonably cost; but £60 for parking in a car park for a few hours - especially one that ordinarily can be free - is somehow fair?! It's a shame you can't report the companies and councils who do this to the latter's own trading standards department and get them to investigate and rule on the (gross un)fairness of it.

This is a really good point. Shopping in a store only means going into it; not necessarily buying anything - and thus of course you would have no proof of purchase if you didn't buy anything.

What if you only wanted one or two things and they didn't have them in stock? What if what they were offering and/or their prices were unacceptable to you, so you declined to make any purchase? Entering a shop in no way commits you to buying anything.

I thought there was a law that stipulated that fines and penalties have to be proportionate to the actual loss that they suffered as a result of your actions; but I must have been very mistaken.
Did Boris Johnson get this memo when his government fined people £4000 for snowball fights in 2020? And when he got a fine of £50 (not even loose change to him) he said “I’ve paid it, pleeeeeeeeeeeeease can you stop talking about Partygate?”

Extorting money from motorists is a massive con in so many ways.

Don't bother appealing. Unlike local authority fines, private car parks work by having a 'contract' with the driver. The easiest way to get out of one is to inform them John Smith of 123 Random Lane was the driver. That's it.

. I hate parking and not knowing what the rules are in each different free car park. I understand fully why they are there and how previous misuse had led to the imposition of tough penalties but I really wish there was a country wide agreed wording about how long you can park for and what the penalty is for breaking the agreed rules.

I would also like the punishment to fit the crime with an agreed scale for staying over time for example. £60 charge for a parent going to buy milk is outrageous.

Surely if they have CCTV evidence that would show you patronising Farm Foods.

There needs to be proper regulation of all car parking and consistent policies across the country. So you know 100% where you stand.

Also an app covering all, and the ability to pay at a machine by debit/credit card.

receipts and proof of purchase don’t matter, they don’t say you can only park there if buying something. Does the signage show the area covered by the retail park - which stores are included?

Don't give up hope so quickly.

I would go to Farmfoods and speak to the manager.