BOYCOTTING SAINSBURYS-Unfair parking ticket and shoddy customer services from Sainsburys- store manager.

[Lipstickgal]

i am feeling so angry. I will explain this as briefly as possible.
We have restrictions in our Sainsburys car park which is that you are allowed to park for two hours and not return within two hours. Fine.
I do my shop on Thurs, arrive just before 10am and leave 11am. I have my receipt to substantiate this.
I then drive to another supermarket of which I also have a receipt that shows I left there at 11.30am.
I go home, unpack and collect my son from Grammar sch at 1.15pm. It is a 20 min drive away. He then asks if he can pop in to get some stationary bits so I return to the carpark around 2pm after popping home.
Later I find I have been given ticket saying I have parked from 10.15 until 2.10.
Clearly this is not the case so I took myself down to Sainburys with the receipts and explained that I could collaborate my whereabouts and was out of the carpark longer than 2 hours. I am asked by the duty manager to return on Monday as he can't cancel the ticket but the store manager can at his discretion. So back I go this morning only to experience the worst customer service ever.
I was basically made to feel like a liar because he questioned my whereabouts for 10 mins, in an itinerary fashion, and then told me he didn't have the authority to overturn this ticket. He was surly and obnoxious. I rang customer careline when I got home to log a complaint and they told me that he could have recinded this ticket as it was indeed at his discretion. I am not a liar and feel very strongly about how I was mistreated. I said they should look on their CCTV if they wanted to see exactly when I came and left and they would find it to be as I said. I said if the matter wasn't resolved I and my immmediate family would never shop there again. At this point he turned and said that that was up to me!
The liar in this case was the Store Manager.
The person I spoke on the phone asked me what I wanted and I said an apology and the ticket recinded. She then said that 'I have apologised'! I was so shocked I just told her that I would be putting all my concerns in writing and took her name. They don't like that do they?She asked me why I wanted her name and I then had to explain that I still wasn't satisfied with the level of customer care etc. We spend about £6,000 a year in this shop.
WIBU in never shopping at Sainsburys again? I actually feel intimidated because this store manager made a real scene of the situation and belittled me. Anyone else experienced anything like this?

They are notorious for not calling back. I had a huge issue with them last year while I was pregnant and they never called back when they said they would. It got to the point where the call centre staff recognised my voice.

Must write that letter claiming consequential loss and at least get some money back from the bastards.

In all fairness, whenever I've called after that event about other things, they have been very helpful, probably cos my account is marked with something like "Do not annoy this overemotional wreck or your ears won't thank you".

Pandeen had it. They can not legally force you to pay.

Complain about the customer service and ignore the fine. Don't go back anyway. I wouldn't.

So have any of you heard of this company Euro Car Parks?
Are they really not legally allowed to enforce these tickets? I would be worried about them giving us a bad credit rating as a consequence of not paying it.
I am going to appeal this because somehow ignoring it would be an admission of guilt. I then think it would be reasonable to challenge Sainsburys to relook at this iffy company they are supporting extorting money from their 'valued' customers.

As others have said just ignore it. Don't even acknowledge it. You'll get debt letters and threats of court and bailiffs etc, but at the end of the day they can't do a thing.

I got caught out with lidls 90min parking rule (although I believe its been reduced to 60 min now at my local one). I got the letters and as I never even acknowledged it they just stopped. Theres nothing on my credit rating file to say its an unpaid debt or anything, as it isn't.

IGNORE IGNORE IGNORE!!

Lipstickgal

So It's a private company.

Ignore them. It's a civil matter, nothing to do with parking legislation.

They cannot unilaterally give you a bad credit rating. Yo do not need a credit rating with a parking management company!

Please don't engage in any communication with them. They have no powers or authority to do anything other than submit an invoice (masquerading as a ticket) and then try to pursue under civil law only.

Ignoring them is in no way an "admission of guilt". Guilt does not come into it. They are notorious for bullying tactics and you will get nowhere by "appealing" anyway. There is nothing to "appeal" against.

Wow that's bad service! It would have been best for everyone if the manager had refunded the ticket and taken your word for it, as by calling a customer a liar is extremely bad for the shops reputation! (crap sentence!)

I am shocked actually as I've always had good customer service from them. Definately put it in writing!

Not unreasonable, and private parking tickets are completely unenforcable so fuck em. Don't hand over a penny.

Martin Lewis says "Don't pay"

www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-tickets

Re the "parking ticket" Pendeen is spot on - not worth the paper it is written on.

The store manger is a seperate issue. He was an arse and you deserve an apology.

Wow gallicgirl that was a brilliant link. Ok I am going to sit tight on the ticket side of things but complain re the lack of good customer service. That really has taking a weight off. Thank -you so much.

Being a lawyer if it were me I'd take great delight in writing them a lovely polite letter setting out exactly why I wasn't going to pay them, but that's just me.

Well I got ticketed once at Sainsbury's for actually being late, and when I went into the shop, they said 'oh if you were just a bit late, we'll take it back'.

Then it turned out actually they hadn't got round to it and I got a stiff letter in the post, so I went back in and they apologised profusely and sorted it out - no-one had to get angry or write any letters, I guess I was lucky.

Buuuuuut, if you're the sort of person who can't mention that you picked your child up without mentioning that it was from grammar school, I do wonder in what way you engaged with the staff, to be honest.

Sorry.

That link is really interesting, gallicgirl!

The poster already explained that it was to indicate the school was further away. Living in Kent this makes perfect sense to me anyway.

Martin Lewis is always the man to go to.

i had a parking ticket from morrisons for parking 10minutes over the 2 hours.

i did not pay it, its a seperate company they will not be part of sainsburys. they had photographic evidence but if it is private land (which most are) its very hard to enforce. they will send you threatening letters, once the letters start to get threatening write back telling them that they are not allowed to threaten you which they are not or jsut ignore them they soon give up

BUT you need to be sure it is not council property, its how the tickets are named, look on moneysavingexpert website it gives you all the details i can not remember them all now

i had jsut spent over £100 in there (which i often did) i was not paying a £90 fine

I got caught being 2 cm over the white line in a macdonalds . (yes i know DEVIL FOOD ) but it wasnt near any other shops so could only be parking there for macdonalds . IYSWIM any way in there for literally 20 mins . I got a ticket thriough the post as they can pay to get your address through DVLA . (cheeky bastards , ) It looks really official . do not be fooled . Then you get a series of letters and some solicter ones as well all a load of rubbish . Just trying to scare you . The solicter when I googled the address just happened to be at the same address as the parking company . (DOH do they think that people do not Google ) . If you spaek or right to them at all they know you are worried and will keep going . If they only get the money from say 2 put of eight tickets issued it has been worth their while . Some people get scared and listen to their bull xxxx. Do not pay . they do stop after a while . All their form look like real tickets the wording is practically the ssame but it is slightly different . the only tickets you have to pay are council one . best of luck do not be taken for a fool .

Fair enough - just jarred a bit in the middle of the other info.

do complain on twitter if you have it as i know this is monitored as they don't like the bad publicity!

Honest John in the Telegraph has loads of letters about incidents like this - he says to ignore them too: here

Thank you. Feeling reassured.
Malcontent would you have judged me so harshly had I mentioned I was picking up my disabled daughter from her Special School or other child possibly at a Comprehensive? What is all this ill feeling about mentioning Grammar Schools about? Should I be ashamed that my son is at one and fearful of mentioning it as a statement of fact? It was not boast.
I think Grammar schools are wonderful actually and allow for social mobility and many children have been done a disservice through their gradual dismantling. My husband labours 70+ a week in the service of the Grammar sector because he believes in the good they do.
I say that as a graduate who attended a Comprehensive from a very deprived background. I am no snob. I think you should get where you are in life through merit. Why the need for prejudice?

Ignore ignore ignore. Currently ignoring one from McD's (I know, I know), who will also never be getting my business again. Long story short my 'shocked and disappointed' letter to HQ got a letter back which basically said 'Yeah, stuff you, we're not overturning your ticket'. It also said 'we need to take a consistent stand against people abusing the facility' - well I wasn't abusing it, I was using it for the restaurant it's there for, and it's not a consistent stand as I met my mother there (we were in separate cars) and she didn't get a ticket!

DO however do your shocked and disappointed letter and mark it clearly 'CC: Editor, Local Rag'

my tescos operate a 3hr maximum car park or a £100 fine. i would write to watchdog.

Don't fret... it wasn't a political point about grammar schools. It just sounded a bit 'and then I went into the shop in my Loboutins to complain'.

Well, that's your feeling associated with my remark but you couldn't be more wrong so maybe a rethink is in order!