Never to go to Aldi ever again?

[ohnoherewego]

We have started doing our big weekly shop in Aldi. This morning we had a letter from Parking Eye asking us to pay a £70 fine because DH did a big post holiday shop with DD a week last Saturday and was in the car park for 1hour 10 minutes. Aldi have imposed a new time limit for that branch because it is near town of 1 hour. After that you will be asked to pay the penalty.

If you have spent more than £30 you can appeal sending a copy of your receipt but your appeal may not be successful. Even if you have a blue badge you will be given the penalty and will have to appeal.

Dh was so cross he went to Aldi this morning. The manager was sympathetic but said Aldi don't deal with it and we will have to contact Parking Eye.

To make matters worse he did another big shop on Saturday so doubtless we'll get another fine.

WTF?
If my £90 shop is going to cost £160 I might as well go to Waitrose.
The penalty is discriminatory, if you're old or shopping with kids just make sure you keep running round that store. I am so angry. I have better things to do than argue with twunts who think DH should have done the shopping 10 minues faster!

fucking disgrace

Blimey, that sounds like a steep fine for overrunning by 10 minutes. Which Aldi was this?

Did Aldi or Parking Eye prewarn customers they were going to be issuing fines? Because if yes, then your appeal is going to be that bit harder.

Oh my god! Do you still have the receipt? I wouldn't have one from 2 weeks ago. That is ridiculous

Just ignore the parking company. They'll soon go away if you don't respond.

It's not a fine. They are alledging breach of contract. Ignore them and they'll probably go away.

Hello OP I don't think it's enforceable...from a very quick google of Parking Eye it appears to be a scam.

You might try asking on the forums on moneysavingexpert and having a google to for further information.

Ignore it!- I did and nothing came of it- do not pay. I looked it up on Moneysupermarket and its not a fine like a normal parking fine, its classed as an invoice- thet send 2 letters then one from a recovery/legal type place then nothing, mine was over 2, possibly 3 years ago.

Ignore, it is not a fine. Have a look on MSE where they are experts on this.

xpost with garam and chose

Like others have said I'm pretty sure this isn't enforceable by them so certainly don't send any money.

Am a bit [shocked] that anyone can spend over an hour in aldi though. Ours is really small and even a big shop takes only 30 mins!

Ignore it, it's not enforceable.

Thanks guys. The worrying fact is that Aldi instruct Parking Eye and everyone who exceeds the 1 hour will get a request for payment. It's upset my morning and those who are vulnerable are likely just to pay. I really think Aldi needs to be called to account for this. I appreciate it's a town centre branch and there are problems with other people using the car park but there are more sensible ways to address the problem like giving people tokens to exit.

We do have the receipt from last Saturday and the Aldi manager helpfully (!)printed one out from the week before but it's the hassle of having to write in. I've got enough to do!

if its like asda near me,aldi wont own the land so cant control the fines,seek legal help,our asda have just scrapped the p&d and you can now park for 3 hours for free as so many were getting fined for going over(£1 for hour parking which is refunded by asda)but go over that hour which is easy to do and you got a fine.

I don't want to ignore it in case it comes back to haunt me. But Aldi need to change this because otherwise lots of vulnerable people are going to feel threatened and pay up.

It won't come back to haunt you. They will give up if you ignore them.

It will NOT come back to haunt you - look here

You may find it helpful to read this link on the moneysaving expert website before deciding whether you should pay or not.

Thanks for the links. I'm not going to pay but am going to challenge Aldi to stop employing these rip off merchants as other people will be scared into paying.

www.honestjohn.co.uk/faq/private-parking-penalties/

This is worth a read too. Parking Eye is a genuine company (albeit their methods do seem to cause some grief) and probably was brought in by Aldi to stop folk blocking its car park for genuine customers. But an hour does seem a bit tight. I wouldn't ignore this, neither would I pay up. You should be able to get them to overturn it because you were using Aldi at the time.

Over 1 hour does seem a long time to be in a car park that serves just a single supermarket.

I admire your stance but if you're not going to pay but are going to write to them then do read the links and be careful not to screw up your own defence by admitting who was driving at the time :)

I have successfully ignored one of these, I found another forum where there were people on about one of these car parks which is next to a police station, the people who work in the station collect the letters for fun and see who can get the most!

If you have already contacted them they will know you are "a live one" and may pester you for longer and not give up

Agree with those who say ignore it. I did and it does go away and does not affect credit. They are not allowed to fine you and are just praying on people who do not know this. They will keep sedning you letters but will give up honest!

I ignored a parking fine from one of these 'parking companies' they sent me about 5 letters and I haven't heard a thing for about 18 months now

Not defending Aldi as they do contract these people in but in my experience Parking eye are a nightmare. They have a list of all the registration numbers of Aldi employees so that those numbers are exempt from the time limits but still we have had several "fines" from them. As H works for Aldi he leaves it with his boss to sort out but it does beg the question of how competent Parking Eye are.