ASDA Car Park Ticket

[Schlumberger]

77 yr old MIL took even older friend to Asda. Parked, mooched about, lunch in the cafe, more mooching and spent over £100.

A ticket arrived in post from the co that manages the car park sayignshe had exceeded the 2 hour maximum park time and has to pay a £60 fine. Obviously there is a sign in the car park but she didnt read it or give it a thought. She is very upset and is en route to see the manager of the Asda store.

Does anyone know if the manager will have any sway over the parking company?

I don't think the manager will.

Sadly, "I didn't see the sign" isn't really an excuse they're likely to swallow or I'm sure they wouldn't bother having the rule in the first place.

It's odd though, most of the supermarkets around here have a fairly unlimited time as long as you produce your shopping receipt.

I don't know if the manager has any sway, but unless I'm very much mistaken they cannot enforce any fines, except possibly for disabled parking.

the supermarket car parks round here are managed by a different company. Same one that manages the station car park, I think.

Those tickets are unenforceable - just don't enter into any dialogue with the company.

Agree these type of companies can generally safely be ignored. In past DH and I have just braved it out and ignored reminders and threats. Eventually, they do stop writing. But MIL won't be able to cope with that stress.

tell her o go to the local papers! She and her friend can chat to the reporter and make sad faces for the photgrapher, whilst slating Asda and how spiteful they are being to two old ladies!

Look at Money Saving Expert and parking fines section.

What Catsmamma said.

Do Daily Mail Sad Faces.

I thought the same as Ithinkitsjustme.

this site might be helpful

So where did they get her address from ? DVLA I assume. Can private companies do this ?

Just ignore.

The 'tickets' are not enforcable and rely on people being intimidated into paying. They are inviting you to pay an invoice - there is no weight of law behind them.

Do not answer in any way, even if they threated court action. Its all a bluff.

No the manager can't do anything.
She will have to take it up with the company that issued the ticket.

Private Park Companies actually have no legal right to enforce anything.It is a Parking Charge and not run by the Police or local council. After reading LOTS of advice on Pepipoo, Money Saving Expert and other forums, I ignore them. They send lots of threatening letters, threatening to sell your children and stuff :o, but by time you get to about letter 4 or 5, they give up. Cos they don't stand up in court. I had one about 2009 or summat, still awaiting court action and they gave up after a few months.Never EVER phone them, appealing is useless. Have a read if you dont believe me :)

www.honestjohn.co.uk/forum/post/index.htm?t=88758

Also google Private Parking Tickets on Pepipoo, Consumer Action Group and Money saving Expert. Despite their blustering and states that they have sucessfully taken people to court, they actually don't win if you challenge them.And they hardly ever ever take anyone to court anyway.Advice is ignore. However the PPC companies do trawl internet forums lookin for people giving the ignore advice and they like to say different :o. So I do expect a new user to come on (probably from a PPC) and tell me I am talking crap. :)

Ignore ... Friends had similar from Mothercare after spending 3 hours having baby portraits done in run up to Christmas. Each friend got same letter, threats, etc, each ignored, it came to nothing.

the store manager can escalate it to head office who can liaise with the private parking company, so it is worth a try.

I have to park on a private car park (1 1/2 hrs limit) and so do the rest of the staff where we work and even though our numberplates are registered we still get tickets occasionally but HO deal with it and I presume asda can do the same with customers at their discretion

I hadn't realised they were not enforcable! :)

This is illegal. She has nothing to pay. Just ignore it and ignore any letters that arrive.

That's really annoying. I paid one of these recently. Dammit. Still useful to know if it happens again though.

Retailers might have some influence - one of our local retail parks used to have a two hour time limit but that wasn't long enough to get round all the shops, if you fancied a bit of clothes shopping followed by lunch and maybe then a big supermarket shop for example. The retailers managed to get the time limit increased as they were losing business from people rushing to beat the deadline.

I work for McDonald's and we have a time limit on our car park which is administered by a separate company - BUT our store manager can gets tickets cancelled. I know, because I have had two tickets issued to me while I was on shift!

Just a side note people, if you get a fine from the police or council, you MUST pay it as they will take you to court and enforce bailiffs, if it is from a private parking company (Parking Eye etc) ignore, ignore, ignore

Thanks for all responses. Just thought I'd update - the store manager has intervened and is getting the ticket revoked.

Good news! I just got one in asda for parking in a P&c space. I had booster seat in the back, DS wasn't actually with me but in my defence the car park was empty, I was running a temperature and in my fever thought I needed to park 2 metres closer to the shop! I will not be paying it.

My husband received a parking ticket when he was picking me and our DS up from the maternity hospital, for parking next to the door (weather was horrific and I'd just had a c-section)

Anyways, the midwives wad already told us not to bother paying it, they can't enforce it. BUT WHATEVER YOU DO, do NOT reply to any letters. Once you reply to a letter, you have acknowledged responsibility and they will not let it go.