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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

not to pay their bastard parking fine.

112 replies

LEMmingaround · 06/10/2014 12:11

Bloody aldi (who i normslly love soo much) have just sent us a £70 parking fine for being too long in their car park Angry

We were half an hour over the 1.5 hour limit.

What happened was i did the shopping while dp took dd to a swing park ten minutes walk away. I was only 40 minutes in the shop but don't drive so couldn't drive to park and obviously had a weeks shopping so dp left car in the car park. I walked to park- lovely sunny day so we stayed a while. Totally forgot the 1.5 hour parking limit.

The problem is could have in that time walked into town.

Do we just pay up or is it worth an appeal??

I have the receipt from the shop. The irony being we were really skint on that day so did frugal aldi shop. Would have been chesper to shop in fucking waitroseHmm

OP posts:
jigglebum · 06/10/2014 14:43

I would second the ignore, don't engage at all and eventually they will give up. I had one of these for being a few minutes over in another store. I did not try to appeal, as then you are engaging and admitting you were actually there. They will send a series of about 5-6 letters, perhaps even threatening to take you to court but it is not actually worth their while taking you to court and so many people do pay up that it will be dropped within 6-9 months in my (and others) experience. The only Parking charges that are legally enforceable are council ones from what I read and understood when I looked into this.

borisgudanov · 06/10/2014 14:43

Lemmingaround - you do know that if you pay you'll be added to the suckers' list of easy targets for future scamming, don't you?

You don't need to fight. All you need is a rubbish bin.

borisgudanov · 06/10/2014 14:46

"option of paying £16 tothis companywho will do it all for you."

boggle ShockAngry

Jesus God, now even the parasites attract fucking parasites.

fromparistoberlin73 · 06/10/2014 14:51

the problem is that land costs , as do free car parks. I went to Lidl this weekend and the free car park was full. I got a space in the end but they would have lost my revenue. a hefty 23.70 :-)

look try by all means to avoid it, but rather than blame the car park you should blame yourself!!!! you fucked up, end of. we have all done it

fromparistoberlin73 · 06/10/2014 14:53

but try anyway!!!! write a nice letter, say you are a valuable customer etc, you have nothing tolose

willowisp · 06/10/2014 15:04

Don't pay & don't write.

As far as I know, they can't access tour details via your number plate - the DVLA doesn't give out that info.

So if they don't have your address, they can't bill you !

Btw I had a ticket from a private carpark, rang then to argue the toss, but quickly realised they has no way of finding me & that was that.

drbonnieblossman · 06/10/2014 15:06

Costs aren't recoverable in the small claims track by either party. Wouldn't be worth their whole to go down that route.

whatsthatcomingoverthehill · 06/10/2014 15:37

I really wish people would stop commenting when they clearly know nothing about the legal situation. Ignoring may well be the best option, but it is not risk free, and it is only fair that LEMmingaround knows that Parking Eye do take people all the way to small claims court.

Whilst I can't stand the parking companies, and wish everyone would refuse to pay their 'charges', it is up to LEM whether she thinks it is worth it. Just because someone else got a charge and it ended up going away does not mean that that always happens. Parking Eye are notorious for taking people to court. She might not think it worth the hassle, even though the charge isn't fair.

Preciousbane · 06/10/2014 15:42

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

PatriciaHolm · 06/10/2014 15:43

DVLA do give out (well, sell) driver details. OP has already got a letter so they clearly do know where she lives.

Do what others have suggested and read the pepipoo/MSE pages. Don't ignore it, but equally don't just pay it without a little research.

Joolsy · 06/10/2014 15:46

I was not completely wrong at all whatsthatcomingoverthehill. Everything I said is right. The contract is with the driver of the car, however, if they are not given the info they require (usually on the letter asking the registered owner to provide this info) they will threaten to pursue the debt with the owner. But I know plenty of people who've ignored all correspondence with these companies and no-one who has actually been taken to court.

borisgudanov · 06/10/2014 15:48

"Parking Eye are notorious for taking people to court"

No. They are notorious for issuing summonses through the new small claims clearing centre in Nottingham. They are also notorious for not turning up to hearings of defended cases. They are using the courts to bully people where they have no case.

The law has changed in England and Wales only to compel registered keepers to name the drivers, under the "Protection" of Freedoms Act. This does not apply in Scotland. It does not in any way undermine the preestimate of loss defence.

jellyhead · 06/10/2014 15:50

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

allmycats · 06/10/2014 15:54

You knew how long you had for free parking but you 'forgot' and stayed over by an extra 25% of time. At our nearest Aldi there is nearly always a queue to get into the car park as it is really popular. If you overstayed you stopped some one else parking in that place and spending their money in the store.
It would be so easy for people to have 'free' or 'cheap' parking and then overstay whilst they were doing something other than shopping in the store and then yes there is a loss to the store because you are stopping someone else parking/spending their money in the store.
You need to pay up because it was your fault.
How long will it be before these stores start charging the over stayers by what they may have 'lost' in sales ?

zippey · 06/10/2014 15:57

Ive had fines which I have ignored in the past - to which there has been no consequence.

serenaserene · 06/10/2014 16:14

OP Do NOT ignore it. You will continue to get letters and there is a slim chance they will pursue it.

Have a look at parking cowboys.

APPEAL. Go to MSE and follow the guidance there.
POPLA APPEAL

The point is that the £70 'fine' does not represent a reasonable valuation of the damages incurred by you over staying.

kali110 · 06/10/2014 16:19

Honestly, i think you were taking the mick a bit, but if you want to appeal go to onto pepipoo amd follow the appeal process.
Law did change in 2012 and private parking companies, parking rmeye in particular are now taking people to court over these fines.

kali110 · 06/10/2014 16:20

The advice is to not pay, but to not ignore

Original poster
LEMmingaround · 06/10/2014 16:24

It was a genuine oversight on our part. My anxiety has rocketed. We are just going to pay. It just galls me that its profit. If it were going to council or a charity fine but lining some greedy nasty bastards pocket.

OP posts:
Nonconformist34 · 06/10/2014 16:29

My brother works for a 'well known' supermarket. He has said to me before that if I ever accidentally went over the time limit to ring up the manager of the store, politely apologise and explain that you were taking a young child round the shop which obviously took longer. I imagine that Aldi don't have customer toilets so you could say that you had to walk to one with little one to find one when you arrived and before you left, hence over the time frame. He said, they cannot contest/prove it so tend to waiver the fine. Worth a try??

All supermarkets make so much profit from us all that I wouldn't feel guilty about telling a lie. I'm sure you wouldn't do it again.

Minikievs · 06/10/2014 16:36

We had one of these last month from Aldi! DH went to Aldi, shopped, left the car and walked over to Waitrose (!) So he was over the time limit and got a ticket.
We didn't have the receipt but wrote a letter to them with a copy of his bank statement saying he'd been there. We were expecting a "tough you were over the time" response but they wrote back and said they'd waive it, but remember the rules in future.

Write to them in the first instance, if they reject your appeal and you have to pay then I'm sure you only have to pay the initial charge not the inflated one, as the time delay is due to you contacting them.

mrsminiverscharlady · 06/10/2014 16:41

I complained to aldi about one of these fines. They just asked for receipts showing we were shopping there on the day in question or receipts/bank statements that showed we were regular shoppers and they cancelled the fine.

ClaireFraser · 06/10/2014 16:48

There's some extremely self-righteous comments on this thread and some very smug sounding posters.

If I were you op I would ignore it. They work on bully boy tactics and as previous posters have said, it's an invoice not a fine.

I second the advice already mentioned about moneysavingexpert, he has plenty of uptodate valid advice re such matters.

Hope you get it sorted.

Fruityb · 06/10/2014 16:50

You left your car there when you weren't in Aldi. I'd be annoyed if I wanted to park and couldn't as people were using the car park without actually being there.

It's annoying but you broke the rules. I find it odd people saying don't pay it. I can understand if it was while you were shopping or it was Aldi who caused you to be late but it wasn't. If you'd left your car anywhere over the allotted time you'd get a ticket. Lidl would do the same if you did it there!

sanfairyanne · 06/10/2014 16:57

aldi will waive it if you contact them

i like threads like this. sometimes i wonder about posters on mumsnet. seeing the 'moral majority' out in force reminds me 'its not me - its them' Grin

who pays £70 to assuage a guilty conscience!!

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