AIBU to think Lidl have a crap attitude?

[Jedijane]

I moved to a new town and in my first week I made the huge mistake of parking in Lidl's car park for 20 minutes at 7 pm in order to pick up a takeaway. (Never shopped at Lidl before, although I was planning to until this happened) I genuinely didn't see their puny signs in the dark and was landed with a £90 charge.
I wrote to customer service to explain what happened. I've worked in customer service for years so was basically expecting either the friendly response "we'll let you off this time as we'd really love to see in store" (that's what I would have done!) or the jobsworth response "nothing we can do because [insert spurious reason here]"
Instead they sent me a generic letter telling me to send my receipt to the parking company (the can't be arsed to read your email properly response).

Sure piglet, but if they don't take you to court you get charged nothing....and statistically this is most likely to happen as they only persue a fraction of unpaid fines.

So its a gamble but one that's always paid off for me.

Sure piglet, but if they don't take you to court you get charged nothing

They can still charge you the cost of submitting the court papers.

If you haven't been in the past then you are lucky. Next time you may very well not be.

What crap attitude? You parked on their land, not to shop there but someone else, and you are moaning because they didn't waive the fine? Talk about entitled! I bet if someone pitched up on your driveway to visit your neighbour you would not be pleased.

Happened to me at - gasp! - Waitrose!

Live in Scotland where apparently these penalty notices are not legal and can't be enforced. 14 months ago but every week I get a letter from a pseudo lawyer/debt collector/court telling me I have 7 days to pay OR ELSE.

Yes Patchouli666 it would be awful if locals used the car park in their town in order to support the few retailers the supermarkets haven't already driven out of business when they should stay in their homes and do their shopping on Amazon. I only just moved to the town with a Lidl. That why I hadn't shopped there before and why I got stung.

These parking companies are absolute scum.

DH has recently been caught out late in the evening in an unfamiliar area towards the end of trading hours- the time he overstayed was actually after the shop was such so no inconvenience was caused by the deprivation of a space in a near empty car park.

I'm still deeply unimpressed at having to appeal at passing through one of these car parks to access a car garage where I spent £££ on significant works to my car, and further money in other businesses on the retail park while waiting in the area. I have no intention of using that garage again as a result and am now cagey about doing more than a quick pop in to the shops in that area.

The charges are disgusting, considerably higher than a fine issued by a council for illegal parking. You are already recorded as being in a carpark before you even get chance to examine their terms and conditions, not that they're legible without the use of binoculars, perched 8 ft up in the air in pathetically small writing.

These companies infuriate me as much as the practice of charging people several pounds to drop people off at an airport. Scumbags.

You didn't 'get stung', OP. Please stop acting like you rolled in on a hay cart. It's disingenuous.

I sent my receipt to the parking company and they cancelled my ticked. A bit of a pain but cheaper that paying. I did it all on line.

hopelesslycynical the neighbour's builders have been parking on my drive. I told them they were welcome as it leaves the street free for everyone else.

I had the same at Lidl. I wrote to the store and the parking company too, heard back from Lidl first, they told me they would instruct the parking company to let me off

Yabu for parking there and not using the shop. Simple.

YABU

I shop in Lidl's, and when I finish my shopping, I scan my receipt and put in my car reg so I don't get a ticket.

It's for shoppers only, not those that want a take away