To visit ALDI twice in one day?

[squishysquirmy]

Because I am getting charged £70 for it!

A few weeks ago, I called into our local ALDI very briefly at lunchtime to buy some snacks for lunch. Then left the car park and took toddler dd to a nearby playground and park. Mooched around there for a few hours, before driving back to ALDI and doing the weekly shop. Getting round a supermarket with a tired 3 year old is never that quick, but I definitely wasn't there for much longer than about 40 minutes at the most.

Then last week I got a fine through the post from Parking Eye claiming that I had overstayed the time limit in the car park (I hadn't) because for some reason their system had registered my two visits as one long one.

Amazingly after rummaging through the recycling, the car and every old carrier bag I actually managed to find the receipts of both visits. I was a bit annoyed, but assumed this would be proof enough and submitted them via the (buggy, poorly designed) online appeals process.

Its not, apparently. I might be lying about the park, and could in fact have spent an exciting day hanging around ALDI car park (why??) They have rejected my appeal unless I can prove that I was somewhere else between those two visits. How can I do this? I wish I had taken photos on my phone that day, but I never thought I would need them (and even if I did, they would probably find some reason to discount them!)
To make it worse, there is another, bigger free carpark right next to the AlDI one which allows unlimited parking. If I was going to leave my car for 3 hours I would leave it there!

Has anyone had success in a similar situation? I am going to contact ALDI too, I think but their facebook site is already full of similar complaints, so not sure if they'll be too bothered by one more. I understand why they have to crack down on people taking the piss with a free car park and overstaying, but this seems so draconian and goes completely beyond what I consider reasonable.

^Sorry for length of post. I didn't intend to write such an essay, I'm just so pissed off!

My mum had similar with Homebase- 2 visits within a few hours which the parking police thought was one long (3.5 hour) stay. She spoke to Homebase who managed together it waived for her, didn't even bother contacting the parking company. Worth a try? Aldi want your business, after all.

Just contact Aldi, they'll probably cancel it. We overstayed once and they just asked for a copy of our receipt to prove we'd been shopping there. They cancelled if with no hassle.

If you are in scotland, ignore it.

Contact aldi direct with scans of your receipts. I did that and they cancelled the charge then I forwarded their email to the parking company and said I would no longer be dealing with them as their client (aldi) didn't feel that I should pay the fine.

Look on moneysavingexpert for advice on challenging private parking invoices (they are not fines but invoices for breach of contract that you entered by parking in their car park). The advice used to be to ignore it but that has changed. They still need to show the charge is fair and rely on people either not appealing or giving up at first hurdle

Hi OP, I had a similar situation with Parking Eye at Aldi recently but had actually over-stayed the time. I was doing a massive shop and it took me forever to bag it all up after the cashier had very speedily rung it all through (and I'd dumped everything back in the trolley to avoid creating an even longer queue behind me!!) and was 17 mins over the allowed time by the time I left the car park. I got in touch with Aldi customer services rather than Parking Eye after receiving a notice to pay a fine and they asked me to email them a photo of my receipt which showed when I was in the store and once they'd received that they confirmed that the fine had been waived. Hope you get sorted! It has put me off shopping there a bit as I hate having to watch the clock but also love a bargain!! 😀

Sometimes theres a no return time limit so some stores are no return within 3 hours etc. so once you have left if you return in the next 3 hours you end up with ticket as the anpr system pics your car up. Same as with leaving etc.
I do think thats ridiculous though as you said you might need to do a small shop before the big one or a few times i have forgotten something and its stopped me from going back as i know the carpark system will nab me.
Definately appeal it though as its utterly ridiculous its probably based on the fact you went there inna restricted time fram rather than them thinking you overstayed first visit. Grrrrr is really annoying hope u win your appeal definately check martin lewi site out xx

Inna was meant to be 'in a' i was not trying to use slang haha

Parking Eye are utter bastards.

Thanks all.
I did look on moneysavingexpert when I first got the fine, and followed their advice which was to follow the appeals process if the parking company was registered with a trade body (which Parking Eye is).

I have contacted ALDI, so will see what they say - tbh, I would even be satisfied with £70 worth of vouchers (and would pay the fine).
Otherwise I'll be exclusively shopping at LIDL from now on!

I've seen a lot of similar complaints, in particular when people are complaining that they can't prove their two visits because they paid in cash etc. But in this case, I actually found the receipts! I'm not that organised normally, so was pretty proud of myself for still having them! If I have this evidence, and they still rejected my appeal then what they hell would they accept? It makes a bit of a mockery of their appeals process, imo.

Bit of a warning for anyone else who does find themselves visiting this kind of carpark twice in one day: Either don't, or think ahead and take some time stamped photos of your car elsewhere just in case.

YY to asking Aldi to tell Parking Eye to do one. If that doesn't work, there's an appeals process. It's not up to you to prove your car left the Aldi car park, it's up to Parking Eye that you didn't.

Just write what you did that day factually and let them come back. Is there any chance that you leaving and then returning didn't record correctly on the camera? Other cars in the way, dirty number plate, faulty cameras, wrong reg number entered in the parking machine, mistake at the till validating your ticket?

Good luck

I had to pay one of these a couple of years ago, but I was in the wrong. I nipped into an empty car park to stop safely somewhere while I was waiting to pick DP up from the station. I was there for less than 10 minutes and didn't even get out of the car so I naively thought that I could get away without paying, but of course it was all captured on camera, along with the fact I hadn't paid - all automatic, no wardens, I knew nothing about my 'offence' until I got the invoice in the post. I went through the appeals process and even offered to cover their losses which was £2 for an hours parking but they weren't having it. It pissed me off but I suppose they were in the right, technically, but I only did the sort of thing that people do all the time and get away with in un-cameraed car parks.

This happened to my friend. She wrote telling them to check the cameras as she had visited three times in one day. They cancelled the fine after checking

I'd not bother with the parking company, put pressureon aldi in person in the store and on line, have you posted on their facebook page, twitter local pages and groups (under the guise of warning other people). I bet they cancel it.

Also, it's probably too late but I think you'd get more helpful replies if the thread title actually said what your problem is. I nearly didn't click on it because I thought it was obvious that anyone can go to aldi as many times as they like in a day, it's not clear that you need help from people who've been in a similar situation

I'd insist on them checking their CCTV. And bombard them on FB and Twitter, social media complaining seems the way to go these days.

Parking eye are wankers. They will ignore everything and keep sending threatening letters. DH had major issues with them trying to fine him for using his own work carpark Defo involve Aldi and use their social media to get them to back you up.