Should my parents pay this supermarket car park fine?

[Afternooninthepark]

My parents always shop in our local Lidl supermarket.
My dad has just received a car park fine stating they were 15 minutes over the allotted 90 minutes. TBH, they were totally unaware it was 90 minutes and assumed it was 3 hours like many of our local supermarkets.
My dad says he will pay the fine as he doesn’t want any hassle but I don’t think he should because of several things :-
A) They spend over £80 in that supermarket (and have the receipt) and regularly shop in that store.
B) They are both in their late 70’s and quite slow (mainly because of mum, see below)
C) Mum has Alzheimer’s, osteoporosis and a disability parking permit

Dad is panicking and says he wants to pay it but I think that would be wrong as they spent money in the store and didn’t wander off and leave their car in the car park to do other things, why should they have to pay a fine after genuinely spending money in the store?
AIBU thinking they should challenge this?

Absolutely challenge it, OP. I can't believe that there are people on this thread who are saying don't!

I've had supermarket car-parking so-called "fines" overturned. It's not that hard to do.

Contact the shop's customer services dept. If that doesn't work, do what a pp suggested, and go straight to the top of the company. There are lots of ways you can challenge it - just the fact that your parents spent a large amount of money in the shop should be enough. The fact that your parents are old and slow-moving should also be enough. The fact that their signs are not clear could also be enough.

There is lots of info online about how to challenge these unfair "fines" - which aren't actually fines; they are just invoices.

@ivykaty44 maybe Lidl customer services are as terrible as Athena parking then as they were insistent that they couldn't do anything except to tell us to deal with the parking company :(

Agree with your approach to ask Lidl HQ customer services to cancel the fine. It's disappointing that the manager of the store wasn't helpful but maybe they simply don't have the authority?

Previous experience has taught me that getting the landowner to cancel the fine with the parking company has a much greater chance of success with far less hassle than going through the appeals process, which almost never works because they're simply not interested and just want your money and rely on most people not having the time or resolve to go as far as the court process.

Sorry

I know what everyone is saying about it being an outsourced car park but Lidl have the ability to sort it for you. They're the ones outsourcing it and it's their property. They just have to want to not be perceived as arseholes

Try the CEO
Appeal to Athena
Appeal then to Popla

No way should they pay, the parking restrictions are to deter non Lidl customers parking in the supermarket car park and taking parking spaces from paying customers. Why don't Lidl fine customers for staying more than 90 minutes inside their shop then? Ridiculous! Contact Lidl. and I am sure they will cancel the parking fine. Good luck!

By the way your allowed a time frame to drive in and out of the car park

The parking is 90 minutes but that’s just for parking and doesn’t include the time getting in and out

Have Lidl got planning permission for the signs in the car park? Easy to check but most havent....

Ask for the proof of planning permission from Athens 😉

Don’t just rely on the receipt for shopping - put many different reasons for appeal in

@cricketmum84

To be honest, you probably just didn’t push hard enough. There is always someone that can resolve these issues. Even if, for some reason, Athena refuse to waive the charge on Lidl’s say-so (which I doubt - Lidl have a big contract with them and so a lot of bargaining power) Lidl could just pay the £60 or whatever the charge is, or refund it to the customer, even in vouchers. There’s always a solution.

Take it to the MD/CEO - they generally have a team dedicated to getting shit sorted.

I think if you contacted the store and explained the above, provided a receipt etc, they would ask the parking company to waive the fine (as it wouldn’t be in their interest to deter genuine customers)

I'm ot sure that the supermarket can do this. I once dropped OP off at a DIY store, pouring down, drove across to the edge of the car park, went across to pick up some dry-cleaning and returned to find my car being clamped. I explained that my OH was in the store spending a couple of hundred pounds on tiles but they were adament I was wrong. I called OH, explained the situation and came across with the receipt and still they wouldn't budge, we got the manager on the phone, to no avail. It was only when I called my brother in the newsroom of a national newspaper that they, with bad grace, removed it, Apparently because these are private companies the store cannot intervene.

Also when did the “offence” take place? And when did the parking charge come through? Athena only have 24 days - if they go over this time frame then the charge isn’t valid

14 days not 24

I got fined in ASDA. I had done a bit of shopping, then gone into the cafe for lunch and to feed my baby. I went into the store and explained the situation, and ASDA themselves contacted the parking company and had the fine cancelled.

Thanks everyone for your advice, really helpful. I’m going to be busy tomorrow!

This is interesting because I have a parking fine from LIDL car park outstanding since the summer. Refused to cough up to those money grabbing scum bags so haven’t entered into any communication with them.
They haven’t followed it up . . . Yet.

I had a similar thing happen to me recently and the length of time was related to my dd being disabled. Dh looked up info on money saving expert. He wrote to the parking company and the shop explaining that we were customers and the reason, disability related. The fine was waived. Companies generally want to be seen as fair especially to people with needs. (They are also trying to avoid piss takers who park there too long so they have to set some rules).

@Afternooninthepark is there anyway you can private message me who car park operator is so I can advise you accordingly?

OP go into store with the fine and your mums disabled parking and I'm sure they will be able to cancel it (we can cancel them with Parking Eye at Aldi.

Definitely don't just pay! If you have any problems in store ask for the area managers details and escalate to them

As I previously said above I work in the private sector of parking charges and a lot of information on this thread is so wrong and not great advice at all.

Tell them not to answer any correspondence. Any appeal will fail and they will send repeated letters but they don’t actually take any action. Don’t try and reason with them but just ignore the letters completely. Eventually they will stop

I’d appeal. 90 mins is not that long. They obviously did a big shop. Good luck.

Contact the store , they will tell you what to do , My parents were in the same boat as yours and twice did this . The staff were amazing and we registered them in the store for extra time for parking .
Good luck m'dear.

@ec1993

Do you mean you work for a PPC?

I successfully appealed one of these for my grandparents who were also just going to pay the fine.

There should be a website address specifically to appeal on the letter they've reviewed and you should be able to upload a photo of the receipt. There should also be space to explain about the health issues and why they've contributed to overstaying but usually the receipt is always enough.

Once submitted online, the fine was frozen until they made the decision (some of them the fine increases if you don't pay within x amount of days), in case that's what's worrying them.

Let us know how it goes!

@ItsGoingTibiaK no not directly.