Lidl parking charge

[RahRahRa]

I do most of my weekly shopping at Lidl and have just received a parking fine for overstaying in the car park by 29 minutes, the time limit is 1 1/2 hours.

Yes I should have paid attention, it is a new branch that we’d never been to before and tbh I just didn’t think about the time limit.

This is such a shame, I love Lidl but have three kids all with varying levels of ASD who slow me down (I don’t take them all with me but often have one or two). I am also a bit of a ditherer and like to take my time choosing.

I will appeal the fine but I don’t fancy my chances of it being revoked. As I can’t risk this happening again, I have no choice but to not shop there anymore. Their prices have gone up anyway and we have closer supermarkets so no real loss to me - Apart from the parking fine!

Lidl say there’s nothing they can do as a third party looks after their car parks but they must be involved in setting the policies so why on Earth do they allow this to happen to loyal customers? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Because they won't run the car parks sadly, I do agree with you that the limits don't suit.

On what basis are you going to appeal?

Your loyalty to Lidl is of no consequence, it's the car park management company that's the problem.

It happened to you because you overstayed, but I believe there are ways you can appeal the penalty (check the MSE forums, they have good advice).

1 and a half hours in Lidl????

You were in Lidl for 2 hours?!

How can you spend 2 hours in a supermarket? I would ring the store manager but I doubt they would cancel it.

This happened to me. Local Lidl, but duh, I'd just never noticed the sign. I wrote a template letter from the internet, with a few adaptations for my situation. I admitted that I just hadn't noticed the sign but pointed out that I was a long standing customer. I attached a receipt to prove that on the day in question I'd spent over £100 in Lidl. Also sent my most recent bank statement to show that I used Lidl regularly. Thankfully my appeal was successful.

Your loyalty doesn't negate the fact they state the rules in the car park, and you broke them, by quite a substantial amount of time.

They can override the decision - but it doesn’t make much business sense for them to do so. Firstly, they pay to outsource car park management so they don’t have to deal with this; and secondly, they’d prefer customers weren’t in the store for two hours, so they can serve more people. They work on a scale model. They make more money from people who spend an hour doing a big shop or 20 minutes running round grabbing things than they do on someone who weighs up all the decisions and dithers.

I’m not condoning their decision not to do anything about it, but I wouldn’t expect an appeal to be successful; and it doesn’t sound like they want to make a goodwill gesture here.

Just to add, I admitted that I'd gone elsewhere as well in those 2 hours, not just Lidl, and my appeal was still successful.

I hadn’t gone anywhere else, just Lidl. Yes 2 hours is a lot - I have been busy with other stuff so hadn’t been shopping for a while. It was a big shop. I tend to do a massive shop from time to time and this was one of them. Spent £127

Sorry, i'm also completed baffled as to how you can spend 2 hours in Lidl?!? Write a list before you go next time!

How much you spent is also irrelevant.

It's not Lidls penalty, it's been issued by the car park management company.

Doesn't matter if you're in there spending £500 every couple of days or not.

The fact you go to a shop regularly and spend some money there is not a get-out clause for a different company's penalty notice.

@PheasantsNest

How can you spend 2 hours in a supermarket? I would ring the store manager but I doubt they would cancel it.

This! I can imagine being in a huge supermarket with a café etc for 2 hours at a push, but Lidl?!

An appeal with a private parking company always fails. You will need to take advice from the Pepipoo forum and use an argument with the 3rd party appeals body, such as:

'the invoice requested doesn't effectively constitute a genuine pre-estimate of loss'

This got a lot of private charges turned over a few years ago, but not sure if it works now so check forum advice.

Appeal OP- and please look on Pepipoo (strange name, great forum)
And Money Supermarket
It's not a fine it's a speculative invoice- don't ignore it whatever you do
Good luck

There is a Facebook group who will advise on how to manage the fine, they are fabulous.
The main thing to do is not admit who was driving the car. Do not submit anything to the parking firm without advice.
Their "invoice" is just an invoice.
The group is Private Parking Tickets - help and advice.
There are some really helpful experts on there.

I can't see how this 1.5 hour limit would affect any of the 'loyal customers' tbh. Most people don't take quite such a long time to buy their groceries.

I can quite easily spend over an hour in Lidl doing a big shop plus time spent checking out the middle aisle stuff.

Definitely check out the Money Saving Expert forums and things. Up in Scotland we just ignore them and they stop sending letters.

Even taking your time and doing a large shop, I don't understand how you can spend 2 hours in Lidl

I wouldn't appeal the fine.

£127 isn’t a lot for a shop that took TWO HOURS

I shopped for three families yesterday. Asda, Tesco and B&M. I was done in less than 2 hours. You must take a nap in each aisle.

Have you complained to Lidl? In my experience, you've no chance with the parking company, but you can sometimes get the landowner to tell the parking company to cancel the charge.

Although I add to the chorus of 'how on earth can you spend 2 hours in Lidl'. I'm one of those who will look at every single item, because I like food and drink and even when I've gone for a real good look at things I'm always out in well under an hour.

But not all Lidls have managed car parks, so if you genuinely can't get round and out in under 90 minutes, you're probably best shopping in a store with an unrestricted car park.

You spent two hours in Lidl with (an unspecified number of) children with ASD?

2 hours in Lidl? Wtf. They advertise the parking info everywhere why do you think you should be able to appeal it?