Aldi parking ticket, wtf??!

[ParCarking101]

So I'd been out in town and asked OH to pick me up; asked him to meet me in Aldi car park thinking I'd grab some bits for dinner but when I got there realised the car park was empty - apart from OH - and remembered it was Sunday. We left, laughing at my daftness, and thought nothing more about it - till I got a ticket through the post a couple weeks later, saying the car had been in the car park 10 minutes, permitted time in car park is zero (!!) minutes, and we owed £40! 😦

I obviously replied straight away explaining what had happened but my appeal has been rejected ☹️ can they really do this?? Given I hadnt even the opportunity to register my car as the store wasnt open?!

Basically, It's one of those store car parks where you can have 70 minutes and you register your car as you leave the store. Don't know whether to go further with it - OH is fuming (partly with himself for not even noticing the empty carpark I think 😂) as he says they can't enforce a fine based on a system where you can't register even if you wanted to? Also, zero minutes allowed??! Not even time to turn around!

Is he right? AWNBU?! If so, what should we do?!

That is harsh but I don't think there is anything you can do if they are their terms stated but it is unfair and shitty

You can try appeal it but my experience is that they won't do anything about it and still expect you to pay.

If they have the appropriate signs on display then they can enforce their charges.

Particularly as you stayed for 10 minutes, you would have a valid challenge if you drove in, read the sign and drove out

You can always appeal

What does the parking sign in the car park say?

If it says no parking at all on Sunday then there’s probably not a lot you can do ☹️

I agree it is harsh though.

Yeah it's annoying cos they do state the terms but zero minutes FFS ☹️ it was clearly a mistake! OH has been rambling about the small print with parking tickets whereby if you're not causing loss of income or something. I'm cross, but inclined to just pay it to make it go away 🤦‍♀️

Also I think if you go via ombudsman or whatever and they reject it I think you have to pay the higher amount?!

It happened to me and I phoned their head office (I had forgotten to put reg in) I spoke to a lovely lady who cancelled it with no problem

Did you have a receipt, though? We have nothing, obviously 🙈

We did appeal, they've rejected the appeal 🤷‍♀️ they say you can take it further but then of course if they reject that too we have to pay the higher rate...

I think it says zero parking at any time 🤔 unless you register your car.

Aldi usually says parking for Aldi customers only.

If the store is closed I would suggest you are not an Aldi customer.

I appealed a parking fine on the basis that although there is a sign at the car park entrance, the road layout (just off the motorway roundabout) means that it would not have been safe to slow down / stop in order to read the large abount of information.

My appeal was rejected and the next step was to take it up with POPLA, an independent adjudicator for car park operators. The car park operator will have to inform you of this next step, I believe, but they won’t make it particularly clear so you have to look out for the information.

There was a little bit more to my claim but I think this is the bit what may be relevant to you. Was it reasonably safe for you to read the signage before entering? If not then their zero minutes policy puts drivers at risk of a road traffic accident.

Go into the shop and talk to a human - hopefully you’ll get lucky and get a sympathetic one! Depending on the parking company, the store staff should have a portal where they can manually cancel off tickets themselves. I’ve had 2 cancelled for DM this way (who is disabled, mooches, and often plays on her phone in the car before shopping, the combination of which means she overstays her welcome in car parks quite frequently! 😬)

I didn't have a receipt and wasn't asked for it, my explanation was listened to and it wasn't a problem ... Sorry don't know how to reply just to poster

The Aldi near my work have started this, it is newly opened. They should put a barrier on the carpark if you are not allowed to enter. How stupid. Sorry I can't be any help but this is annoying.

This is how our country runs these days. Everyone nicking money from us by stealth - everyone from supermarkets to councils to Reeves. Grim. One of the grimmer ones is our oncology unit having ANPR on it. You literally going to get shit news, radio, chemo, blood or whatever and they are ANPRing you.

Go to the store, they can delete the charge.

You should have took it to the store manager, ive had tickets from sainsburys and aldi cancelled by taking them in and speaking to someone, may still be worth a shot

Go and speak to a manager at the store about the charge

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/news/2025/02/private-parking-charges-five-minute-rule/

Does this help at all?

This happened to my friend. She pulled into a Sports Direct car park at night to drop a friend off and got a £50 ticket.

Yes this should always be the first course of action and can be effective.

Failing that there are plenty of forums online with advice about avoiding these charges. They don’t have the same legal standing as a fine issued by a council. What you have received is merely an invoice. How far the company will go trying to enforce it can vary.

We had this when we didnt realise you had to register your car. I phoned aldi customer services who said appeal through parking firm but go iback to them if appeal rejected. So try phoning the customer services.

Different situation but I appealed a parking fine from an Aldi car park and got the fine cancelled. How visible and easily understood are the signs?
I don't think the store manager will help tbh but appeal again to Aldi HQ - keep it polite and even lay on the 'loyal customer' BS!

It is petty of them given that there's no actual detriment to aldi caused by you parking there when the shop is closed (whereas obviously if it was open it makes sense they only want customers to use it) but if there is clear signage saying that you cannot park there unless you are a customer, then it's your DH's fault for not reading that.

While it says 'zero minutes,' in actuality I highly doubt if he'd gone in, pulled up to the sign, seen it said zero minutes, and drove out (so 1/2 minutes) they would have bothered issuing the fine, and if they did you'd have strong grounds for appeal - on the basis it's unreasonable to know what the terms and conditions of using the car park are until you've had a reasonable chance to read the sign telling you!

At the end of the day it's completely irrelevant that 0 minutes doesn't give you time to get in and 'and turn around', because that's not what he did. He parked up for 10 minutes, i.e. had plenty of time to have read the sign, but didn't bother to do so.

So if you enter a car park and decide not to stay (for whatever reason) you must be given a reasonable amount of time to do so. So they can't fine you for driving in for 30 seconds, but what constitutes reasonable is where it may fall down. I can't find if there's a recommended time scale, I'll keep looking, but I recall it being something like 5 minutes so even at that your fine would be enforceable. 10 minutes may well be deemed reasonable for them to say you should have read the signs within that time.