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?!

Is it arguable that ‘zero minutes’ is an unfair contract term as that doesn’t even allow you time to enter the car park, read their t&c and then leave?

why were you there for 10 minutes though? It doesn’t take that long to read their signs/realise the shop is closed.

I got a CCJ from one of these private parking. Companies taking me to court .
I also used to ignore them and always got away with it - until I didn’t ! Ended up having to pay nearly £300 for overstaying half an hour in a £1 car park !

https://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-tickets/#:~:text=Do%20bear%20in%20mind%2C%20though,Again%2C%20take%20pictures%20as%20evidence.

apologies if this has already been posted

There is no way I’d pay this charge.

I’d enjoy them taking me to court.

You’re not supposed to ignore them, you need to write to them.

Ours is like this, my friend got a fine when she pulled in to turn around when she was lost. This was in the evening when the store was closed.

Yes never ignore, argue it, fight it all the way, be prepared to go to court. If you’re not prepared to do that then pay it.

Or if they pass debt on to a debt recovery company, agree to pay £10 per month, then cancel the DD after a few months. Also done this successfully. They are scum

Citizens advice has info about fines on its pages.
some if that may be of interest.

I know it’s ridiculous in your situation but, at our local supermarket, you’re not allowed to park when the store is closed as people kept having car meets.

I know this isn't the point of the thread but where does Aldi close on a Sunday?!

Presumably she means she went in the early evening when it would be open on every day other than Sunday.

As I understand it, the landlord/parking company can only sue you for damages arising from the breach of contract - in other words they need to quantify and evidence the financial loss they suffered from you not accepting their terms.

Ask them to do this. If the carpark was empty, by definition they did not lose out by having to turn away bona fide paying customers, and unless you drove a Challenger tank they can hardly turn to 'wear and tear'.

To be clear, OH didn't even attempt to read the sign or enter the store: he literally swung in - I think he said there was one other Car in the carpark at the time, poor bastard's probably suffered the same fate - and then just sat on his phone for 5 minutes completely oblivious till I rolled up and we had a good laugh at how we'd not realised it was a Sunday. Another few minutes for me to get in the car, belt up, etc 🤷‍♀️ that's the 10 minutes!

It genuinely didn't occur to is we'd get a ticket. We live in a bit of a touristy area and the local Facebook page does occasionally have a tourist ranting about parking tickets and it's well bandied about that most (we thought all) of the camera car parks had 15 minute grace period so we just (foolishly!) assumed...

Nonetheless there's some brilliant advice on here so thank you, all! 🙏 I'm going to try to get in touch with Aldi HQ tomorrow (pretty sure we won't get anywhere in store, the aforementioned FB group can attest to that being a waste of time) and then on to popla (so?!)...! 💪

Ahh, I see...

Don't forget to email the parking company soon as well. Setting out clearly why you will not be paying and asking for the Popla code. Do not rely on the shop getting the charge voided first. For the shop this will be a very low down priority for them and they probably get the same request multiple times a week.

If you miss the deadline for the Popla appeal it will be a lot more difficult to get out of paying the charge.

Follow up any phone call to the shop with an email to the general manager so that you have a record of all communications back and forth.

UPDATE: the fine has been cancelled!! 🥳 It was as simple as messaging HQ/customer service, as a pp had said 😅

I must admit I didn't immediately think of it as our local FB group has from time to time had people pop up with a ticket from Aldi who've said the staff in-store are not interested so I just assumed it would be a no-go... It's true that you should never assume!

Thanks loads to everyone who helped me feel it was achievable with their suggestions 🤪 I'm obviously glad I didn't have to go as far as the popla thing in the end, but I do now know that should I have to in the future I will feel forearmed! 💪😊

Great news, OP!

Yet another lesson to never to listen to people who say just pay it.

Aldi is open on a Sunday.

Every single Aldi in the whole of the UK?

Or maybe it was 9am, or 6pm?

Ha yes it was Sunday eve! 🤣

Either way, Aldi customer service has been fab!

It's worth a try appealing it. People say that private parking companies never listen but my DP forgot to press the submit button on the parking app once and got a ticket. He appealed it, told them about his autism and how he really meant to pay but he messed up, and they reduced it from £40 to £10, which was better than he hoped for.

Ristricted hours though. Did it not occur to you that the OP may have turned up at Aldi before 10am or after 4pm. Or do you think she's making the whole thing up?

i would say all companies reject the first appeal.

I don’t really shop in Aldi or Lidl now because of their parking. Last time I was there it took me about 30 minutes to return an item. I did some shopping then was a good 20 minutes in the queue and trying to get someone to authorise I was over 25 was another 6 or 7 minutes. I actually thought of abandoning my shopping at the self service till at one point.

Then when I got to the car I got a text adding something to the shopping list. By the time I had unloaded what I had and then returned to get the extra item. Got through the tills and back to my car and then driven out. (Busy main road so a queue to leave the car park I went over the time and got a ticket.

I doubt I could do a full shop within the 90 minutes time so now I don’t go.
It’s not worth getting caught up in the car park.