Parking fine at Sainsburys superstore

[MyCheekyEagle]

Recently I did a big shop at Sainsburys, which included trying & buying clothes and a big food shop. I ended up over staying by 18 minutes & have a parking fine from Euro car parks.
I sometimes read that people refuse to pay these extortionate parking fines to private companies. Is this true, has anyone ever not paid and got away with it?
I'm really cross that I have been penalised for buying clothes as well as my big shop 😡

@ConveyancingHelll I, and several others have said to contact the store first! But to suggest just not paying it because someone on the internet said so is ludicrous advice.

It's not actually. OP may well have very strong grounds to challenge the invoice. Those grounds disappear once she pays but then wants to retrospectively challenge it.

Paying now - or paying if Sainsburys refuse to help - would be silly from the OP's perspective.

I work in a place that has this kind of parking & I'm the person who deals with the tickets!

1. Do not ignore it - these companies can & do take people to court.
2. Contact the store, show them your receipt/bank with transaction on it. Parking companies differ - some allow you to cancel a certain amount of tickets a month, others let you reduce to a smaller fee (usually £20)
3. What is the appeals process on the ticket - with proof of purchase the parking co will usually cancel/reduce the ticket if the store can't help.
4. The same as 1 DO NOT IGNORE! These companies are ruthless, they will chase payment and add extra fees.
5. The sooner you speak to someone in-store, the more likely they are to be able to help you.

Again, advising someone to NOT pay a fine is ludicrous, damaging advice. The OP may have strong grounds to challenge it, but not paying it at all (if Sainsbury's won't cancel it,) is a stupid idea. And it's ridiculous to suggest someone does that.

It's not 'silly' to pay it, and your 'advice' is terrible! @MyCheekyEagle Please do not listen to posters telling you to not pay it. Pay it, and then challenge it!

Thank you @nancy75 MUCH better, sensible, helpful advice, than 'don't pay it cuz I heard some random on an internet forum say you don't have to!' 🙄

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https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4816822/newbies-private-parking-ticket-old-or-new-read-these-faqs-first-thankyou

That article on MSE, is TWELVE YEARS OLD, and it is bloody appalling advice. I have never read such rubbish. As I said, I know that MSE are very helpful a lot of the time, and can give some really good advice. However they do not always get it right. And THIS is an example of when they did not get it right. The 'advice' in that article is dreadful! 😬

@MyCheekyEagle Do NOT take any advice from that TWELVE YEAR OLD article in that link!!!

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Do you have a Nectar card? If you do then it will show the date & time that you paid and if you ask customer services nicely then they may well be able to reprint your receipt for you. If no luck in store then phone the careline and they may be able to email the receipt to you.

Pisses me off no end, that DLVA share (sell) my personal details to these Cowboys - no clue how it’s legal

The parking rule is entirely separate from being a regular customer and spending lots of money in a particular shop. People are conflating the two. Most parking lots use number plate recognition and there’s really no arguing with that. I reluctantly paid mine and now I’m ultra careful and set a timer on my phone.

Care to share which piece of advice is awful and why? Or are you going to keep it to yourself? The first step on the "bloody appalling" advice is something that a significant proportion of people on this thread have also advised so you will be helping everyone on the thread by being more precise and sharing the benefit of your wisdom.

@FishPie2 trying on shoes, boots, jumpers, stuff you don't need a changing room for

Thank you all for your advice. It looks like I'm going to have to suck it up & pay £50, or try to appeal to Euro Car Parks. The reduced figure has to be paid by 10/12. I'm going away & won't be back in time to pop into Sainsburys

They are just as enforceable as any other contractual debt in Scotland. The only question is whether the company would bother pursuing it through small claims court.

Try ringing head office or sending them a message on Twitter first - that’s got to be worth a try surely?

Once again, this is not a fine. It is an invoice. If it is paid, there is no route to challenge it, and no grounds to challenge it.

Why do you think it is a 'stupid idea' not to pay and instead challenge it?

What is it you think would happen that would be so damaging to the OP?

To be clear, it is not twelve years old.

It was started twelve years ago and updated since then. Which is why it refers to multiple developments in the law over the past twelve years.

I think the training and up to date information of the CAB is more definitive . Just saying

The fact of the court order is what ruins your credit rating whether or not it is later paid. The most important thing is to prevent it getting to that point. What happens a lot of times is that people move house, don’t update DVLA records and/or don’t set up postal redirection and so miss the initial claim / summons and so end up with a CCJ they know nothing about.

OP - if you can't get to Sainsbury's at all before the time lapses for the reduced charge, you should get your challenge in anyway. You can always try with Sainsbury's afterwards.

With Euro Car Parks, the reduced charge will still be available if your challenge if rejected (and to be clear, it will be rejected, they always are).

Take a bit of time to familiarise yourself with the law on this. Ignore those claiming this is a fine - it's not. It's an invoice. If someone posted a note through your door saying you owe them £50 because they'd washed your windows without your knowledge, you presumably wouldn't just pay it even if they say they'd take you to court if you don't.

This has essentially the same legal standing. It is a claim by the company that you entered a contract when you parked, and that contract now means you owe them £50. Disputing a contractual claim is not like refusing to pay a fine.

oh sure it is! That is extremely unlikely. Funny how so many people are saying the MSE advice is rubbish but can't actually say why.

Why do you question the country’s most well known and established for 80 years advice organisation which is well respected as a source of help for people experiencing all kinds of legal and financial issues? Which requires staff and volunteers to undertake many months training and ongoing updating of knowledge?

Entirely agree - the terms of which contract are required to be clearly displayed on site. Unclear signage is pretty much the only successful grounds for disputing this kind of ticket.

It depends on whether you have the time and inclination to fight this. I personally do not and would just pay it. I don’t want threatening letters through the door and pseudo-bailiffs knocking on my door, it’s not worth the £50 I would save by not paying it especially when I did actually overstay

Show customer services your banking app if you spent a large amount of money it shows you where in there for a long time. There only interested in fining people who park and sod of somewhere else they're not trying to piss of there actual customers