Dear Lifers,
My son parked his car at ASDA Swanley popped in and bought something at 9.48 am. He then went home, he had to pick his brother up in Swanley at 8pm the same day. So he drove back, parked up , went in and bought some milk, met is brother in the car park and came home.
We have received a penalty notice saying that he over stayed his parking allowance (3 hours). The parking charge notice shows 2 pictures, one has he entered at 9.48am and one when after he had been back to pick his brother up at 8.12pm. Obviously there was some sort of fault with the camera, because he simply was not at bloody ASDA of nearly 12 hours on a Friday!!!
We are going to appeal, so if anyone has any advice it will be grateful received.
Thanks in advance
Greenie.
0
Comments
Explain the position in writing and tell them that there should be photographic evidence of him leaving the car park in the morning and entering in the evening and give them the relevant time frames. Explain that as they can locate the two photographs that they have then they should be able to locate the other two as well.
It is a shame he doesn't have his receipts as additional evidence of two separate purchases which would reasonably be interpreted as two separate trips.
I can't remember if you have to have a ticket to park there. But, assuming you do, did he buy one each time? Or, do you simply get three hours free?
Asda are saying it is against their rules to park for a period in excess of three hours. Your son did not do this, so he should have no reason to pay a fine. Their "proof" that he parked for over ten hours is, in fact nothing of the sort. It is only proof that he entered the car park at one time and left it at another time - both of which facts you are not disputing. You can also add another couple of facts, ie that he left some time around 10:00 and re-entered some time (a few minutes, perhaps) before 20:00. None of Asda's facts are in dispute. But their conclusion (that he stayed there for over ten hours) is, of course, nonsense.
1. Can your son prove his car was anywhere else during this ten hour gap? Does he have receipts of stuff he bought during the day? Did he get fuel somewhere?
2. Does he have the receipts for the purchases he made at Asda on the two (morning and evening) times he was there?
These would provide evidence to explain the facts around your son's situation.
I would think that, if you spelled out the whole set of facts, using any corroborating evidence (as above), they would not have a leg to stand on.
If you frame this as a complaint, you will probably be given a voucher or some other token of goodwill to keep you happy.
These car parks and the fines are usually managed by a third party so the store will likely be unaware that a ticket has been issued so the customer service manager will likely sympathise with your situation since they are unlikely to benefit from the fine and will probably take the opportunity to turn a complaint into a happy customer, if they're actually any good at their job.
At the very least, if the customer service manager is unusually difficult, demand they use the in-store CCTV to corroborate your story.
Also, private parking fines are actually fairly hard to enforce. If you haven't reached a resolution in store, ensure you reply to the fine with your appeal and reasons and any evidence you could have, including demanding they provide hard evidence that the car had not left the car park during that time (it is very easy for the camera to miss plates if you're blocked by a high-sided vehicle or the car in front/behind is very close to you). It is unlikely they will pursue it in a court because 90% of fine collection is intimidation and a legal exercise will be pointless, especially if you threaten to go to the press and give the store bad publicity.
Oh, and good luck mate
BUT things to do: complain direct to Asda, they might lean on the parking contractor; and tell the parking contractor that you are appealing and if they decline your appeal make sure that you get a POPLA code number should you wish to appeal to them. (It may be worthwhile letting them know beforehand that you'll be demanding one.)
Read this parking-prankster.com/popla-referrals.html and this popla.org.uk/default.htm and, maybe, this http://www.pepipoo.com/
With my letter, I enclosed that till receipt from the day in question (I has spent about a tenner in the Barnsley store) and a few more from around the same time albeit from ASDA stores in Grimsby and Lincoln, not Barnsley .. the ticket was waived .. so good luck
EDIT: A tip .. Keep any letters and phone calls as 'friendly' and business like as possible, don't make it personal. After all, as 'the mafia' always say: 'It's only business'
Its not really the money its just the principal.
Cheers
You need to remember that the reason supermarkets provide free parking, in areas where parking can be expensive, is so that customers buying a lot of groceries are able to so conveniently with the benefit of being able to drive in, load their car up, and drive out. In areas where people use the car park for an unnecessary period of time (unnecessary for a supermarket shop) customers that will spend a lot of money might drive in, fail to find a space, and drive out again and go to the next supermarket down the road. For this reason there is significant motivation to 'punish' those that use those free parking spaces for something else.
I wouldn't be surprised to discover that it is their standard process to check the CCTV footage for a couple of hours in the morning and another couple of hours in the evening. It would be cheaper for them to send out tickets to all those that come in early and go out late and wait for appeals than it would be to check twelve hours of footage to check that someone didn't come in, go out then come in again before going out, again. The other benefit of this type of process is that it will get around that they do send out tickets and that would discourage others from parking there all day. I suspect that having free spaces for shoppers is much more, financially, beneficial than charging £50 a day for parking.
Write to the company explaining what has happened and request a copy of the CCTV for the day as you will then be able to prove your point. As soon as I requested the CCTV they dropped the case without further question. The Newshopper offered to take it up for me if I didn't get anywhere, if you have issues might be worth contacting your local paper as well.
I also don't understand why drivers don't back in to the parking spaces rather than backing out of them.
Avoid avoid avoid I say, walk, bus or bike it to the shops if possible. Supermarkets really are horrible places, even the Waitrose at Beckenham Junction and the Savacentre at Sydenham.
As for the parking ticket, charge them for the admin you have to do, or mock up a form they have to fill in and return to you before you act, including a demand to know the serial number of each individual piece of equipment they use in the whole malarkey, say that without getting that information within seven days you cant proceed.
They'll send a few letters and then go away. I've had this a few times. It's a different matter if it's a council ticket, these third party companies have no power.
An appeal has been lodged drawing on much of the info given here.
Watch this space.
Its great how we all get on when politics are not involved..........!
Much love x
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-tickets
Just spotted Ledge's link - that's what you need.
'This step-by-step guide shows how to fight unfair private parking tickets at supermarkets, hospitals, retail parks and elsewhere, including using the private parking appeals systems. Out of 23,500 people who appealed via one of these systems in the year to March 2014, 45% were successful.'
So 45% were successful? So 55% were unsuccessful and presumably paid a larger parking ticket as most of them offer you a discount for paying within 14 days.
I'm not suggesting that one should just pay, but bragging that their system works less than half the time seems a little strange to me.