To whom it may concern
I was extremely upset this week to receive a parking fine from an outside company – Parking Eye – as a consequence of parking in Aldi car park, Didsbury, to shop in the store! I am a regular shopper at this store and know that a sign has been visible on the back wall of this car park stating clearly that the car park is for customers and shoppers in Didsbury Village. I also know and am recognised by the elderly gentleman who has been attendant for some time in this car park and indeed, usually speak and pass the time of day with him. When did this arrangement change? When was the car park handed over to an outside source and a time limit of two hours imposed?
If your photographic evidence shows my car entering and leaving the car park with a discrepancy of 25 minutes from the new regulations, presumably it also showed me arriving in TORRENTIAL rain, with a small boy and a new baby. It presumably also recorded me trying to put up my pram in TORRENTIAL rain and usher my small son and new baby to do our shopping. Perhaps it also recorded the later shower of rain, which meant I stayed in a local bookshop with my children so they did not get completely soaked before returning and packing up my pram again before departing at 15.39. I did not see the parking attendant that day – has he been retired in favour of this new system? I did not see any ‘clearly visible’ notice. Nothing was clearly visible in those conditions.
What I am most angry about is that for the past couple of years during term time, I have dropped my son at school on Monday morning and come and parked at Aldi at 9am, waited for the store to open and regularly done my shopping spending at least £35 to £40 per transaction, before using other local traders, the post office and the bank in Didsbury village. Please feel free to check this – you can have my Switch card number if you would care to ring me. Since my husband was made redundant and I have been on maternity leave, money has been very tight in our household and I am really cross that a regular customer should be penalised like this. I read in the local paper that the car park was to become pay and display and even checked with the attendant if this has happened. That would be a far more fair way of monitoring parking and customers could pay if they need more than the two hours – it’s quite hard with small children to do a supermarket shop, then any other chores and be back in two hours. Sometimes you need to stop and sit down and feed a small baby if they wake and cry.
Having been a regular customer for so long, this has really put me off shopping at the store, which is a shame as the staff are always so pleasant and efficient and the selection of stock great. You really need to rethink this impersonal ‘initiative’. £70 fine on top of my shopping bill hardly constitutes your ‘Spend a little, live a lot’ slogan, does it?
{ 16 comments… read them below or add one }
We went for a family meal with a pregnant relation and two small children. When we drove into the car park, we were busy looking for a car parking spot, we did not see any signs and we were not aware of any changes to the parking arrangements nor in fact that Aldi owned the small parking area behind the chemists. We would have parked by the Slug and Lettice, but that pay and display carpark is always full. We parked and went for the meal, two cars were involved for the birthday meal, there would have been a third, that would mean a total of £120 our family would have had to pay out for the priviledge of parking for 23 minuets. We were parked from 5.15 till after 7. The Aldi carpark itself was not full even though the store was still open, so were not hindering the store from earning money by taking up valuable car parking space. As a family we always use Didsbury for eating out and Aldi for shopping, but I am very happy in finding other places to eat and shop. The company invovled in collecting the monies for Aldi, are very good at using language that would make you pay up with threats of further cost. But the company has failed to create signs that are visisble, especially in the dark, they have not made it clear and as for the 24hour rule, you need to right up to the sign to read that this is envorced for 24 hours. In all fairness we are used to parking rules that allow you to park for free especially after 6. Aldi and Priviate Eye have a responsiblity to the customer to at least make the notification big enough so you realise you have an obligation to park in accordance to what the landowner requires. This is not a consumer friendly policy, and yes companys’ have to look at their costs, but so do their customers. The company Private Eye do not give you the time to pay, they already send letters out before the time allocated and when they do send letters they give you exdended time from when they send the letter, and their letter can take up to 5 days to arrive to you have therefore missed the deadline, is this fair, this is bullying people into paying. Our family have been told to pay £140 for staying over the allocated time. And there is a threat the family will incure other costs, is this fair.
So sorry to read of this. Outrageous. It’s just like a money making scam not an attempt to enforce parking restrictions and yes, you are right, the nature of the letters is bullying – they are threatening and the time span is inappropriate.I paid up and was promised a refund by Aldi but have not had a penny back. South Manchester Reporter perhaps? We should both email in our stories – I bet it’s happened to loads of other shoppers too.
It seems MatthewBarnes and Graham Hetherington of Aldi stores have a good money making scam with teir Car Park penalty fines.
My father in law recently had a £70 fines issued for exceeding his parking times by 15 minutes.
So both he and I no longer shop at Aldi – ( Brownhills – West Midlands).
My father in law has lost £70. But Aldi have lost over £2000 per year since we switched to Tesco.
Will these plonkers nver learn?
Exactly the same thing happened to me- the reason I was over the limit by 15 mins was a long queue in Aldi, making me late to set off to pick up my son from st Catherine’s- I should have just driven up to the school and parked there and added to the chaos. the car park wasn’t even busy and I might have made it if I hadnt had to load 2 children, shopping, pushchair, buggy board and scooter into the boot
simply don’t pay. it’s a numbers game for these guys, unfortunately by not paying you are in the minority but spread the word to change this. Ignore “Parking Charge Notices” and read more…
http://www.consumeractiongroup.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?287965-Morrisons-Parking-Eye
I parked on their Wollaston car park on a Sunday evening after the store was closed to g0 to an Indian restuarant. Got my £70/40 fine a week later. I understand the need to check parking when the store is open. When it is closed there is no reason for it other than a quick buck.
Another lost customer for life..
I have also recieved a notice for over-staying by 20 minutes (didn’t know there was a time limit) I spend between £80 – £100 every week at Aldi,and will definitly be doing my shopping elsewhere. Also there is no way that I am going to pay this rediculous fine.
I have done exactly the same as Dave Smith – I parked at their Wollaston car park late at night (it was past midnight for crying out loud!) to pop to the Indian restaurant across the road. The supermarket was long since closed, there were plenty of spaces and I could see the car from the restaurant so I knew it was safe. Really, just what is the harm in that?
Got my find through this morning – £70/£40.
Dave – did you pay yours?
I will be appealing and writing to Aldi to tell them this is outrageous. I must spend towards £1000 a year with them and, if this fine is upheld, I too will be a customer of theirs lost for life.
What angers me even more is that there was a police car also parked in the car park! Did they get fined too?
I have also received a letter in the post saying final notice £70 however I never received a ticket on my car or either of the first 2 warning letters. I have come to the conclusion that they are just money grabbers and I am therefor not paying the fine. It says in the letter in order to contest I must send them a copy of a receipt or bank statement but how is this possible when you pay cash and the ticket is dated for a month ago? I don’t keep receipts for food shopping as I would never need to return anything so how am I supposed to provide evidence?!
I urge everyone not to pay their fines as eventually they will give up as a collegue of my friend did this and eventually the warnings subsided!
i have also received a paking eye fine from my local aldi store car park i was 15 mins late back to my car as aparently i only had an hour to do my shopping with my 2 children who both have special needs and my mother who is disabled. the shop was really busy the ques were rediculus and to top it off an item i perchased was broken so i had to go back into tbe shop to sort it out, which with the stupid queing it made me even later to my car. i got so upset by this fine as tbings are tight for everyone at this present time, and to think they want proof of your sho pping bill or bankstatement to show u shopped in aldi! i tbink not! they can stick their fine where tbe sun dont shine and if they want to take it further than i will gladly see them in court along with my daughter whos going blind and is partially deaf and my son who has too many problems to list. maybe they should watch the cctv camera and really see who tbe crooks are! not a mum doing her weekly shop thats for sure.
I parked in the Aldi carpark in Didsbury. I did some shopping in Didsbury village and then did my weekly shop in the store. I had been recommended to try their skin care products so unaware I was on a time limit I spent some time looking at these. I also spent time looking at the wine of which I bought two bottles. I then went to pay for my goods and as usual there was only one person on the till. My goods came to approx £20 obviously it took some time to put all my goods in the car and take my trolley back and drive away. All in all I was 20 minutes over the strictly 2 hour policy. (which was new to me as there was an nice gentleman attendant there before).
A few days later I received a £40/£70 fine. I was outraged as my shop was now about to cost minimum £60. I appealed this and sent my receipt only to receive a reply, without my receipt saying I didn’t have enough evidence! What more evidence other than a receipt for shopping in the store could you have! It seems there is no way out of paying this fine other than maybe if you’d died. What is the point of appealing!
I have paid the fine today only because I’m a law abiding citizen and having already received another reminder for this so I suppose I was abit scared.
Needless to say I will never be shopping at Aldi again and have told my friends the same. Hope anyone reading this will do likewise.
Further to my post above about being fined in Wollaston (Stourbridge) Aldi, I didn’t even bother appealing it in the end.
Instead, I did a bit more research and found many claims from people saying they had completely ignored the so-called “fines” and eventually the problem had gone away.
Although sceptical, I am delighted to confirm that this was, indeed, the case with me – in fact, many others say they got threatened with debt collectors and all sorts before Aldi/Parking Eye “gave up” chasing them – all I got was the initial letter and the reminder and that’s all I’ve had in two-and-a-half months.
My advice: IGNORE THEM!
And, Anne-Marie – whilst I have every respect in the world for your wish to be a law abiding citizen, I would argue you are perfectly law-abiding by ignoring it completely. See my previous post above – you were clearly far more ‘within the rules’ than I was!
Remember: these are not “fines” – they have no legal power to “fine” you. They are invoices for a service (i.e. a parking facility), and the terms and conditions which you sign up to (which you automatically sign up to by using their service) state that you agree they can invoice you should you break them.
yes we had a ticket from parking eye,i went onto a foram site and read that if you are disabled you get extra time ,but they dont tell you on there notice board,so we sent our details off and a letter came back saying we were let off.
On studying the photos of my car, the pictures both in and out are taken just outside of their car park enterance, with my car still on public highway double yellow lines.-This cannot be right .I will be talking to highways and the police about this matter.
By the way this is the wickford essex store .
I spent a few days in Brecon last week, a half term break for my wife, I was asked to move my car out of the hotel park to enable the painters an early start. As the Aldi car park was opposite and we had been spending money with them I moved the car into there. Just had a Parking charge notice from Parkingeye.
Next time I go walking in the Brecon region we will be staying self catering in a location outside of the town.
My wife and her mother have been regular Aldi customers since they opened in Shrewsbury and Wellington, there are plenty of other options and I do not like the way Parkingeye operate, they can happily pocket my fine but Aldi are going to lose two families weekly shopping as of now.
There’s an app on IPHONE,BLACKBERRY, ANDROID NOKIA & WINDOWS Phones
called mindmymotor, that stops you getting parking tickets it’s
AMAZING! Check out mindmymotor.com please pass this on and we can all
stop getting tickets!
Most of the petty moaners here clearly knew the rules – the signs are there for all to read. At my local store, you get two hours free. Stay longer and you get fined. Who is to blame for you losing out because you took a risk which failed miserably?
Had you been trying to park at Aldi and discovered the car park was full because the occupants were busy shopping elsewhere, you’d be moaning about people doing exactly what you chose to do. Hypocrites!