Beware ALDI parking fines!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

hollydays

I do think it IS a good idea that people who overstay in a car park should have to pay.

I think the law should be changed to make it legal.

I think the amount the companies charge should be reasonable,and the companies should be strictly regulated.

juliescot

hollydays wrote: »

I do think it IS a good idea that people who overstay in a car park should have to pay.

I think the law should be changed to make it legal.

I think the amount the companies charge should be reasonable,and the companies should be strictly regulated.

And there is the problem - none of those are the case at present

The supermarket could have a barrier with a ticket machine beside it and you take a stamped timed ticket. If you stay for 30 minutes it might cost 10p.

If you stay for over 30 minutes it could be five pounds for every half hour over that.

The above is an example of a car park which you pay for. Lots of them around. This supermarket could probably do that if they wished - but they don't and until legislation changes then anyone can park there for free.

yorksrabbit

Simplest way of deterring non-shoppers from selfishly hogging parking spaces intended for genuine shoppers would be to levy refundable charges for every car park user -- it's a fairly common practice in parts of the USA where the local climate is a darn sight hotter than the UK's. However. . .

1) Pay & Display is all well and good if there are many pay stations rather than a few and:

2) Pay & Display is fine when the weather's fine but otherwise the idea of getting drenched in going from the car to a pay station, queuing for a ticket, returning to the car, and only then being able to enter the store is anything but appealing.

It's largely for that reason that stores in the UK which tested out Pay, Display & Refund parking found it expensive to operate (a heck of a lot of pay stations are needed to make them convenient for everyone) and customer unfriendly (the shopping experience is intended to be pleasurable, not a rain-drenched ordeal.)

It was also found that dealing with parking slips at check-out (deducting the parking cost from the bill) was time consuming and occasionally not even workable due to technical glitches.

The upshot is that stores who did test the pay-display-refund concept (we know of three supermarket chains who trialled it around 10 years ago) abandoned the idea primarily to protect store-customer relations, deciding instead absent themselves entirely from the parking aspect either by contracting out to a 'car park patrol' in a free-to-use car park or by running a Pay & Display with the first hour, or half hour, free -- though again, with a contractor handling abuses of the system so as to keep the store itself well clear of any dispute.

Sadly, it's still not satisfactory: there are always going to be people selfish enough to 'steal' parking places to which they have no entitlement, whilst the "parking fines" issued on behalf of any store are utterly meaningless.

For the foreseeable future then, unenforcable parking "fines" are going to continue to distress the unwary whilst being laughed at by those who couldn't care less. As to the notion of getting a store manager involved in a parking issue, that misunderstands the whole point of the arrangement: the store manager can't be involved because the store isn't involved; any dispute is with the parking contractor, and the store is very happy for it to be that way.

trisontana

Or they could have a barrier and some kind of "proof of purchase" or token system . I have seen that used by two supermarkets in the Essex town where I used to live.In both cases the barrier was manned by someone who looked at receipts to check they were customers of the store.

When the stores were closed then the barriers were left up and anyone could park there for free. This means that the store doesn't suffer from full spaces when it's open, and when it's closed there is no harm done to the store if it is then used as a free public car-park.

juliescot

yorksrabbit wrote: »

Simplest way of deterring non-shoppers from selfishly hogging parking spaces intended for genuine shoppers would be to levy refundable charges for every car park user -- it's a fairly common practice in parts of the USA where the local climate is a darn sight hotter than the UK's. However. . .

1) Pay & Display is all well and good if there are many pay stations rather than a few and:

2) Pay & Display is fine when the weather's fine but otherwise the idea of getting drenched in going from the car to a pay station, queuing for a ticket, returning to the car, and only then being able to enter the store is anything but appealing.

It's largely for that reason that stores in the UK which tested out Pay, Display & Refund parking found it expensive to operate (a heck of a lot of pay stations are needed to make them convenient for everyone) and customer unfriendly (the shopping experience is intended to be pleasurable, not a rain-drenched ordeal.)

It was also found that dealing with parking slips at check-out (deducting the parking cost from the bill) was time consuming and occasionally not even workable due to technical glitches.

The upshot is that stores who did test the pay-display-refund concept (we know of three supermarket chains who trialled it around 10 years ago) abandoned the idea primarily to protect store-customer relations, deciding instead absent themselves entirely from the parking aspect either by contracting out to a 'car park patrol' in a free-to-use car park or by running a Pay & Display with the first hour, or half hour, free -- though again, with a contractor handling abuses of the system so as to keep the store itself well clear of any dispute.

Sadly, it's still not satisfactory: there are always going to be people selfish enough to 'steal' parking places to which they have no entitlement, whilst the "parking fines" issued on behalf of any store are utterly meaningless.

For the foreseeable future then, unenforcable parking "fines" are going to continue to distress the unwary whilst being laughed at by those who couldn't care less. As to the notion of getting a store manager involved in a parking issue, that misunderstands the whole point of the arrangement: the store manager can't be involved because the store isn't involved; any dispute is with the parking contractor, and the store is very happy for it to be that way.

The system I was explaining was not pay and display, just for clarification

As there is nothing to stop people parking in the spaces everyone has an "entitlement" to park in them.

I agree that there will always be selfish inconsiderate people who abuse any system but these charges are "laughed at" by many as they are little more than a scam.

LemonGrove

They tried to introduce this at an ALDI near me, only there is a large Iceland with a free carpark twice the size next door. Needless to say their customers went down and that was phased out promptly. Maybe they like to try their luck at which stores it does/doesn't work at.

peter_the_piper

hollydays wrote: »

I do think it IS a good idea that people who overstay in a car park should have to pay.

I think the law should be changed to make it legal.

I think the amount the companies charge should be reasonable,and the companies should be strictly regulated.

Can't agree here. There is a local shopping centre with about 12 major stores in and only 3 hour parking. There you don't get a ticket/invoice you get the Denver Boot.
I can understand on Sunday morning when the boot fair is on but the rest of the week it should not apply. There's no rail station, football pitch or cinema nearby so no casual parking.

hollydays

I dont consider clamping release to be a reasonable fee.I agree that is ludicrous not to allow more than 3 hours if there is no opportunity to pay for longer and stay longer.You can register your disaproval by voting with your feet.

peter_the_piper

I did.....

vikingaero

When I visit ANY car park in the UK or even Europe I look for signs to see:

(1) If I need to pay and display
(2) If it's free but there's a time limit

I automatically so this and don't assume that I can do whatever I want. With the prevalence of private parking fines (legal or not, moral or not) I'll use my eyes to guide me.