ASDA parking ticket

SickOfItAll_2

Hi,

I took my disabled mother to ASDA yesterday (I'm her registered carer)
and I forgot to put her blue badge in the windscreen. On discovering it
I immediately returned to ASDA and spoke to two managers who told me
it was a private company (but admitted the £60 would ultimately find
its way back to ASDA) and they couldn't do anything. He inspected the
blue badge and the other manager took it away and photocopied it for
me, after which they said I should send it to the company and appeal.
My mother used her debit card to pay for the shopping (£130) so I can
prove she was there at that time with me - and she used their scooter.
She was also greeted by a couple of staff members she knew from
previous visits. So we can prove that she was there. As far as I can
see the only thing I have done wrong is fail to display the badge and
although I respect their reasons for issuing it, at the point after which I
showed them the blue badge I don't feel I should be punished/penalised.
So after reading several threads on this site and others I decided to
write to ASDA via email stating my case. It was not an angry letter but
I did tell them that I would not correspond with the parking company
(Town and City Parking Limited) and that I'm willing to go to court to
resolve this dispute. This was yesterday, I await reply from ASDA.

But I'm nervous about this whole scenario and I don't like the bullying
tactics that await me - I have no intention of paying because I don't
see what I'm compensating them for, certainly not to the tune of £60.
Did I do the right thing? Should I write a nice apologetic letter to this
Town and City Parking Limited and hope they 'let me off'? Should I
contact a solicitor? Or should I simply ignore the whole thing?

trisontana

Just ignore. You don't owe them a penny. Also the blue-badge scheme doe not apply to private car-parks.

esmerobbo

Write to Asda if you feel you must but do not write to Town & City parking. They have no powers they can not charge for what is a free car park. The blue badge bays in Asda are courtesy bays if your Mother is disabled that's enough.

namiku

What can you do if you have paid?!

esmerobbo

namiku wrote: »

What can you do if you have paid?!

If you have paid a private parking company very little really, you could appeal if it was wrongly issued but upheld appeals to these companies are as rare as rocking horse manure! You could take them to small claims and given you got a fair minded judge the you could win. Even then you would probably never get paid. Most if not all these companies will have unpaid CCJ,s. Their only interest is fleecing the public. Unfortunately if you have paid you have been added to their list. Sorry you didn't come here first! However I am sure you wont fall for it again!;)

Kite2010

If I get this strange you parked in a disable bay when with a disabled passenger, therefore you have don't nothing wrong. You don't owe them a penny. Just ignore the demands.

SickOfItAll_2

Kite2010 wrote: »

If I get this strange you parked in a disable bay when with a disabled passenger, therefore you have don't nothing wrong. You don't owe them a penny. Just ignore the demands.

Yep, thanks for your response and others who have replied.

They must know that disabled people frequently forget to display
their blue badges, would it be too much for Asda to alert owners
of these vehicles via their shop PA? They could be asked to produce
a blue badge to prove they are disabled. While I was in there an
announcement was made about an owner of a vehicle who had
forgotten to turn their lights off. But of course they want to wring
every last penny out of their customers. I still haven't heard back
from Asda regarding this, other than an automated email saying
they'd received my email. Town and City Parking Limited will get
zero response from me. I'll look for every possible angle to have
them for harassment along the way too.

taffy056

The thing is, the blue badge scheme does not apply to private car parks like asda's, and you could be disabled without a blue badge, holding does not prove anything, its estimated that 50% of people holding one shouldn't, still you are doing the right thing about contacting the retailer instead of the scammers

Kite2010

If you get no response back from Asda, try emailing or sending a letter to your local newspaper.

Don't know how much good it will do, but it's worth a try

SPANIEL36

i dont really see what it has to do with Asda anyway, like they statd when you spoke to the managers, its out of Asda's hands as its a private parking firm. These tickets are un-enforceable anyway, its only police and council issued parking tickets that can be enforced upon. Go to the peppipo website where you'll find hundreds of threads on these cowboy companies.

I parked on Morrisons the other week and got a ticket the reason stated was stayed longer than the allowed free time (2 hours) however the times given on the ticket stated they had observed my car parked there for 1 hour....... i wont be paying the 'fine' or contacting the cowboy company.

taffy056

SPANIEL36 wrote: »

i dont really see what it has to do with Asda anyway,

It has lots to do with Asda, its their car park! And no matter if they don't own the actual land or not, they have a lot of say what happens there, as its likely one of their employees issuing the ticket! Really they have a company harassing their clients with fake demands, so anyone being issued one should complain to their head office, and local media, they love to print these stories out!