Supermarket carpark fines

unholyangel

arcon5 wrote: »

It's intended for their customers to use to park their car for upto 2 hours whilst they shop with the business. It's not there just for anybody to park their car

Just because you're not buying anything that day doesnt mean you're not their customer Or are you saying the loophole around their "rules" would be to buy a 45p pack of gum? :P

arcon5

wealdroam wrote: »

More improper uses of the word 'fine'.

It is about time people realised that the only 'compensation' that the landowner is entitled to is damages caused.
A couple of examples...

• if you take the last space in a carpark that usually charges £1 per hour and don't pay, then the landowner is entitled to recover that lost £1 from you (assuming you leave within the hour). The landowner is allowed to recover his costs in retrieving that £1, but he is not allowed to charge penalties.
• if you park in a field of corn, the landowner can go after you for the cost of the damage caused. He cannot expect to get the money from the registered keeper, nor does the registered keeper have to 'shop' the driver.

But you know all this anyway.

yes, but what i'm talking about is the supermarket (or the company managing the carpark on their behalf) changing the way in which they operate -- so they are no longer fining people for breaking the rules, they will setout a fee structure for the use of their carpark -- so if you overstay your welcome you are not being fined, but you are moving into the next level of fee for using the service.


The reason I brought this discussion here is because i'm curious as to how this would work legally... as i've never seen a company operating in any other way than the 'fine' and curious as to why these companies haven't yet explored different angles, and if they have why they haven't been implemented

arcon5

unholyangel wrote: »

Just because you're not buying anything that day doesnt mean you're not their customer Or are you saying the loophole around their "rules" would be to buy a 45p pack of gum? :P

okay, for the intended use of customers at the time of parking.

Buying a packet of gum, yes would be a way round it. Technically you are a customer -- but i'm talking about people that abuse the intended use of the carpark, for example, leaving your car there for free whilst you go in to town to shop or go to work and thus block the space for a whole day or break the rules, suchas the 2 hour rule (which to me seems reasonable for people to be able to do their shopping).

arcon5

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

so which rules did the land owner set out? i'm pretty sure they didn't set the rule that you pay £40 if you over stay your parking. The rule they set out would be that people can park for free for up to x hours

no, the company managing the "fines" set it -- with the authorisation of the owners.

But i'm not looking for a debate on the rights or wrongs of being issued a fine. I'm just wondering if and why these companies haven't explored or implemented other ways of managing what has turned out to be such a contraversial way of managing their carpark. So rather than saying 'if your stay exceeds x hours, you will be fined £40' but saying 'you may use our carparking service for 2 hours afterwhich you may continue using the service at £y/hour.'

arcon5

somethingcorporate wrote: »

No harm in debating it though - I think it's a valid discussion point.

If you're happy to prove it right or wrong then please do!

My opinion is 100% accurate as my opinion - it may not be 100% correct, but it is 100% accurate

I'll second that.

Some of these companies that operate in the way they do are not particularly small companies -- so why haven't they sat down with legal advisors and discussed what to me seems like a pretty simple change ? And if they have, what was the outcome and why wasn't it implemented ?

If somebody comes along with a substantiated reason why i'd be happy. Unless it's a simple case of them thinking they will make less money, although if the invoices was enforcable I cannot see them loosing out as they'd have more clout.

wealdroam

arcon5 wrote: »

Some of these companies that operate in the way they do are not particularly small companies -- so why haven't they sat down with legal advisors and discussed what to me seems like a pretty simple change ? And if they have, what was the outcome and why wasn't it implemented ?

If somebody comes along with a substantiated reason why i'd be happy. Unless it's a simple case of them thinking they will make less money, although if the invoices was enforcable I cannot see them loosing out as they'd have more clout.

They make a fortune now.

Why change something which, from their point of view, works very well?

There are plenty of people who feel that they have no option to pay the bill that drops on their doormat.

The private parking companies are, I imagine, very happy scooping up all that money without any hastle of legal proceedings.

scheming_gypsy

arcon5 wrote: »

no, the company managing the "fines" set it -- with the authorisation of the owners.

'

can you prove the last bit?

somethingcorporate

I think the right answer is wealdroam's. There are enough suckers paying the current system those in "the know" are few and far between.

texranger

Our local Asda has a 2 hour limit which they use a private company as people were filling their carpark and they going into town or even parking their cars and then going over the road to catch a bus for a day out.
Last christmas we went to do our christmas shopping which takes longer than a normal shop, we were in the store nearly 3 hours with approx. 20 minutes of that at the checkout. got to our car to find it clamped and a notice to pay to have the clamp released as we were parked longer than 2 hrs.
so went back into store and demanded to speak to the manager, which he came to speak to use and was very apologentic, but saidf their was nothing he could do as its a private copmpany, so we told him then we will have the money back for our £300 of shopping and then we will call the police for the theft of our car as we were shopping in his store and were so long in the checkout queue as he had very few open for a packed store. he said their was no need for that and hew told us to wait and then he went away 10 minutes later he returned and said he spoke to the car park company and their attendant who agreed to cancel the ticket and remove the clamp.

arcon5

arcon5 wrote:

no, the company managing the "fines" set it -- with the authorisation of the owners.

scheming_gypsy wrote: »

can you prove the last bit?

Not sure what point your making, but surely the mere fact they are present and managing the carpark means they have been permitted to do so by the business or owner? I'm sure they didn't just turn up out of the blue one day, put a high visibility jacket on, some signs up and started managing the car park without permission.