Asda and their new TCP buddies

malkyh

My local Asda has just had their carpark fitted out with the pay machines from that TCP crowd. The reason being is its next door to the main shopping centre and they charge for parking so what was happening is a large volume of shopping centre peeps were using Asda carpark instead.

Now, I know how annoying this was when going to Asda and not being able to park so I have no issue with them adding a charging system.

My issue is with the £5 minimum spend you have to make to have your parking charge refunded. Last night I popped in for some milk and bread which did not cost £5, therefore I was going to be charged 50p extra just for visiting their store. I didn't bother paying to park and went in and got what i needed, no ticket so this time i guess i got away with it.

Am I just being a moaning git, or does anyone else think you should get your parking charge refunded regardless of what you spend in store?

give_them_FA

It's a matter you need to raise with the store manager. We believe that if a charge is asked for, and it is a reasonable one (£1 /hr in Asda?) then you should either pay it or don't park. Or shop somewhere else.

Stephen_Leak

Other stores do. So ASDA can.

Personally, I'd make lots of visits to ASDA, buy less than £5 of stuff, including frozen items, complain about the minimum spend and then ask for a refund.

ManxRed

Might be an idea to ask the council if they have permission to do this. A lot of supermakets leases contain specific instructions on what they can or cannot charge for their car parks.

Coupon-mad

malkyh wrote: »

My local Asda has just had their carpark fitted out with the pay machines from that TCP crowd. The reason being is its next door to the main shopping centre and they charge for parking so what was happening is a large volume of shopping centre peeps were using Asda carpark instead.

Now, I know how annoying this was when going to Asda and not being able to park so I have no issue with them adding a charging system.

My issue is with the £5 minimum spend you have to make to have your parking charge refunded. Last night I popped in for some milk and bread which did not cost £5, therefore I was going to be charged 50p extra just for visiting their store. I didn't bother paying to park and went in and got what i needed, no ticket so this time i guess i got away with it.

Am I just being a moaning git, or does anyone else think you should get your parking charge refunded regardless of what you spend in store?

Hope you know from this forum that any parking charge notice would be a fake PCN anyway and it doesn't matter as you can ignore it? There is nothing to 'get away with'.

What I used to do at a similar Asda car park was I would take the P&D ticket straight to the CS desk and say I have just loaded my shopping into my car boot and realised that I didn't ask the cashier for the refund. Every single time the CS person happily took the ticket and gave me a quid. In truth there was no shopping in my car boot but I was a genuine browsing customer of Asda. Then I could happily browse, without presure to spend a fiver, or even go in a few other local shops.

malkyh

Coupon-mad wrote: »

Hope you know from this forum that any parking charge notice would be a fake PCN anyway and it doesn't matter as you can ignore it? There is nothing to 'get away with'.

What I used to do at a similar Asda car park was I would take the P&D ticket straight to the CS desk and say I have just loaded my shopping into my car boot and realised that I didn't ask the cashier for the refund. Every single time the CS person happily took the ticket and gave me a quid. In truth there was no shopping in my car boot but I was a genuine browsing customer of Asda. Then I could happily browse, without presure to spend a fiver, or even go in a few other local shops.

Hi,

Yes, I am aware that the tickets are non enforceable, and if I ever did get one I would ignore it. I'm just a bit peed off that if I now want to buy my bread and milk I have to go to elsewhere to avoid having to pay 50p extra for giving Asda my custom or face a barrage of threatening letters coming through my door.

give_them_FA

Barricade yourself in, and hope that the threatening letters don't try using a battering ram!

malkyh

give_them_FA wrote: »

Barricade yourself in, and hope that the threatening letters don't try using a battering ram!

I'd have to stock up on bread and milk from Sainsburys before I could barricade myself in....................