Outstay Xmas welcome by 32 secs at Asda

Franhazel88

Hi. Would welcome advice please.

Did Xmas shopping last Dec at Asda, had lunch then bumped into some friends. Few weeks later, had letter from Town and City Parking with photos informing me I'd exceeded 3 hours by 30 odd seconds so that would be £70 or £40 if I paid straight away.

This happened once before at an Aldi few years ago and I ignored on sister's (solicitor) advice, getting 3 letters before they gave up.

But this morning I received new letter from Debt Recovery Plus Ltd acting for T&CP which has apparently changed name to Smart parking. Now I'm a bit nervous as they say they may pass to the landholder's solicitor to commence County Court proceedings. And I know legislation has changed. And, of course the penalty has gone up to £120.

But doesn't Asda own the land and just contract out these awful companies? Should I complain to Asda in person- they shouldn't allow this to happen to good customers. I really don't want to contact either Smart Parking or DRPL as threads seem to suggest that isn't a good idea. What are the chances that they will take me to court?

Fergie76

As you have ignored it this long, you should continue to listen to your sister's advice and continue to ignore.

Coupon-mad

They will not take you to Court and if they did you would win with a decent defence from here or from pepipoo forums (or from your solicitor relative).

Relax and carry on ignoring and laughing at this ridiculous fake PCN!

HAVE YOU COMPLAINED TO ASDA YET????????

March in there with all the letters, slap them down on the CS desk and ask for the Store Manager (NOT A DUTY MANAGER). COMPLAIN about this harassment of a paying customer and do not take 'it's not our fault/it's not our car park' for an answer because it is their fault - TCP/SMart are Asda's 'agent' - and is their car park.

And here's a thread from yesterday about the Asda/TCP/Smart parking scam, where I gave the poster lots of links to read and watch:

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/4532779

Happy reading of all the links, you'll soon see this whole letter chain for what it really is, a speculative mailshot of computerised junk, like phishing emails. The more complaints to Asda the better though, because other vulnerable people, or those with more money than sense will have paid the scammers.

Stroma

Yes ignore them.

I was in a car park today that tcp/smart infest, £2 to park there for 2 hours which gets refunded on a £5 spend at asda. I only spent £4 for lunch, but asked the tcp ticketer for an invoice as I haven't ignored one from them before. He walked away in a huff lol

atilla

Do as C-M says, march in there and tell the Manager to put a stop to it all. - he will if you show you mean mean business.
Carry on ignoring not so smart parking. They were in breach of Companies Act 2006 when they sent you a letter, so the last person they will want to be seeing is a Judge...you can of course challenge them to this.

Franhazel88

Thank you for all the advice.

Spurred on by Coupon-mad and atilla, I dressed in my killer black jacket and armed with my two young daughters and the letters, swept into Asda and politely but clearly requested an interview with the store manager. CS lady tried to tell me the car park wasn't owned by Asda but I wasn't impressed by her attempt to head me off at the pass. I said rather loudly (and rather pompously) that Asda DID own the car park and had contracted it out albeit unwisely in my opinion, that I was a respected member of the community who had been shopping at their Asda since 1991 and Asda would be the people I would be speaking to about this matter. And was the store manager available immediately or would I need to make an appointment?

After I had waited for a few moments with the CS lady sending me nervous glances, she asked if I had spoken to Asda House (admin centre of outfit, I assume). I replied that I hadn't YET and was seeing if they could help me before I took the matter further.

Eventually the manager arrived and tut-tutted apologetically over the letters. She said Smart Parking had assured Asda they wouldn't be around over the Xmas period and she would contact them immediately and instruct them to drop the matter.She said next time I should go straight to them and not lose sleep over the matter and if I thought I would be longer than the allowed time, to instruct CS with my registration no. and I would have as much time as I needed. The whole interview took less than 5 minutes.

Overall I was very pleased I went to see Asda and that I insisted on seeing the manager. That CS lady would have definitely fobbed me off. I'd bet on the fact she'd done the same many times before.

Again thanks for support and help.

trisontana

I wonder if ASDA's staff induction includes a section where they are instructed to tell customers that the company does not own any car-parks, and that PPCs have nothing to do with them?

DaveF327

Franhazel88 wrote: »

She said next time I should go straight to them and not lose sleep over the matter and if I thought I would be longer than the allowed time, to instruct CS with my registration no. and I would have as much time as I needed.

Let me get this straight.. every time I visit ASDA as a genuine customer - regardless of the value of my purchases - I can give my reg number to any of the front desk staff and they have to power to contact PPCs to disregard any camera timings or ticket issues?

Yeah, I know I can simply "ignore", but nipping these threat-o-grams in the bud would lift a lot of weights off a lot of shoulders and hopefully put the scammers out of business.

Guys_Dad

Glad you got it sorted.

For anyone in a similar position who doesn't get satisfaction from their supermarket or if it is a multi-occupancy centre, the believe it or not, the BPA can help.


See here http://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS/BPA_CodeofPractice_2013_v1.pdf

13.4 You should allow the driver a reasonable period to leave
the private car park after the parking contract has ended,
before you take enforcement action.

If anyone includes the reference above in any appeal to the PPC, then they are at risk of offending their own association and POPLA if they don't allow the appeal.

Far better than ignoring and seeing if you are the unlucky one who gets the Northampton court instruction to pay some months later.

PasturesNew

Franhazel88 wrote: »

they may

they may, they might, they could, it might be ....

Never comes to anything.

That's all their letters ever say "may", "might", "could". Not "will", "have".

Coupon-mad

Franhazel88 wrote: »

Thank you for all the advice.

Spurred on by Coupon-mad and atilla, I dressed in my killer black jacket and armed with my two young daughters and the letters, swept into Asda and politely but clearly requested an interview with the store manager. CS lady tried to tell me the car park wasn't owned by Asda but I wasn't impressed by her attempt to head me off at the pass. I said rather loudly (and rather pompously) that Asda DID own the car park and had contracted it out albeit unwisely in my opinion, that I was a respected member of the community who had been shopping at their Asda since 1991 and Asda would be the people I would be speaking to about this matter. And was the store manager available immediately or would I need to make an appointment?

After I had waited for a few moments with the CS lady sending me nervous glances, she asked if I had spoken to Asda House (admin centre of outfit, I assume). I replied that I hadn't YET and was seeing if they could help me before I took the matter further.

Eventually the manager arrived and tut-tutted apologetically over the letters. She said Smart Parking had assured Asda they wouldn't be around over the Xmas period and she would contact them immediately and instruct them to drop the matter.She said next time I should go straight to them and not lose sleep over the matter and if I thought I would be longer than the allowed time, to instruct CS with my registration no. and I would have as much time as I needed. The whole interview took less than 5 minutes.

Overall I was very pleased I went to see Asda and that I insisted on seeing the manager. That CS lady would have definitely fobbed me off. I'd bet on the fact she'd done the same many times before.

Again thanks for support and help.

Well done! The killer black jacket must have helped! :T

I am glad I pre-warned you about Asda's well-known 'we don't own the car park' response which is a LIE and we have seen it used by the CS staff in several Asda stores. Can't be a coincidence surely?