Parking Eye, Aldi, Bangor, North Wales.

dalk1

Hi All,

After a recent day trip to Anglesey we stopped in the Aldi in Bangor to buy some baby bottles which they had on offer. Being aware of the parking scammers I was careful to take notice of the signs (which in fairness were fairly large and numerous.)

After purchasing the baby bottles I entered my registration onto the touchscreen by the tills and received the “your registration has been noted” message. I walked to the nearby KFC and bought some food before leaving the car park approx. 40 mins after I arrived.

6 Days later I receive a parking charge notice from parking eye for £70 (reduced to £40 if I were to pay promptly.) Even though, I shopped in the store, entered my reg onto their system and left within the time limit I have been charged by these scammers! The problem I have is that I bought the bottles with cash (£5.99) and didn’t keep the receipt (not exactly an expensive item that may need to be returned at some point.) If I were to appeal proving my case would surely be difficult because of this.

Every instinct I have is to ignore these thieves and treat them with the contempt which they deserve, but after reading several threads on here I’m not so sure now. I also don’t see why I should need to waste my time and money appealing a charge which is un-warranted.

This is putting my wife who is finally 6mnths pregnant after 4 miscarriages under a lot of undue stress and I intend to write to Aldi and inform them that we will never shop at any of their stores again and that they should be ashamed of their actions.

Any advice would be appreciated. Apologies if this sounds like a bit of a rant, but I’m still furious 3 days after receiving this charge.

Stroma

First port of call is always the retailer, demand that they cancel this ridiculous penalty. Explain that you entered the reg number into the machine by the till and it was accepted, don't mention anything about going elsewhere as its irrelevant. What is the reason for the fake ticket ?

As for parking eye, did you get the notice to keeper within 14 days of parking? IMO you shouldn't ignore them as they been issuing claims lately, and as there's an independent appeals called popla its worth sending a soft appeal like the one below. Once they reject we can help you formulate a strong appeal to popla







Name
Address

Date

Dear Scammers,

In regards to the invoice received with ref number xxxxxx dated xxxxxx, the keeper denies all liability to your company, if you reject this challenge the keeper requires within 35 days a popla verification code for them to appeal independently, per Version 2 of the BPA Code of Practice.

The keeper has nothing further to add, and will not respond to any correspondence from your company unless it contains the popla code. If you wish to find out why the keeper rejects all liability, pay the £27 plus vat to popla to find out

The challenge will be deemed accepted if there is no popla code on any rejection that you supply within the timeframe stipulated above.

Yours Faithfully

Your name (printed)

dalk1

Thanks for the prompt reply.

The notice to keeper was recieved within a week..... sadly! Reading the letter again they say the reason is breaching the time limit, I don't see how this could be the case as I remember the sign saying 1hr 20min limit and I was in the car park for half that time. I live a long way from Bangor so can't double check, but will see if I can get it on google street view.

The_Slithy_Tove

dalk1 wrote: »

Reading the letter again they say the reason is breaching the time limit, I don't see how this could be the case as I remember the sign saying 1hr 20min limit and I was in the car park for 49 mins.

The letter should state the recorded entry and exit times. One or both must be wrong. Without stating the times here (else PE will be able to identify you), can you say which is wrong from memory of when you were there?

Stroma

Please edit your post number 3 to edit out times and how far you live from there, per my signature. You are identifying yourself here

And Slithy Tove also in the quote in post 4



vvvvvvvv

dalk1

Hi Slithy,

Thanks for replying. Both times on the letter appear correct but the sign in the car park had if I remember correctly shown 1 hrs 20 mins which is far longer than my time there (I always set an alarm on my phone to stop me going over time on parking.) I need to find that store on streetview to verify this.

Stroma

Please stop identifying yourself on here - parking eye do claims against forum users they can identify

dalk1

Stroma wrote: »

Please edit your post number 3 to edit out times and how far you live from there, per my signature. You are identifying yourself here

And Slithy Tove also in the quote in post 4



vvvvvvvv

Thanks Stroma, done.

Coupon-mad

dalk1 wrote: »

Hi Slithy,

Thanks for replying. Both times on the letter appear correct but the sign in the car park had if I remember correctly shown 1 hrs 20 mins which is far longer than my time there (I always set an alarm on my phone to stop me going over time on parking.) I need to find that store on streetview to verify this.

I would add to your complaint that the passenger that day is heavily pregnant and she is therefore protected by the maternity section of the Equality Act 2010 which means that any harassment is unlawful:

http://www.ecu.ac.uk/law/pregnancy-and-maternity-key-legislation

''Pregnancy and maternity-related discrimination can occur outside of the workplace if a woman is treated unfavourably because of her pregnancy''.

State that the driver and pregnant passenger had been on a day trip and then stopped to shop for a few baby bottles (paid in cash at Aldi) and then the passenger needed to sit down outside of the confines of the car and eat something before the journey home.

Do not mention KFC if this was offsite - unless you are sure the car park is there for customers of local shops too, which is often is but not always! You could ring the local Council Planning Enforcement to ask; it's a simple question they should just be able to answer after checking. Also ask them whether the Planning Consent stipulated a certain free parking time and what that is, if defined.

Say that the driver did check the signs which cannot have been clear because it was thought that the car park allowed 1hour 20 minutes. Even if these signs were misread by the driver, a pregnant woman needing to rest and eat is protected by the Act and a reasonable adjustment might be to allow more time to park, now the facts are known. If Aldi/Parking Eye continue to pursue this they potentially breach maternity protection law and you are surprised there appear to be no procedures in place to take account of the needs of disabled/elderly/pregnant visitors or those with young babies, who are all protected by the Act and who may well need a longer parking time.

Send the complaint to both PE and Aldi and say if PE reject this evidence then they must send you a POPLA code.

FatAndy

I suspect Aldi in Bangor must by now be relying entirely on people from outside the area to keep it going because it has such a reputation for car park scamming that I can't imagine anyone living within a twenty mile radius would go anywhere near the place.

http://www.dailypost.co.uk/news/local-news/parking-shock-aldi-bangor-2649951

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/3839165

gwynhughes

The so called time-limit on this place hase recently changed from 2 hours "free" to an hour and a half "free" last time I visited. when I received my letters, only two by the way it was 2 hours oct last year!

You can safely ignore these letter or write in as Coupon has reccomended!

I park there all the time when I visit Bangor, as I always buy someting small from there to cover my parking as there's always spaces there, - the new Asda is good for this also, compared to the rest of Bangor where it's virtually impossible to find anywhere free to park.