Aldi Facebook Page Kicking Off after Parking Eye LBAs

Umkomaas

peter_the_piper wrote: »

Nice piece about the chap who got the council involved and they had to make it clear the signs should say 2 hour parking for Local Shoppers. The poster asked PR drones when they were going to roll out the signs universally, no answer yet.
I hope the PR mob are being paid very well cos they are haveing to fend off a lot of flack.

Yep - I've copied it in below.

The BIGGER question though is the second part of this:

Could you now publish full details here as to how you propose to roll-out these revisions around the UK -and how disgruntled, past "over-stayers" might seek recompense for any fees/costs which they have incurred to date?

Anyone who has paid charges for 'overstays' of between 91 and 120 minutes is surely entitled to their money back from Aldi or PE. This must be a very serious issue for both of them now.

I would have thought the local Press would be very interested in this. Maybe the local MP too?

Here's the full post

Dear Aldi

I'm delighted to see that, at my suggestion, in respect of concerns for signage and provisions for customer-parking at your Mold store, you have now:-

1. Duplicated the signage text in the local vernacular, (Welsh)

2. Removed inaccurate reference to the car park being for the exclusive use of Aldi shoppers

3. Enlarged the typeface & changed the entrance signage from a visually confusing yellow/blue colour scheme to simple black on white

4. Revised the no-fee "concession" duration from 90mins to 2hrs

5. Confirmed to my local planning officers that the Aldi area manager is now empowered to review customer complaints about store parking and that you are proposing to retrospectively apply for use of ANPR systems in your car-park.

I must say Aldi, this is steady and welcome progress. Hardly an end-of-the journey -but a step in the right direction. It might bring much needed comfort & timely cheer to the poor blighters who, after shopping at your store over past months have subsequently quaked & trembled & stumped up needlessly in the face of relentless arrogance & menacing county court threats.

Could you now publish full details here as to how you propose to roll-out these revisions around the UK -and how disgruntled, past "over-stayers" might seek recompense for any fees/costs which they have incurred to date?

p.s. This week I bought 6 bottles of your Toro-Loco red shiraz. Its lovely -and, like the cheery chappies who run your Mold store, good to see you CAN get things right when you really try...

patman99

Im thinking of sending the manager of my local Aldi the following letter (unsigned/no name/address of course) -

Dear sir/madam,
Having noticed that you have a charge in place for parking beyond a time limit, I have taken the liberty of informing the Business Rates department of the local HMRC.
I believe that they may have wrongly rated your carpark as zero-rated for unlimited free parking when in fact, it has a charge once a time limit is reached.

sarahg1969

I see a Casino in Bolton didn't even have planning permission for their car park, never mind CCTV or time limits!

Umkomaas

I think that ultimately PPCs will bring a lot of misery on companies who have employed them, thinking they've got a free solution to (in most cases) a perceived problem.

There will be a day when the whole house of cards comes a-tumbling

Kite2010

Umkomaas wrote: »

I think that ultimately PPCs will bring a lot of misery on companies who have employed them, thinking they've got a free solution to (in most cases) a perceived problem.

There will be a day when the whole house of cards comes a-tumbling

Which will be when Parking Eye are silly enough to appeal against a defeat in court and ends up losing the appeal.

Or when a shopper successfully sues the retailer for a decent sum of money under the equalities act.

surfboy1

how is Aldi facebook page looking today?

Kite2010

When I was waiting for a pizza to be prepared I took a walk to the Aldi in Romsey and was suprised with the signs dotted as you go into the store to remind customers to input their registration plate into the machines to get 2 hours free parking.

Although that would be interesting to see how they would define a loss of someone staying 1 hour without inputting their plate, as it would be limited to the £1 per hour they charge for non-customers at the P&D machines.

So signs are out to get customers to input their plate details to avoid invoices.

Umkomaas

Kite2010 wrote: »

When I was waiting for a pizza to be prepared I took a walk to the Aldi in Romsey and was suprised with the signs dotted as you go into the store to remind customers to input their registration plate into the machines to get 2 hours free parking.

Although that would be interesting to see how they would define a loss of someone staying 1 hour without inputting their plate, as it would be limited to the £1 per hour they charge for non-customers at the P&D machines.

So signs are out to get customers to input their plate details to avoid invoices.

What a great way to run a customer-facing business.

Coupon-mad

Umkomaas wrote: »

What a great way to run a customer-facing business.

Honestly you really couldn't make it up could you?!

Imagine working in a shop which told people they had to jump through all sorts of hoops to avoid the bouncer on the door fining them if they spent too long in the shop! Wouldn't happen in a million years!

And yet when it comes to parking, the customer service ethic flies out of the window.

Umkomaas

Two of the latest horror stories from the Aldi FB page. Aldi - hang your head in shame.

Our first post on Facebook, as my partner and I are incensed at having received a £70-00 parking charge for shopping at Aldi.

Our mistake it seems was to help out an elderly couple who had got into difficulties outside the store (strange how it seems no-one else seemed to be willing to put themselves out - I guess I know why now) By the time we'd assisted them to recover and called their son to pick them up we had overrun our parking by 30 minutes.

We are both caring people and will always stop to help someone else out, but on reflection I have to say that we'll think twice next time.

One and a half hours parking allowance is not enough, there were long queues at the checkout last week and they are going to get worse as Christmas approaches. We have a Tesco store almost next to our Aldi Store - they operate a two and a half hour parking limit, we also have a Sainsburys & Morrisons within a short drive and they have no parking restrictions at all.

We have shopped at Aldi for the past twenty years and must have spent thousands of pounds with you, but are now asking ourselves whether the hassle we are going through is worth it - perhaps it will cost us a few quid more to shop elsewhere, but £70-00 parking charges soon wipes out any gain.

And

Have just come on to this page to ask about parking charges at your stores and found that Gene Hunt has jsut posted similar. My mother-in-law (age 80) and partner (93) enjoy looking round their local Aldi at Edgbaston, but are not as mobile as most. They were also stunned to receive a parking fine, have paid it, but are not very happy about it it. As previous post says, 1.5 hours is not enough, and will simply cause people to shop elsewhere. Please can you advise how they can go about getting the fine refunded.