Aldi Facebook Page Kicking Off after Parking Eye LBAs

tykesi

Of course they are, in these times of austerity people are looking to save money wherever they can and a lot are moving from their normal supermarkets usually the big three/four) to places like Aldi and Lidl. Aldi have been seriously duped by Parking Eye and are stupid to have employed them but all the people on here and FB saying things along the lines of this will be the end of them are seriously deluded. Granted they may lose a fair number of customers over this but it will be nothing compared to the number who have started shopping there within the past couple of years.

I will still be shopping at my local Aldi for top up shops (no PE in the carpark). This Aldi used to be dead, nobody shopped there with large Tesco and Sainsburys nearby (and more recently a Waitrose and Asda on Aldi’s doorstep) but it is now busy during the day and heaving in the evenings and on weekends. If this is the same in even half the Aldi’s across the country what difference is a handful of customers going elsewhere going to make? None.

Stroma

With respects that was said with the banks and the ppi fiasco. Enough people complain and customer power will succeed. But this with Aldi is just portion on the fight against private parking companies, we are a thorn to their side, they are smarting with the kick in the teeth with popla, and equally the losses mounting up in the small claims

Hovite_2

I'm happy if I manage to save a single Aldi customer the £70 charge.

I shop in Aldi sometimes ( hypocritical I know ! ) but I noticed the prices creeping up so used Asda the other week. I got the same amount of shopping for the same amount of money but slightly better quality.

Since then I've only used Aldi for the odd thing that we particularly like - their mature cheese is very good.

Scrootum

Is it possible they are recieving a "commission" or some sort of fee from the parking companies, which in turn allows them to reduce prices and overall increase their turnover and profits?

Most people in the end bang on about customer service and then buy the stuff from whoever is cheapest.

tykesi

Stroma wrote: »

With respects that was said with the banks and the ppi fiasco. Enough people complain and customer power will succeed. But this with Aldi is just portion on the fight against private parking companies, we are a thorn to their side, they are smarting with the kick in the teeth with popla, and equally the losses mounting up in the small claims

I agree they will be noticing their losses at POPLA and court but again, anybody thinking the majority of PPCs are worried by this or that it will cause them any significant hardship is being extremely naïve.

Fighting is absolutely the right thing to do and anybody coming on MSE or other forums for advice is getting the best help there is to fight. We must remember however that in many cases there are thousands of tickets issued each week/month and your advice is only sought by a tiny proportion of those being ticketed. The handful which are cancelled at whatever stage will be massively overshadowed by the number of people who just pay up when receiving their threatening letters.

spacey2012

Scrootum wrote: »

Odd thing is that Aldi seem to be doing very well as a business.

I disagree, the local one here has seen a well marked drop in visitors since parking Eye showed up, yet the store next door of a similar stance without parking eye is thriving.

Once bitten, twice shy

HO87

Scrootum wrote: »

Is it possible they are recieving a "commission" or some sort of fee from the parking companies, which in turn allows them to reduce prices and overall increase their turnover and profits?

Most people in the end bang on about customer service and then buy the stuff from whoever is cheapest.

Entirely possible. Of course the copies of the contracts we do get to see have been heavily redacted so we can only guess at what is under the blacked out bits.

I'm increasingly less convinced that it is about a kick-back, call it what you will, and more to do with a fear of being dragged through the courts and taken for a lot of money in the same way as Somerfield were.

We shouldn't go feeling too sorry for the supermarkets who may appear to have been taken in by PPC's pouring oil in their ears with promises of ensuring that their car parks will be trouble-free and it will cost them nothing or perhaps, even, with the enticement of a little cash benefit (to the company, that is). The truth is that as commercially astute as the supermarkets may claim to be to us poor mortals, their customers, they have fallen for the oldest trick in the book and they - of all institutions - should have seen it coming. There is no such thing as a free lunch especially when you hand a licence to print money to a PPC.

A few years ago the Aldi nearest us, at the time, brought in PE with their ANPR cameras. On an informal basis the car park had long been shared by other local businesses and when Aldi tried to enforce the PE nonsense they found themselves seriously shedding customers because there simply was no alternative nearby. Customers couldn't visit the other nearby businesses and so Aldi got dumped in the process. They bore it for a while then closed and moved to a town 20 miles away. Not many tears were shed and there has been no attempt to import PE to their new location.

Umkomaas

They bore it for a while then closed and moved to a town 20 miles away. Not many tears were shed and there has been no attempt to import PE to their new location.

I think monitoring this kind of information might provide an indicator of Aldi's future intent regarding PE.

Does anyone have a new store opening close to them in the near future?

Stroma

This can and does happen from time to time, but it's a disgrace that it hasn't been sorted by now. It just underlines the terrible customer experience people are having at Aldi inside and out

Aldi Charged me twice for my weekly shop nearly 2 weeks ago due to debit card reader problems, still waiting for refund .
Not happy at all..will never shop at Aldi again

Kite2010

Aldi customer services sometimes seems like it is:


And the PR company running the facebook page are doing a good impression of:

When it comes to answering complaints.