Asda car parking fine

annie-may

Just returned from Asda store where I went armed with the managers name and all relevent documents receipts etc. Customer services informed me that the manager was in a meeting at another store after she tried to locate him for me.Another manager was sent to deal with the situation of my PCN but he was less than helpful and would not cancel the invoice. Saying that I had over stayed the time so was liable to pay the fine. I challenged him saying that if the carpark was privately owned by Asda why are they penalizing me for shopping there and being only 15 minutes late on returning to my car. He said that the car park was owned by the council and they leased or rented the land and so employed a private firm to police it for them. I reiterated how furious I was on receiving the fine when I had spent a considerable amount of time and money in the store and genuinely lost track of time in doing so. He just stood there and raised his shoulders at me which infuriated me even more however by this time another manager had appeared. I was not shouting but was expressing myself quite forcefully. She listened to the circumstances of the situation and offered to cancel the PCN as a 1 off gesture of good will. I thanked and assured her that I would be much more vigilant in my time keeping next time I visited the store. She also stated that the car park was not owned by them and that the new parking attendent was much more enthusiastic in his job than the last one!! In Asda's defence the store is situated near a railway station and in order to prevent commuters parking there all day for free, they have to employ a private company to police the car park for them. Thankyou for your help in dealing with this issue. I will be donating the £40 that you saved me to a proper charity and not Smart Parking.

Hovite_2

Good news - well done !

I suspect Asda are still lying about not owning the car park - could you provide the postcode or address of the Asda in question and the local council name please ? If you're uncomfortable about posting it publicly feel free to PM it to me.

nigelbb

Even if Asda are indeed leasing the land for the car park from the council it doesn't make any difference as it is Asda who are employing Smart Parking to do their dirty work enforcing parking regulations.

annie-may

Have sent you a PM with details requested.

Hovite_2

annie-may wrote: »

Just returned from Asda store where I went armed with the managers name and all relevent documents receipts etc. Customer services informed me that the manager was in a meeting at another store after she tried to locate him for me.Another manager was sent to deal with the situation of my PCN but he was less than helpful and would not cancel the invoice. Saying that I had over stayed the time so was liable to pay the fine. I challenged him saying that if the carpark was privately owned by Asda why are they penalizing me for shopping there and being only 15 minutes late on returning to my car. He said that the car park was owned by the council and they leased or rented the land and so employed a private firm to police it for them. I reiterated how furious I was on receiving the fine when I had spent a considerable amount of time and money in the store and genuinely lost track of time in doing so. He just stood there and raised his shoulders at me which infuriated me even more however by this time another manager had appeared. I was not shouting but was expressing myself quite forcefully. She listened to the circumstances of the situation and offered to cancel the PCN as a 1 off gesture of good will. I thanked and assured her that I would be much more vigilant in my time keeping next time I visited the store. She also stated that the car park was not owned by them and that the new parking attendent was much more enthusiastic in his job than the last one!! In Asda's defence the store is situated near a railway station and in order to prevent commuters parking there all day for free, they have to employ a private company to police the car park for them. Thankyou for your help in dealing with this issue. I will be donating the £40 that you saved me to a proper charity and not Smart Parking.

Just as an update - I've looked up planning applications for the Asda site. One is to turn 6 parking spaces into a grocery pickup point. Question 27 - Interest in the land - Does the applicant own the land ? Answer - YES !!!!!

So the manager was lying :eek:

trisontana

This "the council owns the land" lie is so widespread that it must be part of company policy to trot out that excuse. As I have said before on here, it took three emails from me before I managed to get ASDA to admit that they did actually own the land at their Retford and Grantham stores. Initially they even said that the council owned the land and "TCP (as was) worked for the council", even though TCPs stated on their signs they were working for ASDA.

annie-may

Thanks for that info very interesting as you say must be company policy to trot the" we don't own the land" lie out. I will certainly make sure that I will not be caught again by this parking charge, even if it is unenforceable. Thanks again for your help money donated to Cancer Research.:j

atilla

trisontana wrote: »

This "the council owns the land" lie is so widespread that it must be part of company policy to trot out that excuse. As I have said before on here, it took three emails from me before I managed to get ASDA to admit that they did actually own the land at their Retford and Grantham stores. Initially they even said that the council owned the land and "TCP (as was) worked for the council", even though TCPs stated on their signs they were working for ASDA.

A Colleague at the Mansfield store even tried that one on with me. Poor thing was nearly in tears when i'd finished pointing out the errors in her silly statement.