Lidl Parking charge

ed_wood

A woman who works for me picked up a parking fine in Lidl for going 10 minutes over time on February 28th. The first she knew of it was the 9th of April when she received a reminder! The letter from Athena states they originally sent the fine on the 4th of March. This was never received. The reminder was sent on the 7th of April and it states that she had 28 days to appeal from the date of the fine.....2 weeks before the reminder was sent out!!
I got some advice from some of you good people and sent out the template letter to appeal. Today she received a final demand giving her 7 days to pay, bla bla bla, threat threat threat etc.
No mention of her appeal or popla number etc. My employee phoned Athena who told her that she cant appeal and they wont give her the opportunity to as she should have done that with the original letter (which she never received). Oh, and they had the audacity to state she would have to take up any complaint with Royal mail!!!
What is the next step?
Thanks, Ed

st999

Ask them to prove her car was in the car park and that it was there for that length of time.

bargepole

ed_wood wrote: »

A woman who works for me picked up a parking fine in Lidl ...What is the next step?

Pay her a better salary, then she could afford to shop at M&S or Waitrose, and wouldn't need to patronise a cheapskate supermarket with scummy PPCs infesting the car park?

<Getting coat>

ed_wood

st999 wrote: »

Ask them to prove her car was in the car park and that it was there for that length of time.

Thanks, I'll give that a go.
Anything else that might help?

wiogs

ed_wood wrote: »

A woman who works for me picked up a parking fine in Lidl for going 10 minutes over time on February 28th. The first she knew of it was the 9th of April when she received a reminder! The letter from Athena states they originally sent the fine on the 4th of March. This was never received. The reminder was sent on the 7th of April and it states that she had 28 days to appeal from the date of the fine.....2 weeks before the reminder was sent out!!
I got some advice from some of you good people and sent out the template letter to appeal. Today she received a final demand giving her 7 days to pay, bla bla bla, threat threat threat etc.
No mention of her appeal or popla number etc. My employee phoned Athena who told her that she cant appeal and they wont give her the opportunity to as she should have done that with the original letter (which she never received). Oh, and they had the audacity to state she would have to take up any complaint with Royal mail!!!
What is the next step?
Thanks, Ed

First thing is to stop calling it a fine - she has not had a fine of any sort.

ColliesCarer

Your employee could try complaining to Lidl to see if they will cancel the charge for a genuine customer either directly to the store manager or if she wants to go right to the top - you can get contact details for the uk CEO - check out w w w . c e o e m a i l . c o m (just take the spaces out)

Athena don't seem to sue (A Freedom of Info request for claims raised by parking companies 1/10/12 to 31/9/13 shows no claims issued by Athena). Of course no one can say they won't (and they have 6 years to make up their minds). If a Letter Before Claim or Court Papers arrive come back - the fact they refused a late appeal can be used should they try. Tell your employee to keep all correspondence though.

Coupon-mad

And she can send an email complaint to the BPA as per post #6 of the NEWBIES sticky thread, tell them that Athena never sent a previous letter and have denied her any appeal. Write as the keeper (not saying who was driving). Complaint emails to & from the BPA are usefulto keep in her file of these letters, just in case Athena ever try anything further (the BPA will probably 'investigate' then say 'Athena says they posted a first letter so case closed').