Smart Parking Asda - Parking Charge Notice - Do I Pay?

epescatore

I received a parking charge notice today from an Asda car park issued by Smart Parking, for not having a ticket.

I parked up in what I thought was a free part of an Asda car park, as it's not directly inside the car park. It's a row of parking spaces with no sign/pay machine around, as these are only situated in the "main" car park area. Myself and other friends have parked here before and then gone into Asda/town with no issues. However today this was not the case, I originally parked up there and went into Asda looking for a specific item deal which I couldn't find so I went to have some lunch in town for an hour. I came back to find a notice under my wiper, which had a timestamp of 20 minutes after I'd arrived.

I was really frustrated and tried to find out if there was a way of avoiding this, and I found that this is a common thing for Asda car parks and that you aren't obliged to pay as it's an invoice rather than a fine. As I'm a student and really cannot afford the fine even at the discounted rate I'm opting to avoid the notice, but I wanted to seek advice and find out whether I have a case here? I know I didn't actually buy anything from the Asda store on the day but I've shopped there on a few occasions before and would class myself as a good customer.

I'd also like advice on whether I should appeal the notice or fully ignore it - I've read on both here and Pepipoo that either should be fine but it's always better to appeal on the safe side. How would I go about doing this, and where can I appeal too? Is there anywhere I can seek advice about this and what I should do provided I get threatened to go to court?

Guys_Dad

All your questions are answered in the thread at the top of the page by coupon-mad headed NEWBIES.