Charges, Damages and POFA2012

Guys_Dad

Dee140157 wrote: »

As this was previously a one hour Lidl car park which was used by lots of people to collect children from nearby primary school, pop into nearby town to bank etc, a lot of PCNs are going to be winging their way through doors in the upcoming weeks.

I am so tempted to be one of them...

The trouble is that, when space is tight, you can understand why shops want to protect their livelihoods and car parks being occupied by non-shopping free loaders encourage shops to bring in PPCs.

They don't want to put in pay and display as that discourages shoppers and gains less than a pound for freeloading parkers (as compared with much bigger profits from shoppers).

Frankly, and being honest, I fully appreciate the problem but have no solution other than the shops themselves taking over parking management, calculating the average spend per customer and pursuing the free loaders for that sum with additional charges for court costs.

Edit. Somehow MSE don't like the word "free loader" if you leave the space out, yet freeloading is ok. Strange.

bazster

I think my best bet is to do a quick double-dip at Sainsbury's where Euro doubtless has a no-return-within-x-hours policy. In fact I need to do it more than once 'cos I have another cunning plan to force PoPLA into an uncomfortable adjudication.

gertysingh

Guys_Dad wrote: »

The trouble is that, when space is tight, you can understand why shops want to protect their livelihoods and car parks being occupied by non-shopping free loaders encourage shops to bring in PPCs.

They don't want to put in pay and display as that discourages shoppers and gains less than a pound for freeloading parkers (as compared with much bigger profits from shoppers).

There are a number of shops who return the parking fee for having bought over x amount in the shop. Have not seen a reduction in shoppers.

PPCs will discourage shoppers once a shopper has had to deal with their "terrorist" methods.

bazster

gertysingh wrote: »

There are a number of shops who return the parking fee for having bought over x amount in the shop. Have not seen a reduction in shoppers.

PPCs will discourage shoppers once a shopper has had to deal with their "terrorist" methods.

One of our local supermarkets has a barrier-controlled machine at the entrance which spits out timed tickets. You get the ticket stamped at the checkout which gets you out of the barrier-controlled exit. No P+D.

If you're not a customer you simply pay the parking charge at the exit for however long you stayed, there are no £100 fake fines. If you forget to get the ticket stamped you show your receipt to the geezer at the exit and he opens the barrier anyway.

Because the system relies on having the exit barrier manned they only bother at times when the car park is busy, other times they just leave the exit barrier open.

That is the way to do it if your aim is to help your customers rather than rob them.

Coupon-mad

That's the same as at Worthing* Waitrose and it works perfectly well - and if you forget something or have a query over an item or your receipt, you can pop back within any hours, no ban on returning. The car park is close to the town Centre and, whilst it's busy, it doesn't get overly full. And Waitys pick up custom from the captive audience, I am sure; even if a person primarily parks to pop to the bank, they're likely to wander into Waitys afterwards.

Most other Waitys in Sussex use Britannia Parking AFAIK who don't even send out a NTK letter until the third or fourth 'offence'!



* dear PPC spies - I may or may not be near the Worthing area...but you can always find me at the Amex in Brighton for home games if ever you want a chat!

bazster

Yes it's a Waitrose I'm talking about. Similarly it's in a town centre, and I'm sure you're right about the car park policy boosting their trade. In this case it's actually difficult to get out of the car park on foot without going through the shop!