Civil Parking Charge Notice Scotland

euanagram

Many thanks for the inspiration and information. Similar situation and similar result for me. Took them less than four hours from me sending to agree to cancel the PCN!

My email:

Mr Haertnagel,

I am the Registered Keeper of the vehicle with registration number xxxxxxxxxx and am aware of the 'civil parking charge’ from Athena ANPR Ltd. I was not the driver on this occasion and the driver will not be identified. Various members of my family and network of friends choose to shop at Lidl, finding your store to be cheaper and often of higher quality than the alternatives. We were disappointed by the issue of this parking charge.

One of our family members has the misfortune to suffer from Type 1 diabetes. There are many issues and complications arising from this condition, one of which is the constant need to prevent the onset of, or respond to, hypoglycaemia. In these situations, driving is not possible and a normal time frame cannot be adhered to. I would ask that you add our registration number to your list of vehicles given special dispensation.

Regarding the 'PCN' referenced above, I will ignore all future correspondence from Athena. Having done some research, I have found that their business model relies on threats and carefully worded misinformation. Lidl should be ashamed of its association with Athena. The claim that you are merely attempting to prevent 'rogue parking' does not wash in light your customers' experiences with Athena.

As you are most likely aware, Athena's civil 'PCN' has no legal basis in Scotland without details of the driver's identity. Since I will not be accepting Athena's 'invitation' (!) to identify the driver to them, they have no means of enforcing the PCN. However, I would ask that you exercise your power to cancel the PCN for two reasons:

To avoid what I expect to be a lengthy cycle of threatening letters and fake 'debt collection company' correspondence from Athena, all of which I will ignore. It's a demeaning, tedious and undignified waste of time and paper which can easily be stopped, now.
To save me the effort of sharing my experiences in this matter in several prominent online forums. I will start with diabetes.org and then work through more general customer/consumer sites until I feel that I've got my point across sufficiently. Which might take a while. I will be sure to make it clear that I hold Lidl responsible for the treatment I have received as a customer, since you have made the decision to work with a company as provenly ruthless as Athena.

Until the PCN is cancelled, myself, my family, and my network of close friends will no longer consider ourselves to be Lidl customers.

Yours,

Their reply:

Re: Parking Charge
Thank you for taking the time to contact our CEO.

I appreciate that receiving this charge may have been upsetting and frustrating for you.

Lidl UK GmbH is a national retailer. We have stores in locations with limited parking space and like many other supermarkets, our store car parks are subject to abuse by non-customers. We have taken measures so that our store car parks are available first and foremost to our customers.

Lidl employs third party contractors to monitor and control our car parks. This service has proved reliable and effective in reducing car park abuse and in freeing up spaces for our customers.

We never intend for our genuine customers to receive a charge, however it can happen from time to time, for example if a customer overstays or forgets to enter their registration at the till points. If any of our customers do receive a charge, we would always urge them to appeal to the car parking companies but we are happy to assist also.

In light of your comments, I have contacted Athena and requested that this charge be cancelled. As a gesture of goodwill I have also requested that your vehicle be added to the extended stay list, which allows up to 3 hours.

I have also noted your comments regarding our parking restrictions and passed them to the relevant department.


Yours sincerely,
For and on behalf of Lidl UK GmbH


Emma Cohen
Customer Service Management

Umkomaas

Nice letter to Lidl, standard template crap response, other than the para re whitelisting. But I bet that doesn’t filter through to Athena, and, overstay again, bang, you’re fighting it once more.

If you’re up for it, go try my hypothesis.