Aldi Parking Eye - Successful Appeal with apology from Aldi...

AmaniA

But I apologise to everyone else. I should know better than to allow myself to get dragged into troll feeding, I got distracted from the point of this thread there, which is: free, quality, informed help and a wealth of knowledge from the majority of contributors here for anyone whose suffered a Double Dip parking charge...

AmaniA

So 6 days on after my husband received his first ever ‘double dipping’ car park charge, and I started this thread, what have I learned?

An honest answer is not necessarily what I expected. There have been 2 learning curves for me. The first is around the appeal and further actions such as GDPR reports.

The second is about this forum. But first things first

To clarify, I started this thread for others like me who didn’t know this ‘double dipping’ went on and whose first reaction on receiving the demand in the post, like me, is to just start googling.

When I googled *Parking Eye Aldi* the MSE forum popped up on the first page so I thought it would be one of the good places to share my story and to get added value in the form of further information, advice and support. I wanted this thread to help others who were in the same boat as me who had no prior knowledge. Not to provide info etc. for forum veterans... but more on that later.

What helped me immediately:

- finding and photographing my receipts from my 2 same weekend shopping trips
- having concrete evidence my car was elsewhere - I guess not always so easy for everyone hence the many assumptions that this double dipping activity is a Private Parking company scam...
- appealing immediately online
- emailing and copying in the landowner’s - Aldi in this case - CEO from the start
- Contacting Aldi by every Social Media channel available - being a pain in the A
- The Resolver Tool on the MSE site - wonderful for correspondence and storage of evidence for appeal, complaint and GDPR complaints etc

Oh... and anyone who’s followed the link to this thread and forum from my FB, Twitter, LinkedIn or Instagram pages will see I’m not a career parking charge fighter or a parasite scammer who charges people to handle their appeals - in fact anyone who’s seen my profiles is probably laughing uncontrollably at this suggestion.

But then that’s a downside of these forums...

AmaniA

What have I learned about this forum?

I’ll start with the key value and helpful advice I think I’ve received from it:

- I didn’t even think about making a GDPR report/claim after my appeal was successful. All that has come from people here.
- I got a DVLA standardish response wording to GDPR breach reports - so I have info and time to prepare a robust argument against something similar
- I have evidence that PE and the DVLA know and have known for years that this double dipping goes on and they’ve been remiss in addressing it. The term dereliction if duty comes to mind.
- I have evidence the double dipping activity has encouraged a number of spin off scammers to do what ever it takes to get a taste of the action, take advantage and charge fees for it - maybe this should be called triple dipping.
- i’ve had real support and good spirited encouragement from a number of you - you know who you are and i’m grateful to you

BrownTrout

This is a very strange thread

BrownTrout

Someone is making a lot of effort.

Umkomaas

BrownTrout wrote: »

This is a very strange thread

BrownTrout wrote: »

Someone is making a lot of effort.

...... to derail it. Why?

BrownTrout

Umkomaas wrote: »

...... to derail it. Why?

Well it doesn't take many guesses does it.......

It ain't Perky ! ( if you remember him!)

DoaM

BrownTrout wrote: »

I am well aware of the person you refer to. Most of the regulars know who Poundland **** is
You seem to have to come a long way in a short period time with your knowledge
So it's fair to say you don't come here with clean hands.

To be fair, BT ... the exact same can be said of yourself. Given your knowledge of historical events versus your join date on MSE, it is patently obvious that BrownTrout is an alter-ego.

BrownTrout

DoaM wrote: »

To be fair, BT ... the exact same can be said of yourself. Given your knowledge of historical events versus your join date on MSE, it is patently obvious that BrownTrout is an alter-ego.

Indeed! I first joined MSE many many years ago and had a little break for a bit!

AmaniA

And my final learning curve and final post is about the not so nice behaviour on this forum and this, my thread. The derailing attempts if you like...

Hand on heart, would I recommend other new people to participate here... start a thread like mine here or even simply post or comment. I say no I’m afraid. I advise this - just quietly read, gather the relevant content, copy and paste, collate and digest what’s useful and just use it as you need to. Or perhaps just ask a question and then leave after you get your answer. Just get to a stage where you know all your Parking ticket etc rights, don’t linger or try to do something good or helpful. We all learn the hard way that often no good deed is left unpunished.

But one thing I recommend very strongly. Never pay anyone who’s touting online to handle your parking charge appeal for you when there is so much good free advice here on this forum. Just be selective and filter out the unhelpful noise.

I read that that this forum is proud it helps so many vulnerable people and often those who suffer with anxiety and depression. I suffered with the most terrible anxiety and depression for 2 years after losing both parents suddenly and although thankfully I’m now recovered, I am telling you without a shadow of a doubt some of the comments I’ve received from the negative few are more than enough to cause hurt. It’s not worth hanging around if your’re potentially vulnerable with this.

But a little P.S. ... I must thank everyone too for the number of encouraging and supporting DMs i’ve received yesterday and today - Thank you so much. And as one practical DM sender pointed out - Even each nay saying comment results in 100 to 200 extra thread views as any new comment, activity etc. will push the thread up the search engines and keep it ‘hot’.

And overall, despite trolls, just remember that fighting back may not be as hard as you might think and it’s not particularly time consuming either.