LIDL / Athena success

Silver_surfer

Newbie here, sorry if this is inappropriate or in the wrong place, but having read, and followed, the rules on challenging these parasites, I thought I would post my experience.


After three years of use of the Lidl car park in Grantham without incident, I received a very un - Civil Parking Charge Notice from Athena.


Yes I had overstayed - by 21 minutes - but I had been delayed by the lack of staff in store, and as a very regular shopper (over £2,000 spent over past 15 months) and following an £83 spend on the day, I was incensed.


I read the forums, thank you every one of the contributors, and sent the required pro-forma to Athena (minus the bits that allowed upto 20 minutes). I had no great hope here but it was required.


I then sent an e-mail to customerservices at lidl.co.uk:-
I was extremely disappointed (as the registered keeper of the vehicle) to receive in the post a Civil Parking Charge Notice - (ref: 0 000 xxx xxx) for an “overstay” of 21 minutes, the driver having just spent over £83 in the Grantham Lidl store. The driver reported a delay in finding staff on the shop floor to exchange a faulty item, and also reports a long wait at the check-out which together exceeded the overstay time.

I do frequently shop at the store myself and have checked my personal credit card records and I have personally spent £1,465,79 at Grantham Lidl since 1st January 2018, this does not include cash purchases, nor spending by other members of my household – I can fairly confidently to say that in excess of £2,000 has been spent there in this time.

If this 'un'-Civil PNC is not cancelled by Lidl (who have joint ownership with Athena Parking on the issue of such charges) within the next 7 days, I will not only never shop at Lidl again, but will ensure that no other household member ever enters the store. I shall also take up your offer on the receipt to let everyone know of the "Lidl Surprise" on social media.


Fortunately we are lucky in Grantham to have ALDI, ASDA, Co-op, Farmfoods, Marks & Spencer Foods, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, and Tesco to choose from, with a new Iceland opening next month. In addition there are several independent food retailers.


I got back their standard appeal rejection which advised me to contact Athena ANPR Ltd (Ascot address) which is detailled elsewhere in the forum, claiming that they could not intervene.


So today - I anally keep invoices from my self-employed business days - I gathered £45.22p worth of goods eligible for a refund under LIDL T&C, got my credit card repaid and then explained why I was doing this. The staff immediately said "contact head office". Right!


So I sent copies of the Refund Slips (There were two large items accounting for the majority of the £45 and then many, many small items which all have to be processed individually causing a huge queue at the check-out. This is after I had requested from the manager a new till to be opened to process the claim - dismissed). On returning home I sent a 2nd e-mail with a threat to bring another £45 of goods back to cover the £90 fine / invoice (I could, this was not an idle threat) to Dispute.Resolution at lidl.co.uk:-



Having received the following generic response from Customer Services at Lidl, I am writing one last time to request that the PCN (ref 0 000 xxx xxx) is cancelled by Lidl.

I am/was a very regular shopper at Lidl, and my household have spent, collectively, in excess of £2000 at the Grantham branch since January 2018, I (as the registered keeper of the vehicle xxxxxxxx) have credit card statements detailing £1,465.79 during that period. This is the first time in 3 years of living in Grantham that I, or any other household member, has received such a notice. I am outraged that Lidl and their agent Athena ANPR Ltd, treat customers in this way especially on a minor first time offence.

I do not accept the claim by customer services that are unable to intervene. It is well known that stores have the right within parking contracts to over-ride the charge, and indeed today a member of your staff confirmed this.

I had called at the store to return goods purchased (with receipts dated within the past 30 days) to return £45.22 of stock for a refund (proof attached). I have - also receipted - a further £45 which I have identified and I have five days to decide if I am going to further dispute with Athena the charge and possibly incur the full invoice (you cannot fine for parking on private land) cost of £90. This was badly handled by staff. I requested to see the manager and wanted a unused till to process the refund so as not to delay other customers. The manager was extremely dismissive and told me to go to a till, which I did. After processing just two of the items the cashier had to call another employee in to process the rest, as the queues were getting too large - hence the two refunds on the scanned image.

I hope to hear from you swiftly on this matter before I have to return another tranche of items - in four days time. Fortunately we are lucky in Grantham to have ALDI, ASDA, Co-op, Farmfoods, Marks & Spencer Foods, Morrisons, Sainsbury's, and Tesco to choose from, with a new Iceland opening next month. In addition there are several independent food retailers.



Within 2 hours I got a reply:-


Re: Your Contact
Thank you for taking the time to contact our CEO. I have been asked to reply on his behalf.
In light of your comments, on this occasion only, I have requested that the parking charge is cancelled. Athena will confirm the cancellation in writing in due course.
Thank you again for contacting us.
Yours sincerely,
For and on behalf of Lidl Great Britain Limited


Fiona Duncan
Customer Service Management


So much for Lidl not being able to cancel the PNC!

Persevere People!

Redx

well done


if everyone did this then these supermarkets would soon get the message about not employing parking par@sites and not limiting visits to say 90 minutes, but maybe 3 or 4 hours like my local morrissons etc

beamerguy

Silver_surfer wrote: »

Within 2 hours I got a reply:-


Re: Your Contact
Thank you for taking the time to contact our CEO. I have been asked to reply on his behalf.
In light of your comments, on this occasion only, I have requested that the parking charge is cancelled. Athena will confirm the cancellation in writing in due course.
Thank you again for contacting us.
Yours sincerely,
For and on behalf of Lidl Great Britain Limited


Fiona Duncan
Customer Service Management


So much for Lidl not being able to cancel the PNC!

Persevere People!

Congratulations that's the way to do it :T:T

The CEO should have a strict word in Fiona Duncan's shell like ear
that Lidl is not in a position to say "on this occasion only" ???
It is the customer to say "THIS IS THE LAST OCCASION"

What is even worse is that Lidl tried to fob you off in the first place.
SIMPLY PUT .... LIDL LIED TO YOU ...... What else do they lie about ???

Very well done:T

ShakeItOff

Well done! :beer:

I would imagine the decision to deny the appeal initially would have been that it may have cost them to cancel it (the PPC I am dealing with had a penalty clause in their with their client saying they would change £xx for an PCNs cancelled at their client's request).

Umkomaas

A one-off simple complaint direct to MD Christian Haertnagel would have seen this off without any of the other actions.

ShakeItOff

Umkomaas wrote: »

A one-off simple complaint direct to MD Christian Haertnagel would have seen this off without any of the other actions.

Ah ha, but complaining at the store level is also good. Employees will complain about these bad tempered customers, grievances can be raised, customer complaints working in concert. Eventually, they would need to assure their customers and employees that they're taking appropriate action.

Ok... I might be a little Utopian in my thinking...

beamerguy

ShakeItOff wrote: »

Ah ha, but complaining at the store level is also good. Employees will complain about these bad tempered customers, grievances can be raised, customer complaints working in concert. Eventually, they would need to assure their customers and employees that they're taking appropriate action.

Ok... I might be a little Utopian in my thinking...

Sadly no, store level really have no clout.

It has been proven many times on here, it's the CEO to complain to.

We cannot see anytime in the future that Lidl will wake up, smell the coffee and take appropriate action

ShakeItOff

I'm sure that's been a long proved strategy on here Beamer - I would definitely not argue otherwise.

I'm just saying, as a long suffering HR person, if the complaints turn in to grievances, they can have some clout, especially where collective grievances come about. It's definitely a much slower burn though, and reliant on employees being hacked off. So yes, complaint direct to the chief is probably quickest

Umkomaas

I doubt the majority of staff I've witnessed in the stores see any further than their next coffee, lunch, toilet, smoking break, or clocking off time. Have you seen the way they sling the goods at the customer once they've been scanned?

No particular customer concern that I've come across!

Coupon-mad

dispute.resolution@lidl.co.uk

Useful to know this email address too, as a follow up option - just like you did. Glad you got it cancelled and they must be stupid if they think people can't find this out online!

Silver_surfer

Just a few follow-up points:-


Finding MD Christian Haertnagel's e-mail is not easy. My 2nd e-mail bounced twice at addresses found online.



Taking back £45.22 worth of goods felt REALLY empowering - and, by the way, I was super-polite to the staff - and it got me confirmation from LIDL (widely reported in forums such as MSE) CAN cancel the PCN.



I agree that a complaint to the top works faster - when it is available - but also that a trickle-up from store managers helps. Supermarkets need to know from shop-floor to MD how unpopular these schemes are.



What really sticks in my throat is that Supermarkets leap into bed with these parasites and THEN refuse to assist genuine customers.