Aldi, Corporation Street, Preston. Abused Patron Parking. Care Parking.

twhitehousescat

RKHX said:

Thank you, I will try that on my follow-up visit and emails!

The latest from Aldi customer services is: 'Unfortunately Aldi are unable to assist with Care Parking. The only parking charge we can assist with is Parking Eye. Aldi Do not own any of the car parks. To dispute the parking charge please go to the company that  has provided you with the ticket.'

Seems I was ticketed by the wrong parking company, lucky me! How ridiculous.

@twhitehousescat you suggested a few posts back that this is an Aldi-owned site, which contradicts their reply? I put in my email that as the site-owner they should be able to do something about the ticket. Can I prove they own the car park?

ALDI applied for planning permission to build the site , perhaps they do not actually own it? , however it differs from other sites that are part of a shopping clomplex that are run by a management company , in the last 8 yrs or so I have never heard of a court case that has been instigated on this site 

PS customer services are actually misleading you , I know of 3 operators that have looked after this site , in the early days euro car parks (pleasent chap) then PE then care 

Fruitcake

My local Aldi is in a retail park that includes an M&S store. The manager of the latter told me that managers from any and all stores on site can get a PCN cancelled, even though they rent the land upon which the store and shared car park sits.

It may not apply where to the Aldi that the OP's driver used, but it is worth including the comment that other store managers were savvy enough to ensure they could cancel PCNs to keep shoppers happy even though Aldi didn't own the land.

Coupon-mad

Costs £3 or so, to find out who owns it.

RKHX

I have now sent two emails to Aldi CEO. In the latest email I included all the responses from customer services, along with my original complaint and added:

'What a shame that I am not able to visit your store any longer, where I was spending £100s as I do every week to feed my family and have been for many years.  Neither I, my family nor friends can afford to shop at Aldi in future if every visit comes with a £100 surcharge.  Other supermarkets are available.  You should be doing everything in your power to keep loyal customers not annoy them by employing 'money grabbing scammers' - wo​rds used in parliament.

Your email states that as I was ticketed by Care Parking you will not assist me?! I fail to see how it makes a difference which company Aldi employ to manage its car parks. Aldi should be able to hold them all to account for unfair charges to customers who have proof they were shopping there.

It actually says on your website and I quote: 'This charge can be appealed with Aldi ourselves if you were shopping in one of our stores at the time or can provide proof of purchase'. I have emailed my receipt to you.

Please escalate the content of my email to the highest level, as a complaint that requires urgent attention and resolution.'

I have just received this response:

Dear Rachael

I am writing regarding your correspondence addressed to our CEO, Giles Hurley, who has reviewed your email and asked me to respond on his behalf.

Thank you for contacting us regarding your visit to our Corporation Street, Preston store. We appreciate the time taken to do so.

We can see that our Customer Service team have contacted you regarding the parking charge received following your trip to store.

Regrettably, as we are not the landowners of this site and did not instruct Care Parking to manage this car park, we are unable to directly assist with your appeal. Please accept our apologies for any disappointment caused.

If you have used the store on the day, we would recommend submitting an appeal directly with Care Parking. We would strongly suggest including your purchase evidence from the date of the charge, along with details of any mitigating circumstances that may have caused you to overstay to support your appeal.  Purchase evidence can usually be in the form of either a till receipt or a bank transaction if you paid using a debit/credit card.

If you no longer have your receipt and paid for your shopping in cash, we would recommend returning to the store, taking a copy of the parking charge notice with you and asking to speak with the Store Manager. If you can provide them with sufficient information, they may be able to locate and reprint a copy of your receipt for you. In order to do this, they will need an approximate transaction total, details of a few items that you purchased and you should be able to identify the rough time of the transaction from the details on your Parking Charge.

Thank you once again for taking the time to contact us and we hope that this information proves helpful with your appeal.

Social Media:

My posts on Aldi's social media page have not been responded to by any official spokesperson, although I have received a lot of abuse from Joe public along the lines of.. you must have deserved it (some quite nasty comments). No support. Quite demoralising really.

Not sure where to go from here.. thoughts?

twhitehousescat

I think a reply to aldi s email pointing out the planning permission granted to them in order for THEM to operate the store clearly stated that off site shopping was acceptable , I said THEM , not a landowner 

seems wierd there reply , perhaps they have sold the land , cost you £3 to find out 

twhitehousescat

actually forget the £3 , you will get this info in court , or rather you will not , because it wont get there 

I will guarentee that if you pay and it comes back as aldi , you will not get apology from robot staff 

happybagger

Could that Aldi email reply not be bounced back to them saying, thank you for your reply etc, but can you advise who IS the landowner then?

MistyZ

happybagger said:

Could that Aldi email reply not be bounced back to them saying, thank you for your reply etc, but can you advise who IS the landowner then?

Exactly!  Anyone would think name of landowner was top secret information - I've yet to see a similar complaint response that does name the landowner.  I think all complaints should include 'if you are not the landowner, please let me know who is'.

I hope you do try land registry OP, could be very useful for you and great for the next victim that comes here to bypass some of this!    

BrownTrout

Why not just do a 5 line popla appeal which will win hands down

happybagger

MistyZ said:

I hope you do try land registry OP, could be very useful for you and great for the next victim that comes here to bypass some of this!    

Just curious, putting Aldi Corporation St Preston PR1 2UZ in at Land Reg brings up 2 "hits"
Leasehold - allows you to buy the £3 title plan or title register
Freehold - sorry there has been an unexpected error
Had this issue when I went looking for some info on land in Blackpool too. I presume the freeholder info is what's needed?

Anyways, found this from last year, doesn't look like OP got back