Supermarket Parking Charge Notice

iwant2asave

Hi,

Just received a parking charge notice in post for parking at a supermarket carpark for 111 minutes and the time allowed is 90 mins (it used to be 180 mins but seems they changed it recently)

At least 15 mins extra of the 111 mins was due to massive queues in both the tills and customer service desk.

I know I shouldn't have parked 21 mins extra but I did a big shop and due to this and the queues, I feel this is harsh to fine.  Has anyone had any similar experiences and if so what did they do?...pay the fine or appeal?  Thanks,

Sam

CliveOfIndia

If you take a look at the "Parking Tickets" sub-forum, you'll find Sticky threads that tell you in great detail the steps you need to take.

But the basic things you can do straight away are (a) speak to the store manager, they usually have the authority to get the PCN cancelled or (b) if this happened in Scotland, just ignore it.

iwant2asave

CliveOfIndia said:

If you take a look at the "Parking Tickets" sub-forum, you'll find Sticky threads that tell you in great detail the steps you need to take.

But the basic things you can do straight away are (a) speak to the store manager, they usually have the authority to get the PCN cancelled or (b) if this happened in Scotland, just ignore it.

Thanks for this...phoned the store and they said I could bring the notice in store and they will try to cancel it.

CliveOfIndia

iwant2asave said:

CliveOfIndia said:

If you take a look at the "Parking Tickets" sub-forum, you'll find Sticky threads that tell you in great detail the steps you need to take.

But the basic things you can do straight away are (a) speak to the store manager, they usually have the authority to get the PCN cancelled or (b) if this happened in Scotland, just ignore it.

Thanks for this...phoned the store and they said I could bring the notice in store and they will try to cancel it.

That's good to hear - and is by far the simplest and quickest solution.

(Should you ever get caught in a similar situation again, it's handy to keep your shopping receipt.  Some managers will be very helpful and just cancel the ticket anyway.  Some may want to see proof that you were actually shopping there whilst making use of their car park - not unreasonable, I guess).

Okell

CliveOfIndia said:

iwant2asave said:

CliveOfIndia said:

If you take a look at the "Parking Tickets" sub-forum, you'll find Sticky threads that tell you in great detail the steps you need to take.

But the basic things you can do straight away are (a) speak to the store manager, they usually have the authority to get the PCN cancelled or (b) if this happened in Scotland, just ignore it.

Thanks for this...phoned the store and they said I could bring the notice in store and they will try to cancel it.

That's good to hear - and is by far the simplest and quickest solution.

(Should you ever get caught in a similar situation again, it's handy to keep your shopping receipt.  Some managers will be very helpful and just cancel the ticket anyway.  Some may want to see proof that you were actually shopping there whilst making use of their car park - not unreasonable, I guess).

Out of curiosity, if the store manager agrees to cancel the ticket, what evidence of that should the driver get?  I presume it needs to be something in writing?

I can imagine it's all too easy for a store manager to say "Yes - I'll get it cancelled" and then not tell the parking company.

iwant2asave

CliveOfIndia said:

iwant2asave said:

CliveOfIndia said:

If you take a look at the "Parking Tickets" sub-forum, you'll find Sticky threads that tell you in great detail the steps you need to take.

But the basic things you can do straight away are (a) speak to the store manager, they usually have the authority to get the PCN cancelled or (b) if this happened in Scotland, just ignore it.

Thanks for this...phoned the store and they said I could bring the notice in store and they will try to cancel it.

That's good to hear - and is by far the simplest and quickest solution.

(Should you ever get caught in a similar situation again, it's handy to keep your shopping receipt.  Some managers will be very helpful and just cancel the ticket anyway.  Some may want to see proof that you were actually shopping there whilst making use of their car park - not unreasonable, I guess).

Thanks, yes I forgot to mention, they said to bring in the proof of purchase as well as the notice.  Thankfully I have still got the receipt.

CliveOfIndia

Okell said:

Out of curiosity, if the store manager agrees to cancel the ticket, what evidence of that should the driver get?  I presume it needs to be something in writing?

I can imagine it's all too easy for a store manager to say "Yes - I'll get it cancelled" and then not tell the parking company.

You don't get any evidence as such - at least, not immediately.  The one and only time this happened to me, the manager said he'd cancel it and I got a letter about a week later from the parking company saying it had been cancelled.

I guess you could ask the manager to sign something saying he's phoned them up - but even then, I don't know how much weight that would carry if push came to shove.

LightFlare

Slightly off topic - but 111 minutes in a Supermarket (shudders)

iwant2asave

LightFlare said:

Slightly off topic - but 111 minutes in a Supermarket (shudders)

As I already mentioned it's 111 mins in the carpark and there was a lot of extra time due to extra long queues in the till and customer service/kiosk.

Okell

LightFlare said:

Slightly off topic - but 111 minutes in a Supermarket (shudders)

My usual city centre supermarket used to allow you to park free for 150 minutes provided you spent a minimum of £10 in the store.  Everybody simply used it as a carpark for the city centre.

They've reduced the time now to 120 minutes but you don't have to spend anything instore(!).

Obviously it still makes commercial sense to them to offer free parking to non-customers...

iwant2asave

Update: went to the store as per the phone call...
The person interrogated me as why I took so long...in the end they said they will cancel it only on this one occasion on their computer system along with a bunch of other ones they have to do that day and I can collect the PCN with cancelled on it next time I'm in store.

So all sorted hopefully, lesson learnt from me...will try and shop quicker and  probably just leave the store next time if I'm running close to the time and if there are big queues at the till.