TESCO parking fine EV charging station

yevgeny

Dear all,

I think similar scenarios were posted here, but I'm looking for some advice still about my specific case.

I drove my EV car from north to south of England and look for a EV charging point as I was running out of range. Found this Pod Point at a Tesco supermarket (7kw charger). Left the car charging for 7 hours (did get to 80% battery charge).

Today I received a fine for overstaying the 2 hour normal parking limit. Horizon company.

What are my options?

I feel very mislead. If you can't stay over 2 hours the charging stations should alert for this fact and surely shouldn't allow more than 2h charging time. I was paying for a service (charging electricity cost) during the whole stay of the car in the parking station)

What steps would you advise for me to take?

Another element is that the person that drove the car to the charging stations wasn't me (the registered keeper) but my partner. (photos shows someone from a different gender driving the car).

I'm so infuriated.

• Can I contact Tesco to explain my situation?
• Should I ignore the fine?
• Should I appeal?
• If I appeal and fail and go to court, what are the maximum costs I can expect to pay for the whole process
• If I loose the court case, how will I be forced to pay?

Thank you very much in advance for any insight to this.

I know that this companies will try to threaten and bully me into paying. I would have no problem paying if I had broken the rules for parking the car over the time limit. But I feel this situation is different.

Keep_pedalling

First off this is not a fine it is an invoice for hogging a charger for 7 hours. Tesco are unlikely to be sympathetic, this is not what these chargers are intended for. Which Tesco’s was this?

yevgeny

I wasn't hogging in my opinion as it was continuously charging during the whole stay. There isn't any information on the charging stations alerting for maximum time of use or that it is intended to be used during shopping only.
This was Tesco Downend - Bristol

Half_way

was the vehicle parked, or was it being refueled (with electricity)?

Keep_pedalling

Half_way said:

was the vehicle parked, or was it being refueled (with electricity)?

It can be both. 

fisherjim

It would appear that Tesco aren't very sympathetic to people hogging their chargers for 7 hours:

https://wepoweryourcar.com/tesco-ev-charging/

Keep_pedalling

The problem with many of these 7kW charge points is that many were originally installed as freebee perks for shoppers to get a small charge while they shopped but now they rather pointless. Public 7kW charges are only really useful as destination chargers for places like hotels. Had the OP driven to the nearby Sainsbury’s they could have charged in under an hour on one of the 150kW rapid charges there.

What signage is provided on the charges about stay limits? 

Coupon-mad

yevgeny said:

Dear all,

I think similar scenarios were posted here, but I'm looking for some advice still about my specific case.

I drove my EV car from north to south of England and look for a EV charging point as I was running out of range. Found this Pod Point at a Tesco supermarket (7kw charger). Left the car charging for 7 hours (did get to 80% battery charge).

Today I received a fine for overstaying the 2 hour normal parking limit. Horizon company.

What are my options?

I feel very mislead. If you can't stay over 2 hours the charging stations should alert for this fact and surely shouldn't allow more than 2h charging time. I was paying for a service (charging electricity cost) during the whole stay of the car in the parking station)

What steps would you advise for me to take?

Another element is that the person that drove the car to the charging stations wasn't me (the registered keeper) but my partner. (photos shows someone from a different gender driving the car).

I'm so infuriated.

• Can I contact Tesco to explain my situation?
• Should I ignore the fine?
• Should I appeal?
• If I appeal and fail and go to court, what are the maximum costs I can expect to pay for the whole process
• If I loose the court case, how will I be forced to pay?

Thank you very much in advance for any insight to this.

I know that this companies will try to threaten and bully me into paying. I would have no problem paying if I had broken the rules for parking the car over the time limit. But I feel this situation is different.

You just appeal as keeper, not saying who parked.  Please read the NEWBIES thread.

This will be won at appeal as long as you don't start talking about who the driver was.