Waitrose - £500 in double dipping parking tickets and their unhelpful response.

Colosolo

Hi,

Every weekday morning my partner drops our child off at the bus stop, parking in Waitrose. Then pops in Waitrose for a small shop and then returns later to pick him and do more shopping.

The system is picking him entering at 4.45pm and then suggesting he is leaving the next day.

This so far has reached £500, all 5 pcn's arriving today. I am expected next week we could expect another five.

The response when shown to the manager of Waitrose was unbelievable. When my partner said they are there daily, twice a day, the manager said he was there daily amd never seen him. Suggesing he was lying. Then asked to see his bank statements on his phone and said it has never happened to anyone ever before.

Anyway to say we are fuming is an understatement. I might expect this from an independent store but this is Waitrose where they apparently pride themselves on customer service.

We have complained to Waitrose about this and will now sit tight to see if they actually address it.

Gr1pr

Name the private parking company involved, double dipping is covered in the Joint Code of Practice too, so clearly the private parking company are not doing proper checks

Colosolo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82162852#Comment_82162852

Sorry I forgot to include it. It is Britannia Parking.

Half_way

Waitrose will eb jointly and severally liable for the actions of their agents, if your vehicle was not there then your data ahs been accessed without just cause ( failing to check the acuracy of the systems/data)

You shyoud, go back to the manager and tell him/her that they must cancel these charges as they, thourhg the acitons their agents ( britania parkinmg) have accessed your data witout just cause which is in itself a breach of UK GDPR - be polite if you can draw upa script and post it here.

If you get the fob off, then its time to go back again this time with a letter before action

1505grandad

As per a previous post re double dipping and The ppss Cop:-

FYI - even the unregulated "joint" single ppss CoP (soon to be replaced by Government regulated CoP) acknowledge this scam:-

https://www.britishparking.co.uk/write/Documents/AOS/Sector%20Code%20Templates/sectorsingleCodeofPracticeVersion1.1130426-2.pdf

"7.3. Use of photographic evidence

Photographic evidence must not be used by a parking operator as the basis for issuing a parking charge unless:

d) images generated by ANPR or CCTV have been subject to a manual quality control check, including the accuracy of the timestamp and the risk of keying errors.

NOTE 1: The manual quality control check for remote ANPR and CCTV systems is particularly important for detecting issues such as “double dipping”, where image camera systems might have failed to accurately record each instance when a vehicle enters and leaves controlled land, and for checking images that might have been taken other than by a trained parking attendant (see Clause 15)"

Theoretically as the parking company have not adhered to the CoP they have obtained your private data from the DVLA - they are only allowed to do this via the KADOE contract if they COMPLY with the ATA CoP - I would strongly complain to the DVLA and Waitrose.

Colosolo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82162922#Comment_82162922

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82162920#Comment_82162920

Thank you both. We sent an email to customer services asking it be escalated rather than go back to that store manager. He was so rude, making it appear my partner was lying.

This has happened to us now several times. Once at Tesco and once at Sainsburys. All credit to Sainsburys who knew straight away to cancel it and apologised.

I am sick and tired of having to deal with this double dipping issue and the stores lack of awareness to deal with customers appropriately.

I am surprised this double dipping is not more newsworthy.

We will do as you suggest above regarding the data protection.

Coupon-mad

When dropping off a passenger or picking one up, use a double yellow line, single yellow line or a bay on-street. All of which allow passenger pick up and set down.

I don't know why your partner is using a car park for this, when on street it's exempt from enforcement? I mean he can't pull over into a bus stop, taxi rank, or on a crossing or red route or bus lane but anywhere else, he can stop without fear of penalty.

Colosolo

He parks in Waitrose, walks our 12 year old to the bus stop and then shops in Waitrose for the meal deal. There is a 2 hour parking so sometimes he grabs a coffee in Costa and then goes into Waitrose. He is not just dropping off.

Also the carpark is shared with Boots despite the pcn mentioning Waitrose. In the morning they park on the Boots side which is at the back of the Waitrose and Boots, and walk around to the front.

Regardless of roads having yellow lines, I don't think that is the issue anyway as I made is very clear in this post he shops in Waitrose.

Coupon-mad

Yes I understand but I'm trying to stop him getting these, that's all. You say he has had others too from Sainsburys, etc.

I would never drive twice into the same retail park in 24 hours. Not worth the hassle. I am not saying it's right. But at the moment the industry is an unregulated Wild West so you have to look after your interests.

A lot of drivers don't realise this is what double yellows are there for. Passenger pick up and drop off is allowed on all double & single yellows on the public highway.

I hope Waitrose head office step in.

Colosolo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82163068#Comment_82163068

Thank you. The Sainsburys one was where we used to live but at least that was a one off. In that case the manager actually stated it was always happening and helped without hesitation. Then I wonder why big stores are not holding the parking companies to account. Or at the very least have a store wide policy where they are aware this happens.

Many people just pay these fines, it's outrageous.

Colosolo

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/82162920#Comment_82162920

Dear DVLA Complaints Team,

I am writing to make a formal complaint concerning Britannia Parking and its apparent misuse of vehicle keeper information obtained from the DVLA in connection with five parking charge notices totalling £500.

I am extremely concerned that Britannia Parking appears to have repeatedly obtained and processed my personal information on the basis of inaccurate Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) evidence, without undertaking adequate checks to establish whether any parking contravention had actually occurred.

Then info about the fines...

Is that basically it or have I missed something? Thank you