Sainsbury's

[patdavies]

This story was front page of the local paper last week.

 

There is so much wrong that I really don't know where to start...

[Al27]

Worse is the forum. Everybody is utterly clueless and think the 'fines' have legitimacy. Frightening.

 

Sign up to it, but be aware you have to wait for them to approve your account before you can post.

[patdavies]

Worse is the forum. Everybody is utterly clueless and think the 'fines' have legitimacy. Frightening.

 

Sign up to it, but be aware you have to wait for them to approve your account before you can post.

 

Oh, yes.

 

Just waiting on approval now.

 

Then let the fun begin (which will mean plagiarising here shamelessly:eek:)

[cirian75]

lol

 

 

makes me want to drive down there and flyer the cars telling the fines are not fines, and can be ignored.

[letshelp]

Worse is the forum. Everybody is utterly clueless and think the 'fines' have legitimacy. Frightening.

 

Sign up to it, but be aware you have to wait for them to approve your account before you can post.

Also signed up, as Pat awaiting approval:D

[hanley duck]

My local Sainsburys is giving out flyers threatening to "fine" people. Exact wording is :

"To make it easier for Blue Badge holders and parents with young children to find a suitable parking space, we are now making checks on vehicles parked within blue badge and parent & child bays.

Fine if you qualify,

£50 FINE IF YOU DON’T"

Am I right in thinking that the use of the word "fine" is illegal? Which law does it break? I want to have some fun with them over this, who should I complain to? Would TS be any good, from what I’ve read on here I gather they are useless with PPC stuff. Anyone know the name of the head of the legal department at Sainsburys?

[lamma]

Claim of statutory powers where non exist. Sounds like at least Fraud Act S.2 plus probably a few other statutes.

[crem]

Do you really want to point out to them the error of their ways, or would you rather leave them to issue these idle threats in the smug knowledge that if they did issue you a "fine" for parking in the mother-and-babies bay, then you can send it straight to the bin, without passing GO and not collecting £200

[hanley duck]

Do you really want to point out to them the error of their ways, or would you rather leave them to issue these idle threats in the smug knowledge that if they did issue you a "fine" for parking in the mother-and-babies bay, then you can send it straight to the bin, without passing GO and not collecting £200

 

Yes I suppose you have a point there. Might print a few flyers of my own though.........

[green_and_mean]

I cannot really see the point other than to try and sound clever, it not as if Sainsburys will just turn around and remove the bays or tell everyone they can park there. If everyone starts ignoring the 'restrictions' and throwing the tickets away there is a good chance they will just bring in clamping.

[Jamberson]

Disabled people have a right to use a supermarket like anyone else. Whatever the legality of the "fines", it's a good thing if they deter able-bodied drivers who can't be bothered to walk 20 yards from taking up those bays.

[crem]

I wasn't advocating malious ignoring of disabled bays etc, but likewise, it does seem more sensible and practical to allow sainbury's to merrily issue parking "fines" for whatever the reason making them so much easier to ignore. After all, if they don't know they can't "fine" you for parking in the disabled bay, presumably they will also try to "fine" you for being over the white line of the bay, or "parked in that nice extra bit of space that's not in anyone else's way but isn't marked as a bay"

[Al27]

Great customer service. Threaten your customers with 'fines' before they've even set a foot in the door.

 

Only a minority of idiots abuse disabled bays anyway. You can't remove idiots from society, yet it seems to be ok to threaten ordinary folk going about their business.

 

I cannot really see the point other than to try and sound clever, it not as if Sainsburys will just turn around and remove the bays or tell everyone they can park there. If everyone starts ignoring the 'restrictions' and throwing the tickets away there is a good chance they will just bring in clamping.

 

As I've said before, it's a patch of tarmac. Anarchy is not going to break out and there are plenty of other countries that manage very well with no restrictions. Imagine an Italian supermarket threatening its customers with parking 'fines' and its customers actually paying! It just doesn't happen.

 

As for clamping - better to stick to the rules and clamp people abusing disabled spots with reasonable £15 release fees.

 

Oh, except there's no money in clamping as a deterrent or playing by rules.

 

This is a money making [problem], sold to supermarkets as a solution to a problem that isn't a big deal. Or more likely, sold to them as profit maximising venture.

 

As for being just an exercise in sounding clever - that's exactly how NCP, Euro Car Parks, Tesco, Asda and Morrisons get away with it. People think it's ok because it's Sainsburys. They're a big company so they must be legit.

 

Remember Sainsburys fixing the price of milk a few years back!

[Jamberson]

Only a minority of idiots abuse disabled bays anyway. You can't remove idiots from society, yet it seems to be ok to threaten ordinary folk going about their business.

 

That's a little contradictory. It's not the ordinary person going about their business who is at risk from a "fine" here - it's only the idiots you describe.

 

If it deters them, I support it. That said, Sainsbury's has a duty to have a decent review/appeal process for genuine mistakes, though I'm not so naiive as to think they will. But I have to say that any mechanism for stopping abuse of disabled parking has my support.

[sameagle]

My driver uses a Tesco in the Stoke on Trent area, that used to be patrolled by Euro, and now is patrolled by Central Ticketing, [i still think that it's Tesco's people issuing tickets, and CT that are doing the strong arm stuff]

 

About 4 miles up the road there is another, smaller Tesco, with a large B & Q, with a huge car park, on a separate site, next door.

 

I use both of these.

 

Neither car park appears to be patrolled, and I've never seen any one giving out invoices, and I've never seen anyone being "naughty" either, except perhaps, not fully backing vans, trailers, into bays, so that larger B & Q bits can be shoe horned in.

 

Presumably, the larger Tesco park is more profitable, which doesn't put them in a good light - are they ever in a good light?

 

As far as B & Q are concerned, they obviously don't bother, and don't seem bothered - how refreshing!

 

Sam

[green_and_mean]

. Anarchy is not going to break out and there are plenty of other countries that manage very well with no restrictions. Imagine an Italian supermarket threatening its customers with parking 'fines' and its customers actually paying! It just doesn't happen.

 

Probably because most Italian supermarket car parks actually contain cars parked by their customers and they may possibly have more respect for the disabled. The only reason the entire parking industry keeps going in this Country is because people have no respect for others or the law. You only haveto look at the number of people who still use mobiles while driving to realise that a large section of society still think rules are made for other people and don't apply to them.

[lamma]

The reason the parking industry keeps going is money. and as for private supermarket car parks, there are no rules. But people should obey applicable law - and that includes the Councils, they have a public duty but seem to not know too much about it.

[Al27]

That's a little contradictory. It's not the ordinary person going about their business who is at risk from a "fine" here - it's only the idiots you describe.

 

True, but personally I think it's pretty rude to be given a threatening leaflet by a store I'm about to spend £xx in.

Also bear in mind that a proportion of people who get given these 'fines' are innocent folk. 80 year old Ethel who knocks over her disabled badge whilst getting out of her car is going to be relieved of £80, or have to suffer threatening and scary letters.

 

Probably because most Italian supermarket car parks actually contain cars parked by their customers and they may possibly have more respect for the disabled. The only reason the entire parking industry keeps going in this Country is because people have no respect for others or the law

 

Doubtful. I suspect a [problem] parking company wouldn't last long in Italy because nobody would pay.

 

The 'you wouldn't get a ticket if you didn't deserve it' mentality is one reason the parking [problem] proliferates in this country.

[Zamzara]

80 year old Ethel who knocks over her disabled badge whilst getting out of her car is going to be relieved of £80, or have to suffer threatening and scary letters.

 

Exactly.

 

My other big objection to the blue badge system is that it amounts to disability discrimination in itself, because only people with selected disabilities are included. People with other, excluded disabilities are forced to suffer the punitive effects of being denied reasonable access to parking, which on public roads is often deliberate policy. I'm not advocating blatant abuse of blue badge spaces but this is an issue that needs better awareness.

[hanley duck]

My driver uses a Tesco in the Stoke on Trent area, that used to be patrolled by Euro, and now is patrolled by Central Ticketing, [i still think that it's Tesco's people issuing tickets, and CT that are doing the strong arm stuff]

 

About 4 miles up the road there is another, smaller Tesco, with a large B & Q, with a huge car park, on a separate site, next door.

 

I use both of these.

 

Neither car park appears to be patrolled, and I've never seen any one giving out invoices, and I've never seen anyone being "naughty" either, except perhaps, not fully backing vans, trailers, into bays, so that larger B & Q bits can be shoe horned in.

 

Presumably, the larger Tesco park is more profitable, which doesn't put them in a good light - are they ever in a good light?

 

As far as B & Q are concerned, they obviously don't bother, and don't seem bothered - how refreshing!

 

Sam

 

If the large Tesco is the one I think it is, when it first opened there was a barrier system with refunds for purchases in the store. Obviously cost too much to run so they got the [problematic] in.

[sameagle]

It's the one at Longton, Hanley Duck.

 

I don't live around there, nor does my driver, and we've both only started visiting the area about 3 years ago, the big one must have had barriers before then, because we've never seen them.

 

Thanks for the information, now I think about it, there's some traces of "barrier-age" there, I think.

 

Sam

[hanley duck]

Yes thats the one, and you are right about the traces.