@icelandfoods Ticket from Athena

[simonsmokes]

Hi guys, it seems a long time ago that these were posted, does that mean that no one can argue against these parking fines now? I recently received a parking fine from athena for parking 29 minutes over the allotted time of 1 hour. Is there no means to avoid paying out more money for going to shop at lidl/icelands?

[renegadeimp]

Ignore the invoice.

[simonsmokes]

Thanks for the quick reply - sorry to be pessimistic but are you sure??? I was reading up about the "Protection of Freedoms Act 2012". Do they not have legal backing to sue for the money they claimed?

[ploddertom]

You have posted on an old thread, I'll move you to one of your own.

[renegadeimp]

If it is a private contractor operating on a private car park then they have no legal basis to claim money.

[simonsmokes]

As far as i am aware, it is a private company claiming to enforce on lidl's car park. They do have posted signs for the parking restrictions of 1 hour. The Protection of freedoms act 2012 apparently allows them to issue reasonable fines....?

[simonsmokes]

On a different thred - it was advised to contact the land owners i.e, the shop, i contacted lidl and got this as part of the reply -

"Legitimate appeals can only be submitted in writing. To aid your appeal please send copies of any supporting documentation you may have. Please note that we cannot cancel car parking charges on behalf of the Car Park Management Company as we would not comply with the regulations set out by the British Parking Association.

 

In closing, we hope that you can understand our position on this matter and that you will continue to be a valued Lidl customer."

 

i think what i have been told is - man up and pay the fine - one of the more expensive lidls shopping experiences ever i think...

[ericsbrother]

No, they are washing their hands of the matter as they dont want to tell you that you may be right. Demand from the parking Co proof that they have the right to chase you for the debt by showing you a copy of the contract between themselves and the landlord of the property. Note that Lidl are probably only lessees of the land and it is owned by British Land or Stanhope or similar so the PPC wont be able to prove their claim to the saticfaction of the court.

If you want to spend £2 go to the land registry website and have a peep at the title of the land where you parked. If the above is correct then send a desist letter to the PPC and tell them you will demand your costs if they dont cease bothering you.

[Crocdoc]

On a different thred - it was advised to contact the land owners i.e, the shop, i contacted lidl and got this as part of the reply -

"Legitimate appeals can only be submitted in writing. To aid your appeal please send copies of any supporting documentation you may have. Please note that we cannot cancel car parking charges on behalf of the Car Park Management Company as we would not comply with the regulations set out by the British Parking Association.

 

In closing, we hope that you can understand our position on this matter and that you will continue to be a valued Lidl customer."

 

i think what i have been told is - man up and pay the fine - one of the more expensive lidls shopping experiences ever i think...

 

This is a remarkable response fom Lidl's which sounds as if the script has been writen by the BPA. What you find here is that the companies are receiving so many complaints that a standard response has been provided to Customer Service reps at the bottom end of the scale. After all the BPA is nothing more than a private company limited by guarantee (A club for PPC's with no legeal status of any descripition) therefore they can script all the rules they want, however the recipients of their junkmail are under no oblgation to comply.

 

|I would write to their head office and ignore the PPC and include the following questions.

 

should it be your intention to continue to pursue this disputed issue, the following information will be required,

 

Precise breakdown of the calculation used to establish the sum demanded in this case. (taking into account the following statement from the Department for Transport)

 

Charges for breaking a parking contract must be reasonable and a genuine pre-estimate of loss. This means charges must compensate the landholder only for the loss they are likely to suffer because the parking contract has been broken. For example, to cover the unpaid charges and the administrative costs associated with issuing the ticket to recover the charges. Charges may not be set at higher levels than necessary to recover business losses and the intention should not be to penalise the driver.

 

In addition, written confirmation that your third party agent has the appropriate authority from you as the land holder to raise court action. You may wish to make reference to HMRC V VCS, Parking Eye V Somerfield and VCS v Ibbotson .

 

Always emphasise that you will consider the involvement of a collection agent in a disputed issue as harassment and remind Lidl's that they are responsible for the actions of their agents.

Edited March 20, 2013 by Crocdoc

[DBC]

I think somebody on here told Lidl that they wouldn't use their shops again because of a parking charge. The store's response was "go shop elsewhere, we don't care". That's the sort of people you are dealing with.

[peanutsallergy]

Why should they care?

Lidl usually have about 3 staff. No customer services.

So why would they want to waste time on one shopper, that's stayed over an hour in their customer car park? They know they weren't in the store for that long, no one is in Lidl.

So either they did shop there, and then shopped elsewhere, or weren't even on the store at all.

Why then waste 1/3 of the staff on anything to do with the car park, they out source management of it to someone else, the Lidl staff have enough to do.

 

Same with Iceland.

 

So, if you did choose to shop there, you're not doing it for a shopping experience, you're doing it from your own choice, normally to save money.

And that's when you have to decide who needs who more, and either park for an hour and shop at Lidl, or park elsewhere, and never darken their doorstep again, and spend twice as much at Morrisons.

[renegadeimp]

Stop worrying about why's and what if's and just ignore them.