Athena ANPR PCN - Lidl, 4-14 Blackbird Hill, London, NW9 8SD - rejected appeal IAS *** Cancelled by Lidl***

[Misza]

Hi there. I hope someone could help me deal with the case. Having looked through the net, I see this is not unusual for a customer to get a parking charge notice. I've spent £170 in the shop on a day, appealed with my receipt and got a rejection as this is not the first time it's happening. 
I moved on and appealed to IAS, and Athena responded. 

Now, I have to finalise my response, so your help would be most welcome - the due date is this Fri, 27th.

 

1 Date of the infringement 29/02/2020

 

2 Date on the NTK [this must have been received within 14 days from the 'offence' date] 03/032020

 

3 Date received 04/03/20

 

4 Does the NTK mention schedule 4 of The Protections of Freedoms Act 2012? [Y/N?] no

 

5 Is there any photographic evidence of the event? yes

 

6 Have you appealed? [Y/N?] post up your appeal] yes

 

I'd like to initiate an appeal for the parking penalty I received from you. 
Name: -- 
Address:--
Vehicle reg number: --
Parking charge notice number: --

Reasons: the full amount of time spent on the parking was devoted to shopping at Lidl, resulting in the purchase for the sum of £166.97,receipt attached. Please, let me know if more information is required at this point.

Thank you for helping with this request.

Attachment: 1 shopping receipt, £166. 
 

Have you had a response? [Y/N?] post it up   yes.

 

 

7 Who is the parking company? Athena ANPR

 

8. Where exactly [carpark name and town] Lidl, 4-14 Blackbird Hill, London, NW9 8SD

9. IAS appeal (initial input): You completed the appeal on 14/03/2020 18:18:00.

 

Lidl's parking is meant for customers only (and their staff, potentially), and that's the main purpose of it.

My stay at the car park was solely devoted to shopping at Lidl, which I clearly explained.

 

As this is not the first time this happened, I actually approached a member of staff on that occasion and inquired about the terminal to register my vehicle due to the prolonged stay. I received the response that there was no terminal in the store to register my car.

 

I had a huge trolley of shopping and couldn't leave it to wonder and look for a manager in order to ask for a second opinion.

The receipts provided comprise more than 70 unique items in 2 receipts purchased on that date and that time, implying that there were 2 queuings I had to make due to a couple items forgotten, and the tills at Lidl are notorious for being somewhat slow as only a couple usually work at a time.

There's physically not enough time to source those items in 1.5h in a busy store.

 

To sum up, the parking has been used fully in line with its purpose, while the prolongation registration means were not provided by the store due to either poor staff training or inadequate technical configuration (lack of terminals).

 

Needless to say, I'll investigate this with the store manager next time.

 

I'd greatly appreciate your help with this. Thank you.

 

10. Athena's response:

 

 

docs1____.pdf

[honeybee13]

Hello and welcome to CAG.

 

Could you put the pdf's at the end of your post into a multiple pdf please? It's far easier for people to read.

 

Best, HB

[Misza]

Thank you for welcoming me.

It looks like this is a great place to be.

 

How do I edit the post to substitute the PDF's, please?

 

I wasn't able to find the "edit" feature anywhere.

Here's the combined version just in case.

 

Thank you!

 

[honeybee13]

Hi.

 

If all your pdf's are in post #3, we can remove them from post #1. Perhaps you could confirm please?

 

Athena say you identified yourself as the driver? It's not the end of the world but it makes dealing with this a bit harder.

 

HB

[dx100uk]

ive properly redacted and merged all the docs to post 1 now.

 

there is no such thing as a 1.5hrs parking limit

look at the original planning consent on the relevant councils webportal planning section

it will NOT be 1.5hrs and no-one can change that 

 

shame you appealed

next time DON'T as you ID yourself as the driver by default

which removes your protection under POFA.

 

have you approached lidl head office with proof of purchase demanding they make Athena cancel the speculative invoice?

 

[Misza]

Appreciate your help with the PDF's. 
As for being the driver, unfortunately that's correct. I was a little hasty applying to IAN, and part of that process  is confirming you were the driver on that occasion. With those statements, I trust now they have that confirmed by IAN. Indeed, it's a shame. 

I did check the planning consent for the property (https://pa.brent.gov.uk/online-applications/propertyDetails.do?activeTab=relatedCases&keyVal=PROPLPI_202129212_1), but couldn't find any relevant info on the parking. I did also reach out to Lidl's CEO and customer service. No response from the CEO team, probably dealing with more important issues (cannot blame them). The customer support team insisted I deal with Athena directly, no help whatsoever. 

I'm planning to add to my IAN appeal that there is no proof of income loss due to my overstay, conversely - there's an expected profit associated with my parking. Not sure what to add - this is a daylight robbery [problem] by Lidl + Athena. Feeling of unfairness overwhelming. 

[dx100uk]

no ignore don't do anything else other than embarrass the be jesus out of lidl on all social media platforms.

 

await/if you get a letter of claim now

 

pointless in doing anything else.

 

dx

[lookinforinfo]

You could try to appeal to customer service as you paid a big bill and there would have been many others in the store also packing in supplies for the lockdown.

[email protected]

You could check to see if they have planning permission-they usually don't which would strengthen Lidl's reason to cancel your PCN if you include that fact in your appeal.

[FTMDave]

Don't appeal to the IAS - two con artists run both the IPC parking association, and their appeals body the IAS, and the solicitors the parking companies most often use (Gladstones).  No conflict of interest there!  It's a kangaroo court, a waste of time.

 

I agree with lookinforinfo, get back onto Lidl (customer service & CEO) but don't be nice this time, tell them either they cancel within 48 hours or you will publicise on social media how they are acting in the middle of a national emergency and you are going to take the £170 of goods back & demand a refund as they didn't mention you'd be charged a £100 fee on top by leeches that they've let loose in their car park in order to drive away their customers. 

[Misza]

Thanks a lot for the advice, all of you! It's been very helpful, and I'm now up to speed with how things work in the domain. It is a shame things like this take place in 2020. 

In the meantime, I got a response from the CEO team this morning. Luckily, they are going to cancel the PCN - it is as follows:

Quote

Thank you for taking the time to contact our CEO. I have been asked to reply on his behalf.
I was sorry to learn that you received a parking charge. I appreciate this may have been frustrating for
you.
Lidl is a national retailer. As such, we have stores in locations with limited parking space and in
common with many of our competitors, our store car parks are abused to a significant and detrimental
extent. We have therefore judged it necessary to take measures so that our stores parking facilities
are available first and foremost to our customers.
In order to ensure that sufficient parking spaces are available at all times to our customers, Lidl
employs third party contractors to monitor and control our car parks. So far, this service has proved
reliable and effective in reducing car park abuse and in freeing up spaces for our customers.
In light of your comments, on this occasion only, I have requested that the parking charge is
cancelled. Athena will confirm the cancellation in writing in due course.

Thank you again for contacting us.
Yours sincerely,
For and on behalf of Lidl Great Britain Limited

 

While it's a relief, on this occasion only, though.
 I'm still annoyed at them as a business as the frustration that gives is highly disturbing.

Will look for another brand to shop at.

Do you think I should let IAN know? Athena has provided their response, and now I have 2 options: submit my final response or send directly to arbitration. If I ignore, would that cancel the process or will they move forward once the response window expires (5 days)? If someone knows that already, of course. 

[dx100uk]

IAN?

 

[FTMDave]

Well done on your victory

 

Just ignore the IAS, they're charlatans, Lidl have cancelled the invoice so that's that.

[Misza]

Awesome, that's reassuring. Thanks again for supporting me with this!

[ericsbrother]

Athena no longer have the right to ask for the money so they have to drop this. No need to tell them or the IAS.

If they still bother you then you can take it further with both Lidl and the ICO

[brassnecked]

There will bwe a feeding frenzy by Athena, parking Eye and others that infest Supermarkets and impose 90 minute restrictions, during this crisis as it might take 2 hours to do what took 45 minutes looking at the queues today.

 

Well done on getting the Invoice cancelled.