Lidl Parking charge.

[darren9]

Firstly I’ve performed a search and there’s all sorts of conflicting information on here and other forums.

The summary is my mother in law went to Lidl on 22/11/18 she did a bit of shopping and then left. She has exceeded the car park stay by 24 minutes.

She has received a civil parking charge notice with ANPR pictures asking her as the registered keeper to either pay or to provide details of the driver of the vehicle at the time.

How enforceable is the notice?
What is likely to happen if we ignore?
Is there anyway of appealing? She was shopping in the store (hadn’t parked and gone elsewhere)

Thanks.

[JM]

Tell her to go back to the store with her receipt and the ticket.
They should be able to get it cancelled for her.

[PurpleMoonlight]

How long is parking permitted for?

[darren9]

Sorry I should have said that was my first suggestion to her.

However she hasn’t kept the receipt and because she old and doesn’t trust card machines she paid with cash so there’s no record on her bank statement either.

[S11Steve]

Easiest option is to go back to the store with proof of purchase - Lidl are pretty good at getting these cancelled.

Failing that, wait for the Notice to Keeper arrive, then reply with a simple appeal "The driver was shopping in store, please see attached proof of purchase" - It will likely be rejected, but to be fair to Athena, their contract with Lidl is more in favour of the customer than most.

If that fails, you will get a POPLA code to take it to a second stage appeal. Plenty of examples on the internet of what to put in this appeal that will get it over turned.

Realistically though, unless she makes a habit of dumping her car in Lidl car parks, there is virtually no chance of this going further than Debt Recovery Plus who are very good at sending letters with red ink.
Again the Lidl Athena contract states that no court action can commence without the prior consent of Lidl - they use it as an absolute last resort against the persistent piss takers, but don't want to be seen to taking their own customers to court.

[darren9]

PurpleMoonlight said:

How long is parking permitted for?

1 and a half hours. She was there for 1 hour 54 mins. (Quite what she was doing in Lidl for that long, I don’t know. Her explanation was her arthritis makes her slow and she was enjoying having a look around).

[S11Steve]

If she is known to them as a regular, they may cancel it without a receipt, but is she a blue badge holder by any chance? Equalities Act 2010 may come into play....

[PurpleMoonlight]

darren9 said:

1 and a half hours. She was there for 1 hour 54 mins. (Quite what she was doing in Lidl for that long, I don’t know. Her explanation was her arthritis makes her slow and she was enjoying having a look around).

Never been in one, guess they must be interesting, I'll have to try.

[Chrisgr31]

My wife went shopping in Lidl not long after I received ticket for parking without keying in the registration, wife swore blind she has entered registration but I suspect she entered the registration of her car when she was in mine. I sent the parking company an email explaining what I thought had happened with a copy of the receipt for the shopping. Within a couple of hours I had an email confirming the ticket had been cancelled.

The issue you have is no receipt. If she is regular I would go in to the store and have a chat.

[hotchy]

Get her to go in. She's an old lady, she loves a slow browse. Even get her to squirt a bit of water out her eyes. It'll get cancelled without a receipt. No store wants a dailymail article about punishing old slow shopping good customers with a sad face.

[Nickyboy]

darren9 said:

1 and a half hours. She was there for 1 hour 54 mins. (Quite what she was doing in Lidl for that long, I don’t know. Her explanation was her arthritis makes her slow and she was enjoying having a look around).

I could crawl round Lidl and do my shopping in less than 2 hours I think it's physically impossible to spend that long in there even browsing their special buys

[Fermit and Sexy Sarah]

Last Christmas Sarah over-ran the allowed parking time (2 hours!!) whilst in TK Maxx. Luckily she could prove when she arrived in store (she got a refund first) and when she left with her receipt. We emailed their parking management company with these and it was cancelled without argument. S had spent over £300 in there, so I can guess that they have a policy of not costing the stores business.

Edited by Fermit and Sexy Sarah on Sunday 2nd December 11:53

[Jag_NE]

Nickyboy said:

darren9 said:

1 and a half hours. She was there for 1 hour 54 mins. (Quite what she was doing in Lidl for that long, I don’t know. Her explanation was her arthritis makes her slow and she was enjoying having a look around).

I could crawl round Lidl and do my shopping in less than 2 hours I think it's physically impossible to spend that long in there even browsing their special buys

This. 90 minutes is more than enough and I think it’s fair that businesses do this to ensure customers can get parked reasonably easy. Perhaps there is an argument for signage not being adequate, in this case.

[HTP99]

Nickyboy said:

darren9 said:

1 and a half hours. She was there for 1 hour 54 mins. (Quite what she was doing in Lidl for that long, I don’t know. Her explanation was her arthritis makes her slow and she was enjoying having a look around).

I could crawl round Lidl and do my shopping in less than 2 hours I think it's physically impossible to spend that long in there even browsing their special buys

Yep, still working out how someone could possible spend almost 2 hours in a Lidl, even if they are a bit frail.

My wife got a parking ticket at an Aldi, she went to one not local to us and just didn't type in her reg number; our local one you don't need to, she had thrown the receipt away but I emailed them and provided a copy of her bank statement for that day and they cancelled it.

OP just contact Lidl customer service, explain that your elderly mum is frail and also likes a browse, pays cash only so there is no bank account trail and I'm sure they will cancel it.

[cashmax]

Search here. http://forums.pepipoo.com/index.php?showforum=60

Last time this happened to me, I just wrote back telling them I had no obligation to identify the driver and they must cease to chase the ticket. They wrote back saying the matter was closed. Exact text can be found on those forums.

[motco]

Nickyboy said:

darren9 said:

1 and a half hours. She was there for 1 hour 54 mins. (Quite what she was doing in Lidl for that long, I don’t know. Her explanation was her arthritis makes her slow and she was enjoying having a look around).

I could crawl round Lidl and do my shopping in less than 2 hours I think it's physically impossible to spend that long in there even browsing their special buys

They have very long queues at the tills though...

[Nickyboy]

I went last week, car park was full, waited 5 mins for a space. Even with that and the full store and queue at the till, we were out in barely 30 mins.

[yellowjack]

Nickyboy said:

I went last week, car park was full, waited 5 mins for a space. Even with that and the full store and queue at the till, we were out in barely 30 mins.

Winner winner, chicken dinner.

Here, have atrophy for being just so damned awesome at shopping...




...and no, it's not a typo...

[sparkythecat]

[CousinDupree]

Also struggling to believe almost 2 hours in a Lidl. There is no cafe in there.

Quite some time for an elderly person to be on their feet...