Aldi Stores, Parking Eye And Eyes For Cash!
Aldi Stores and Parking Eye have caused me to go on the biggest rant I ever have done on any of my blogs but this is a lesson to any business owner of how not to treat your customers.
First off, a question … Does anyone know who owns Parking Eye? And, is this the way the government planned for these stores to recover during this economic downturn. Of course, that last sentence is said tongue in cheek but, if you think this has nothing to do with marketing, think again and read on.
I live in Bristol, UK and many of our stores including Aldi have started using a company called Parking Eye to digitally ’police’ their car parks 24 hours a day, using CCTV.
Now, if you go into the Aldi car park in St George, Bristol, the signs are so high up that you wouldn’t notice them although recently, they’ve put a big sign on the side wall of the shop which, is at my eye level. If you stay in their car park for more than 90 minutes, you get ‘fined’ £70 which is reduced to £40 if you pay within 14 days. There are entire forums dedicated to the complaints and I really have some big news for these big stores who use Parking Eye …
You’re Pushing People Back Into The Corner Shop!
Let’s look at this. I drove to the Eastgate shopping complex a few weeks ago and spent some time in a few of the shops, then went to Ikea and spent over 2 hours in there and ended up buying nothing except lunch. I left there went home for about 15 minutes and then collected my little girl from School and at that point, realised I had to go back to Eastgate since my daughter wasn’t best pleased that the water bottle I bought her for School wasn’t pink. Can you believe it!
Anyway, as I parked my car, I noticed a Parking Eye sign that said something to the affect that if you exceed your stay of 3 hours, you’ll be ‘fined’ £70. And this is the best bit … “No return within 4 hours!” Fortunately, I drove my car from the Eastgate complex to Ikea when I’d visited earlier but, it’s my understanding and, I could be wrong, that Ikea own the Eastgate car park and so had I left my car there and walked over to Ikea, which is literally 5 mintues on foot, I would have been fined twice! Once for staying more than 3 hours and another for returning within 4 hours.
Now Aldi will tell you that if you can prove that you spent £30 or more in their store (which could change depending on which Aldi store you shop at), they’ll cancel the fine. My question, “what about if you paid cash and you no longer have the receipt?”
Aldi, B&Q, McDonalds are all using Parking Eye now and they say “we have to look after our customers …” So now, everyone who exceeds their stay in their car park or returns within 4 hours is no longer a customer despite the fact that they may have spent hundreds if not thoudsands of pounds in their store over the years. It’s an insult!
And I know I’m going to get people argue ”who stays in Aldi that long etc, etc” but quite frankly, I’m not interested in those arguements. If I leave a store, return because I’ve forgotten something …
Why should I waste my precious time having to write to these people to justify my actions?
Why?!
One day hopefully, these guys will wake up a smell the coffee … when the recession is over and people suddenly have more money to spend elsewhere, they will go elsewhere.
Also, have you seen Parking Eye’s “requests for payment” which is what they are, not ‘fines.’ They look like an official parking fine … Intended to scare you. If you ignore the request for payment, they send you a letter from a debt collection company and guess what … the address is exactly the same as on their parking notice!
These people would never get a dime from me, but I’ve resolved that if I go anywhere where Parking Eye or any other private car parking schemes are in operation, I don’t care if I forget something whilst shopping there, unless urgent or, if I can get it in the corner shop, I will take my business there. These people really have done me a favour … I will spend less money now.
But it really does make you wonder how these companies can lose the plot so badly. If these peole are indeed responsible for bringing in commerce to keep our country stable, it’s no wonder we’re in the state that we’re in.
Aldi will tell you that since they introduced the parking fines, their profits have gone up. I wonder how much of this is just due to the fact that they’re cheap and as more people are losing their jobs, can’t pay their mortgage or whatever, they’re resorting to the “pound stretching” stores. Come on Aldi, I want to see your figures a year from now when you’ve really hacked people off and hopefully the economy is in a better state of recovery.
Aldi, B&Q, McDonalds, you need to wake up and smell the coffee and as for anyone who’s been ‘fined,’ when is someone going to take out a class action against these people? If found in your favour, it would be great to see Parking Eye have to pay back every red cent they’ve swindled from people over the years.
Yes Aldi, B&Q, McDonalds and anyone else using Parking Eye and any other private parking schemes, you must look after your customers but the way to do it isn’t to tarr everyone with the same brush and then have the cheek to suddenly call them “rogue” parkers because they’ve overstayed their time in your car park.
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Interestingly, I’ve since read a forum with two lonesome users claiming that “You Must Pay Parking Eye since their ‘fine’ is endorsable!” What’s so ironic is that both users of this lonesome forum are users of the service. Go figure! One of them talked about the difference it made but didn’t clarify to what so, I’m just assuming it’s to his bottom line.
OMG, you have got to be kidding me! Are these people idiots? Now I have run many business’s of my own in the U.S. and NEVER would I even think of persecuting my clients/customers by charging them for such an idiotic matter!
I mean let me get this straight…so perhaps I am about to move into my new apartment and I need to purchase several items to furnish my new apartment. So I spend a good half a day browsing through Ikea to pick out what I wish to purchase. However, I need to get measurements and such to be sure the nice new items I have chosen will fit as I prefer. So, Ikea would actually have the gall to fine me, or at least attempt to, for choosing their store to shop at where I most likely was going to be spending several hundreds if not a thousand dollars or more within a few days? Well wake up you jerks! Browsing your store is not a magazine I am reading without buying it! You want me to pay for the honor of looking through your business for any decent length of time? Um no, how about you pay me for the honor of having my presence in your store, and for being kind enough to spend my HARD EARNED money in your place of business! WHat’s the matter? Don’t like that idea?
Well, all I can say is poor economy or not we ALL need to send a stern message to this form of legal extortion! I say we all boycott these stores until such time as they stop using such an absurd service and penalizing their customers. Let’s see how much your parking service helps you in this poor economy when you have no customers to shop at your place of business!
Trish I am behind you on this one, I am so very tired of working my a$$ off for pennies a day and getting legally screwed every time I turn around. I swear we would all be better off to go back to barter and trade. Greed is what got us into this great economic mess to begin with and if we are not careful it will be the end of us. All for a freaking piece of paper!
Regards,
RJ Levesque, Jr.
Was interseted to read this post Trish, hopefully the word can spread that nobody needs to pay these fines.
As an aside, if it did ever reach court, you’d win as they’d be in clear breach of the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999 by attempting to charge a fine which is disproportionate to any damages or losses they have incurred (which, since you have overstayed in a FREE car park, is zero).
I’ve blogged more about it here: http://bristoldaverants.blogspot.com/2009/11/private-parking-companies-parking-eye.html
Bristol Dave´s last blog ..Private Parking Companies – Parking Eye, MET Parking Services, etc – the lowdown
Thanks Dave …
Read your post with interest … I could “feeeeel” your annoyance!
I do agree with you though that people need to know the law … ignorance of the law may be no excuse but it’s a great inconvenience if I don’t know my rights and get taken for a ride. And yes, you are absolutely right … the letters eventually stop – even after the one they send you with the photo of the car! I did laugh!
Some forums are telling people how to respond but my advice is not to get involved with any correspondance with them at all. They’re not upfront in the first place so why should they suddenly become saints. As for the shops who use them, they change the rules of what perameters they use to let people off the “fine” so again, I don’t trust ANY of them so just wouldn’t get into any discussion with them.
It will be interesting to see how this pans out nationally. Time will tell.
I recieved one of these in the post and for me it was ok cause i had sold the car to someone else so it was their bill…..but what i did ask them was to write to me an let me know that i will not be charged for the fine as i wasnt the owner of the vehicle at the time, and to make sure i wasnt visited next by baliffs or any other extra charges cause I wasnt willing to pay it.
Suprise suprise i havent had a letter as requested and when i just called to chase this letter it kept me hanging on ( and charging me) then finaly said there was nobody available to discuss and just cut me off!!!!
Quick enough to sent the letters out, but not very good at responding to requests eh!!
My partner is a disabled badge holder which allows disabled drivers to park for three hours. We were parked in a car park, in a disabled bay displaying his badges for two and a half hours. A week after parking in this car park we got a Parking Fine Notice from ParkingEye for £50 for parking over two hours.. The shops serving this car park are Lidl, Iceland, Argos & Store 21. We telephoned ParkingEye and were told to send in photocopies of his disabled badge to appeal to cancel the fine. We did this with a covering letter. We have now received a futher letter from ParkingEye demanding proof in the form of receipts or a bank statement that we have spent money in these stores on the day in question within seven days. We did not keep receipts for our shopping on that day so have to now send them a copy of our bank statement.
Disgusting behaviour by the stores in question to disabled drivers. Luckily I have the time and patience to fight this but I am sure a lot of disabled people just pay the fine without question.
I have just received one of these fines and have written back to them stating that I categorically refuse to pay it. My car broke down while i was on their parking and I had to wait for assistance. I did not see the signs because they are not at eye level and it was written in small writing. They can take a running jump if they think I am going to pay a fine for a situation that was out of my control.
The best thing to do Genna, is not to get into a discussion with these people if you can help it. They are not interested in “reasonable” – their aim is to collect money from as many people who will pay without questioning.
The store owner has the authority to ask the parking company to back off, but it really is at their discretion. I highly recommend that you go check out: this forum
Hey there RJ,
I’m not sure Ikea themselves operate this policy but I THINK they might own the complex where the cameras are operational. It is literally walking distance from the one complex to Ikea and so people who have been shopping in the complex have left their car there and walked over to Ikea. Good for the environment right? Well, had I done this the day I went to Ikea, I would have found myself “fined.” So much for saving the environment and walking! I almost did and so glad I didn’t … not that I would have paid their so called fine anyway.
No one will convince me that this isn’t a money making exercise though and I do believe that what goes around comes around and I’ll send this “prophecy” to the likes of Aldi when it does happen.
Interestingly, I found a forum a little while ago by some guys suggesting the fines by Parking Eye are enforcible and so it’s best just to pay up. It is the ONLY forum where the majority are suggesting this and it turns out, they are ALL users of the service! One guy said “you have no idea how this has improved my business.” He wasn’t clear on what element of his business, but he said it with glee and so I’m assuming, it’s his bottom line profits.
People are really kicking off about these parking services in Bristol and I’m waiting with anticipation to see the outcome in the future.
Trish