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Parking Charge For Shopping At Ashton Gate


handsofclay

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I would be grateful if anyone can provide advice on this matter. 

On December 29th, my partner and I parked at Ashton Gate and bought items at the club shop and then had something to eat and drink in the cafe next door to the shop. In all over £100 was spent on Bristol City premises but today we have received a parking charge of £80 (£45 if it's paid early) for being there for nearly sixty minutes. This seems grossly unfair especially as we were dealing with the staff in the shop and at no time did anyone inform us that we needed to input a registration number (if that is the case). 

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Thanks Loco, I checked on that after and it also went on to say that if items are purchased from the club shop or cafe that charges then don't apply as the registration number can then be logged into the system. Nobody told us of this when we were customers of the club shop or the cafe and as my partner was just getting out and about again on crutches after a partial knee replacement we needed to park fairly close and I wasn't as observant of signs etc as concentrating on getting her crutches out of the car and helping her into the shop. 

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Thanks everyone

Yes I gather now that there's a machine in the club shop but we simply didn't see it and after making our purchases (which also involved returning something bought online that was faulty) nobody asked if we had inputted our reg number. Plus my partner was moving around on a crutch that was alien to her at the time so we were concentrating more on that. It's annoying as well because we then decided to have a brunch in the cafe. Had we not done that we would've been within the thirty minutes. Plus the cafe gave me the wrong order (scrambled egg on toast when I ordered a veggie chilli jacket potato) so had to wait longer for my correct order to be cooked. 

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Though not of assistance to the OP I thought I would flag that Aldi has a formal association with the "Parking Eye" group.

Aldi generally used to be 90 minutes, but were typically dropped to sixty minutes without the change being flagged. I fell foul of this one time to the tune of £40.

The sign clearly said one hour but looked identical to the previous 90 minutes sign so I hadn't noticed the change. Which was exactly the idea.

The change to Parking Eye, and it has happened at different times around the country and is still happening, is similarly unheralded. Again the signs are small print and look like the previous ones.

Whilst it is still allowing an hour you have to enter your registration in the store or face a £70 fine, I only picked up on this the first time because I overheard a conversation about it whilst in there.

It's very sneaky. There is no sign in store to alert you to the change and the small black terminals near the exit are very easy to miss.

And how easy would it be to put a big brightly coloured sign up by the terminals to tell you to enter your registration?

Very easy indeed.

And therefore very telling that they haven't.

Less Aldi customers and more victims of legalised muggings.

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41 minutes ago, Eddie Hitler said:

Though not of assistance to the OP I thought I would flag that Aldi has a formal association with the "Parking Eye" group.

Aldi generally used to be 90 minutes, but were typically dropped to sixty minutes without the change being flagged. I fell foul of this one time to the tune of £40.

The sign clearly said one hour but looked identical to the previous 90 minutes sign so I hadn't noticed the change. Which was exactly the idea.

The change to Parking Eye, and it has happened at different times around the country and is still happening, is similarly unheralded. Again the signs are small print and look like the previous ones.

Whilst it is still allowing an hour you have to enter your registration in the store or face a £70 fine, I only picked up on this the first time because I overheard a conversation about it whilst in there.

It's very sneaky. There is no sign in store to alert you to the change and the small black terminals near the exit are very easy to miss.

And how easy would it be to put a big brightly coloured sign up by the terminals to tell you to enter your registration?

Very easy indeed.

And therefore very telling that they haven't.

Less Aldi customers and more victims of legalised muggings.

Didn’t realise this. I parked in Aldi last week and stayed for 1 hour 25 minutes. Had a meeting in the lounge on north street. This is something I’ve done several times before.

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46 minutes ago, Eddie Hitler said:

Though not of assistance to the OP I thought I would flag that Aldi has a formal association with the "Parking Eye" group.

Aldi generally used to be 90 minutes, but were typically dropped to sixty minutes without the change being flagged. I fell foul of this one time to the tune of £40.

The sign clearly said one hour but looked identical to the previous 90 minutes sign so I hadn't noticed the change. Which was exactly the idea.

The change to Parking Eye, and it has happened at different times around the country and is still happening, is similarly unheralded. Again the signs are small print and look like the previous ones.

Whilst it is still allowing an hour you have to enter your registration in the store or face a £70 fine, I only picked up on this the first time because I overheard a conversation about it whilst in there.

It's very sneaky. There is no sign in store to alert you to the change and the small black terminals near the exit are very easy to miss.

And how easy would it be to put a big brightly coloured sign up by the terminals to tell you to enter your registration?

Very easy indeed.

And therefore very telling that they haven't.

Less Aldi customers and more victims of legalised muggings.

What Aldi is this as I have never seen this? They use Parking Eye but the cameras track the time you enter and the time you leave the car park, if you spend more than the allocated time then they'll fine you but I haven't heard of a single Aldi where you have to enter the details in store.

 

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9 minutes ago, Bobby Bollax said:

Didn’t realise this. I parked in Aldi last week and stayed for 1 hour 25 minutes. Had a meeting in the lounge on north street. This is something I’ve done several times before.

 

3 minutes ago, Seventeen said:

What Aldi is this as I have never seen this? They use Parking Eye but the cameras track the time you enter and the time you leave the car park, if you spend more than the allocated time then they'll fine you but I haven't heard of a single Aldi where you have to enter the details in store.

 

 

It's fairly widespread now as I found when I searched for information about it.

Unless you are eagle eyed or looking for it you are unlikely to notice the change.

See the parking FAQs on the link below, "I used the terminal in store".

I won't mention where I encountered it as it may lull you into a false sense of security if it's not your local store; there are multiple stores where you have to enter your registration into a terminal and if your local one changes then they won't be making a point of informing you of the change.

https://www.aldi.co.uk/customer-services/stores

 

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21 minutes ago, Seventeen said:

What Aldi is this as I have never seen this? They use Parking Eye but the cameras track the time you enter and the time you leave the car park, if you spend more than the allocated time then they'll fine you but I haven't heard of a single Aldi where you have to enter the details in store.

 

Lidl in Yate does exactly this. You put your reg in at the till and then you can use the car park for free for 2 hours, if you don’t put your reg in you get a fine. 

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2 minutes ago, Dollymarie said:

Lidl in Yate does exactly this. You put your reg in at the till and then you can use the car park for free for 2 hours, if you don’t put your reg in you get a fine. 

Lidl and Aldi are not the same though

It's not an issue in any of the local Aldis anyway. Imperial, North St, even Fishponds and Longwell don't use a terminal to enter your reg.

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8 minutes ago, Seventeen said:

 

Lidl and Aldi are not the same though

It's not an issue in any of the local Aldis anyway. Imperial, North St, even Fishponds and Longwell don't use a terminal to enter your reg.

 

On the Aldi website they have said that they bring it in when there is a problem with parking, either a small car park or people using it to park and go elsewhere.

I don't know those stores but if they have big car parks which are never close to being full then they probably won't bring it in.

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13 minutes ago, Dollymarie said:

Lidl in Yate does exactly this. You put your reg in at the till and then you can use the car park for free for 2 hours, if you don’t put your reg in you get a fine. 

And shops wonder why people don't use them much. No fines for shopping online.

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6 minutes ago, Eddie Hitler said:

 

On the Aldi website they have said that they bring it in when there is a problem with parking, either a small car park or people using it to park and go elsewhere.

I don't know those stores but if they have big car parks which are never close to being full then they probably won't bring it in.

Doesn't really make sense :laugh:. Imperial and Longwell are the two busiest in the region, North St is busy in the sense that it see's a huge amount of customers through the door, 

Would make sense for a store like North St to have it due to all the other surrounding shops/bars etc but as they don't have it it is weird to see what makes an Aldi qualify for it.

(sorry it peaked my interest as I work at Aldi :laugh:)

Edited by Seventeen
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10 minutes ago, Seventeen said:

Doesn't really make sense :laugh:. Imperial and Longwell are the two busiest in the region, North St is busy in the sense that it see's a huge amount of customers through the door, 

Would make sense for a store like North St to have it due to all the other surrounding shops/bars etc but as they don't have it it is weird to see what makes an Aldi qualify for it.

(sorry it peaked my interest as I work at Aldi :laugh:)

 

Fair enough.

I wouldn't know the policy but a quick search shows up several examples dating back to 2013 and my local one (not in Bristol ) brought it in end of last year.

 

Edited by Eddie Hitler
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13 minutes ago, Red hot poker said:

Hi Hands , I did exactly what you did, & copped parking fine £100 reduced to £60 if paid early. I contacted Bcfc & was told to email parking@Ashton gate with images of receipts was then informed by parking Ashton gate that the fine was cancelled. Good luck fellow red ?

Thanks Red hot poker, another avenue to go down. 

It was only because my partner bought goods online from the club as Christmas presents and a jacket was faulty (zip didn't work and one of the two side pockets was sealed up) that we had to go to the shop to get a replacement and then bought other goods in store in the sale that we were there. 

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1 minute ago, handsofclay said:

Thanks Red hot poker, another avenue to go down. 

It was only because my partner bought goods online from the club as Christmas presents and a jacket was faulty (zip didn't work and one of the two side pockets was sealed up) that we had to go to the shop to get a replacement and then bought other goods in store in the sale that we were there. 

The other thing is that if the info we’ve all been given is correct and the fabled “rewards scheme” includes prior purchases then your transactions should be linked to your supporter ID and be time/date logged.

In short, no reason why they can’t back you up

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8 minutes ago, Barrs Court Red said:

This sort of parking charge is becoming a pain. Kids had a session at Goals this weekend, yet it wasn’t mentioned anywhere about the need to enter your reg at reception - luckily a parent pre warned the group chat.

Sommerdale is the same. 

Nightmare. May I ask which Goals? 

I play at Bris once a week. Started up again 3 weeks ago so I would love to know if I've got a few fines on the way! 

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The parking fine has now been cancelled.

Many thanks for your tips especially Dollymarie as it was through our SLO, Jerry, that it got cancelled. Also, obviously, thanks to Jerry too.

I know now I will no longer be paying that fine that it will impact on our compliance with ffp regs but so be it.

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18 minutes ago, handsofclay said:

The parking fine has now been cancelled.

Many thanks for your tips especially Dollymarie as it was through our SLO, Jerry, that it got cancelled. Also, obviously, thanks to Jerry too.

I know now I will no longer be paying that fine that it will impact on our compliance with ffp regs but so be it.

The club and all other private companies that let these bandits control their car parks and fine their customers are handsomely remunerated for their compliance. Had a similar incident at a pub car park. My daughter drove in without realising parked up for an hour to meet a friend. A week later we get the dreaded PCN. I went to the pub in question spoke to the manager said we forgot to enter vehicle details blah blah. He took the PCN from me and said he had a pile to cancel later and would add it to those. I asked him if it affected custom having an over zealous parking system and he said what the pub was being paid by the Parking company far outweighed any loss of custom.

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1 minute ago, Sir Geoff said:

The club and all other private companies that let these bandits control their car parks and fine their customers are handsomely remunerated for their compliance. Had a similar incident at a pub car park. My daughter drove in without realising parked up for an hour to meet a friend. A week later we get the dreaded PCN. I went to the pub in question spoke to the manager said we forgot to enter vehicle details blah blah. He took the PCN from me and said he had a pile to cancel later and would add it to those. I asked him if it affected custom having an over zealous parking system and he said what the pub was being paid by the Parking company far outweighed any loss of custom.

Where my partner lives near Pontypridd we went into her local, The Upper Boat Inn, for a meal and drink. Couple of weeks later got a fine for £80. Didn't keep receipts etc so didn't challenge it. When we went there again we went through another entrance and there was a machine to input car reg number. Unfortunately, the other entrance doesn't have this. I wonder if those businesses in cahoots with the parking companies deliberately do this so the parking companies actually make money from those legitimately using the business they are innocently visiting and gracing with their custom. It's all wrong. 

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1 hour ago, handsofclay said:

Where my partner lives near Pontypridd we went into her local, The Upper Boat Inn, for a meal and drink. Couple of weeks later got a fine for £80. Didn't keep receipts etc so didn't challenge it. When we went there again we went through another entrance and there was a machine to input car reg number. Unfortunately, the other entrance doesn't have this. I wonder if those businesses in cahoots with the parking companies deliberately do this so the parking companies actually make money from those legitimately using the business they are innocently visiting and gracing with their custom. It's all wrong. 

Parking firms operating as money making schemes? I’ll have some of what you’re having!

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4 hours ago, handsofclay said:

The parking fine has now been cancelled.

Many thanks for your tips especially Dollymarie as it was through our SLO, Jerry, that it got cancelled. Also, obviously, thanks to Jerry too.

I know now I will no longer be paying that fine that it will impact on our compliance with ffp regs but so be it.

Great news, glad to be of help :) 

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Are the above comments applicable to the ‘dynamic’ parking app that is now in place?

I drive in to the car park, scanned the app, put in for 1 he, saw the cost was £4 so drove out and parked by B&M (bought a small cheap item for less than £4 to keep them happy). 
 

when I got home I looked and found this thread. As I saw from one reply that parking for 30 mins is free I put 15mins into the parking app - it still showed £4! 
 

Why do these companies have to be so deceitful, they could quite easily display minimum cost or a free period of time. 
Its just not customer friendly having to navigate your way around another parking app for just purchasing something in the cafe /  shop that only takes 15 mins. 
It'll also be useful if retail staff asked customers if they’ve parked outside and the fact they need to add their registration into the system. 
 

I’d better not get a PCN…..

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