I sometimes think I sound like an advertisement for Aldi, having started at least two threads on their stuff and made many posts elsewhere.
Anyway they've annoyed the beheck out of me recently.
A few days ago a letter arrived which basically showed 2 photos of my car registration plate, and a demand for £70. It was from a company called ParkingEye who manage the car parks for Aldi. If I didn't want to pay £70, the letter said, I'd have to provide evidence that I had not out-stayed their allowed time in the car park. And I'd need to do it in writing. In other words the burden of proof was on me, not them.
I think they only have cameras which record plates as cars enter and leave. They don't seem to have a set-up which monitors the whole car park, so that they can e.g. verify hourly footage to check whether a car has actually remained there before sending off these demands which frankly felt a bit like blackmail - "Here are two incriminating photos - prove your innocence or pay up!"
It was a bit confusing - I couldn't remember what I'd been doing 2 weeks ago when the photos were taken, and I certainly don't keep receipts from Aldi, but anyway my first thought was that I must have visited twice that day.
Luckily for me, my bank statement verified that I had visited twice, and paid by card. Lucky, because I don't always pay by card and as I say I don't keep receipts.
I thought to **** with this, I'm not going to spend time blurring out sensitive detail from my bank statement, printing it off, writing a letter, using an envelope and stamp and going to the post office just because they don't get the idea of innocent-till-proven-guilty, and just because their detection methods had failed.
So instead I wrote a stiff email to Aldi, along with a screenshot of my bank statement. Eventually they replied that they were willing to get in touch with ParkingEye to cancel the charge based on the evidence I'd provided. No apology.
Anyway I'm livid. Off to Lidl in a minute!
So just a heads-up: always get, and keep receipts if you're parking in Aldi. You may depend on them to save you £70, or an appearance in court, or credit blacklisting.
Grrrrrrr...
Anyway they've annoyed the beheck out of me recently.
A few days ago a letter arrived which basically showed 2 photos of my car registration plate, and a demand for £70. It was from a company called ParkingEye who manage the car parks for Aldi. If I didn't want to pay £70, the letter said, I'd have to provide evidence that I had not out-stayed their allowed time in the car park. And I'd need to do it in writing. In other words the burden of proof was on me, not them.
I think they only have cameras which record plates as cars enter and leave. They don't seem to have a set-up which monitors the whole car park, so that they can e.g. verify hourly footage to check whether a car has actually remained there before sending off these demands which frankly felt a bit like blackmail - "Here are two incriminating photos - prove your innocence or pay up!"
It was a bit confusing - I couldn't remember what I'd been doing 2 weeks ago when the photos were taken, and I certainly don't keep receipts from Aldi, but anyway my first thought was that I must have visited twice that day.
Luckily for me, my bank statement verified that I had visited twice, and paid by card. Lucky, because I don't always pay by card and as I say I don't keep receipts.
I thought to **** with this, I'm not going to spend time blurring out sensitive detail from my bank statement, printing it off, writing a letter, using an envelope and stamp and going to the post office just because they don't get the idea of innocent-till-proven-guilty, and just because their detection methods had failed.
So instead I wrote a stiff email to Aldi, along with a screenshot of my bank statement. Eventually they replied that they were willing to get in touch with ParkingEye to cancel the charge based on the evidence I'd provided. No apology.
Anyway I'm livid. Off to Lidl in a minute!
So just a heads-up: always get, and keep receipts if you're parking in Aldi. You may depend on them to save you £70, or an appearance in court, or credit blacklisting.
Grrrrrrr...
)
. Brain ache...
