UKPC at Lidl
Lidl supermarket chain issued one of their own customers with a UKPC Ltd £90 parking fine whilst the customer was inside shopping at their Dundee South Ward Road store. The rules of the car park are that drivers who aren’t customers can have only 10 minutes free parking, while those shopping at Lidl can park free for up to an hour. Sarah Thornton blamed a flustered shop assistant for the episode, but said the company should have checked CCTV pictures that proved she was a customer before issuing the fine. They have to prove they have been customers by giving their car registration numbers to Lidl staff at the check-out. Non-customers — or those who don’t give their registration numbers — are sent parking parking charge notices (PCN) by UKPC Ltd. This happened to Ms Thornton earlier this year when she received in the mail a £90 PCN along with screenshots of her car entering and leaving the car park after during her 20minute visit. She says she was not asked for their registration number at the check-outs but could prove the had been a customer as luckily she still had her receipts. She wrote to the company saying: “You will find upon review of your CCTV evidence that I did in fact make a purchase from Lidl on October 12. She continued: “I am disgusted Lidl feels it is appropriate to treat their customers in this way. My brief trip to Lidl included a long wait at the check-out while a customer was refunded for her boxes of wine. “The check-out operator saw fit to refund this woman before dealing with the rest of the queue. Perhaps it was due to the anxiety this caused her that she did not ask any of the customers within that queue for their number plate.” Lidl’s said “We apologise if Ms Thornton was not asked for her car registration upon arriving at the check-out, and we will be speaking with the Dundee store to ensure that all staff are reminded of this requirement. They also said that if Ms Thornton contacted UKPC Ltd they would would withdraw the PCN on sight of her receipts. This said this is standard practice.
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