This week I received a parking fine for £40 from a company called Smart Park for an offence of ‘over staying ‘my welcome in the Asda Car Park in Beverley.
From a company in Perth, the letter shows two photos of my car, one entering the car park at 11.35 and another leaving the car park at 14.59.
Based on what the company charged with monitoring the car park thinks I was parked there for 3 hours and 24 minutes, when actually I was not.
Let me explain, the first image shows my car entering Asda store on Norwood in the morning but not leaving. On my second visit, the camera fails to take a photo of my car entering but does get me when I am leaving.
Despite making two visits to the store the Smart Parking system has clocked all this as a single visit and therefore, issuing me with a ticket and of course a fine, pretty smart if you are the one collecting the fines but not if you are on the receiving end.
From what I can gather the systems are not always picking up cars as they leave, this can be caused when number plates are hidden caused by traffic so when it sees you leaving for the second time puts two and two together to make five.
In order to get this ticket cancelled I called Smart Parking though was diverted to answer phone who wanted me to put my appeal in writing or to log in on their web site. I knew what the problem was myself it was as clear as the nose on my face, I just wanted to tell them.
Frustrated I called Asda’s head office who were very understanding and passed me back to the store in Beverley. On contacting the store in Beverley, they got the problem sorted and said they were aware of this issue and were looking to address it.
My experience got me thinking, and I think everyone in Beverley needs to be aware of this. I am sure I am not the only person who uses Asda and often will visit more than once a day. The type of shop it is geared up to quick shopping, plus there’s the cash machine, the nearest one to my home.
You also have the people who use the car park to pick up and drop off their children at the nearby school. People come in for lunch, then pop in for a shop later, or like me using the cash machine, every time we do this as things stand we are running the risk of being fined.
With that in mind, I suspect many other shoppers using the car park may have received these letters, and until it is fixed many more are likely to be landing on doormats throughout Beverley. If you have got one of these letters check it, check the photos and the times very carefully it could save you some money.
From now on, I will be holding onto every receipt I get from Asda in case this happens again and can only urge others to do the same, or you could find the cost of buying a pint of milk and drawing cash out could leave you £40 lighter.
Smart Parking, sorry you are not so smart!
This has also happend to me apparently on 20th August I was parked up in asda Beverly carpark for 6hours. We went in the morning to get money out of cash machine returned on the evening as its our local and we were sent a ticket with photos of my car number plate entering and exiting. We were in York all day but didn’t keep the park and ride ticket. I am still fighting my corner as I am not paying the ticket. I even boycot ASDA in Beverley now sorry but dont want to risk this happening again as very angry.
It’s all irrelevant, unless the car park is government or council owned, they cannot enforce the parking fine.
Take the ticket and tear it up…. Even in the unlikely event that they went to the costs of court proceedings etc you’d never be made to pay.
Oh my god!! The exact same thing happened to me a few weeks ago, I went into the Asda store in Beverley on the morning the children went back to school so would have been 8:30 am popped in for ten minutes and carried on with the school run, I went back in at around 7pm for teabags and left ten minutes later, a few weeks ago I received a letter from smart parking for a fine, apparently I stayed there all day that day!!! So I went in at 7:30am left the car, ran the kids to school got myself into college that day and went back to pick up the car at 7pm, makes no sense but they cant be legitimate, they are making major mistakes. Something needs to be done!!
Rachel – go and see the store manager, he is the only person who can resolve this for you – When I first called they said they had heard of one other case only, I suspected that was not true and low and be hold this story seems to have opened a right can of worms!
Hey an issue here, if you don’t keep the receipts from shopping how do you prove you were there! It’s a scam folks, so as we are not parking there (it is not worth the risk) we are not shopping there either!
Aldi doing the same in other parts of the country, not sure about Beverley, but at least you get an hour and a half rather than the really paultry hour. Customer focus is: get them in and get them out, if they don’t leave immediately, fine them. Easy easy money. Just an opinion. So customer loyalty IS a two way street!!
Walsall ASDA also asking me for a large amount of money…..they charge you £60 first taking advantage of your unawareness. … and then tell you after the fact… that level 3 parking is private…. they didn’t think to tell this to their customers first!!! They expect you to know your entering a elite private parking without telling you first…. zero posters they are more then happy to keep level 3 robbing the public. My advice to the people of Walsall would be to demand clear knowledge from ASDA before hand …unspoken contracts ahead level three in bright orange posters or perhaps print it out on your reciptes so everyone’s aware! Really taking customers for a ride asda and elite parking tricky trap!