A Lidl customer stood in the discounter’s parking lot for exactly 68 seconds too long. He was presented with a hefty bill for this: almost 25 euros are due. Lidl has since turned in.
Free parking at supermarkets and discounters in cities is long gone. If you park your vehicle in the customer parking lot for too long, you pay a fine. The fact that it is due for a few seconds made a Lidl customer from Düsseldorf really angry.
As the “R” reported that Wolfgang E. had parked his car at Lidl and went shopping. However, he exceeded the maximum permitted parking time. He should now pay a fine for this. “The ticket was issued to me after exactly 68 seconds. This is a mess and rip off for me”says E. to the “RP”.
Parking management as a business model
The parking lot itself is not controlled by Lidl employees; the company has commissioned Safe Place to do this. Safe Place is active throughout Germany and takes on parking space management for other companies. Their business model is easy to explain: if you stand in the parking lot for too long, you have to pay. “In this way we ensure that the parking space, which is very limited in many places, is available to the customers of the respective owners and is not permanently blocked by third-party parkers. For this purpose, the maximum parking time in the parking lots is limited”, says managing director André Westhoff “”. To do this, the company even uses sensors that precisely monitor how long a car is parked on the parking lot.
The parking lot of the Lidl store in Düsseldorf-Flingern has just such sensors. Customers are allowed to park there for a total of 60 minutes, after which a contractual penalty of EUR 24.95 is due. “If the maximum parking time is exceeded, the external service provider is automatically informed via the system”, said a spokesman for Lidl “RP”.
The 73-year-old Knöllchen-Parker Wolfgang E. is annoyed not only about the fine, but also about the threat that if the fine is not paid, further costs will be incurred within 14 days. That is a necessity, according to E.
The consumer center in North Rhine-Westphalia shares his assessment. “I consider this threat (…) to be unlawful and, in connection with the threat of payment of increased costs, also to be coercion”, the NRW consumer advocates answer the request from “RP” in written form.
E. has contacted Lidl and Safe Place several times, but has also paid the 24.95 euros. Lidl is now giving in, apparently the discounter is the hype about it “68-second ticket” also a little too much. In a letter to E. it says: “We have had your request checked by our department. (…) We would of course like to reimburse you for the costs.” A 25 euro shopping voucher was attached to the letter.
Source From: Stern
Jane Stock is a technology author, who has written for 24 Hours World. She writes about the latest in technology news and trends, and is always on the lookout for new and innovative ways to improve his audience’s experience.
