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Daily Mirror
Daily Mirror
National
Sarah Ward & Gordon McCracken

Lidl shopper slapped with £90 fine for 15-min visit vows never to shop there again

A shopper has vowed to boycott Lidl after being slapped with a £90 fine after a visit which lasted less than 15 minutes.

Tony Reid, 54, made two separate short visits to the supermarket in Greenock, Inverclyde, on January 15.

He believes car park cameras failed to record him leaving after his first visit at 9am and that the computerised system which issues parking penalties wrongly recorded his car as still being parked at the store up until his second visit at 1.30pm.

After realising the mistake, Mr Reid tried to contact Lidl and car park operator, ParkingEye, but could not even get through to someone to lodge a complaint.

He decided to go into the store and ask a manager for help with his issue but said they 'wanted nothing to do' with the problem.

Tony tried contacting ParkingEye to lodge a complaint (George Munro / Greenock Telegrap SWNS)

Mr Reid said: "Staff were really dismissive of me in store.

"I didn't expect them to set everything right, but the manager I spoke to just wasn't interested in helping me.

"The car park operator, ParkingEye, has thousands of bad reviews online so I don't understand why Lidl use them.

Tony believes the car park cameras failed to notice him initially leaving (Google)

"I'm furious that a big company like Lidl has been so difficult.

"I spend about £300 a month in their shop and they've just wiped me off like I'm nothing.

"I have the receipts for both of my visits and they don't seem to care.

"I'll never shop at Lidl again."

A spokesperson for Lidl GB said: "Our car park management systems are in place to help ensure availability of parking spaces for our customers, and it's therefore disappointing when we learn that a genuine customer has received a parking charge notice.

"In the extremely unfortunate event that a customer believes they have wrongfully received a parking charge, we would encourage them to get in touch with ParkingEye directly via the appeals process and explain their situation.

"Charges can be investigated and if necessary, cancelled as swiftly as possible."

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