Heartless ASDA bosses slapped a customer with a £70 parking fine – because she spent TOO LONG in the store shopping.
Wendy Hart, 52, was punished after being in the store for nearly three hours despite splashing out £100 on groceries.
Managers hit her with a £70 penalty because she had broken the two-and-a-half-hour car park time limit at the store in Arnold, Notts.
Wendy had gone shopping with her sister on February 16 and CCTV images showed she had spent two hours 57 minutes in the store – 37 minutes over the car park time limit.
Her husband Michael, 62, from Strelley, Notts., was shocked when he received a fine in the post on March 1.
The couple phoned Smart Parking Ltd, which issued the ticket, and were told the fine would be quashed if they had a receipt for their visit to ASDA.
But they said it had been thrown away in the days between visiting the store and receiving the notice.
The supermarket-giant offered to reduce the fine to £40 if the fine was paid in 14 days which they did but complained to the company about their unfair treatment.
He fumed: “I’m astonished they can fine us for being in their car park – and therefore their shop – for too long.
“If we had saved the receipt for two weeks, we could have sent it to Smart Parking Ltd and the fine would have been cancelled.
“We would normally use ASDA in Hyson Green and have never been fined for taking a long time to spend our money, so have never thought it necessary to save old receipts.
“I don’t know of any other supermarket that fines its customers for taking more than two-and-a-half hours to do their shopping.
“Since the ticket, we’ve gone to the Morrisons in Bulwell (Nottinghamshire) instead.”
Asda have now refunded the £40 fine but insisted customers still had a maximum two-and-a-half-hour limit in the car park.
A spokesman said: “We know that being able to park quickly and safely is our customers’ top priority, and we do everything we can to make sure there are spaces free.
“However we are happy to review parking charges on a case by case basis, where a customer has a genuine reason to be at the store.
“It looks like Mrs Hart spent a little longer than usual shopping, so we decided to refund charge on this occasion.
“We would like to remind customers that if they think they will be taking longer than usual to do their weekly shop, to let the customer service desk know.”
Yesterday Wendy said: “I’m thrilled. I was hoping that they would because I always use Asda and wanted to continue to.
“I’m pleased I can now go there again. I’ll now be more aware of the charges.”
