It's that Waitrose car park problem again. See http://www.breakinglaw.co.uk/search/label/nonsense
I put before you, members of the jury, my latest exchange of emails. I remain confused about what has been going on. The matter for your determination is whether you should check the correct time when you park at a Waitrose pay-for car park (or only the car park at its Richmond, Surrey store) and not rely on the entry time printed on your car park ticket. You shall be the Judge.
From: STEPHEN GOLD
Sent: 06/05/2017 16:18
Subject: Re: Waitrose Customer Feedback (Case No. 02990134) [ ]
Dear Paul
It’s about your Richmond store car park and its Never Right Clock. It was five minutes slow yesterday and so your long suffering customers lose out again. Obviously, the clock is not being checked daily as you assured me on 10 April 2017 OR your staff cannot tell the time OR it is checked against other inaccurate clocks or watches. Whatever the cause may be , it is really quite pathetic that the branch cannot get its act together. It would appear that your department has no influence on local management. Does your CEO have any such influence?. Perhaps a word in their ear might be the best course. Will you undertake that? If you do, check the time first. We don’t want you waking them up in the middle of the night.
I am
Stephen ‘Amazed’ Gold
On 12 May 2017, at 15:21, Waitrose Customer Service <customerserviceteam@waitrose.co.uk> wrote:
Thank you for your further message.
I'm sorry there has still been some problems when you've visited.
We've discussed this again with the branch manager. He has told us that they have spoken with the company that manages the machine for us and asked them to investigate this again for us.
Apparently, the time is actually set centrally by this company. However, they will also ask for some further guidance on what more they can do at a branch level to ensure the time is correct.
I can assure you the branch are reporting these issues as soon as they become aware and are looking at how to resolve this.
Thank you again for bringing this to our attention.
Kind regards
Paul
Waitrose Customer Care
From: STEPHEN GOLD
Sent: 12/05/2017 16:22
Subject: Re: Waitrose Customer Feedback
Dear Paul
Thank you. Does this mean that all the times printed on car park tickets issued at parks with clocks managed by the company concerned are wrong? Does the company manage all Waitrose car park clocks? Does the CEO know?
I look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards
Stephen Gold
From: Waitrose Customer Service [customerserviceteam@waitrose.co.uk]
Sent: 16/05/2017 08:40
To: Stephen Gold
Subject: Re: Waitrose Customer Feedback
Thank you for your further message.
The manager assured me that no customer has lost out as sixty minutes has been charged for and no less, it has just been the time in which the machine has been issuing tickets. I have passed your comments on to our executive office who deal with complaints on behalf of our Managing Director.
Kind regards
Paul
Waitrose Customer Care
From: STEPHEN GOLD
Sent: 19/05/2017 10:11
Subject: Re: Waitrose Customer Feedback
Dear Paul
Thank you.
First, I see that you have not answered the specific questions raised by my 16 May 2017 message (save that my comments have been referred to your executive office) and I would invite you to do so.
Secondly, I just do not understand what is being said in your second paragraph. Where does 60 minutes come in to it? Further and in any event, Waitrose just does not seem to “get’ the mischief that my most recent complaints have been directed to, namely that a customer who relies on a ticket with a time based on, say, a clock which was 5 minutes slow will lose five minutes of parking time for which they have paid.
Kind regards
Stephen Gold
Waitrose Customer Service
To:STEPHEN GOLD
Thank you for your further message.
Having spoken to the Branch Manager again, he completely understands that the system we use to manage clock is not as up to date as we would like.
I now understand the system is unfortunately not connected to the internet and can lose time. However, if the car park machine displays 15:10 and the real time is 15:15, the customer will always have a five minute window to the 'fee' time. Therefore as a customer you will not be overcharged, but I’m sorry this has caused you any concern.
The branch are currently checking the system daily to ensure the time is correct and making random tickets checks after this to check the time is accurate. This is done by manually changing the system, which the branch now have access to. We hope that the new system, which we are awaiting an installation date for, will resolve this problem.
The manager would like to reassure you the managing of the car park is at the top of his priority list, with decorating commencing this week, and the introduction of new machinery in the near future.
As previously mentioned we have made our executive office aware of your complaint. However, the manager and the team are managing this issue, which we hope to resolve soon.
Thank you again for bringing this to our attention.
Kind regards
Paul
Waitrose Customer Care
PARKSCRIPT
Just got back from Waitrose, Richmond. Car park entrance barrier was up as the machine had run out of tickets. Exit barrier was down when I left but escaped without damage to wallet or body.SG
Parking Squad
