A McDonald’s customer who says he said he spent almost two hours in one of the chain’s restaurants was shocked to get a £50 parking fine. He said he had tucked into a meal and extra drinks before heading home, only later receiving a fine for breaching the car park’s time limit.
Many McDonald’s restaurants have limits on parking to prevent abuse from people using car parks when they are not eating or drinking in the restaurants. These time limits are usually between 90 minutes and two hours, with regulations normally enforced by a third party, LeicestershireLive reports.
The unhappy customer who was fined after visiting the Coalville restaurant in north-west Leicestershire posted anonymously on Spotted Whitwick: “So annoyed just had a fine for parking at McDonald’s for nearly 2 hours, we was there all that time eating and extra drinks have now got a fine. Anyone else had this?”
The store he visited has a 90-minute restriction: “Parking restrictions have proved necessary because of problems ranging from minicab drivers using our car parks as waiting bays between fares, to people leaving their cars for several hours while shopping or using nearby amenities.”
Some commenters offered support to the customer, giving them advice, including one person who said: “Appeal it will probably get cancelled.” Another wrote: “Go in and speak to McDonald’s, they might be able to cancel it if you can prove you were in there the whole time! Worth a try.”
A third said: “Call and ask to speak to a manager, they can have the fine cancelled at their discretion (I’m a previous employee)”
Meanwhile some were quick to laugh at the poster’s misfortune, asking how they managed to spend such a long time at the restaurant. One joked: “2 hours??!! Did you slip into a coma?”, while another added: “Not so fast food. Still if you do order the slow cooked mcpork burger you only have yourself to blame.”
A third said: “Two hours in a McDonald’s? What did you order? There are signs all over the place about parking limits,” while another asked bluntly: “What the hell did you order?”.
A spokesperson for McDonald’s said: “We have parking restrictions in place at a number of our restaurants, with a time limit to ensure there is adequate parking for all of our customers.
“At this restaurant the time limit is 90 minutes and we make this clear to our customers with signage in the car park. If a customer feels they have been wrongly ticketed, we would encourage them to get in touch with the third party contractor who issued the ticket by way of appeal.”