Toby Carvery Amesbury — Restaurant in England

I recently pulled into the Toby Carvery car park with the intention of meeting a friend for a quick drink and bite to eat while passing through the area. I remained in my vehicle for under 15 minutes, all without exiting, while I waited for them to arrive. Due to mammoth traffic delays on the A303 near Stonehenge (no surprise), we cancelled the meeting, and I continued my journey. At no point did I leave my car during this process.

To my surprise, I later received a £100 Parking Charge Notice from Euro Car Parks. It seems that unless you physically enter the restaurant and register your vehicle, you're automatically penalised, and this is regardless of how briefly you stay. Being fined for a wait of barely 10–15 minutes is, genuinely, completely unreasonable and incredulous. I struggle to see how this reflects a fair or customer-focused policy?

Given the location, adjacent to other fast-food outlets and commonly used as a service area, it seems Toby Carvery, through Euro Car Parks, is actively and intentionally taking advantage of its positioning by enforcing an unreasonably strict policy. You would reasonably expect a minimum grace period of ~20 minutes to allow for legitimate short stops, waiting for others, or making spontaneous plans, none of which are uncommon.

Unfortunately, that isn't the case here and they have absolutely no reasonable period. Although they do have signs up - there are no mentions or clarity on any minimum grace period, which you would reasonably expect, surely.

Instead, it feels like a deliberate trap rather than an appropriate deterrent to abusers (especially McDonalds for instance). Genuine customers who briefly stop before entering, or whose plans change due to unforeseen circumstances like traffic delays, are fined and treated like they have abused the car park.

Having researched this issue, there are also a myriad of genuine customers to the restaurant who either forget to register, do this incorrectly, or just don't expect to have to do this that then get a ticket issued. It must cause such an unnecessary overhead dealing with all the complaints, erroneous tickets, and various issues as a result, but I guess the restaurant doesn't care about this either if they are making good margins off Euro Car Parks?

To be clear, I fully appreciate the need to prevent people from using the car park for extended periods while visiting other nearby establishments. As someone familiar with the area having lived nearby previously, I understand how this car park did used to be abused. However, a blanket enforcement that penalises anyone who stays for even a few minutes, without entering the restaurant, is neither reasonable nor justifiable. It appears to exploit a confusing setup that many visitors won’t immediately understand.

A huge word of caution to others - unless you're certain you’ll be entering Toby Carvery and logging your vehicle immediately, you risk receiving a steep fine, even for a short, legitimate wait. Based on reviews I’ve seen since, I’m far from alone in this experience. Sadly, it comes across as more of a revenue-exploitation tactic than a fair...

Me and my family we decided to have an amazing dinner on Tuesday 1st of October at Toby as we always has especially because my parents came over to visit us. Unfortunately the evening was ruined by the only male waiter (I believe his name was Bailey). The first contact was absolutely negative when me and my wife we decided to order drinks as my parents were not at the table ...we order 1 pint one half pint, single vodka and 2 soft drinks for the kids. Bailey decided to question us why we are ordering all those drinks as we are only 2 adults, I had to explain myself to Bailey why I am ordering ONE PINT AND HALF OF PERONI AND ONE SINGLE VODKA, absolutely RUBBISH. He was in such a big rush and he would not listen to what I was ordering, as he messed up the drink order bit not bother to sort it out. When I have asked for another pint of Peroni he would just wonder around wipping tables, I had to ask him kindly for my drink which he never bother to bring over, I have asked his colleague who basically poor it for me and collect it myself from the table. When very annoyed about the entire experience we decided to leave and asked for the bill, again he ignored us, I have asked him again and he decided to send me to the bar, when everyone else was paying at their tables. His colleague again helped me and took the payment. We have spent £80 which and had our dinner by this young male which shouldn't be front of house absolutely not, as his skills are 0 in being in contact with customers. I hope someone would get back to me regarding this review.

With regards to the below reply from the management: "Thank you for leaving us feedback in regards to your visit with us. I have already spoken to your server when you visited us. As we operate a challenge 25 policy anyone who is lucky enough to look under the age of 25 on a table will be ID checked to make sure only people over the 18 are being served alcohol, to comply with licensing law. When asking for the bill he did explain that was just going to take another tables order on the way and bring it over to you on the way back. I apologise that you left dissatisfied on this occasion however my team did everything they could to follow the licensing rules and try and satisfy all their guests needs."

My reply:

I would happily come back and see if you could challenge my age due to my white hair...I am 40 years old :))).... The service was absolutely below any expectations he just ignored us ...when he asked about alcohol he did not challenge my age he asked us why we are ordering 3 alcohol drinks when we are 2 adults...this is not challenging 25 years old age policy it's a person which shouldn't be front of house without training like this young gentleman. He never bother bringing another drink when asked and had to chase 2 other members of staff...with regards to the bill he took the payment at every table when he asked me to go to the bar and pay and not even bother to come over to take the payment but sent another colleague and he was pretending to...

Never in all my life have i been so disgusted! I know Sundays are busy for staff but it was hectic between them all. The guys couldn't find my booking that I did on line. Asked me a number of times what name it was under I even had to spell it twice dor her. I wasn't shown my table just told it was that one over there pointing to it. When me and my partner we waited 10 mins for someone to come over and take drinks order we have never been here before. The glads came and it was filthy covered in marks and smudges and even had food stuck to it. I asked for another but looked the same only with out the food. Went up to the drink section. Melted ice everywhere also extremely dirty. I went back to my table after poring one as there was a queue behind ne and I felt pressure. Took the drink to my table a d decided to go up for food as the queue was getting rather long. When I was standing in the queue In frot of me was the gravy and sauce station. It was awful. Sauce everywhere food all over the counter that was old and the worst part for me was the FLYS! Flysheet was everywhere! On the dishes the sauce was in the flying around people who was trying to put sauce on there plate and in the sauce and the food spilt on the counter. I made ola point of point this out and told the young lady about the Flysheet and she said swiftly to me 'yes I know, they are there because wr xant use any cleaning products or chemicals around the food' I was mortified. I said okay But don't you think k it's best for hygiene reasons to refresh this and cover them? With a plat on the too or kitchen foil people us eating this. I made it very clean who uncomfortable and discussed and very disappointed I was and I couldn't eat here. She just looked and me and shudder she shoulders and walked away. Me and my partner turned around leaving our drinks on the table and left. I felt sick because of thus I took my costume to anther restaurant across the way and expressed to them what I had seen. It's the 1st of October I intend to eat there Flysheet and bugs die off. Made me wonder what the kitchen is like. I will not recommend this tobys to anyone and I will always tell them about my experience and what I witnessed. As I left the 2 girls at the desk look at us a d looked back at each other and smirked I'm...