Another Downtown Parkign Story

I work downtown, and pay to park. I hate having to pay to park, but when you work downtown, there’s not much choice, unless you want to leave your car in one of the neighborhoods bordering downtown and walk through a sketchy neighborhood to get to it at the end of the day. I know, some of you will argue that I could take the bus, but that’s easier said than done when you have to take kids to school.

Every month, I pay for a pass that lets me in and out of the lot where I park. I’ve been at my job 22 years, and have had a monthly pass right from the start. There is a limited amount of monthly spots, so I pay for the month even when I’ll be off on vacation.

If you’re a day late getting your pass, you get a ticket that is $5 or so, unless you don’t pay it right away, and then it’s $50. It’s not like the month is pro-rated for the time you were late; the price of the monthly pass stays the same whether you pay it on the first or the 10th.

To add insult to injury, the women who work in the office of this parking lot company are incredibly rude. There is no customer service at this place. Last month, I was a day late (but didn’t get ticketed), and went to pay. The clerk snapped at me, “You’re going to have to pay $20 to have your key card re-activated.” She seemed pretty bummed when I told her I didn’t have a key card.

Yesterday, they wanted to charge me an extra $1.50 to use my debit card to pay for my pass. “Is that OK?” the new clerk asked me. “No,” I told her. “It’s definitely not OK.” The nasty one, the one who had snapped at me the month before, chimed in. “The bank makes us pay it, so we have to pass it along.”

Arrgh! I took my card back, and left. Of course, I still had to pay my bill, but this was getting out of hand.

I went to the bank and withdrew cash. Fifty-five dollars in change. And yes, they had to count it.

Ok, so I was being petty. But I’m tired of these people’s rudeness month after month.