131–140 of 347 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
How can they have it towed if it’s free. That’s just theft.
Towing companies enjoy special privileges and presumed innocent, e.g. no penalties for "towing the wrong car."
My personal pet peeve is lots that show you the apps you can pay for parking with, but then make it extremely difficult to find the lot ID. Pay-for parking feels like the kind of thing that should become a utility with one, easy, well-known way to pay for parking anywhere.
"One way to park anywhere" sounds like a federated system, which is exactly how I think it should work. You could install one of many client apps, but all the parking companies can be paid for from any of them.
Why have parking lots not kept their usual parking payment station things? In France, all paid parking I've seen has both options of an app or just using the parking meter payment thing (with the smartphone option usually being better because you can pay exactly by the minute instead of paying 1 whole hour)
I struggle to understand what would motivate it, from the perspective of the parking lot owner. I would presume the up-front cost of the old terminals was already paid off. And they certainly are more user-friendly.
Is it that the new smartphone payment providers are taking a smaller fee? That they are easier to switch between if the fees increase? Or what?
The parking companies are the worst kind of parasitic leeches out there. I had a similar experience when travelling to Denmark (I live in Norway). The sign said that you can pay with ParkLink, which I happened to have installed. I opened it, but no parking shows up nearby, and the parking code was not valid either. Turns out you have to have the Danish ParkLink app installed. Well of course! Also, pro tip, if you use…
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What is so difficult about getting a ticket and paying the ticket when you check out?
I. Hate. Technology. I hate working in this field. I hate how unprofessional every company is, from the largest to the smallest. I hate how incompetent all the engineers are. I hate how no business I have ever worked for has ever trained its workers on anything but how to fill out a time sheet. I hate all the blog posts about inane technical details. I hate how people start building a solution to a problem they're no…
It's not even the UI or the tech stack ... it's that it's tech at all. Am I required to own a smart phone now to park? Am I required to have a credit card to park? Idea: 1) Park without paying 2) Get towed 3) Sue the living shit out of the municipality so that they shut down modern parking meters.
We built a startup. You scan a QR code, that sends a text message. If you have a saved card, you pay in the text thread by replying 'pay now', if not you get a link to save a new card. No apps required. Hoping that with enough adoption, it will obviate the need for experiences as bad as this.
- That should take all of 4-16 hours to setup the software / web side and payment processing [processors who do cannabis / adult products].
- 1 hour to run to Staples and get some laser Av3ry pre-cut stickers.
- 1 hour to replace | supplement your 'real' stickers.
We built a startup. You scan a QR code, that sends a text message. If you have a saved card, you pay in the text thread by replying 'pay now', if not you get a link to save a new card. No apps required. Hoping that with enough adoption, it will obviate the need for experiences as bad as this.
Modern parking lots always seem ripe for physical phishing, whats stopping someone from sticking up a couple of QR codes that link to a fraudulent payment page or some other malware? This is one of those things that tech really didn't "fix" and now I have to select from one of 20 apps instead of just paying with cash or even a credit card.
I have, on multiple occasions (in Austin, >10 years ago), paid for parking to an "attendant" at a lot I know is free. Those guys will just have your car towed — the whole scam just hangs together: the towing company charges you for the storage & processing, but not the nominal fee; the attendant gets cash. Win-win-lose.
https://www.thedrive.com/news/44749/inside-the-tow-truck-maf...
Why have parking lots not kept their usual parking payment station things? In France, all paid parking I've seen has both options of an app or just using the parking meter payment thing (with the smartphone option usually being better because you can pay exactly by the minute instead of paying 1 whole hour)