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How do we pay for parking?

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Re: How do we pay for parking?

#211

Post by gizajob »

Does make one think how amazing the UI on cash and coins can be.

My city similarly has a city-wide app that runs the parking meters that is chronically bad and clunky. Even has a bug where no matter how long a duration one picks, it only puts 30 minutes parking on, while charging a 20p service charge every time one pays for parking. The only real option is to keep using it every 30 minutes, and paying the extra 20p every time. It’s just shockingly, laughably, horrendously bad badness.

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#212

Post by kiba »

JKCalhoun wrote: post #112
throwawaaarrgh wrote: post #104

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.

If we have good public transit, people can just walk and not have to worry about parking, and the space that's formerly for parking cars can be used for something else.

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#213

Post by cfeduke »

saulpw wrote: post #145
GaggiX wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Without a cell phone I would be more concerned about other things than the parking lot, such as how people contact you when you are out?

I have a flipphone. People can contact me if they need to (they never do). I can't use a QR code or app or whatever. How do I pay for parking?

You don't, but you are also statistically unlikely to spend money (or, perhaps spend very little) at where ever you're trying to park so everyone concerned would prefer you move along to make room for a paying customer please. :)

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#215

Post by pas »

konschubert wrote: post #203

I just can't fathom how a business would not care about the loss of revenue from making it THIS hard for the customers to pay. Is it possible that the parking prices in the city of the author are legally capped and are not reflecting actual demand? This would mean that the parking lot is basically filled every day anyways, and the business doesn't see any ways to increase revenue by improving satisfaction.

they care, but they are victim of shitty app development companies, and in turn they are victims of the Android/iOS development ecosystems

fixing is in progress. just as redesign. just as upgrading to whatever next version, and so on.

but costs have already spiraled out of control, there are a lot of competitors, and all this doesn't make sense, but probably has some VC money in it somewhere.

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#216

Post by bluepnume »

xg15 wrote: post #208
bluepnume wrote: post #200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not necessarily. "I want to pay for parking" -> "Click this link" -> quick automatic web based geolocation and redirect back to the SMS thread -> done.

Good point actually. But if you already got the user onto a webpage, why not complete the flow there?

Mainly because the message thread is implicitly authenticated, so no additional web login required -- and we want to allow for conversational payments, where you can ask as many questions as you need before committing to pay.

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#217

Post by deathanatos »

ChrisArchitect wrote: post #88

This is the native app world we built instead of using websites. iPhone wanted this.

… I think partly this is that Android has lacked a decent QR code scanner (out of the box) for far too long. The hardware has been there forever … but you're forced to choose an app, and thus you have to have the nose to be able to suss crapware from not.

Google Goggles grew the functionality years ago, but even recently it will still deliver Artificial Idiocy level results: I scanned a QR code this year (I think it was?) and the AI thought about it and … told me it was a QR code. "Here are image results from the web of other QR codes!" sigh

So I have a dedicated app for this.

The camera app has grown built in support for them, but the UI is hot garbage. I'm not at all sure how one is supposed to discover it; there's no button for it, no label, nothing to really indicate it. You just point it at a QR code, but it's then pretty terrible at recognizing them, so even if you're doing everything right … you might just get nothing, with no feedback.

So I still have a QR scanner app, as it is far easier to work and more reliable at scanning than the camera app is…

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#218

Post by treyd »

It disgusts me how much duplicated effort there is with services like these. We can debate about the merits of market competition but what are they really competing over? The controlling factor is parking availability, there isn't really anything to innovate about paying for parking fees. The people who choose these apps aren't even really the ones that have to use them the most, because god knows the people that own the parking lot get free parking, and the "markets" for parking lots are not organized such that people who need to park can't really just decide not to park at a particular lot because they realize they use a shitty service to collect fees. This is a huge indicator that these services should be owned by municipal governments and cities should pool their resources on a standard shared platform / software suite instead of duplicating the effort making identical competitors.

Lots of industries like this, frankly. Another one that comes to mind is recruiting. Hundreds of thousands of duplicated man-hours, for what? Are any of them really better than the other? How do you "innovate" in these kinds of industries?

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#219

Post by spr93 »

bluepnume wrote: post #76

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.

No way am I giving your startup* my phone number. Maybe you can have a custom-generated, one-use-only email address that I can turn off so you don't spam me. (Your startup may be virtuous, but most startups fail, and then my data becomes an asset that gets sold away in bankruptcy.)

I also hope that your startup has been advised on the very significant TCPA liabilities this approach risks. Even if you do everything right, you're going to face lawsuits saying you don't. I have very mixed feelings about the TCPA, and it does hamper "innovation" in some circumstances, but I am delighted that it carries significant litigation risk for anyone who thinks it's a good idea to send me SMS messages. I. Don't. Want. Them.

Re: How do we pay for parking?

#220

Post by WirelessGigabit »

asah wrote: post #56
kortilla wrote: post #31

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."

It approaches qualified immunity.

Consider an AWD BMW without badges. If it's a 3 series or above all you know is that it's either RWD or AWD.

If they tow it by the rear wheels you blow up your transfer case. But try and prove that it was THAT action that blew it up.

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