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I had to attend a business meeting in town the other day and decided to park in the College of Surgeon's car-park attached to the Stephen's Green Centre. My meeting was at 9:15 and I was in good time, arriving into the car-park at 08:53. A few hours later, 11:51 precisely, I arrived back and popped my ticket into the pay station. The machine calculated that my bill was €8.60 which I duly paid and it kindly printed a receipt. It also conveniently worked out that I had spent just under 3 hours in the car-park.
Working out the maths a bit later, I arrived at an hourly rate of €2.8666.
Mmmm, I thought, that doesn't seem right. The car-park is run by Q-park and their web-site lists an hourly rate of only €2.60 an hour for parking there. Three hours should only have cost €7.80, I had been stung for 80 cents, but how??
I rang Q-park HQ, and the lady there was mystified too. She contacted the manager at Stephen's Green and rang back asking if I could fax on the receipt, which I duly did.
Not having heard anything for a couple of hours, I contacted her again. There is a 'glitch' in the pricing system apparently. They have an overnight rate of €6. It seems by arriving before 9:00am, this rate was applied, and was good until 11:00. I had roughly an hour after that, at the regular hourly rate of €2.60, grand total €8.60 QED.
The manager was aware that there was a 'glitch' in the system, occassionally it had been pointed out to them before, and if I brought in my receipt, they would be happy to refund the overcharge! She had no idea if there were plans to update the software, it was another company that looked after that for them, but she would let me know when this was done...I'm not holding my breath.
How many other people are ripped off with this scam? Who knows, there were lots of cars already parked by the time I arrived, I had to go to level 4 to get a space. It could be going on for years, hundreds of cars every day of the week. It could even be happening at every car-park across the city! You have been warned, a bit of mental arithmetic could save you being over charged.
Last word about car-parking, why can't they be forced to charge at 'per-minute' rates? You never stay for an exact number of hours. You pay for the rest of the next hour, and before you have even left, someone else in already in the space that you vacated and paying again for it.
I'm going back on the bike!
Working out the maths a bit later, I arrived at an hourly rate of €2.8666.
Mmmm, I thought, that doesn't seem right. The car-park is run by Q-park and their web-site lists an hourly rate of only €2.60 an hour for parking there. Three hours should only have cost €7.80, I had been stung for 80 cents, but how??
I rang Q-park HQ, and the lady there was mystified too. She contacted the manager at Stephen's Green and rang back asking if I could fax on the receipt, which I duly did.
Not having heard anything for a couple of hours, I contacted her again. There is a 'glitch' in the pricing system apparently. They have an overnight rate of €6. It seems by arriving before 9:00am, this rate was applied, and was good until 11:00. I had roughly an hour after that, at the regular hourly rate of €2.60, grand total €8.60 QED.
The manager was aware that there was a 'glitch' in the system, occassionally it had been pointed out to them before, and if I brought in my receipt, they would be happy to refund the overcharge! She had no idea if there were plans to update the software, it was another company that looked after that for them, but she would let me know when this was done...I'm not holding my breath.
How many other people are ripped off with this scam? Who knows, there were lots of cars already parked by the time I arrived, I had to go to level 4 to get a space. It could be going on for years, hundreds of cars every day of the week. It could even be happening at every car-park across the city! You have been warned, a bit of mental arithmetic could save you being over charged.
Last word about car-parking, why can't they be forced to charge at 'per-minute' rates? You never stay for an exact number of hours. You pay for the rest of the next hour, and before you have even left, someone else in already in the space that you vacated and paying again for it.
I'm going back on the bike!