Photo: Coastlands Shoppingtown Limited on Facebook
Parking can be expensive, but that should not be a problem when going to the mall to buy a few things before the free parking expires, right?
A few New Zealanders would say you have it wrong, because they got fined for going to the shopping center twice on the same day. A shopper discovered a ticket after her second visit to the mall in a single day, and then contacted the company that runs the business in Paraparaumu, New Zealand, on its Facebook page.
Once the complaint reached the page on the social network, other people admitted that they had also found a NZD 65 ($45) ticket on their windshields after doing the same thing.
Fortunately, Daphne Boderick’s discovery was followed by an explanation from the company that runs the mall. Apparently, they wanted to be sure that commuters did not use their space to get free parking in the city while they used public transit to get to their jobs.
Therefore, a four-hour parking time was deemed free, and everything that exceeded it was fined with $65 per day. This seems fair up until this point, right?
It was, in theory, but the business owners had a flaw in their security procedures, which were not monitoring the spaces to the minute. Instead, it was determined that the parking area was controlled in the morning, with license plate numbers recorded when the center was opened every day.
Then, mall security would return in the afternoon to check all of the license plates of the vehicles parked there. A cross-check of the two lists was made, and the plates that were present twice on the list were fined.
As you can observe, there’s room for error here, which was discovered by the shopper who had the idea to complain about the situation on Facebook.
If you have not spotted the issue, the system’s flaw was that you could park in the morning, leave after a couple of minutes, well within the four-hour “window” of the free parking rule, and then come back in the afternoon.
Even if you parked in a different spot, your car would have a ticket on the windshield. Fortunately, the shopper who made the complaint had the receipts to prove that she had two visits to the mall on that day, at entirely different times, and her fine was waived.
Stuff contacted the manager of the mall, and the official explained that they regret the situation and have taken the required steps to prevent this from ever happening again. Shoppers who have received tickets that they feel were unfair were asked to visit the center and ask to have them revoked.
A few New Zealanders would say you have it wrong, because they got fined for going to the shopping center twice on the same day. A shopper discovered a ticket after her second visit to the mall in a single day, and then contacted the company that runs the business in Paraparaumu, New Zealand, on its Facebook page.
Once the complaint reached the page on the social network, other people admitted that they had also found a NZD 65 ($45) ticket on their windshields after doing the same thing.
Fortunately, Daphne Boderick’s discovery was followed by an explanation from the company that runs the mall. Apparently, they wanted to be sure that commuters did not use their space to get free parking in the city while they used public transit to get to their jobs.
Therefore, a four-hour parking time was deemed free, and everything that exceeded it was fined with $65 per day. This seems fair up until this point, right?
It was, in theory, but the business owners had a flaw in their security procedures, which were not monitoring the spaces to the minute. Instead, it was determined that the parking area was controlled in the morning, with license plate numbers recorded when the center was opened every day.
Then, mall security would return in the afternoon to check all of the license plates of the vehicles parked there. A cross-check of the two lists was made, and the plates that were present twice on the list were fined.
As you can observe, there’s room for error here, which was discovered by the shopper who had the idea to complain about the situation on Facebook.
If you have not spotted the issue, the system’s flaw was that you could park in the morning, leave after a couple of minutes, well within the four-hour “window” of the free parking rule, and then come back in the afternoon.
Even if you parked in a different spot, your car would have a ticket on the windshield. Fortunately, the shopper who made the complaint had the receipts to prove that she had two visits to the mall on that day, at entirely different times, and her fine was waived.
Stuff contacted the manager of the mall, and the official explained that they regret the situation and have taken the required steps to prevent this from ever happening again. Shoppers who have received tickets that they feel were unfair were asked to visit the center and ask to have them revoked.
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