It goes like this. Parker pays fee to park. Places receipt on dash. When door closes, receipt flutters to floor. Enforcement comes by, sees no receipt, has car booted. Cost $75 to have boot removed. Driver shows receipt to everyone involved. No recourse. Of course, its blasted all over the front page of the Gainesville, FL Sun. See story here on Parknews.biz
This was on private property but that only makes it worse, as far as I’m concerned. The owner/operator of the parking facility simply said, rules are rules. You lose. The City said, it’s on private property, we can’t do anything about it.
All of the rules that are set on that lot are between the owner of the lot and the vendor. We did try to convince the tow company to refund the money but we have no authority to mandate that they do that,” said GPD (Gainesville PD) Chief Inspector Jorge Campos. “The property owner could mandate that, but that is between the property owner and the car owner.”
Towing draws a lot of complaints in Gainesville, and officials say it’s incumbent on drivers to make sure they know and follow the rules of the place at which they are parking.
That is no help to (Driver who received citation) Bellucci.
“So much for the ‘Great City’ that our commissioners want us to be. Can’t we find a better way (or a better contractor,) to manage our parking compliance?” Bellucci said. “It didn’t take any additional effort or time for the Superior Towing employee to verify that my receipt was valid…Aren’t we better than this?”
Oh please. You mean to say the city (Inspector Campos) couldn’t have a quiet word with the owner of the parking lot. Show him the error of his ways. That parking facility exists at the pleasure of the city. Does if follow all the rules exactly right? I doubt it.
But this action is easy. Don’t do anything and let parking continue to take it in the neck.
JVH
