this was rude!

Earlier this week I had to go into the city, and needed to park under the office block I was visiting. I knew it would be pricey, but it was only for 20 minutes and the people I was seeing gave me a discount voucher. When I drove in (at 9:05) an attendant immediately pointed out where to park. Transacted my business, got in car, drove to exit, put in ticket (price, $15) put in discount voucher (price, now $11.20), put in credit card - whole transaction fell over. It spat out a new ticket, and told me to take it to the parking office. I got out of the car, and looked for the office. Not by the exit/entrance. Not round the corner. Not down the alleyway. Not by the loading bay. Eventually found it down in the bowels of the car park (no directions anywhere). The man told me I now had to pre-pay it in the machine down there. Price, now $30.

I protested. I said it was only $11.20 at the exit machine. He said that I had now been in the car park for 32 minutes and it had gone up to $30. He asked where the discount voucher was. I said "in the machine at the exit". "Grunt. Well, you've got to pay the $30 and take it up with head office." I knew where that would end up. So I said that I was going back to sit in my car at the barrier until they would accept my $11.20. "You can't do that", he said, "nobody else will be able to get out". I smiled, and said that wasn't my problem, and went and sat in the car. Sure enough, a couple of minutes later, he comes trotting up and re-iterated that, having spoken to head office, I had to pay the $30 to get out. I politely declined. Well, I had to move the car. No, I didn't have to. He pressed the button on the ticket machine, and I spoke to a lady at head office. She was not so polite as him, and told me I had to pay the $30. I said, "no, we have a contract for $11.20". She got quite cross, and said I had to move the car. I said nuffin'.

The man went away again. I was a bit worried that at that time of day it might be a little while before anyone else wanted to get out, but I wasn't in a hurry and soon enough another car came up. I was explaining the situation to him (and he was very relaxed about it) when the man comes trotting up again. He said that, after all, I could pay the $11.20, and would I please move my car into the loading bay so this other gentleman could get out, and he would give me a ticket for $11.20.

Turns out he could hack the machine from a terminal, so I could pay the $11.20 and get an exit ticket. He and I were always very polite to each other, he was just following rules, after all, and we parted with a grin.

I don't know why the transaction fell over - nothing wrong with my card. It was even inserted the right way up.