# Car-parking fee 'glitch'...beware! College of Surgeon's car-park



## paper-folder (8 Feb 2007)

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!


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## tiger (9 Feb 2007)

*Re: Car-parking fee 'glitch'...beware!*

Might be worth talking to the odca.ie from a pricing point of view.  As a 'retailer', if there is a pricing error, once notified are they not required to fix it?


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## Guest122 (9 Feb 2007)

Does this constitute a genuine Rip Off Clubman?

BB


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## annR (9 Feb 2007)

Clubman must be still considering that


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## JoeB (9 Feb 2007)

I think that's a rip. The glitch should be fixed and not tolerated by the company and you should not have to bring your receipt in to get a refund, I think you should ask them to post you a cheque.

Their night time rate applies from 5.00 pm to 11.00 am for €6.00. Does this mean that anyone parking after 5.00 pm will be charged the full night rate of €6.00 even if they leave with one hour??? I'd say that they would be. 

And what about someone staying from 4.35pm to 5.45pm? Will they be charged €8.60 for 70 minutes?


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## JoeB (9 Feb 2007)

I noticed as well that they say the maximum daily charge is €29.00. That's confusing because if you parked overnight for €6.00 and payed 6 x €2.60 for the six daytime hours you would only get charged €21.60! So if you parked for days on end it should be €21.60 per day, not €29.00.

Even if you stayed from 12.01 am to 12.01am the following midnight the charge would be €27.60!

This country is a joke he he he.


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## Joe1234 (9 Feb 2007)

Breffni Boy2 said:


> Does this constitute a genuine Rip Off Clubman?
> 
> BB



It has to be!!  The price chargesd is more than the price on display.


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## Humpback (9 Feb 2007)

JoeBallantin said:


> Their night time rate applies from 5.00 pm to 11.00 am for €6.00. Does this mean that anyone parking after 5.00 pm will be charged the full night rate of €6.00 even if they leave with one hour??? I'd say that they would be.


 
You'd be wrong. To get the overnight rate, you pre-pay before you even leave the carpark to get the rate.

If you're in after 5, and not staying all night, you just do as normal and pay when you get back to the carpark before leaving.


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## JoeB (9 Feb 2007)

ronan_d_john said:


> You'd be wrong. To get the overnight rate, you pre-pay before you even leave the carpark to get the rate.
> 
> If you're in after 5, and not staying all night, you just do as normal and pay when you get back to the carpark before leaving.



I don't know where you're getting that from... The original poster said that 'the system' automatically put him on the overnight tariff and the 'glitch' refers to a software glitch in the costing software. No humans involved. I'd presume therefore that the ovenight charge is automatically applied to any period between 5.00 pm and 11.00 am. (Hence my question about 4.35pm to 5.45pm = €8.60)

There is an overnight charge of €5.00 for people who prepay.. all my info is from the website, search google for 'Q-park dublin'...

Do you know that you are right for a fact? If so please explain.


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## Humpback (10 Feb 2007)

JoeBallantin said:


> Do you know that you are right for a fact? If so please explain.


 
Because I've had the experience of either parking after 5pm, and of frequently leaving my car there overnight.

And I also know what I'm supposed to be paying before I put the ticket in the machine, not after I get home afterwards.


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## paper-folder (15 Feb 2007)

Tiger,
I took your advice and reported it to the ODCA.  They rang me in less than 24 hours (fair-play!) to confirm the details.  The case has been passed on to their enforcement section for review.  

Thanks everyone else for their input.  I suggest that if anyone else notices overcharging in any of the car-parks, they should report it to the ODCA too and keep the pressure on.  I'll let you know what the outcome of the investigation is.


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## ClubMan (15 Feb 2007)

Joe1234 said:


> It has to be!!  The price chargesd is more than the price on display.


If that's definitely the case then of course it's a rip-off.


annR said:


> Clubman must be still considering that


No - simply didn't see it until now. Car related threads seldom pique my interest.


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## GreatDane (15 Feb 2007)

Yup,

Definitely a rip off .. I'd suspect the blame rests with the owners of the car park, rather than the manager of that particular car park myself though.

This is right up there with vending machines which don't work after you put in your money, then you phone the phone number to complain, they "take a note" of your address etc and never send you a refund of your money.

Reporting this type of conduct is definitely the correct way to go here, we need to start standing up for ourselves as consumers more often imho 





paper-folder said:


> ...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!


 


Agreed, or better yet, per second billing would be the most accurate and probably honest way to do it, no doubt the technology is available but it's not in the interest of the car parks is it ? 

.. as for going back on a bike, your a far braver man than I  

Cheers

G>


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## paper-folder (31 Jul 2007)

I contacted the ODCA to see how the investigation went.  While they decided not to prosecute on this occassion, the inspector noted that the site is now 'in compliance'.

I haven't been back since this incident, so I can't say if it has been rectified or not.  If anyone else has a similar experience, with any of the car-parks, please contact the ODCA and ask them to re-investigate.  They are more likely to prosecute for subsequent incidents.


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## tiger (31 Jul 2007)

Well done for complaining & following up with the ODCA.  It seems to me the car park folks got off lightly.


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## RainyDay (4 Aug 2007)

It does seem like they got off lightly. I'd guess that a fair number of their customers were credit card users, so they should have been made refund the credit cards automatically.


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## A_b (4 Aug 2007)

alot of car parks also have their entry machine and their pay machine timed differently so even though you might be in the car park less than an hour, the pay machine says you are over the hour. Such a con!!!


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## GreatDane (6 Aug 2007)

If there is fraud here .... Report Them !


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