Parking inspectors- Should they be lined up and shot or just soundly beaten?

Shoot or just repeatedly punch?

  • Shoot

    Votes: 1 8.3%

  • Beat unconscious

    Votes: 1 8.3%

  • Beat, then shoot.

    Votes: 10 83.3%
  • Total voters
    12

Remove this Banner Ad

Simon_Nesbit said:
When is a parking meter not a meter?

Parked outside an off-site work location, on street parking with 1Hr meters. Travelling in a group, we got three parks right outside the venue.

Paid by Card (even though minimum CC charge $4 was higher than 1hr stay $3.80 none of us had coin). Meter gave me 59:59.

50 minutes later, head down to meter to check, it says "Do you want to extend?" I click yes, and as paying by CC, do another $4 - back to 59:59.

Go into foyer, order coffee, and whilst waiting for it to arrive watch ticket inspector book my car along with 3-4 others. Pick up my coffee and head outside where he's still writing tickets.

ME: "Why did I get a ticket, the meter has plenty of time?"
Inspector: "You overstayed your time and the meter expired".
Me: "I extended the time".
Inspector: "My phone says it expired".
Me: "The machine has 56 minutes left - I renewed before it expired".
Inspector: "Doesn't matter what the machine says, the app says it's expired."
Me: "What app?"
Inspector: "The app for parking"
(he shows me the app on his phone, showing 56 minutes left same as machine).
Me: "That app says 56 minutes left? Why did you write the ticket?"
Inspector: "It said expired, see" (shows me a message, Machine 50816 expired 9:46am, 50817 9:47am, 50818 9:52am, etc)
Me: "But I put money in to extend so that message isn't right."
Inspector: "Doesn't matter, if the car is still there when it expires you get a ticket".
Me: "How can it expire if it's extended before it expires?"
Inspector: "You can't extend. The meter only allows 1hr."
Me: "I know, we all had to leave our meeting to update our parking."
Inspector: "You can't do that. The meter is for 1hr".
Me: "So why does the meter offer to let us extend?"
Inspector: "They don't pay me to think. I'm paid to put tickets on all the cars that my phone tells me too. If you want you have to talk to them".
Me: (looking at meter). There's a complaints number here, do you mind if I call that?
Inspector: "That won't help you. That's the meter company. I'm from the council."
Me: (calling it anyway. Describe situation and meter number).
Operator: "That's a 1hr meter, you can't extend. Our record shows your ticket expired at 9:46am"
Me: "But I extended it!"
Operator: "You can't extend. Your 1hr stay expired. I don't know what you're trying to say."
Me: "The machine offered for me to extend my stay. I paid another $4 for another hour of parking"
Operator: "You can't extend, I don't know what you're talking about. May I speak to the inspector?"
(Hand my phone to the inspector)
Inspector: "Yeah, dunno, he's a weird one, ya can't do that. it's a 1hr meter. Don't think he gets it. Prob a tourist. Nah I writ the ticket already. He'll haf to go to council."
(Disconnects and Hands my phone back)
Inspector (to me): "Here, your ticket needs to be paid in 7 days."
Me: "I'm not paying it, the meter hasn't expired."
Inspector: "Up-choo, they'll just send the cops."
Me: "I've done nothing wrong!"
Inspector: "Not up to me, I just write the ticks. I can't stand around, look at all this walking I haf ta do!" (shows me his app, now full of expired parks.

As he walked off the write those tickets, I checked the machine for the first couple - all had 30-40 minutes still to go.

I rang the council - they wouldn't advise on phone - had to attend in person. (This meant I missed morning tea and start of next meeting - also had to pay another 6.50 for parking across town).
20 minutes in line, then another queue for 10-15 minutes, only to be handed a single page to put my name, number and infringement notice and stand in another queue.
Finally, they take the paper, tell me the challenge will be filed and if they agree it's an error they will contact me in 21 days. I still haven't had anyway to put my case forward.

==============
Five weeks later, I received a letter from council confirming the payment in full was required, plus the penalty for not paying in 7 days. At least I now had a person (case manager) to talk to!

After talking to council - I am 100% at fault, a 1hr meter can only be used for 1hr, regardless of how long you paid for, or if you renew it. If we wanted to do that, we needed to move the cars to a new spot within the car park, wait for the first to expire (as it's linked to the card if you don't use the app) and book a different car space.
Click to expand...

This is the confuseopoiy that I spoke of. Not the inspectors fault (technically), councils maximising parking revenue by making it far too easy to find yourself "at fault"
 
Larry Barnsworth said:
This is the confuseopoiy that I spoke of. Not the inspectors fault (technically), councils maximising parking revenue by making it far too easy to find yourself "at fault"
Click to expand...

That's what Magistrate's courts are for....If you have the feeling it's not right then inevitably the judge will side with you by dismissing the fine.

I've copped 3 fines on a Saturday even though the signage is unclear & ambiguous....Argued my case clearly & succinctly in court & the judge agreed with me.

If you feel aggrieved, then do something about it.....Don't bitch n moan about it & then pay the fine for what you know aint right.
 

Log in to remove this ad.

I got wheel clamped parking in a shopping centre carpark near Subiaco Oval when I went to the footy there a few years ago, had parked there several times before without problems and all of a sudden they brought in wheel clamping as a revenue raiser since that was one of the few places you could park for free.

They put up a couple of small signs warning people about it but they weren't obvious and weren't in the area we parked which was no doubt a deliberate tactic to catch people out and it was a night game where the shopping centre was closed and the carpark was empty anyway but we still had to cough up 150 bucks to get our cars unclamped.

We tried to argue our case with this mole from the clamping company that drove around the carpark collecting payments but she wasn't the sympathetic type, she had a real bitchy attitude which only made us angrier but I guess you'd need to be to be a bitch/campaigner that likes abuse to do that sort of job.
 
I've used parking inspectors as a weapon before. I used to live in one of the inner suburbs where parking permits applied to on-street parking, the single detached houses on the street all had on-street parking permits but the townhouses and apartments didn't as they were supposed to have been built with sufficient self-contained parking. The frontage on each house isn't very big so naturally, parking spaces on the street were hard to come by as it is. Some flogs in the townhouse opposite me frequently had people visiting so they'd jam the street full of cars leaving other residents unable to park in the street, didn't seem to care that this left other residents needing to park a block away or so. Eventually I got so fed up that I was calling the inspectors out every day to deliver a $100 surprise to these tossers. Think it took about 9 days before they got the message.
 
SwampCreature said:
Yeah legit, what would you like to know?
Click to expand...
So basically I have no information on the owner of the dog. So I wouldn’t be able to help out.

Also, the council has to act as the middle man because if they send the owner your details, it’s a privacy issue plus if someone get injured or attacked, it’ll come back as the councils fault, leading to being sued.
 
Procrastinator35 said:
We all know it's nothing less than a revenue raise mate....But until someone comes up with a better solution to parking in busy CBD shopping areas & precincts, then it's the best solution we have to the problem of shared access & over congestion.

Parking meter readers & inspectors are just there to do a job, just like you & I....Blaming them for an issue which is rather more systemic & council based seems somewhat misplaced, to say the least....And proffering beatings or being shot as a solution is even more ridiculously absurd.

Seems you've flown off the handle on this one & are over-reacting to some pent up frustrations, which we've all shared at one point or another, no doubt.....Probs best to post this as a single post in the things that s**t me thread.
Click to expand...
You’re well off the mark here. Hitlers’ army were only doing their job and others were allowed to shoot them! ;)
 
akkaps said:
So basically I have no information on the owner of the dog. So I wouldn’t be able to help out.

Also, the council has to act as the middle man because if they send the owner your details, it’s a privacy issue plus if someone get injured or attacked, it’ll come back as the councils fault, leading to being sued.
Click to expand...

As I told you on the phone, that’s burecratic rubbish

You could have given us the number and saved everyone the time and $$

Revenue raising crap
 
Last edited:

(Log in to remove this ad.)

Shell said:
How will the ******* fines roll in i dont speed
Click to expand...

Still haven't grasped the principle of the reverse mockers then.

Tempting the fates is never a good idea.

There are many things that can go wrong on the roads that don't necessarily have to be our fault.

As soon as one boasts about a clean record, that's when the reverse vampires come a calling.
 
Shell said:
How will the ******* fines roll in i dont speed
Click to expand...
How?
There is a new 40km zone through a shopping strip you have driven through for years and you dont notice it the first day.

It has always been a 60km zone and you (never speeding) responsibly go through it at 50kph as always.
You DO notice that the lights are a bit shorter turning from orange to red than normal both on your way and your way back but think nothing of it.

Two weeks later you get two fines for entering a red light (its orange time having been reduced because of the reduced speed limit) AND two fines for exceeding the speed limit by 10km+.
You now have $1300 in fines and at 3 demerit points an infringement x4 you have also done you license for 6 months.
 
SwampCreature said:
As I told you on the phone, that’s burecratic rubbish

You could have given us the number and saved everyone the time and $$

Revenue raising crap
Click to expand...
That is what we are told to do. I need to follow the process.
I do agree that there bureaucratic bullshit in all of this, but I can't say that on the phone otherwise I will get fired. And the money that the owner needs to pay is bullcrap.

As for the information, I don't have any council records on my computer. All I can do is log a case and send it through. A lot of the callers I get think I can see all the records and confirm information.
 
Bought a ticket a few weeks ago at the place I always park for work and have done so every day for the past few years - all day on street parking for about $12. Came back to my car at the end of the day and saw a fine on the windscreen, seemed the ticket must have blown off the dash when I shut the door.

Fair enough I'd initially receive a fine but given the honest mistake, I wrote in to the council to appeal, presenting evidence of the ticket itself, the credit card used (last 4 digits are shown on the ticket) plus proof that I routinely park and pay every day. Expected to receive a fair first warning to always have the ticket correctly displayed but instead got a swift dismissal with instructions to pay the $90 fine, on top of the ticket I'd already purchased for the day.

Still fuming about it. Happy for the parking inspector to be doing his job, but the council can GAGF.
 
Once sold a weber. Parked next to his ute i a carpark as he was at work and couldnt move. hazards on and proceeded to move the weber into his car. Took all of 5 minutes.

Parking inspector rolled up in his car and took pictures and sent me a ticket for stopping not in a designated park. wrote a letter and but was met with a reply of "you don't get to decide where you can and cannot stop".

* him and * the glen iris council.

I'm well aware im technically in the wrong here.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

Free Agent
Sayings or phrases that just really piss you off.
4 5 6 7 8
Replies
196
Views
11K
Billy ray
Billy ray
MC Extra Dollop
Life lessons you wish you'd picked up sooner
2 3 4
Replies
89
Views
6K
Dogs_R_Us
Dogs_R_Us
Satan
Travel You would be miffed living in Brunswick and Brunswick West
Replies
20
Views
1K
rocker_oz33
rocker_oz33
Wormkilla
What's your job and do you like it?
Replies
19
Views
1K
akkaps
akkaps
B
Where are they now?
Replies
20
Views
1K
Mr_Bojangles
Mr_Bojangles
Exe Gesis
Society & Culture Deja Vus and Premonitions
2
Replies
25
Views
1K
Chief
Chief
Wormkilla
Things you once did that you now look back on and cringe
2
Replies
31
Views
1K
Chief
Chief
Back
Top