Car park ticket machines

I find a lot of this to be generation gaps. My father and I have this argument quite often, with me having worked a register and him being tired of cashiers making him feel rushed.
I tell him that we have to get people out quickly, not simply because this increases sales (though that is of course an incentive), but because people LIKE getting out of the store fast. I ask him why hold up the entire line when he could simply begin to take out his cash as he is next in line. He takes his time almost as a protest to being rushed, because he feels like my generation is in too much of a hurry.
I say, "If you want to live like your generation, stop using the internet. Otherwise live with the time."

Most modern Multi-Storey systems that have the facility to pay by credit or debit card will also let you do this at the exit barrier, keep your eyes peeled in your local Multi-Storey if this is available. Just drive up to the exit barrier, put your ticket in, then your credit or debit card, it spits it back out and you're on your way. No more queueing at the pay machines!

What a load of uninformed, poorly thought out nonsense some of you write. The whole idea of parking restrictions and pricing is to reduce the volume of traffic in busy areas. Penalising car users is not particularly effective, but it is about the only practical way. Given that people will use their cars, and need to park them, it is only fair that those who use the car parking facilities are charged for doing so. Don't like it? Then vote with your feet and shop in less crowded places ... but of course that might take up more of your precious time, you'd rather spend it sitting in a fume ridden city centre.

I think parking meters are daylight robbery, we spend enough in the shops not to have to pay to park. I try to use shops with free car parking. I also object to meters which ask for my registration number because I don't know it. And I cannot see why, in this modern age, they dont give change. There is no excuse except to rip us off a bit more.

You have to be a bit of an a*se to park in any multi-storey and pay an extortionate amount to exit.

And have you noticed that none of them give you change. Of course they are simply there to scam you. And if you haven't the tonnage of change to put into them at the start, there's a scammer waiting in the background to swoop down on your car with an outrageous fine.

Never ever have there been such practices in any other walk or concern of life.

The regular "fussiness" of the ticket machines also greatly adds to the problem. Even if you have the right money to hand, in most of the car parks I go in anyway, the machine will refuse to take some of the coins. There is one I use regularly which is so finicky I have to put in about £4 or £5 pounds worth of coins to get a ticket for about £1.50 & then pick up all the rejects out of the bottom of the machine!
I think the council is hoping it will lead to them getting more money in fines when people don't manage to get a ticket even though the machine is officially "working".

These machines and all other car parking charges are nothing but scams. There ought to be European regulations controlling what they are allowed to charge. Most car parking in a given area is a monopoly concern. It needs to be controlled. There is no competition. 20p an hour is a reasonable amount: £1 should buy you a whole morning.

Annoying isn't it? If only the attendant's booth at the exit of the car park still existed... But then often the same thing occurred there too, and all the time the car engine would be running, the exhaust belching out smoke...
The ticket-machine scenario is no different from shoppers at the supermarket checkout, who, when confronted with the bill, act surprised and then spend several minutes searching for their purse, opening their purse, shuffling the receipts and scraps of paper around in their purse, locating the appropriate cash, finding they don't have enough cash, shuffling through their cards and finally offering a debit card to the relief of everyone else in the queue...

But hey, it's an imperfect world, and all these little things are sent to try us, just so we can vent steam on the Weekly Gripe, and then get 'shouted' at by complete strangers!!!

The same applies for queing when you buy something. Why don't people get there card out of their purse in their handbag in their..... whilst they're actually doing nothing else in the queue rather than waiting for the all the items to be placed into the bag and then deciding to find out where it is as though its a big surprise that now is the time they suddenly have to pay.

Many car park meters do NOT give change. I might have 4 quid to hand, to pay my charge - which might only be £3.20. Might not seem like much but why should the local council cheat people out of another 80p? They already take far too much in council tax, I'm not giving them more! This only causes more voter misery and lengthens queues.

I know I'm going to sound like a tree hugger here but... Why drive your car in town centres at all? Find somewhere to park externally that is free and take the bus in, if you don't live close enough to walk/bus the whole way. Most grocery stores have free parking, so you'd really only be using ticket car parks for work or shopping for things on the high street - all of which you can generally carry on a bus or while walking.

And before someone asks, I walk to work after walking the kids to school, take the bus into the city centre, and only use the car for groceries or family outings.

Besides, is the minute you 'waste' waiting for people so valuable? People need to slow down. You'll cause yourself undue stress, worrying that the lady with her kids is eating all your time.