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Car park ticket machines, queues, parents, idiots

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Our local shopping centre operates a parking system whereby you pay at a ticket machine on each parking level before you actually drive to the exit barrier with your, now paid off, ticket.  It's a common enough system found in most multi-story car parks and it should be convenient and quick to use, however...

Often the exit scenario goes like this; a group of 10 or so people enter the lift at the shopping level and press their respective floor numebrs; a group gets out at each floor to pay for their parking at the ticket machines located next to the lifts; the person at the ticket machine puts in their ticket at which point the machine tells them how much to pay.

Now at this point what usually happens is that they start patting down pockets for change, asking their partner/friend if they have change.  Sometimes this is an ideal opportunity to discuss the shopping trip or even the weather!

The ticket machine WILL want paying...

Pay for parking It's quite simple, you put the ticket in and the ticket machine WILL want paying, so it's somewhat silly to, at that point, start trying to find some change or notes.

Just as bad are the parents with children who then get their young children to put the money in the slot - which is almost always out of reach of said child.  So the parent then has to wrestle with their shopping and pick up the child to put the money in the machine.  A queue begins to form as we impatiently watch little Jonny drop the pound coin for the third time!

Please, have some change to hand and put it in the ticket machine yourself so we can all pay and be on our way.

By: Bagpuss


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Michelle

Michelle

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."
23/07/09 Michelle
7
The Common Sense Approach

The Common Sense Approach

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!
14/01/09 The Common Sense Approach
1
MikeP

MikeP

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.
22/09/08 MikeP
-8
geezer

geezer

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.
22/06/08 geezer
-1
Gibberish

Gibberish

You have to be a bit of an a*se to park in any multi-storey and pay an extortionate amount to exit.
17/06/08 Gibberish
-1
Zargonia

Zargonia

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.
15/06/08 Zargonia
-1
grumpyoldwoman

grumpyoldwoman

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".
13/06/08 grumpyoldwoman
-4
Zargonia

Zargonia

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.
12/06/08 Zargonia
0
Petey

Petey

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!!!
12/06/08 Petey
2
Jeff

Jeff

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.
12/06/08 Jeff
-1
Tom

Tom

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.
12/06/08 Tom
9
Relaxed Shopper

Relaxed Shopper

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.
12/06/08 Relaxed Shopper
0
Nikki

Nikki

This might all sound like second nature to you Bagpuss, but to a country bumpkin like myself who virtually NEVER uses multi storey car parks as I hardly ever go into large towns and cities, these machines can be tricky to say the least ! On the very rare occasions I am forced to use a MS car park, the whole system has changed from the previous time.

So I'm sorry, but if you meet me trying to read the instructions without my glasses because I've left them in my car, then perhaps you could actually try helping a fellow human being, instead of moaning about being kept waiting ! Whilst you stand there tut tutting at the mum and her young child keeping you waiting for a few seconds, how's about actually offering a helping hand ?

There's a novelty !
12/06/08 Nikki
-5
Noble Ox

Noble Ox

Get shop keepers and businesses to help pay for the up keep of the car park - so we can freely use somewhere to park and spend lots of money in their shops and businesses....

Don't ever remember having to pay for car parking in shopping malls in the US - or paying £65 to fill my car with petrol for the privelage of driving to the shops - only to pay another charge for somewhere to leave my car.

Thought we all paid council tax to help fund this sort of service......and don't get me started on hospital car park fees.....
12/06/08 Noble Ox
-4

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