Night at movies left in ruins by parking ticket horror
Jeremy parked in the Civic car park the other night, went to a movie. "Never a cheap night out," he writes. "But a good movie is almost mostly worth it. But we won't be parking there again anytime soon because I lost my parking ticket. In the past I have paid a $25 fee grudgingly in the same situation - I can understand it costing something for a parking assistant to check a camera to verify our time of arrival and issue a ticket to leave the car park.
This time when we approached the pay station that the ticket was nowhere to be found, I pushed the lost ticket button and was told it would be $72. Cross words were exchanged and we went back up to the Event Cinema in the vain hope of finding the ticket. Didn't happen. In my opinion the fee is extortionate. Why $72? Why not twice that? Or half? There is no reason for the cost of a lost ticket fee.
Auckland Transport replied: 'The rate is based on parking for three days at the maximum daily rate and serves as a deterrent to avoid customers deliberately throwing away tickets and claiming they had parked for less time. There was an issue with customers leaving their cars in buildings for several days while they went to the Gulf Islands and claiming their ticket had been lost'."
