Parking Lot Ripoffs

July 12th, 2009

I have been traveling around showing a new line of jewelry to stores in my market area. Lately most of the parking lots have been self service. They have a box with numbers and tiny slots to push money into. Usually the bills will not fit and must be forced with something flat. A couple nights ago I paid and came back to the car to find it “booted”. They locked my car up for non payment. Problem is no receipt for the money stuffed into the box and one guy checking it looking to make a big commission. At the same time someone else was saying they paid and were also booted. The fee to remove the boot was $100.00. Being a civil Rip off the local police could do nothing but make a report. The credit card company would not reverse the charge because I paid to have the boot removed and that was done. They could not get involved with the reason it was placed on the car in the first place. Lesson is avoid these scam lots and if you have them in your area ask the local city government to force regulations requiring a receipt for any money paid. ATM all give receipt. I get a receipt paying my Sprint Cell phone bill at the Sprint store Auto payment machine. They could accept Credit cards and give receipts but they prefer to force a few people a week to pay to get the boots removed. They make a lot more money this way and being a all cash business I wonder how up front they are with the bookkeeping.

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Entry Filed under: Miscellaneous

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