Canberra Centre Carparking slugs the regulars in one go

Hey guys

I’m just wondering as well, because the parking wasn’t charged, I thought I had the budget to make some purchases that month. So I did, and now I ended up having to pay what they haven’t charged. I know it’s only fair, but at the same time, I feel resentment towards them because if it wasn’t because of their incompetence, I would not have made those purchases. I don’t check my statements in details, only checking how much purchases I have made in total for that month already. So in other words, I’ve pretty spent more than I can afford and subsequently hit by this “debt” which wasn’t my plan.

I really feel this is like a trap. I don’t know who I can make a complaint to or if there’s more I can do apart from just pay the money and be more in debt.

Anyone has any idea?

Hey guys

This isn’t the first time it happened. Last time it happened was only for a couple of weeks. I questioned it then, and then checked my statement and realised what they said was true because no transactions was processed during the time I parked there. So, I happily paid for the “late” charges.

But this time is a little different because it went back to 3 months. I parked there everyday and if you do the maths, they’ve just charged me nearly $1000. I’m not happy about it to be honest. I’m happy to pay but I can’t afford to pay a one-lump sum. So I’m pretty stressed right now.

I will get a proof of transaction from them and match my statements because I’ve noticed a few $10 were charged in the last two months. I just want to make sure they haven’t double charged me.

I asked for receipt every single time I made payment since the last glitch but I thought everything was back to normal and so I shredded all the receipt just two weeks ago. Duh!

I just think this should have been handled a bit better. I want to find out if there’s an alternative payment for people like me, who parks there everyday. I just can’t afford to fork out a one lump-sum payment at the moment with rego due this month too. 🙁

Good luck to me!

On Thursday I discovered 6 transactions of $10 on my card apparently from the Canberra Centre Car Park. OK, so I’m not completely on top of my finances. I had never noticed that the $60 had not been taken out at the time I parked there way back in June. I haven’t worked in town since the end of June so I was sure these transactions were fraudulent. I reported them to my bank, who immediately cancelled our credit card. This is a terrible nuisance to us because we have a lot of automatic deductions coming off that card and now we have to contact every vendor and change our card details.

Tonight I discovered similar charges on two other credit cards that I use occasionally. I was thinking I’d have to cancel those too, when I found this article.

I think this has been very badly handled by QIC Properties. They probably have many customers who’ve cancelled their cards. I hope the banks give them heaps over it.

I run a small business and have ‘merchant facilities’ which means I can acept credit cards and eftpos as well.

Its against the rules for me to process a credit card number after 3 days and cant break up purchases to avoid the shop ‘floor limit’ or the customer’s card limit etc etc

I don’t know how this busiess gets away with hitting customers like this.

Only thing to do folks is to :

a) write complaint to the parking Co.
b) write compaint to the Dept of Fair Trading and
c) write to the Ombudsman

also try Canberra Tmes, WIN TV and canberra radio

you have been robbed !!!!!!

You can read more about that here

seanneko said :

Erg0 said :

So, which major department/chain store do you reckon it got skimmed at?

The NAB bod is right, by the way – your only option at this point, if you believe your card has been skimmed, is to cancel the card and get a new one. Banks have no interest in monitoring card transactions “just in case”.

Well, I can’t really go pointing fingers at a specific store because I don’t know. But from memory, I’ve used it at:

– Coles
– Aldi
– Shell petrol station
– Bunnings
– Supercheap Auto
– One or two ATMs

I used my card at quite a few places but from you list:
– Coles
– Aldi
– Bunnings

Would be interested to know if anyone else has been caught out by the recent skimming scam and where they’ve used their cards.

Also heard lately that with the new card reader technology, people with the right equipment can skim your card just by passing close enough. Don’t know how true that is.

Erg0 said :

So, which major department/chain store do you reckon it got skimmed at?

The NAB bod is right, by the way – your only option at this point, if you believe your card has been skimmed, is to cancel the card and get a new one. Banks have no interest in monitoring card transactions “just in case”.

Well, I can’t really go pointing fingers at a specific store because I don’t know. But from memory, I’ve used it at:

– Coles
– Aldi
– Shell petrol station
– Bunnings
– Supercheap Auto
– One or two ATMs

I’ve now moved all the money out of that account and into a savings account. If/when I actually need to use the card, I’ll transfer a small amount back across. Then, at some point, I’ll actually cancel the card completely. It’s just extremely inconvenient right now – I literally cannot go without my card now, even if it means risking losing money.

seanneko said :

The card is brand new – less than a month old. It has only been used at major department/chain stores. In fact, I could probably count on one hand the different stores I’ve used it at. It’s NEVER been used to pay for parking – not at Canberra Centre, not anywhere.

So, which major department/chain store do you reckon it got skimmed at?

The NAB bod is right, by the way – your only option at this point, if you believe your card has been skimmed, is to cancel the card and get a new one. Banks have no interest in monitoring card transactions “just in case”.

Hitting people for parking charges back to May becuase their equipment was not functioning is plain rubbish.
You either charge people in a timely fashion or waive the charge. Failure to maintain their facility to an operating standard – in this case the timely invoicing/charging for the use of the facility when it is presumed by the people using the facility that they will be billed in a timely manner – in my personal opinion, does not make it ok to penalise people in this way with these ‘surprise’ charges.

I had $200 odd as a pending transaction ‘holding’ on my card without details, but when I logged on banking today the result was:

10 x $10 hits to my card on 21 Sep, then 14 x $10 hits and 1x$8 (?) hit on 22 Sep. Not sure bout the $8 one, since I’ve only ever used the roof top, but considering the 25 transactions overall in two hits, it’s really not important.

MissChief said :

Yes, that’s right, I haven’t used that card for parking at the Canberra Centre ever – it’s a brand new card, with 60 charges, none of them for Canberra Centre – except the recent fraud charges added yesterday which were discovered after reading the email about skimming this morning (see my original post).

I guess what I’m saying is I have proof the skimming scam is happening – just to forewarn people. No speculation, hoaxing or surmising involved.

This is true, the same thing happened to me. It is definitely some sort of scam. Mine was a $2 charge on 21/09 by QIC PROPERTIES CARPARK CANBERRA.

The card is brand new – less than a month old. It has only been used at major department/chain stores. In fact, I could probably count on one hand the different stores I’ve used it at. It’s NEVER been used to pay for parking – not at Canberra Centre, not anywhere.

I went to NAB Fyshwick to ask them about it and was met by a rude and unhelpful man who refused to help and told me to ring the call centre and have my card cancelled. Due to various reasons, that’s impossible for me to do at this point. Guess I’ll just see what happens and dispute any strange transactions.

luther_bendross said :

Yeah well this is not one of those times.

I don’t think they actually give a shit tbh. At the end of the day a few customers leaving the roof top parking won’t make a difference, as there is more than enough demand for those new places.

It’s a pity that Secure Parking does not answer the phone number that they provide or reply to emails that they have received.

thatsnotme said :

Felix the Cat said :

Why not try a different parking station if Canb Centre is jerking you around? There’s an underground 4 level one on Childers Street, it takes debit card and from memory is $9 day.

Haha – it’s run by the same mob!

Yes they are run by the same mob and I’ve had a similar issue with them charging my credit card on days I didn’t park there and also double charging me on other days. Disputed it with the credit card company who reversed the charges. It wasn’t just a case of their machines being faulty and them charging on the one day either. I had also been charged on the days I had parked there.

SecureParking said :

blah blah blah…..

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Regards,
Secure Parking

You know how sometimes a business will get on here and genuinely apologise for their behaviour and that makes the public think about the situation in a different light and maybe even not think the company is a big giant douchecopter? Yeah well this is not one of those times.

Goldust said :

I actually spoke to Secure Parking and was able to get a detailed list of transactions which coincided with my parking. It showed the date and time paid for the days that I parked. I was able to double check against my statement and everything was in order.
I was as disappointed as anyone but I saw that no charges were coming out for a period of time and expected it at some point. Nothing is ever free anymore!

my own emphasis added above.

OP, did you really not notice the same at some point during the 4 months on your credit card statement. i assume, perhaps wrongly, that you monitor your credit card transactions to ensure everything looks ship-shape. the fact that $50/week for 4 months wasn’t getting processed AT ALL surely caught your attention. and when it did, did you think to 1. investigate further (perhaps even call the canberra centre to find out whether they knew something was wrong?), or 2. thought ‘hey they’ll surely come through soon, better make sure i don’t spend that money i’ve already spent over again!’. or did you notice and think ‘yippee i’m getting free parking! hopefully no one tells the canberra centre…’ 🙂

Felix the Cat said :

Why not try a different parking station if Canb Centre is jerking you around? There’s an underground 4 level one on Childers Street, it takes debit card and from memory is $9 day.

Haha – it’s run by the same mob! It used to be a flat $9 per day, but now they have some weird system where if you leave before 4.30pm, it’s $9 a day, if you leave between 4.30pm and 6pm it’s $11, but then after 6pm it goes back to $9. So basically, if you leave when most people finish work, you pay more. It’s still cheaper than City West next door though, where if you’re there early enough, $11 gets you an uncovered spot up on the roof.

More than once, I’ve been stuck waiting to get out of the place, because their exit machine has stuffed up – and with only one lane in and out, any failure turns into a roadblock. I imagine that’s the reason they stopped accepting credit cards at the exit boom gates too…traffic jams getting out have reduced in frequency since they stopped that option.

And no debit cards accepted – credit and cash only. That seems to extend to Visa Debit cards too, I tried one recently and it was rejected.

Why not try a different parking station if Canb Centre is jerking you around? There’s an underground 4 level one on Childers Street, it takes debit card and from memory is $9 day.

SecureParking said :

As a result of a faulty cable connection at the Canberra Centre car park, some credit card transactions may have been delayed in appearing on customer credit card statements.

As a consequence, some customers may see multiple car park charges appearing as a single amount on their September credit card statements. These charges relate to car park use over the period May 2011 to September 2011.

All credit card processes comply fully with PCI DSS standards as required by the major credit card providers. The security of all credit card details is fully protected.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Secure Parking Head Office on the following:

Phone: 02 8912 4917
Email: ccparking@secureparking.com.au

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Regards,
Secure Parking

I love how their idea of damage control, when they find a thread saying their little blurb was not good enough, is to repeat the same little blurb.

SecureParking said :

As a result of a faulty cable connection at the Canberra Centre car park, some credit card transactions may have been delayed in appearing on customer credit card statements.

As a consequence, some customers may see multiple car park charges appearing as a single amount on their September credit card statements. These charges relate to car park use over the period May 2011 to September 2011.

All credit card processes comply fully with PCI DSS standards as required by the major credit card providers. The security of all credit card details is fully protected.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Secure Parking Head Office on the following:

Phone: 02 8912 4917
Email: ccparking@secureparking.com.au

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Regards,
Secure Parking

Seriously…it took you four months to figure out that there was a fault in your equipment, and payments weren’t being processed?? And when you do figure it out, you just go and process all of the payments in one lump sum, with no warning for those who will suddenly need to make large payments?

I’m sure that everything you’ve done is above board and you’re following the rules, but as a customer service exercise it kinda sucks. But I guess that’s not a big concern when there aren’t really any decent alternatives.

@Miss Chief QIC Properties is the Canberra Centre http://www.canberracentre.com.au/Privacy-Policy

Erg0 said :

I don’t know if the rules have changed in this area, but you’ll find that you can now pay with a credit card at Coles (and some other places) without a PIN or signature if the amount is less than $30. There are also vending machines around the place that take credit cards on the basis of a swipe alone. I presume that the vendors are reasonably confident that they’re not going to get robbed blind by unscrupulous people disputing the charges, maybe the requirement for proof of authorisation is lower when the amount is below a certain threshold?

Yep, you are right, and the credit card companies have obviously done some sort of risk assessment in this area around lower amounts of money, but when the charges start adding up to amounts around $900 in this case, I would imagine that the onus of proof would need to be on the vendor making the charge.

As a result of a faulty cable connection at the Canberra Centre car park, some credit card transactions may have been delayed in appearing on customer credit card statements.

As a consequence, some customers may see multiple car park charges appearing as a single amount on their September credit card statements. These charges relate to car park use over the period May 2011 to September 2011.

All credit card processes comply fully with PCI DSS standards as required by the major credit card providers. The security of all credit card details is fully protected.

Should you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact Secure Parking Head Office on the following:

Phone: 02 8912 4917
Email: ccparking@secureparking.com.au

We apologise for any inconvenience caused.

Regards,
Secure Parking

Erg0 said :

MissChief said :

Except, my fraud charges have nothing to do with roof top parking, are for smaller amounts per the email, weren’t charged on 15-16 Sept and there’s nothing to say the skimming was via Canberra Centre. Perhaps the scammers are seizing a moment of confusion.

As I said above, this problem doesn’t seem to be specific to rooftop parking, so it’s entirely possible for there to be smaller amounts coming through as a result of the same issue. The Canberra Centre is owned by QIC, so that description looks like a Canberra Centre car park charge to me.

If you’re certain that you didn’t pay for parking of any kind at the Canberra Centre with your card in the last 3 months, then I’d say you’re right to be worried. That said, the conclusion that there’s widespread fraud going on seems to be based on evidence that has a fairly plausible alternative explanation (though I agree that the question of the dates could use some clarification) .

Yes, that’s right, I haven’t used that card for parking at the Canberra Centre ever – it’s a brand new card, with 60 charges, none of them for Canberra Centre – except the recent fraud charges added yesterday which were discovered after reading the email about skimming this morning (see my original post).

I guess what I’m saying is I have proof the skimming scam is happening – just to forewarn people. No speculation, hoaxing or surmising involved.

gordito said :

Would be interesting to know how they intend on proving that someone had parked in that car park on a specific date, and that they were the authorised user of the credit card at the time – especially given that there are no signatures attached to the card transaction.

I don’t know if the rules have changed in this area, but you’ll find that you can now pay with a credit card at Coles (and some other places) without a PIN or signature if the amount is less than $30. There are also vending machines around the place that take credit cards on the basis of a swipe alone. I presume that the vendors are reasonably confident that they’re not going to get robbed blind by unscrupulous people disputing the charges, maybe the requirement for proof of authorisation is lower when the amount is below a certain threshold?

Would be interesting to know how they intend on proving that someone had parked in that car park on a specific date, and that they were the authorised user of the credit card at the time – especially given that there are no signatures attached to the card transaction.

MissChief said :

Except, my fraud charges have nothing to do with roof top parking, are for smaller amounts per the email, weren’t charged on 15-16 Sept and there’s nothing to say the skimming was via Canberra Centre. Perhaps the scammers are seizing a moment of confusion.

As I said above, this problem doesn’t seem to be specific to rooftop parking, so it’s entirely possible for there to be smaller amounts coming through as a result of the same issue. The Canberra Centre is owned by QIC, so that description looks like a Canberra Centre car park charge to me.

If you’re certain that you didn’t pay for parking of any kind at the Canberra Centre with your card in the last 3 months, then I’d say you’re right to be worried. That said, the conclusion that there’s widespread fraud going on seems to be based on evidence that has a fairly plausible alternative explanation (though I agree that the question of the dates could use some clarification) .

Erg0 said :

Fair enough, I’m not going to argue over what you see on your statement. It just seems like a rather big coincidence that this would come to light at the same time that the Canberra Centre is catching up on 3 months’ worth of charges that people may well have forgotten they’d incurred.

Incidentally, it doesn’t appear that this issue was confined to the rooftop parking, it appears to have happened to anybody who paid for parking with a credit card in that period. My guess is that a number of people (including the banks) have seen an unusual pattern of charges from QIC PROPERTIES CARPARK CANBERRA and worked backwards to an incorrect conclusion.

Except, my fraud charges have nothing to do with roof top parking, are for smaller amounts per the email, weren’t charged on 15-16 Sept and there’s nothing to say the skimming was via Canberra Centre. Perhaps the scammers are seizing a moment of confusion.

Fair enough, I’m not going to argue over what you see on your statement. It just seems like a rather big coincidence that this would come to light at the same time that the Canberra Centre is catching up on 3 months’ worth of charges that people may well have forgotten they’d incurred.

Incidentally, it doesn’t appear that this issue was confined to the rooftop parking, it appears to have happened to anybody who paid for parking with a credit card in that period. My guess is that a number of people (including the banks) have seen an unusual pattern of charges from QIC PROPERTIES CARPARK CANBERRA and worked backwards to an incorrect conclusion.

I actually spoke to Secure Parking and was able to get a detailed list of transactions which coincided with my parking. It showed the date and time paid for the days that I parked. I was able to double check against my statement and everything was in order.
I was as disappointed as anyone but I saw that no charges were coming out for a period of time and expected it at some point. Nothing is ever free anymore!

Absolutely NOT a hoax as I have been stung – 2 charges: one for $3, one for $5 both yesterday.

Haven’t parked at Canberra Centre for over a month and these charges are not only less than the daily roof top parking (where I never park) but also in the last few days, whereas the roof top parking charges are last week by all reports. I recommend checking your transactions – no harm in doing so.

MissChief said :

Just to complicate matters further, everyone (not just regular parkers) might like to check their credit card transactions ASAP. I got the below email this morning, checked my statement and have been stung twice. Haven’t parked at Canberra Centre for over a month and charges were yesterday.

According to the letter at the top of the article, no transactions have been processed since the 16th of June, so it’s more than a month of charges that they’re catching up on. Have you parked at the Canberra Centre since June 16th?

CREDIT CARD SKIMMING

Good morning,
A quick note to alert you to a credit card skimming scheme that takes place around Canberra at the moment.

The scammers use the Canberra Centre car park to test the validity of the card details. The transaction appearing on the card usually bears the description

QIC PROPERTIES CARPARK CANBERRA

with various small amounts next to it. According to the banks, there have been quite a number of these showing up in the last few days, so please check your statements to any suspicious activity.

The last sentence is exactly what you’d expect to see if they’re now catching up on all the charges they haven’t taken over the last few months. Sounds very hoaxy to me.

Just to complicate matters further, everyone (not just regular parkers) might like to check their credit card transactions ASAP. I got the below email this morning, checked my statement and have been stung twice. Haven’t parked at Canberra Centre for over a month and charges were yesterday.

CREDIT CARD SKIMMING

Good morning,
A quick note to alert you to a credit card skimming scheme that takes place around Canberra at the moment.

The scammers use the Canberra Centre car park to test the validity of the card details. The transaction appearing on the card usually bears the description

QIC PROPERTIES CARPARK CANBERRA

with various small amounts next to it. According to the banks, there have been quite a number of these showing up in the last few days, so please check your statements to any suspicious activity.

So you’re one of the lucky ones who actually gets a spot on the roof these days!? If I don’t get out of bed at the same time as the rest of the drones and arrive at work after 9am the roof is usually full. Depending on whether they have their signage working properly you won’t find out until you’ve actually entered their labyrinth. By then who can be stuffed driving around to find another spot? So what do they slug you with if you park on another level? $20 thank you very much. Up by $6 since a few months ago. How very convenient Canberra Centre now that parking in Civic is becoming scarcer. Its either a flat-out gouge or a sleeping tax.

Whilst you are responsible for the accounts, it is entirely reasonable for the business to give you notice that the issue had been fixed and your account would be debit on xyz date unless you contacted them to make alternative arrangements.

Until Secure & Canberra Centre show some common sense on the issue, when I need to visit the Canberra Centre I’ll park elsewhere

Does network issues mean that the payments werent actually verified at time of purchase? Which would mean that fake or skimmed cards could be used with any pin?

Putting another way. If you had a cancelled/stolen card would that have let you park there because the machines weren’t networked?

Further to my last:
http://www.ors.act.gov.au/community/fair_trading/australian_consumer_law_after_1_january_2011/sales_practices_for_business_and_consumers/proof_of_transaction_and_itemised_bills

Proof of Transaction and Itemised Bills
PublishedTue, 10 May 2011 15:08:37 +1000 Content
Under the Australian Consumer Law there are obligations for businesses to provide proof of transaction to consumers for goods or services valued at $75.00 or more.

Proof of transaction for the supply of goods or services to a consumer is a documetn that states the:

supplier of the goods or service;
supplier’s ABN, if they have one;
supplier’s ACN, if they have one but do not have an ABN;
date of supply;
goods or services supplied to the consumer; and,
price of the goods or services.
Examples of proof of transaction are:

GST tax invoice;
cash register receipt;
credit or debit card statement;
handwritten receipt;
lay-by agreement; or,
confirmation or receipt number provided for a telephone or internet transaction.
Consumers must also be provided with an itemised bill if they request one. The supplier must give the consumer the itemised bill, without charge, within seven days of the request. It must be expressed in plain language, legible and clear.

A consumer can ask for an itemised bill that shows:

how the price was calculated;
the number of labour hours and the hourly rate, if relevant; and,
a list of the materials used and the amount charged for them, if relevant.
This request must happen within 30 days of whichever happens later:

the services are supplied; or,
the consumer receives a bill or account from the supplier for the supply of the services.

Suggest everyone emails and requests details on how to get itemised account. As the transaction is over ‘x’ value, I am sure they would be obligated to provide an itemised tax invoice upon request?

watto23 said :

I probably would have been screwed as i pay my CC off in full every month and a $900 addition would not have been ideal….

There was a time not many years past where I had a credit card with a $500 limit. $900 in charges would not have fit terribly well. If the machines were not connecting to the network, does that mean that they were not checking the cards with the bank to see if they were valid/stolen/maxed out/etc?

I’m coping the same thing myself… hopefully the carpark people will be efficient with their email responses.

First of all, you have the right to know when those parking charges are for, that way you can determine whether the charges are correct.
If you determine the charges are not correct, you can dispute the charges with your bank.
Or you can just take the shortcut and dispute the charges with your bank without first verifying with the carpark owner. The only catch is some banks will charge their customers some amount if the dispute charges are proven to be legitimate.

Ticket Machines being down for 4 weeks straight is pretty significant. Seems like they need to get their act together. Imo they should put up a sign suggesting that it may take a while for people to be charged due to a software error, and please account for this delay in your bank account.

‘Please rest assured that these car parking charges do in fact reflect your car park usage over this period.’
This sentence would make anyone worried. I’d want a record of my usage for sure.

I’m wondering how many people thought they were get free parking for the day as it wasn’t biulling to their card ?

There is fault on both sides here, and obviously even a courtesy notice at the carpark would have been better than nothing. Of course managing a budget is also needed on the users part. I probably would have been screwed as i pay my CC off in full every month and a $900 addition would not have been ideal….

@ Brenda- let me just clarify before you accuse me of having poor financial management. These transactions were not processed on my CC (I dont have one!) Therefore, the ‘interest free’ benefit does not apply. Secondly, these transactions did not appear as ‘pending’ on my account. The were charged and apparently ‘dropped off’.

Let me again confirm that I have no problem paying money that I owe, however; I am sure you will be able to appreicate that the manner in which Secure Parking has handled this matter is certainly not acceptable and has left a lot of people in a bad situation. I hope you can appreiciate that.

breda said :

Well, it is no different than if you had bought something with a CC worth, say, $200 and taken it home, but there was a delay in the processing. Do you think you should get a time payment plan in those circumstances? You have had the benefit, and in fact an extra benefit of an interest free loan until the transaction went through.

I get that people are surprised, and that it was not great customer relations, but they have already suffered a financial loss by giving out thousands of dollars worth of interest free loans, so have already been punished.

And yes, not having enough on your CC for expenses you have already incurred is just poor financial management on your part – hardly their fault.

Hey yeah, you’re right breda, i should have planned for this…

I think it’s reasonable in 2011 to expect transactions to be completed no more than the next business day.

“I park on the roof of the Canberra Centre every day of the week”

So you must be one heck of a driver, or you have your own private helicopter. Either way I’m impressed!

Well, it is no different than if you had bought something with a CC worth, say, $200 and taken it home, but there was a delay in the processing. Do you think you should get a time payment plan in those circumstances? You have had the benefit, and in fact an extra benefit of an interest free loan until the transaction went through.

I get that people are surprised, and that it was not great customer relations, but they have already suffered a financial loss by giving out thousands of dollars worth of interest free loans, so have already been punished.

And yes, not having enough on your CC for expenses you have already incurred is just poor financial management on your part – hardly their fault.

p1 said :

Postalgeek said :

If you’ve ever balanced a chequebook…..

You are probably over 40.

Agreed!

Time to start catching the bus or bike ride,as this we save your wallet .

Postalgeek said :

If you’ve ever balanced a chequebook…..

You are probably over 40.

This is bloody terrible form on their part! I would be absolutely fuming.

I just got hit approximately $200 (and I’m not sure how much more I have to go because the account didn’t have any more money).

I actually thought that someone had skimmed my account. I rang my bank and they cancelled the card immediately. No notice was given. I did notice poorly placed signs on the top level of the canberra centre today.

I rang up and complained and was given the number of Melanie from Secure Parking at the Sydney office. Her number os 02 8912 4917 or email ccparking@secureparking.com.au. She has failed to return any of my calls or emails. This has left me in a really sticky situation- having to borrow money from my family to get me through.

I have no problems paying the money- however, an appropriate deduction system should have been negotiated before this occurred. I am completely frustrated and I believe that I big company like Secure Parking, should have been able to handle this situation better.

Secure Parking also has a Facebook account which I intend to comment on soon.

Not happy.

Scumbags double charged my card when I parked there to see a movie the night before last. Still trying to figure that one out.

Follow up question for Rioters;
On my credit card statement all of these charges (10 or 11 I dont park there often) were made on 15/16 Sep both dates that I did not use the car park. The detail of the charges do not specfy a date of purchase/sale. If the carpark cannot provide details of the supposed dates of usage I suspect I may be within my rights to refuse payment.

Thoughts?

Yes, presumably legal … but just plain rude.

Since you authorised the transactions it is probably legal, it would seem more ethical to send a bill and allow people to make arrangements rather than make a huge unpublished slug on peoples cards.

thatsnotme said :

I’m sure that would be hard to handle for many people.

I’m wondering how much info they gave out about this problem beforehand though? Were there signs on the machines telling people that there was an issue, and their payment would be delayed? Or did the transaction go through looking perfectly normal, with no warning that the payment wasn’t actually made? I think the fairness or otherwise of the parking operator’s actions here depends a lot on how informed they kept their customers about the problems, and what they were planning to do about them.

Transactions went through as normal and no signage was put up.

Yes it’s a pain in the arse and sloppy accounting on their behalf, but you pay for what you use.

If you’ve ever balanced a chequebook you would know that you put the money into the cheque account for the goods/service you purchased, and then you wouldn’t touch that money as you never knew when the cheque would be cashed. It’s good financial discipline.

Look at it as a lesson in budgeting.

I’m sure that would be hard to handle for many people.

I’m wondering how much info they gave out about this problem beforehand though? Were there signs on the machines telling people that there was an issue, and their payment would be delayed? Or did the transaction go through looking perfectly normal, with no warning that the payment wasn’t actually made? I think the fairness or otherwise of the parking operator’s actions here depends a lot on how informed they kept their customers about the problems, and what they were planning to do about them.