17 January 2008

Parking at Tuggeranong Hyperdome

| TW
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I entered the carpark at the Hyperdome last Friday at around 5 pm. The sign sets out its charges, which includes “first two hours free” and “after 6 pm free”. When I left at 8 pm, the attendant tried to charge me $2 because I was in the carpark for three hours. How do they get away with that? Which particular hour was I was being charged for?

Incidentally, if I’d parked in an ACT government carspace 10 metres away, it would only have been a few coins in the meter to get me to 5.30 pm.

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P.s BTW – I am always the type of person who will complain over shitty customer service, or if i’m not getting what i paid for…

But i’m not going to argue over having to pay $2 for 3 hours parking

I think some of you guys need to understand what it is like working in customer service…

I can kinda understand with the takeaway shop telling you to go to the bank to get change, as sometimes bosses arent very trusting of you and will question everytime the till is opened without money being receipted. Never looks good when the till may be down for the day.

As for people arguing over a few dollars.. yes it adds up to alot of money over time – but think of the time wasted and frustration caused !! People behind you had groceries perishing – they wasted more money that the $2 your were arguing over, the centre probably got more money out of the people waiting too if they had to pay for parking and the poor carpark attendant probably went home all stressed out.

I work in a shopping centre literally 10 metres from the conceirge desk and probably a minimum of 10 people a day will come in to ask where a store is.. We do still try and be polite and tell them where it is – but if we dont know and cant tell them some people get quite knarky… or they get upset when we point out the information desk just outside our doors…

I also had to watch a lady come into our store after closing by coming under the roller door when a fellow staff member (the manager) was trying to leave… – Her purpose to argue for half an hour because a refund she got didn’t match what she orginally paid… The reason being in our store she had paid on her credit card and we charge the public the bank fees… Grand total $4… After my boss getting extremely frustrated with her as it was now an hour after we has closed, she proceeded to pull $4 out of her own pocket and hand it to her… the lady still wanted to argue her point even though we were willing to give her back her money… End result…. my boss missing dinner with friend and being able to go home and walk her dogs before it got dark. Plus going home with the shits….

So next time you want to argue over a few dollars – think of what your actually doing to the person you arguing with….

el ......VNBerlinaV812:20 pm 28 Jan 08

Holden, I am also sick of people unable to spell the work ‘ridiculous’.

Not to dwell on this (I have been out of town), but I quote the first two conditions of entry (as quoted from a photo I took with my phone this morning):

Current charges apply:
i. 8.00am to 6.00pm – Monday to Thursday
ii. 8.00am to 9.30pm – Friday

It’s the very first two lines of the terms of entry, after the introductory “these are our terms of entry” paragraph on the sign.

If you managed to read other rules about entry before/after 6pm (with various ambiguities), why ignore the very first two lines on the sign?

Poor sods with their melted ice cream 🙁

Holden Caulfield2:28 pm 21 Jan 08

I’m with howdy, I’ve been boycotting the Hyperdome for years. How dare they build it that far away from everything else!

Also, I wish to make a complaint about Mat’s spelling. It is ridiculous…

Just to clear up any thoughts that I expect a small business to have the capacity to give out change… I was actually only hoping for it. If you want first hand experience of how I felt…

Go into a takeaway store and say
“excuse me can I have an apple pie”

If they dont have apples pies you will get the a similar reaction I to the one I’d expected when asking for change.

Now go into another takeaway store and say

“I think you are too fat, so give me a free burger”

And you will feel a bit like I did afterwards : P

As an example of a lovely customer – I once helped a person look for a gift for someone in the store. It wasn’t my direct job requirement (shelf stocker) but there were several places we liked to tuck away what she was after. I tried them all and then sent her up to the front as there were sometimes little racks that might of had it. Ten minutes later she came back into the store to tell me that she had just bought exactly what was after and thanked me for my help.
How nice of her was that : )

Customer service is hard. At least there are still some lovely people who will go out of their way to make your day. And people in general are more often than not, fairly reasonable when given half a chance.

But then there are people who are out to get a freebie by pulling their weight which means that businesses have be be careful about backing down so they don’t get taken for a ride. So then the people with genuine complaints don’t get half a chance, or they have to put up with decisions made as a result of some-one more angry and persistent.

(Like making a restaurant serve frozen veg instead of fresh because fresh veggies ‘taste funny’ – yeah, thanks guys…)

In this situation the ticket booth operator could have waved the car through to clear up the traffic jam, taken the licence plate of the car and specified that they will let them out on a ‘misunderstanding’ this time (and they may take the issue with centre management if they wish) but they now have the cars licence plate number and will not be letting them through next time.

They would then need to review making changes to the sign in prevent this in future. For if someone did take the complaint to management this is all that will happen anyway – they aren’t going to go the other way and stop charging!

(As a side note I wonder what they do when someone has no money to get out?)

What would I have done? Paid the money, checked the sign after and if i was still angry and had an issue put I’d talk to centre management. But then personally I cool down too quickly when I’m annoyed and would probably just conclude that they’d only then change the sign on me to fix the problem. So I’d just decide to boycott them by not parking there ever again…

Boycotting is a good way to make a point about your dislike of something actually…

A takeaway food place I bought things from reguarily once rudely told me that ‘the bank was down there’ when I politely asked to swap a $20 for two $10 notes (not too big an ask I thought). They had every right to do so but I was a bit peeved they didn’t care to foster their relationship with me as a customer. I haven’t been back since. I’m sure they are crying tears at the loss in revenue 😛
Oh well, it made me feel satisfied : )

from working in customer service I know how angry I can get when people (customers) are just stupid, ignorant and inconsiderate of the workers so this reinforces my GET OVER IT and pay ur money and get out of here view.

on a more broader scale we have become soo spoilt in this country that we just complain about everything and anything it’s rediculous

“at least $2”

(sorry, guilty breaking my own rules)

ah, ok.

If it helps I can just do up a sign that says:

“Get here before 6pm Fridays and It’ll cost you $2”

If they wont, I will! : P

from what i gather, even if you enter at like 5:30 or something its still free as the gates are up after 6?(around there)

The only thing is that it’s friday and late nite shopping and commonsense(rather than what the sign says) says that you would have to pay for late night trading

One good thing about the ‘dome’ is that it used to be free to park there when other shopping centers charged. This was part of the attraction of going there.

From what I can gather from this post the sign says :

after 6pm free

rather than

Entry after 6pm free?

Adding the word ‘entry’ probably should have been a requirement to eliminate confusion for people driving past also concerned with no running into concrete/other cars. No need to be nasty if someone admits they found a sign misleading or confusing – signs are supposed to clear up confusion!

Not only are they now charging (not sure when this came about) but they sit people in booths after 6 to collect even more revenue – this may also be part of TW’s issue. $2 a day for a year is $730 a car, which would pay your rego bill each year.

West_Kambah_4eva1:51 pm 18 Jan 08

“Despite any fine print on a 2 metre sign (or posted on the Internet), the sign at the entry, clearly stating the carpark charges, could not possibly give anyone a reason to think that they would have to pay for parking after 6 pm. Most people would use the same logic…”

No. Only f*ckwads and imbeciles would think this. You are an idiot who cannot comprehend even the simplest of instructions clearly laid out in front of you, and furthermore, have the hide to complain about being proven utterly wrong.

You’ve basically said “The rules state X, I don’t agree with the rules, therefore I do and pay whatever I want.”

barking toad12:19 pm 18 Jan 08

Why didn’t you just put on your hobnailed boots and go for the world ‘kicking-in-the-c**t’ record?

Then give her $2 for the pleasure of it.

Yes it’s free after 6PM but use your frigin brains nimwit.. You entered at 5pm therefore you were there for more than 2 hours and didn’t enter after 6! maybe they need a sign just for you

Nothings free in this world. Pay your $2 and get over it, the carpark attendants wouldent be there if it was free and give them a break they’re doing their job they don’t need drama queens coming through and stressing them out.

Rawhide Kid No 210:18 am 18 Jan 08

“The attendant called the security guard, who wanted my driver’s licence (which I also refused)” You have the right to refuse to produce a drivers license to any one that is NOT a Police Officer or an officer of the Court. However that Police officer has to also produce proof of being a sworn officer. Not those people that work for the Australian Protective Service and other Security services.

Same sorta deal at the Canberra centre. There signs say $2 after 6pm. However, I entered the other week at 4pm’ish, left around 9ish and it set me back $10. You must enter after 6pm for the offer to work. So yes, you were charged correctly.

Vic Bitterman8:38 pm 17 Jan 08

I totally agree with TW. Good on ya!

It’s the vibe of the thing, your honour. 🙂

Holy crap, I would have just paid the $2 and saved myself the stomach ulcers. I mean, sure, you are trying to make a point, but in the process you are holding up people who probably have places to be. Is it really worth it? Unless I didn’t have the money, I would have just gone on with life. Go buy yourself a pizza.

“All this drama for $2. You have got to be joking!”

$2 goes a long way to cover the extra markup on woodfire pizza nowadays, you know.

It sucks, but if the fine print says “arrivals”…

Step 1: Build bridge. Step 2: Get over it.

Some of the comments may be missing the point a tad. It’s not so much saving $2 – and there would have been very little wording change to my original post if I had’ve handed the money over – as it is the amount of money being taken by the shopping centre in what I would argue is a scam. Despite any fine print on a 2 metre sign (or posted on the Internet), the sign at the entry, clearly stating the carpark charges, could not possibly give anyone a reason to think that they would have to pay for parking after 6 pm. Most people would use the same logic as with parking meters – if you arrive shortly before the pay period ends (say at 5 pm), you pay the amount up until that time (usually 5.30) and then you don’t have to pay any more, even if you stay there for longer. In this case, the shopping centre charges people who park their cars for more than two hours, up until 6 pm. Where there is a parallel universe logic used, as seems to be the case here, the shopping centre should be forced to either change its sign or its practice!

As for the security guard, to be fair, he actually wasn’t too heavy handed. The attendant was being far more insistent about giving her my licence. When I didn’t, she called security and I could hear her say, “she is blatantly refusing to give me her driver’s licence”. When she got off the phone she advised me that security is coming and “you’ll have to hand it over then”. I just looked at her and asked, “Why?” – but I don’t think she got it. I did offer a number of times to drive straight back into the carpark if they let me out, so that we could let the other cars through while we sorted it out, but they refused. (I also offered to walk home and leave the car there overnight – I don’t live far and I could drive it straight out in the morning). It was the security guard that eventually instructed the attendant to let me through, despite her protestations.

But, as Security were giving you a hassle then remember to take down their licence number (whihc should be on display at all times) and either take it up with the centre Security Coordinator, or go through DoFair Trading and lodge a complaint.

Apparently bonfire is like a stopped clock – every now and then he makes a comment that I agree completely with!

“…this is eventually going to be one of the “teh pizzaman hast obercharged me!” threads”

Exactly!

My initial comment was a little ambiguous: I was meaning why would you make such a fuss and cause so much trouble over a measly $2?

Hospital treatment required after being punched in the head by an angry driver trapped five cars behind you would surely cost more than $2?

i like the assumption by the jackbooting security guard he could demand to see your licence.

Although I’m agreeing with Mr Evil, this is eventually going to be one of the “teh pizzaman hast obercharged me!” threads.

Trust only the big white one covered in legalese when you enter, it mentions “entry after 6pm” as one of the qualifiers.
The information desk will probably have a copy too, as you really ought not be expected to read an A2 page of legal contract while behind the wheel of a car.

From first google hit I could find (a document from June 2005):
“Free parking at the Hyperdome for arrivals after 6.00pm.”

All this drama for $2.

You have got to be joking!

For some reason I am under the impression that it’s one set of rules for mon-thur and another for Friday. Not saying it definitely is, but I do have that idea from somewhere, so maybe there’s some fine print on the sign (I can never read the bloody thing cos I’m too busy trying to drive).

Sorry Skidbladner, but I went back the next day and checked. The sign is set out something like

1st 2 hours Free
2-3 hours $2.00
3- … …
after 6 pm Free

There is late night shopping after 9 pm on Fridays but, according to the sign, parking is free after 6 pm from Monday to Friday. I’m not really after advice on how to avoid paying for parking when I incur a charge and I wouldn’t have thought to fish for a movie ticket – it seemed pretty clear to me that I would not need to pay for parking as it was free from 5 to 6 pm (within the first two hours) and free from 6 to 8 pm (after 6 pm).

Minor point: The signs say “Entry after 6pm free”.

They have late night shopping on Fridays, and so parking is charged until 9pm.

Or, at least, that is my understanding of it (and I haven’t read the sign lately).

Next time, go fish yourself a movie ticket out of a rubbish bin, so you can claim 3 hours free.

Yes, I’m afraid I dug my heels in and absolutely refused (I know it wasn’t worth it, but I just couldn’t help myself!). The attendant called the security guard, who wanted my driver’s licence (which I also refused) and then called the police to check to see if my car was stolen! They finally let me through after some of the forty or so cars that were backed up kept beeping their horns and one woman asked about compensation for her defrosting grocery items.

A bit strange…

You say that they “tried to charge” you – I assume then that you protested and didn’t have to pay?

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