I accept that there are expenses of living in this modern life. A toll on a turnpike that means it stays maintained? OK. A tax levy in our school district to make sure the buildings are secure? Fine.
And so I wasn't all that bothered when we were in downtown Kansas City the other night for a soccer game and saw that we would be paying a parking fee. It was at 16th & Main, right along the tramway that would take us (for free) to the game. I got a spot right in front of a payment kiosk; $9.25 to get us through the evening on a Friday night? Whatever. It's a tenth of the cost of the same spot in New York City.
So we come back from the game and there's a ticket on the car. I get back to my in-laws and look up the information (the ticket is nothing more than a 9-digit number and a QR code) and find that the ticket was issued at 5:48pm...6 MINUTES after I had parked the car. Yep, there's a photo of our license plate and the spot in the broad daylight where I had parked. Luckily I had saved the text that served as a copy of my reciept, so I emailed the information (kiosk number, tag number, time, etc.). What followed Saturday morning was a series of emails between me and an AI server. First, they couldn't find the information of our payment. Second, they couldn't read the screenshots I had sent them proving we had paid. After about a half-dozen back and forths I gave up, deciding to wait until Monday when real live human beings might be back on duty.
So today was that Monday, and I once again started up and got what might have been a real person who continued to say that nothing had been paid. Eventually, after a few more emails, it started to become clear that the kiosk that was three feet from my car was not actually the kiosk for that lot, which was a private lot. Rather, it was the kiosk for anybody foolish enough to park on the street (and so be in danger of getting hit by the streetcars or other traffic). On some level the agent for the private company I was dealing with that handles tickets on this lot saw the problem, and he/she/it bumped us down from $79.25 to $31.25. That was something, I guess, but I am the angry consumer, and I decided to keep going.
I went onto Google maps and found a street view shot of exactly where I'd been. In that photo there was a white Toyota truck, and three feet away, a kiosk that had in huge letters PAY HERE. I finally had the smoking gun. "Do you see where the white toyota truck is in this image from google maps? That's where I parked. And see the brown parking meter right in front of the truck? That's where I paid." Evidently they realized just how unjust this was, and email #19 finally came back and said that they were dismissing this ticket. I fought the law (private company edition) and actually won! In this life there are little victories we have to celebrate, and though I likely spent more than $79 of my time on this inconvenience, I'll take it. I closed by thanking the nameless person who helped and then gave the advice that they really needed to look into this problem, because I'm not the first person on Google reviews who has had this problem.
Maybe it's not the most inspirational story (my son wasn't as enthused as I was), but in these days in which Trump makes everything turn to garbage, it's nice having some good news.
