Should I complain?

ryantcb

This is my parking ticket from Stansted Airport. I had to take photo because The machine retains it when you leave car park. The £4.50 charge is for an hours parking and its around half that for 30 mins. As you can see I am there exactly 30 (from 05:09-05:39) mins on the ticket. Truth is I was actually 29 (05:38) minutes when I first put ticket in machine to pay and when it asked me for £4.50 I did a double take and pressed cancel to look at the ticket again to make sure I didn't make a mistake. I hadn't and when I put it back in to pay it went to the 30 mins (05:39). How can they charge me an hours parking when ticket says 30 mins?
Should I be asking for some money back?

fluffnutter

You can try! I assume it's a private parking company in which case you won't even get a response.

pinkshoes

The first minute counts as 9 minutes past, so the final and 29th minute would be the 28th minute, so as soon as the clock changed to 29 minutes past, you were into the next half hour period, hence it's charged at an hour.

(count it out on your fingers if you don't believe me, starting at 9...)

(and yes, it sucks)

bobthedambuilder

pinkshoes wrote: »

The first minute counts as 9 minutes past, so the final and 29th minute would be the 28th minute, so as soon as the clock changed to 29 minutes past, you were into the next half hour period, hence it's charged at an hour.

(count it out on your fingers if you don't believe me, starting at 9...)

(and yes, it sucks)

I'm sure the machine is set up to count as pinkshoes has described, but it's not fair. Counting elapsed minutes from 5:09, which is what you should be charged, a 30 minute stay would in fact end at 5:39 (first minute ends at 5:10 and so on ...).

If you think its worth your time and money to pursue a refund, carry on. Otherwise chalk it down to experience and don't cut it so fine next time!

ryantcb

pinkshoes wrote: »

(count it out on your fingers if you don't believe me, starting at 9...)

from 09 to 10 minutes past is 1 minutes and so to 11 is 2 and so on and i get

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

25 26 27 28 29 30 31
34 35 36 37 38 39

pinkshoes

ryantcb wrote: »

from 09 to 10 minutes past is 1 minutes and so to 11 is 2 and so on and i get

01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24
10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33

25 26 27 28 29 30 31
34 35 36 37 38 39

Their machine won't count between minutes, so you need to start at 09 (which will be recorded as the first minute).

unholyangel

or we could assume he entered at 5:09:01 and didnt leave till 5:39:02.......thus taking him over the 30 minute period also?

however i'm not an expert on car park machines so i'll take pink shoes word for it and thank her for doing the calculations so we dont have to!

now, where did i leave that vodka?

halibut2209

Also, I'm sure it took more than a minute for you to return to your car after paying and leave the spot.

Flyboy152

:09 to :39 is thirty-one minutes.

mountainofdebt

Depends on whether you value the time and effort to reclaim £2.25 to be less than £2.25

Mark_Hewitt

Move on with your life!