Paying by phone in the multi-storey car park in Ashford

JimmyTheWig

Hi,

Does anyone know this car park?
Has anyone paid for their parking there by phone?

We went there Easter Monday. Didn't have change, so paid by phone.
Now, this was some time ago so can't really remember what happened. But we remember there being some confusion about how much / whether we had to pay. I can't remember what the confusion was.

Nothing came out of the bank over the next few days, so fine.
But it turns out that they bill monthly, so have only just been charged for it. £4.80 for 4 hours. Don't think we were there for 4 hours.

It was probably us doing something wrong, but would be interested to know if anyone else has done it and been confused. Maybe the problem was that we didn't have a chance to say how long we were parking for?
Can't even remember if it was done by text or call.

It's not the end of the world as we would only have been overcharged by a couple of pounds at most. But it has annoyed me!


Thanks,

Jim

Coupon-mad

No I am not near an Ashford - but which Ashford?

headpin

You normally tell them how long you want to pay for by pushing buttons on your phone. Normally you will also pay an admin fee, normally about 40p. If it was a Sunday or Bank Holiday then you may find it was a flat fee for all day, no matter how long you stayed - hence £4. Usually you get a text as confirmation/receipt of the transaction and again as your paid for time is about to expire.

JimmyTheWig

Coupon-mad wrote: »

No I am not near an Ashford - but which Ashford?

Didn't realise there was more than one.
I meant the one that people mean when they say "Ashford" In Kent.

JimmyTheWig

headpin wrote: »

You normally tell them how long you want to pay for by pushing buttons on your phone. Normally you will also pay an admin fee, normally about 40p. If it was a Sunday or Bank Holiday then you may find it was a flat fee for all day, no matter how long you stayed - hence £4. Usually you get a text as confirmation/receipt of the transaction and again as your paid for time is about to expire.

Yes, I agree.
I think in this instance, though, it didn't give us a chance to push buttons to say how long we would be, or tell us how much we'd be charged.
Might they have used ANPR to tell when we left and charged accordingly?

I think we've established that (a) I can't remember enough about what happened to complain 6 weeks after the event, (b) the charge may have been correct anyway and (c) next time I should pay more attention and find out what happened before waiting for the debit card transaction that may take a month to show up.

nigelbb

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

Didn't realise there was more than one.
I meant the one that people mean when they say "Ashford" In Kent.

Not Ashford in Middlesex where I was born then.:)

JimmyTheWig

nigelbb wrote: »

Not Ashford in Middlesex where I was born then.:)

No, just Ashford.

...

And I didn't think Middlesex existed any more

headpin

JimmyTheWig wrote: »

No, just Ashford.

...

And I didn't think Middlesex existed any more

Of course Middlesex exists. It just doesn't have an administrative function. This was absorbed by the appropriate London Borough in 1965 when the LCC and MCC, together with the borough councils were reformed into the GLC (abolished by the wicked witch in 1986) and the 32 London Boroughs (plus the Corporation of the City of London).