Appealing a Parking Ticket - Misleading Notice?

LpPepper

Hi all,

Parked up at a SDCC car park at 11.30am, subsequently purchased a ticket for 50c at 11.32am, 1 hour = 75c, so 50c = 40 minutes. There is a notice on the machine showing the first 30 minutes are free, thereafter normal rates apply. So in theory, I should have had parking until 12.42pm, but ticket i bought displayed 12.12pm.

Anyways, came back to the car and found a warden ticketing me at 12.28pm.

I am appealing on the basis that the notice is misleading as it does not state that you forfeit the free 30 minutes if you pay on arrival. According to the warden and the SDPS helpline you do but there is no notice of this at the car park itself.

Any experts on this? It's only €40 but still I'm annoyed obviously!

Pictures of the meter attached.

Cheers

shietpilot

The sign is quite ambiguous IMO.

You could interpret that if your stay is less than 30 minutes you don't pay and if it's over 30 minutes you pay full fees also for the 30 minutes...

"Thereafter" is throwing things off.

I would just appeal it and see what happens. The worse they can do is say no!

ironclaw

The sign isn't great but they have no way of knowing if you had already used your 30 mins. You could have gone to do some jobs, come back and put some money in it. It doesn't change the fact that your ticket displays the time that you must either top up or move the car. It clearly says if you are staying 30 mins or less, so if you have an intention to stay longer than that, then you are not entitled to the free 30 mins. If you stay 30 mins and then decide to stay longer, then you should pay at that time.

By your logic, and correct me if I'm wrong, if I buy a ticket at 12pm, and pay for 45mins, then I should have a ticket until 1:15pm?

I'd appeal it either way but I can see their logic.

LpPepper

Got a letter in the post today, ticket was cancelled! Always worth appealing I guess...