The building at which I work has no free parking, at least not for lowly contractors like myself. As a result, I must pay for parking.
Fortunately there is a wide variety of parking relatively close by, with a corresponding variety in pricing. I could pay as much as $14 / day for parking, or as little as $3.60 a day, with a number of options in between. Naturally, I choose the $3.60 parking, which necessitates a walk of around 6 to 7 minutes each way to where I work.
Yesterday the parking meter and I had a disagreement, which admittedly was mainly my fault. I inserted my $3.60 as usual, and pressed the button for it to print a ticket. After being printed, the ticket usually protrudes about 2cm in a small recess.
Somehow my clumsy fingers managed to not grab the ticket properly. Instead I managed to push the ticket up slightly. By slightly I mean all the way into the mysterious realm from which the ticket escapes once one has paid the requisite fee. The gap is way too small to poke a finger into, and various shaking and hammering produced no useful result.
I thought to myself, “Surely the ticket will come out again along with the next ticket printed.” To that end, I inserted a 20c and pressed the button for a ticket to print. The ticket for 20c printed fine, but alas, my original ticket declined to leave the comfort it found in the depths of the ticket machine.
Anxious about getting to work, and utterly frustrated with the stupidity of the situation, I resigned myself to paying yet another $3.60 for parking. Grrr at parking meters.
October 23, 2007 at 3:08 pm
I had trouble with some parking meters at Manly. They can take a credit card, so I decided to try it out. I inserted my card, chose the duration I wanted and pressed the button to print the ticket, except nothing happened. I tried two more times but it still didn't work. I went down to the next meter and it worked fine first go.
Upon checking my CC statement, it had charged me for all three failed attempts… d'oh. Fortunately it was only $1 each time!