Wasted $60 on a parking app that double billed me for a month before I noticed

I saw all these people in my city using that ParkMobile app and figured it was easier than feeding meters. I set it up for a garage near my station downtown and used it for about three weeks. Then I got curious and looked at my statement, and it had charged me for two spots at once on three different days. One of them was from a previous session that somehow never closed and kept running. I tried their customer service and they did refund $18 after I argued, but the rest was just gone. So now I keep physical change in my glovebox and only use the app if the lot is card only. Has anyone else gotten stuck with phantom charges from these parking apps?

3 comments

3 Comments

the_faith12d ago

The part about the session "never closed and kept running" hit home for me. I had a similar thing happen with a different parking app where I parked for two hours, paid, and left. Then three weeks later I see a charge for $45 because it somehow thought I was still sitting in that spot. I tried explaining to the customer service bot that no, I did not leave my car parked for 18 days in a paid lot, but they just kept saying it was a "system error." I ended up doing a chargeback with my bank and they gave me the money back, but the app banned my account. Now I just carry quarters and dimes in my cup holder like it's 1999.

lunag3012d ago

Why not just read the meter time limit properly next time?

faith_king12d agoMost Upvoted

Yeah the part about the session "never closed and kept running" is exactly what got me too. Only problem is @the_faith, you can't really use quarters at most of the paid parking garages in my city anymore. They switched to license plate readers and app only, no cash option. So I'm stuck using the app but I screenshot every payment confirmation now and check my bank app before I even leave the lot. Haven't had a double charge since I started doing that but it's annoying to have to babysit a parking app.