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| - Calgary is a mess of horrible parking practices and policies, which has ultimately given us the great distinction of being the second costliest place to park in North America, and also the side effect of a stagnant downtown nightlife.
Historically, I've primarily dealt with the Calgary Parking Authority, as well as Impark. Both being equal opportunity gougers and ticket writers.
The Vinci brand was a relative unknown to me, until recently
My first experience with them came in the form of a random letter in the mail stating I "owed" them for past unpaid parking tickets. Having never actually parked in one of their lots, to the best of my knowledge, the near $1000 debt I "owed" was quite a surprise!
It turned out, Vinci had bought out the parking rights to a previous employer's lot. The "infractions" were multiple mistakes by the old employer's lot operator, not knowing I was an employee with a pass.
They were never collected on, back then, for good reason. I HAD A PASS. But when Vinci had the opportunity to pour over the inherited books and the entries that were never updated, they made a new overly ambitious try to back collect... from years earlier, with interest!
Needles to say, I made them go away. But still, it wasn't a good first impression.
Moving to the present, here's a rundown on my experiences with this Vinci lot:
* Walking through the lot later in the day, when it's emptied out, you will see numerous mounds of safety glass from all the smash and grabs.
* There isn't enough room in the back row of the lot to angle park. Everyone realizes this, except Vinci. However, when people try to parallel park, Vinci leaves threatening notes on your windshields saying your vehicle has been photographed, and parking this way again means a ticket.
So people angle park , and larger vehicles can barely pass through the aisle, OR, back out of the parking stalls.
* The self service exit stations often don't read your credit card. Now trapped in your care, this of course means you need ask the people lined up behind you to move THEIR cars, so you can visit the lone manned pay booth. For some reason, THAT machine always reads your card.
* The manned pay booth isn't always occupied, depending on whether or not the cashier has gone across the street to take a leak, or is busy putting threatening notes on windsheilds.
* If your exit ticket flies out of your pocket during the day, the booth-guy will say "there's nothing I can do," and charge you $40. If you get the booth-girl, she will charge you the correct daily rate.... because that's what customer service is about.
* the heated walk up pay station is a plus, so an extra star for momentary warmth.
Yelp's 30 Day Challenge 2012 - 15/30
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