Parking at MEL - almost $2k for two hours!

[markis10]

Guess who is using licence plate recognition - they are now in Brisbane, rather than relying on tickets or cards being read

SHOCKED motorist landed a $1900 parking bill for a visit to Melbourne Airport lasting less than two hours. It's enough to pay for a flight around the world, but Alan coughbill instead found his credit card maxed out without even leaving the terminal.
Wrongly charged for parking in the airport's short-term car park for five weeks, the Hampton East man is still waiting to get his money back - even though a Melbourne Airport spokeswoman said the fee was refunded last Friday.
"When I was leaving I went to pay - it came up on the screen and said: 'Your card has just been debited $1925'. I wasn't very happy," he said.
Mr coughbill was picking up his daughter on December 23 when the error occurred.

Read more: Victorian motorist's fury at $1900 parking bill | News.com.au
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[awilcockson]

I've noticed that the BNE terminal prints your number plate on the ticket. I'm guessing this is to stop people going and getting a new card after a week long trip and then using it to get out of the parking lot cheaply?

The funny thing is that every time I've parked I've checked the rego printed on the ticket and it always gets at least one digit/character wrong!

 

[nlagalle]

Moral to the story in MEL, always get a ticket and don't use your credit when entering the car park..

 

[Boeta]

Moral to the story in MEL, always get a ticket and don't use your credit when entering the car park..

This unfortunately is certainly the case, having been very familiar with this issue in PER, it is a convoluted process to remove a credit card from the system if there is a glitch.

The number plate recognition has been introduced here in PER also, however it was to stop ticket swapping by FIFO workers. What happened here is his card remained on the system for 5 weeks when he left as the... "

boom gates weren't properly operating and staff waived him through without having to swipe his credit card as usual".​

As much as it may be convenient not to have an extra ticket in your possession to lose, nlagalle is correct that you may save yourself hassle if you just take a ticket, just incase the carpark equipment falls over when you need to leave.​

 

[rechoboam]

Maybe a big bunch of AFFers would like to buy a block of land with me in Wright St Westmeadows and we could build our own little private car park and put up a shack with beer on tap??

 

[nlagalle]

Maybe a big bunch of AFFers would like to buy a block of land with me in Wright St Westmeadows and we could build our own little private car park and put up a shack with beer on tap??

You mean our own little AFF clubhouse???

 

[travelislife]

Hmm, interesting, I always use the credit card facility, this has made me rethink doing that.

 

[samh004]

I've noticed that the BNE terminal prints your number plate on the ticket. I'm guessing this is to stop people going and getting a new card after a week long trip and then using it to get out of the parking lot cheaply?

The funny thing is that every time I've parked I've checked the rego printed on the ticket and it always gets at least one digit/character wrong!

I used to see how well I could screw them up, the secret being to move the car a little when you press the button, as then it doesn’t get a good read of the plate.

Hmm, interesting, I always use the credit card facility, this has made me rethink doing that.

In Hong Kong that’s how it works, I didn’t realise it could be done like that here too, so I’ll have to keep that in mind. Does it work in BNE?